At the beginning of the semester I never thought I would be where I am now, learning about topics that would wow my family members and creating something that is actually going to be used by students next year. I never knew what I was getting myself into, learning about dragons and foxes but I’m […]
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This week our readings focused on religion and how it showed up in China. Our textbook chapter for the week was “Graves, Grave digging, Ancestors and Luck” and the first thing that I found really interesting was that people’s bodies would be dug back up after a certain amount of time. For a culture that […]
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This week all of our readings were about the white snake. The textbook chapter, The White Snake detailed how Madam was a seducer who changed her form in order to get more men. She manipulates people, most importantly her husband, and makes them become involved in situations that threaten their life but Madam White always […]
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This week we started out reading a chapter from the textbook titled “Dragons.” It talked about how there were three theories of their origin: dinosaurs, snakes, and crocodiles. But it’s important to realize that a dragon can look like anything you want it to look like. The Chinese used dragons as a way to explain […]
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I remember at the beginning of the year I felt very overwhelmed by what was going on around me. This was in part due to my classes, there was no true transition in my opinion. You walked into class and day one was syllabus day but that didn’t mean it was a calm day. I […]
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This week, all of our readings had to do with foxes and their significance in Chinese traditions. Of the two textbook chapters we read, the first one, Fox Spirits, first details how foxes are a very complex creature, being called both mischievous and honorable. They also serve as a spotlight on women in China, since […]
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This week we read two textbook chapters, a PDF document, and a scroll painting. The first chapter, “Mount Kunlun, the Jade Mountain, and the Queen Mother of the West” talks about the symbolism behind each mountain and what it represents in Chinese culture. The Queen Mother of the West lived on Jade Mountain which incited […]
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This week we only read two things, a textbook chapter and a Tang Dynasty story. The chapter titled “Explaining the Extraordinary and the Creation of Fiction” talked about stories and fiction. Giving the many reasons why people would compile and record stories but I found the Buddhists reason for doing it very interesting. Essentially Buddhists […]
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This week we read/listened to a variety of sources that all talked about Buddhism or Buddhist hell. Chapter 17, titled, “Buddhist Hell: Overview and Structure” talked a lot about the ten kings and how karma was now playing into people’s beliefs about the afterlife. Now your actions while you were living decided the type of […]
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This week I read an article called Beyond The Terra-cotta Warriors and generally it was a main overview of what the terracotta warriors were but didn’t go into much detail. When looking further into the author of the article I found out that the author was a student at Vassar college, completing this article as […]
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