When I saw the video about the Field Trip to the DMZ, I did not realize that there were so many North Korean students of my age, who fled with their families or by themselves to South Korea for a better life. I knew there were a few people who fled North Korea, but never expected a school body to be filled with North Korean refugees.
The main character in the documentary, Haejung, she must feel really lonely after having been sent off from North Korea to South Korea by her parents. I could tell that everyday she hopes for the two nations to reunify and have peace after more than 55 years of DMZ between them.
The DMZ line between North and South Korea
I truly think the DMZ will be broken down in the next 30 years or so. Once Kim Jung-Il of North Korea steps down as the leader of North Korea, the nation will realize that they need help from other nations for food, water, medication, etc. Once the reunification happens, Haejung will be able to be with her family again.
Even though I am not in the same position as Haejung, I can feel her sadness and loneliness. It is my dream for the world to come in peace forever and become unified. But, today, our world is continuing to suffer from hatred and darkness that the chances for having peace is dissolving. I pray for North Korea and South Korea to be reunified and live a peaceful life.
Cormac McCarthy is an author that I find very unique from other authors I have read. According to this NYT article, McCarthy is a kind of American author that likes to take other author’s influential styles and conver it to his own style.
1. What authors or genres of writing are cited as influencing McCarthy’s writing style?
Mark Twain’s style is followed by McCarthy’s style
According to the article, McCarthy follows James Joyce’s writing style. McCarthy also does a little bit of Twain: Huckleberry Finn and McMurty: Lonesome Dave into this novel, All the Pretty Horses,
“In the hands of some other writer, this material might make for a combination of “Lonesome Dove” and “Huckleberry Finn,” but Mr. McCarthy’s vision is deeper than Larry McMurtry’s and, in its own way, darker than Mark Twain’s.”
His style of writing relates to things in the wild west of the US. A lot of these novels come from McCarthy’s own experience in the west and how life was back then. Authors will usually express their own experiences by writing it out into fictional characters, walking in their shoes. McCarthy does that a lot and we see how real the characters are in All the Pretty Horses.
2. How does McCarthy treat human characters in his story as opposed to the land and animals like horses?
McCarthy puts a lot of emotion in a lot of his characters, especially John Grady Cole. In the article, it talks about how McCarthy places humans as the top of everything including the setting and horses. Usually, novels like this have the setting be described with every detail and be more important than the characters. However, to McCarthy, the characters create the setting and the involvement of horses. The humans are described more than anything else in the novel.
3. What type of dialogue does the article state McCarthy uses?
Cormac McCarthy
Compared to many authors who tells readers when a character is going to say something, McCarthy tends to drag the sentences on and on, to make his descriptive style elaborated and powerful. He does not use quotation marks and the dialogues between one character and another are short and realistic. There is no way a character would talk for more than 6 sentences long in a dialogue. It’s too long for a realistic dialogue.
4. What is notable about his diction?
McCarthy’s diction is related to the Elizabethan language back in the old days of England. McCarthy is a wise man and he uses something like an old style of English to relate it to the novel. The novel happens right after a world war and so the old style of English is still used during that time.
In the media driven world of sports, stereotypes and archetypes are prevalent.
Stereotype: Black players don't play hockey. Who says? Dustin Byfuglien is black, and plays hockey!
Images that are used to simplify perspectives or issues regarding professional sports are often employed in order to allow easy digestion of information that otherwise might be too complex to comprehend. However, such simplifications can be incorrect and even offensive. Meanwhile, the media also perpetuates images of archetypes or individuals who establish a unique trend within the world of professional sports. Such individuals are often heralded as entrepreneurs and are elevated to a high status. These two types of images are widespread in both professional hockey and basketball and have been largely responsible for how we view issues present in both the NBA and NHL.
Writing Prompt #1
As an athlete, Jordan takes his role further by wielding marketing power and becoming a business man. Many others follow him like Lebron James & Kobe Bryant.
1. For our group’s project, the images of Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky are the “archetypes” as they were the pioneering figures of their respective sports.MJ was the first player to wield a tremendous amount of marketing power and brand identity through his Air Jordan brand and in the wake of his financial success; others such as Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony have followed in MJ’s footsteps to emulate his success. Like Jordan, Gretzky also wielded unprecedented commercial appeal in professional hockey, launching his own brand of hockey equipment. Steve Yzerman, Alex Ovechkin, and Sidney Crosby have followed in Gretzky’s footsteps, attempting to use commercial appeal for their success.
