Author: liu.7544

Text Reviews: Around the World in Eighty Days

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Around the World in Eighty Days is a novel written by French writer Jules Gabriel Verne. The protagonist of the story, Mr. Fogg, once had an argument with a friend in a club. He bet 20000 pounds, half of his family property, that he could circle the earth in 80 days. In 1872, transportation was so backward and too many people think this trip was doomed to be a bad one. The British National Bank had been stolen a large sum of money before Mr. Fogg started the trip. The detective of Scotland Fix found that the characteristics of Fogg were exactly the same as those of the police officers who had investigated the thief. So, Fix set up obstacles on Fogg’s journey to try to arrest him. However, Fogg was not trapped by setbacks, and experienced many extraordinary experiences along the way, such as: Taking the elephant as a walking tool; Rowing the sled to get rid of the chase of wolves; Risking their lives to save the captives robbed by the Indians; After several twists and turns, he crossed the North American continent. With victory in sight, Fix arrested Fogg in the name of “the Queen’s government”. The drama is that the real thief was arrested three days ago, and Fogg was released. After all kinds of difficulties, Fogg finally returned to London, but he was five minutes late. Fogg assumed he was defeat, but unexpectedly found that he won because he circled the earth from west to East, which would save one day. Fogg won the bet.

 

Based on the whereabouts of the protagonist Fogg, the writer Verne connects the topography, climate and architectural features of Europe, South Asia, East Asia and North America. Like the book of Geosciences, Verne combines the local conditions and customs with the ups and downs of the story, and integrates the strange religious customs and local power struggles in different parts of the world, making the whole story structure colorful. There is an India scene in the novel. The protagonist Fogg doesn’t know the culture that slippers are not allowed to enter the temple, which leads to the opportunity for fix to encourage the evil monk to sue Fogg in Calcutta. The novel skillfully narrates the cultural differences. Verne describes Fogg’s escape from the temple in a humorous way, which avoids the readers from mistaking him as discriminating against culture. The novel portrays Mr. Fogg as strong and brave, silent, upright and just. He dares to insist on the truth. Although almost everyone thinks that it is impossible for him to circle the earth in 80 days, he believes in his accurate calculation and dares to prove it. This is such a valuable character.

Week 14: A Small Place

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A small place is a novel that describes the changes of a tourist destination by comparing the colonial past and present. The past and the present of colonization are never clear, because the explanation of now has to go back to the past, and to go back to the past has to tell the history of colonization. Jamaica Kincaid shows us how to attack Britain and its colonial rule. The content of the novel is closely linked, revealing the corruption of the government and the bad situation of the tourist destination step by step. The novel reveals the corruption of Antigua’s government, which ignores the country and the people, through two facts that Antigua’s ministers all hold green cards and that although Antigua’s medical and economic conditions are poor, the ministers will hire the best doctors and nurses. At the same time, these corrupt governments lead to the bad environment of Antigua, which also nourishes the corrupt government. Moreover, because Antigua’s ministers all have green cards, they will not pity people who are discriminated against by colonialism. These Antigua ministers can sell their country for their own benefit and then flee to the United States. As a tourist destination, the government discriminates against its own people and does not allow Antigua people to use the best beaches. You feel Jamaica Kincaid’ anger, you think she should be, but you only read her casual satire.

 

I also read another novel of this week, regarding the pain of others. There is a passage in the book that resonates me with  Jamaica Kincaid’ Antigua. As long as we feel compassionate, we feel that we are not complicit in the inflictors of pain. Our compassion declares our innocence and our incompetence. At the same time, regarding the pain of others made me think. Can we really feel the pain? I don’t think you can experience the sufferings of the indigenous people of Antigua when you haven’t experienced this kind of corrupt government and bad environment. I think the pain recorded by novels is not in line with reality, because even if novels are not written for art, novels themselves are artistic. In order to shock readers, the description of the environment itself may not really show the suffering of the real world. In addition, when you travel, you may only notice the blue sky, the waves under the sun, and the luxury hotel facilities. However, you can’t believe that the indigenous people of Antigua who were once under British colonial rule were still discriminated against in their own country. When you’re swimming in Antigua’s pool, you don’t know Antigua doesn’t have its own sewage treatment system. When you’re eating delicious lobsters, you don’t know that Antigua’s people are still hungry. I think if colonial rule brought advanced science rather than terrible oppress and exploit. If they take the rule of civilization rather than brutality. Will Antigua become beautiful and prosperous

 

Work Cites:

Zhiru, et al. “Regarding the Pain of Others.” Douban, https://www.douban.com/group/topic/1299996/

Yo, Is This…Racist.

