GURA MICHELLE

I thought Gura's talk was very insightful. It was very intrigued in couple of things she said. First, she said that the generation was always changing so does the values. Which brings up the question of honor code vs. survival. When she was talking this, I wondered then what determines martial arts. Martial arts is the artistic perspective of fighting; which means there is an emphasis on honor or fighting codes of certain techniques. But if the values change overtime, what distinguises one martial arts from the other? Secondly, she says that once one realizes that one possess the power of knowing how to kill, how do he/she know how and when to utilize that power? That was an interesting point. So then I questioned myself, doesnt these honor codes become somewhat a justification or glorification...

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COMMENT ON KINGSTON

Respone of her quote about changing myths.I agree with Maxine Hong Kingston. Myths are part of culture and culture changes. Maxine Hong Kingston is an Chinese American, which means her culture is a mixture of Chinese and American culture. Native Chinese have there own myths to remember and enjoy. Kingston creates new myths for the people like her. I dont think myths have a right or a wrong way. Myths started out to be oral stories that change throughout generations. And the generation the immigrated to America should have the right to incoroporate their cultures and creates different versions of their myths. Culture is about the people and if people are changing so should the culture. Culture is a representation not histo...

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GHOST DOG

This is a very interesting movie. I did not quite understand the movie but this is what I understood of it. I thought the director of this movie was trying to disintegrate the relationship between stereotype and race. Often times, people expect other races to act a certain way. They are many racial stereotypes. Asian Americans are supposed to be smart, African Americans and Italian Americans are violent, and Caucasians are racist. Whether it is a "good" stereotype or not, it is still a label. But when one thinks about these labels, one should realize that labels are not necessary. The key word we should be looking at is "American." That should be the only label that everyone should carry. Forget the Asian, the African, and Italian. Yes, each group and other race, have different culture but...

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Carved in Silence

When I watched this documentary on Chinese Americans I was ashamed and angry. I was ashamed because I did not know how the struggles other minorities went through. I always thought I knew a lot about history and I was shocked to see the documentary and realize that I was wrong. I was angry because not just Chinese Americans, but all minorities had to go through so much to be part of America. This country advocates freedom but the system itself does not. A country that advocates freedom should not restrict the freedom of individuals especially if they did not do anything wrong. In fact, I think because there were so many regulations to entry the country the minorities had no choice but to create somewhat of a black market. The fake birth certificates and so on. Our ancestors, of all races,...

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True Christianity

Harriet Jacobs writes about how Christianity has many different influences on different people. First, she portrays how Christianity can be used to reinforce slavery: " After the alarm caused by Nat Turner's insurrection had subsided, the slaveholders came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enoough of religious insturction to keep them for murdering their masters." The slaveholders used Christianity to justify slavery and used it against rebelling slaves.Simultaneously, Christianity is also hope for the slaves: "The congregation struck up a hymn, and sung as though they were as free as the birds that warbled round us. ... Precious are such moment to the poor slaves. If you were to hear them at suck times, you might think they were happy. But can that hour of singing...

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Love or Hate- Harriet Jacobs

There is very interesting relationship between Harriot Jacobs and Dr. Flint. Although that is clear that they verbally abuse each other, it is also obvious that they effect each other postively and negatively. If you think about it, Dr. Flint's abuse is what drives Jacobs to run away. The other way around, Jacobs give Dr. Flint a purpose in life. These two people are very much involved in each other's world. Dr. Flint goes out of his way to get Jacob's emotional and physical attention and ironically, even when Jacobs escapes, she manages to write to Dr. Flint. Although there is abuse, it seems to give each of them a purpose in life, which is a positive affect. However, the relationships itself is quite negati...

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True Love or Contemporary Propaganda?

(This post is for the week of February 7)I thought it was interesting that the people who commented on the article from "La Solidaridad" by Jose Rizal seem to agree that Jose was a great figure. I, too, do not doubt that he was a hero to many but I question his motives in writing this article. When I first read this article I thought he was promoting violence and I was shock to hear in class that he advocated non-violence. He is very dramatic, descriptive, and poetic in this article and I believe he uses these writing techniques to cover or even justify the violence used for the country. He starts the article by elaborately describing the beauty of the land, mesmerizing the readers. He writes: "Could we not dedicate to her something -- those of us whose only failing is that we were born later?...

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Is it working?

This is my new bl...

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