This is 1994’s Domino’s Pizza commercial, featuring Wayne Gretzky. Many other hockey stars such as Sidney Crosby, follows Gretzky’s footsteps and
places himself in many commercials as well.
Michael Jordan in a commercial appeal for Nike…he wields an
unprecedented commercial appeal for the NBA.
Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony emulates his success.
2. Our group would have to guess that the images that relate to our project are intended for international audiences, as both the NHL and the NBA have global appeal and are not necessarily restricted to North America or the West.
3. The most widely represented demographic appears to be young, males as the images of NBA and NHL athletes are young males. The message seems to be that any young, male, aspiring athlete can become just like these athletes by purchasing the particular brand of these athletes.
4. The least represented demographic appear to be women. There is little commercial appeal for women in the images we found, as the images of the athletes do not attempt to draw in female audiences. The images of athletes we found were not particularly attractive either, thus this eliminates any possibility that the NBA and NHL images we found are particularly appealing for women.
Stereotype: Big men can't shoot. Dwight Howard disproves this stereotype as his field goal percentage is one of the highest in the NBA.
5. It is notable that images related to the NBA prominently feature black athletes while NHL images prominently feature white athletes. This could be because some of the most popular and elite athletes in the NBA happen to be black while the premier athletes in the NHL happen to be white.
Writing Prompt #2
From researching archetypes and stereotypes in the media, our group has realized that images and clips could sometimes be over exaggerated. People tend to judge certain figures based on the appearance on a particular image or an action, which is an incorrect way to see an individual.
Media is defined as means of communication such as radio, television, etc. that reach or influence people widely (courtesy of Dictionary.com). Media can often convince a person’s mind from one view, to another view negatively and positively.
As our group has learned, European players in the NBA are not always “soft” and they are just as capable of being physical and tough against the American players.
Stereotype: Only European players wear visors, such as Henrik Zetterberg. However, is this true?
Meanwhile, the stereotype that only European players in the NHL wear visors to protect themselves and that they are not tough is a false judgment as well. In fact, even some American players wear visors in NHL games. As a result, these kinds of stereotypical images are examples of how it is neither safe nor smart to judge certain individuals on the outer features.
Stereotypical images are not the only examples that can be overblown. There are even media archetypes that are often overblown. Take Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan as our archetype examples. Both of them are unique in their sport because of the impact they have made in the sport. However, we can’t just say that they are nothing but pioneers because this would negatively impact their amazing careers that the athletes have accomplished. Media has the tendency to exaggerate certain qualities of individuals, which leads to the creation of stereotypes and archetypes in the media. Unfortunately, media spreads these kinds of images and then people begin to accept them as the truth.
Not all Europeans wear visors. Mats Sundin is a Swedish hockey player and does not wear a visor.
In a Youtube clip from our presentation, there was a clip featuring an NBA European player, Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors challenging another player’s toughness against his toughness. The commentators began to question Bargnani’s toughness, but the fact that his toughness was called into question is enough to conclude that the stereotype of European players not being tough became accepted as the truth in the NBA. As you can see, stereotypes and archetypes have very powerful influences on how we view certain individuals in the society.
Stereotype: Europeans are too soft in the NBA…
who you kidding? Check out Andrea Bargnani
taking on another player!
Word Cloud
This is our wordle for Archetypes and Stereotypes in the NHL & NBA
Wordle Vocabulary List
Media
Air Jordan
Manly enough
Black players can’t play hockey
Canadians
Athletes
Basketball
Archetypes
Dunk
Nike
Powerplay
Fast Europeans
Europeans are too soft
Sports
NBA
White men can’t jump
Stereotypes
High school phenom
Inner city culture
Polarizing figure
NHL
Michael Jordan
Canadians are the best at hockey
Wayne Gretzky
The butterfly
Goalies
Slapshot
Point guard
Big men can’t shoot
Resources and Links
Since the Powerpoint is so big, here is a screenshot of our powerpoint presentation's first slide
This blog post is a response to the video Growing up Online, blog post #19.
#1 In what ways would you need to change your routine in order to disconnect yourself from all media (i.e. no TV, no Internet, etc.) What problems would you encounter if you unplugged for one day? One week? One month?
No I am not addicted!