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“Yo, is this racist?”

Luodong Zhang, Xinyu Liu

4/5/2021

Luodong: Hi, Xinyu. Welcome to “Yo, this is… Racist” Column. As we all know, the topic of racial discrimination has always been very hot and hard. Can you share some ideas about racial discrimination with us?

Xinyu: Hi, Luodong. Hi, every reader. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my views on racial discrimination. From my point of view, racial discrimination is due to the following three reasons. First, human factors. Human beings are evolving, and in the process of evolution, the natural genes of “seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages” are preserved. Imagine a primitive person, in his familiar environment, dealing with familiar people is certainly more relaxed, but once he enters a strange environment, dealing with unfamiliar people, he will naturally feel alert and insecure. Among races communication, of course, they belong to unfamiliar fields. It’s not difficult to understand the natural hostility and wary attitude towards unfamiliar races. The second, the ruler factor. The rulers gave the masses a wrong cognition through their “Single Story”. Finally, the behavior of excessive possession of resources can be rationalized and legalized by the rulers. In other words, the ruler factor refers to a country, a regime, or a family power. As a ruler, establishing a common enemy stimulates the group strength and collective sense of honor, so as to transform the internal contradictions of the race. The easiest way to set up the enemy is to set up the hatred of the other race. By distorting their culture and uglifying the history of other races, ordinary people will easily define themselves as “one” and different races as “the other”. In the end, it is not easy for ordinary people to feel “guilty” when “the Other” you hate gets hurt. This is also a very important reason why Hitler was able to stimulate the slaughter of Jews in Europe during World War II.

Third, Racial discrimination caused by cultural factors refers to the meeting of people from different cultural backgrounds, so that people often understand their things from their own cultural perspective and with their own values, which sometimes leads to mutual misunderstanding and conflict. The cultural differences between China and the United States are a very clear example. Among the collective interests and individual interests, the Chinese often advocate that the collective interests are far greater than the individual interests. Therefore, the very popular movies in China are often the contents of saving the whole group at the expense of themselves. The United States, on the contrary, pursues individual heroism. Only by saving themselves can we save the whole collective. That’s why in American movies there are characters like the captain of the United States and iron man.

Luodong: well, Thank you for your analysis of the causes of racial discrimination. Protests against racial discrimination are going on every day. The Lakers met with NBA teams such as the clippers and bucks and decided to kneel down on one knee to protest against racial discrimination when the national anthem is played at the beginning of each game. Do you think there is a way to eliminate racial discrimination?

Xinyu: Although we all know that racial discrimination is a narrow thing after civilized education, I don’t think it can be eliminated. Only through our efforts can we reduce this kind of discrimination due to racial differences to some extent. First of all, we should change the perception of black advocate violence. I made a small survey on the history and culture of African blacks. I learned that in ancient times, many primitive tribes also opposed violence and advocated honesty. Like, in Achebe’s novel “things fall apart”, Okonkwo’s tribe had set the perfect legal system and a social operation mode that could make people live and work in peace and contentment. Secondly, I think everyone’s opportunity should be fair. For example, although black people are dominant in NBA, if there is a white man who plays very well, we will not despise him and refuse to let him play just because he is white, right? Similarly, there should be affirmative action in the workplace. In the work, the boss should choose the employee whose work efficiency is higher and performance is better, not whose skin color and appearance are more liked by the boss. In such a virtuous circle, human society will progress.

Xinyu: Recently, because of the outbreak of the covid-19 virus, American society has become unstable. Do you know of any other racial discrimination? It would be better if there were specific events.

Luodong: For me, I think the most painful thing was the shooting in Atlanta. This incident resulted in the deaths of nearly a dozen people and brought the issue of discrimination against Asians back into the spotlight.

Xinyu: Yes, it shocked me too, and that’s what we’re talking about today, racism. It has been an unfortunate year for all countries in the world, with COVID-19 leading to many deaths and social unrest leading to various cases of racial discrimination. Can you give us a little bit more detail about what happened in Atlanta?

Luodong: Sure. On March 16, the carnage lasted nearly three hours. The deranged killer rampaged through three massage parlors, leaving four Koreans, two Chinese, a white woman, and a white man dead. Police arrested him around 8:30 p.m. in the south of Atlanta. He was planning a trip to Florida to continue his killing spree. Asians were killed wherever he went. This is just what I learned from the media.

The memorial sits just outside Gold Spa after the deadly Atlanta shooting.

