Propaganda!

I found this website while looking for some good propaganda. I think that the bottom right picture offends me most. It is a horrible depiction of Japanese people. It is propaganda, but it just goes to show that one of the things they try to use to make you dislike the enemy is to emphasize the differences in race, in skin color. I also found this, which people thought was Chinese propaganda for the Cultural Revolution. It's similar, but only in the picture that's on the cover. The title of the book doesn't relate to the Cultural Revolution at all. Also, I thought this was pretty funny/ironic as well as this.

Anyways, I guess I'm back to the Cultural Revolution. Off topic, but today I went to a Buddhist temple in Bridgeport (I'm gladly agnostic/atheist thankyouverymuch) where they conducted the entire service full of Chinese old ladies in Mandarin and Cantonese. I feel extra-connected to my culture today. (Don't you like this picture? It has great colors!) But don't yell at me about how it isn't relevant to 2011 today. Because in some ways, it can be.

Nowadays, everybody is living in urban areas, especially in China. The majority of China is sparsely populated with mountains and deserts. China has 26 urban areas with more than 2 million inhabitants, and 52 with more than 1 million. However, two-thirds of the people live in rural areas and work as farmers. In Japan, because of development and the changing ideals of society, women are finding more options besides staying home and birthing babies. Women can choose to not get married, maintain a professional work life. In some rural areas in Japan (more than three-fourths of all Japanese live in urban areas and work at industrial or service jobs) there can be one or two kids in one entire school. There are more elderly than there are young people, and soon enough, in more developed countries like Japan, there won't be enough young people in the work force to support the country. Japan is very strict with immigration and allowing immigrants to become naturalized. By supporting agriculture and counterurbanization like this propaganda poster advertises, there will be more awareness of the situation in rural areas.

...

(taken from An Introduction to Human Geography by James M. Rubenstein)

Hi. This is syd speaking. I have taken over Jy's blogpost for the time being. Mwahahahahahaha.

Did you know that in seventh grade, she was a boy for one lunch period? :P

-JY
(by the way, what Syd said is not true...)

Black Boy Response

So... I know nothing about hip-hop or anything like that. Black Boy, I do know, and I think that it almost frustrates me. It's good, very good, and I enjoy reading it immensely (just not the taking notes part). What bugs me a little is the way Richard Wright narrates seems emotionless, detached from the situation. Of all memories, I would think that emotions attached to these memories and events would be strong and clear. It's not like he's refraining from adding emotions into it because he feels this way as an adult after looking back to these events in his life. Richard never really expresses anger towards his mother, or anger/frustration in the way Aunt Addie treats him, or annoyance towards his grandmother. (He does threaten to kill Aunt Adde with a knife, but only because he didn't want to be beaten.) These people are just as they are--jerks--and while I'm sitting at my desk mad at people in his life like Aunt Addie, Richard just goes along with everything. I'm not sure if this is because his job writing this book is to recount his life in facts.

Overall, I love the honesty of everything. There are many times where I cringed, but I like that he's brutally honest, and doesn't hesitate to use the "N-word". He talks of race and other issues like God freely, and that makes me like the book even more.

JY

The Hunger for Attention

Richard Wright's hunger for attention is extreme, I guess, in comparison to how I was as a little attention-hogging kid. I never did anything dangerous or rebellious like him, but I guess this is because my parents taught me better, and because I'm a girl. I still recall being a complete show-off in the presence of guests. When I was in Japan, I used to be very chirpy and sang Japanese songs with a plastic flashlight as a microphone whenever my parents invited colleagues, friends, professors and such. The guests loved me, they gave me gifts frequently. :D

Even now I do things because of that deep down wanting attention. I don't admit this to myself, and these actions are much more subtle. But nowadays, I also try to be noticed by being good at skill sets that I work hard to improve. Take piano, for example. I've been playing piano for about seven years, and even though I don't want to be labeled as a show-off, deep inside I sometimes hope people ask me to play something if a piano is nearby. After so many years of hard work, nobody knows that I can play the piano (much less how "well" I can play the piano) and I'm just dying to hear praise coming out of someone's mouth. At least, that was how I used to be with the piano. A year ago, I finally discovered that child prodigies truly exist, and that no matter how good you may think you are, there's always someone better than you. That deflated my self-esteem (you can't even imagine), but the want for attention is still there when I am in the presence of those that aren't learned in music.

In my case, I crave praise because my parents are always criticizing me. In Richard Wright's case, he is curious, he wants attention, but most importantly I think he wants some affection from his mother. He never blames her for beating him, or for treating him harshly, and he acts rebellious and does things that will force his mom not to act kindly to him. Underneath, Richard's mom is trying to teach Richard a lesson, but Richard almost understands why he was wrong in doing what he did. I can understand if Richard allows himself to be hurt for the sake of one day having his mom realize herself that she's wrong in treating him so harshly.

JY

PS Happy Chinese New Year 2011!