Ways I need to change my routine to disconnect myself from all media are very minimal to me. However, I believe it is possible for me to disconnect from all technology for a certain amount of time. One way is going outside and getting some fresh air by playing sports with my friends and neighbors. Another way of getting away from all media is going on a road trip with your family or friends. Take a travel to visit the natural life of this polluted world. It would be nice to go camping in the woods with no technology and just enjoy the nature around me. Every year, I go to this Bible camp that takes place in the northern forest of California, where there are full of wild animals. The one policy that we had to follow was to not bring any technology and survive for a week without the worldly things. So if I was unplugged for a day or a week, I would be fine. I would have no problem just enjoying myself going outside and exercising or even playing my instrument and make music. However, if I was to last for a month without media, I would probably have a seizure. I cannot live without the media because I love getting “up to date” with sports around the world, my Facebook, and email. I hate leaving things out of my life and not come back to it after awhile because I would feel that I missed out a lot of new things.
#2 How many hours per week do you estimate you spend on Facebook or similar personal networking sites? What are the benefits and disadvantages of using these sites?
I probably spend myself on the net about 3 hours a day, so 21 hours per week. I always get onto the sports websites to see which team beat who, who got traded, etc. Facebook is where I find out who’s in a new relationship or who has posted any new photos. I think the advantages for using these sites are that you can stay updated to the world.
Facebook logo
Without these sites, you would probably be a social outcast and be really behind the rest of the world. Facebook is a site where you can find your friends from all over the world. I use Facebook most of the time to talk to my friends back in Michigan who I haven’t seen in almost 6 years. However, the disadvantages of using these sites are that you cannot get off the computer when you really need to work on your homework. I find it hard to get off the computer, shut it down, and lay my hands on the homework in front of me. I tend to try “multitasking” and look through the sites while working on homework at the same time. Another disadvantage is you tend to sit around the computer all day and you do not get your butt of the chair, resulting in “laggardness” and stress. It is almost like an addiction that you cannot stop going to these sites.
#3 To what extent are you aware of viral marketing, the use of “advertorials” (presenting advertisements as editorial content), or direct marketing on Facebook and other social networking sites?
If you take a look at Facebook, you notice tons of advertisements that bring attention to you while you surf through your friends’ profile. However, most of the time I tend to ignore those kinds of things and just do Facebook. Actually, on Facebook, there is an application that Facebook has that allows people to market off their own products as well. On the sidebar, you’ll see people advertising their products or professional companies advertise their products off, but Facebook does not often show advertisement as much as Myspace does.
#4 Personal response based on your individual viewing of “Growing Up Online”.
The video does have a really good message to the parents and the teens who have watched this because it tells us that staying on the net could lead to consequences such as the kid who committed suicide because of the messages people sent to him. Also, teens will become more separated from the parents and the relationship will grow weaker between them. I, myself, am a teen and I think I need to be aware of the relationship with my parents and also be careful of what I do when I visit certain sites. The internet is not trustworthy and we need to be careful of cyber-criminals who could track you down just by asking you simple questions. In the near future, we will all be relying on the internet and so things need to start shaping up right now by limiting ourselves from telling too much information and be more aware of what we do on the net. ALSO!!! Love your parents and enjoy your lives outside of the media. We often need the time to go out and enjoy the world without technology.
Koreans are getting worse and worse at figuring out how to do well in college. Months ago, there was an article about 44% of Koreans dropping out of college and nowthis. I have known this issue for a while now, but now there is an article about Korean undergrad students still going to hagwon. College is all about taking the next step into the real world by being independent and teaching yourself how to become a successful person. The majorities of the Koreans coming from Korea do not understand this and believe that by taking US education at a great college, they will have a much better job. That’s not entirely true. Is it even possible for a Korean student, who studied his whole life in Korea and started learning English probably in high school, to attend highly prestigious schools in America and be able to pass their courses? To be honest, this is almost like jumping off a 100-story building and landing on both feet without any injuries. In the article provided by Joongang Daily, the reporter quotes a director,
“We offer lessons on diverse subjects, but the majority of students call on us to improve their English skills. We have received about a hundred undergraduates over the past three years,”
Okay, first of all…college students are expected to be pretty good at English. Going to hagwon to learn English as a college student is just embarrassing. Koreans need to understand that hagwons are not the best way to learn and get educated. Hagwons practically help you cheat your way into colleges that you want. Yeah sure you can go into a great college, but are you going to be able to endure the hard courses? South Korea has already gone through a lot of trouble like the SAT cheating situation which happened 2 years ago, Koreans dropping out of colleges, etc. Korean students need to learn to become independent. That’s all I can say. There’s nothing much we can do except tell them that hagwons won’t help them become a better student.