Xinyu: Yes, the motive of the killer has not yet been determined, except that he was not mentally ill. Do you think this attack was an act of racial violence?

Luodong: I’m not sure if I know enough about racism, although he denied a racial motive, the incident marked the culmination of a year of discrimination and violent crimes against the Asian community. I don’t understand why there is such hatred.

Xinyu: The incident led many Asians to march and hold up “Stop Asian Hate” signs. Could you tell me about your experience of studying in the United States if you have encountered racial discrimination?

Luodong: To be honest, I didn’t know anything about this before I came to the United States, and the news I saw made me worried. However, after I came to the United States, I found that there was almost no such discrimination in my daily study and life. Professors treated students fairly and gave me a lot of help. When I asked teachers and classmates questions, they answered me warmly. When I was a freshman, I lived in an apartment at the university. My roommates were very friendly to me. They would ask me to play basketball together, introduce me to the delicious restaurants around, and also ask me to watch football games on Gameday.

Xinyu: Sounds good! I still like to believe that most people have no animosity towards Asians.

Luodong: I think there are some stereotypes about Asians. As far as I can see, the majority of Asian people are working in service industries like laundry, restaurants, working for other people, etc. Most Asians do not live a rich life, and this level of wealth tends to lead people to think that Asians are the easy type to be bullied. I think this may be one of the reasons. In my opinion, in racial discrimination cases, there must be one party identified as “Others”. Because of the long-term low social status of Asians in the United States, it is difficult for Asians to truly integrate into this culture. As for the “Others” of De Beauvoir, the sense of national common sense can hardly be truly equal. Asians have always been regarded as outsiders.

Xinyu: In history, the United States is a multi-ethnic country with strong ethnic inclusiveness. Under the leadership of the first president, Washington, the United States won the War of Independence and promulgated various political laws, gradually becoming an independent and sovereign country as it is now. So, do you think this kind of discrimination problem can be solved or easily solved?

Luodong: The United States is already a multi-ethnic society, and the current turmoil is largely due to the government’s inaction and the people’s stereotypes and prejudices against other races. There are few courses in schools that really introduce students to foreign cultures. But because of the different customs and cultures of different countries, it is difficult to achieve true unity. In my opinion, such cultural differences are not the reason for discrimination. The main reason is to eliminate the prejudice in people’s minds, enhance social inclusiveness, and weaken the leading news. U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the rise in anti-Asian violence in the United States and called on all Americans to unite against hatred in a speech during a visit to Georgia. I hope that such discrimination can be weakened or eliminated.

 

Works Cited:

https://image.baidu.com/

https://www.16sucai.com/2013/10/27681.html

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-56467496

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-spa-shootings.html

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices: The inequity of wealth distribution.

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Last week, I saw a piece of news. In the news, one percent of the world’s population has 43 percent of the world’s wealth. At this time, I realized the great unfairness of the distribution of wealth in the world. So I went to understand why the wealth in the world is so unevenly distributed. According to my investigation, it’s very cruel. Most people’s wealth is determined at birth. Children born in rich families have inherited the huge wealth created by their parents since childhood.

Rich children can receive the world’s top education when they are young as shown in the picture two. Rich children can do experiments by themselves in the beautiful classroom to understand the profound theoretical knowledge. And even if the performance in education is not ideal, parents will spend extra money to let children go to cram school. And can cultivate their own interests in leisure time, travel abroad, broaden their horizons. On the contrary, the children of the poor. Their educational resources are very limited, and they have to help their parents do a lot of housework in their spare time. I showed a classroom in a remote mountain school in China. We can see that there is soil on the walls of the classroom, and the light transmission of the classroom is very poor, which may lead to the weakening of children’s vision. Education is the main cause of class division between rich children and poor children.

In my study of children’s adult life, the children of the rich don’t have to worry about buying a car and the financial difficulties of buying a house. Because the parents’ capital has helped the children solve the problem. In addition, rich parents’ friends or platform can provide their children with a very promising position at work. The children of the poor, on the other hand, have to worry about how to repay their housing loans as soon as they work. In the poor, the children are still worrying about their livelihood, while the children of the rich are striving for their own life value. Such a gap is very difficult to make up. In this way, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. Because of the unfairness and inequality brought by the unfair distribution of wealth, it is difficult to change the class for a normal person.

Picture one: This is a pie chart of the distribution of wealth in the world.

Picture two: Bright classroom and advanced experimental equipment.

Picture three: a classroom in a remote mountain school in China.