Koreans are not the only dirty ones in America. American teensare now getting out of hand. They are stealing, lying, and cheating at school more than last year. Why would they do this? It is because the students are becoming more irresponsible and lazy to do all the school work. They want to find the easier ways so that they could get over with it. The article says,
“Overall, 30 percent of students admitted to stealing from a store within the past year, a two percent rise from 2006. More than one third of boys (35%) said they had stolen goods, compared to 26 percent of girls.”
Cheaters
This is a very sad situation. If teens begin to cheat more, steal more, and lie more, what will the future society look like? The society is going to turn chaotic and many of the laws will be broken. More people will be sent to jail, more people will be killed, etc. We are now living in the era of chaos. When I mean chaos, I mean the fall of society. It may seem weird that teens will hurt the society, but think about their future careers. Will they be able to get successful jobs? No. They will continue to cheat, lie and steal until their deaths. Schools need to become stricter in order to reduce the stealing, lying, and cheating from the students. If there could be a world with no stealing, lying or cheating….nah, that’s impossible.
Why do you think that several of the profiled characters have turned to religion or spiritual outlets?
The video shows how a few of the characters rely on Christ to guide them to success. For example, Lu Dong, the internet-based tailoring company owner, became a Christian because he believes that by believing in Christ, he would have hope in his career to become a successful man.
Lu Dong
He says that after being baptized, he does not feel lonely anymore because he has Jesus Christ inside him. He also feels that there is a filter on his face that could refresh his face from all the stresses and hopelessness. I think believing in something is a grand opportunity for many of the Chinese people. If you look back at history, China’s belief in Christianity was limited because of Mao’s communistic rule. However, after Mao’s ruling was done, the Chinese people had the opportunity to believe in something. If people like Lu Dong has strong belief in Christianity, they might have hope in being successful and be protected from all evil things.
To what extent are the struggles of the rapper, Wang Xiaolei, unique as a Chinese artist?
-Do you think his life is typical of artists elsewhere? Explain your position.
Wang Xiaolei is in a very difficult position as a rapper, and as a citizen of China. Wang grew up in a small town where there was not much hope. After his parents divorced, he lived with his grandparents.
Wang Xiaolei
However, they lost everything, so they live in this abandoned house. Compared to many other artists around the world, Wang does not have a real home and he is pay is very low. Although he is an artist, his songs are not official label, but independent. Many other artists have chances to sell their music worldwide, while Wang cannot. The funny thing is, Wang dresses like a modern rapper with all these nice clothes, but if you look at where he lives and what he does, he’s a very poor person. His house leaks, it is too small, and old. His job, a DJ at a club, is not one of the greatest jobs he has. It is a local club with very low pay. Also, his songs are nothing compared to any rappers I know around the world. Many of the rappers’ songs are about love, killing someone, or something very useless. However, Wang’s lyrics talks about China’s economic status and the people that are suffering. I do not see why his songs are not as popular. His songs should be a hit around the world because it sends a message to all of us about China’s status. He sends the message about China by using his musical talent. Wang also explains rivalry of hip-hop in China,
“There are fights between groups. They piss each other off. But it’s not as bad as in America. Things can get out of control easily there. People don’t have guns in China. So they just argue. In the end we solve it peacefully. Because I don’t like to fight. I don’t think fighting can solve problems. It’s 2006 now. You use your brain to solve problems.”
To me, Wang Xiaolei is more like a messenger of China. His songs can actually save many Chinese lives if the world listens to his songs.
Why do you think FRONTLINE producers named this program Young & Restless in China?
-Do you think this is an appropriate title? Why or why not?
-What other titles would aptly describe this program?
I think FRONTLINE named this program Young & Restless in China because it interviews young women and men in China, trying to find a way to become successful in an economy that is still developing. These people are trying to work their way up to a higher standard of living. They work day and night trying to earn money to buy food, pay rent, or even try to buy a better house. This is definitely a good title for this program because it represents the people filmed in the program. They are all young and working hard to become better and successful. There are other titles I could think of for this program: “Hopes & Dreams in Young China”, “The New Generation’s Dream in China”, or “Returning Turtles.” The first two titles I have suggested are pretty reasonable. Young Chinese people work hard to accomplish their hopes and dreams in the growing economy of China. “Returning Turtles” was mentioned in the video from the beginning. It means those who studied abroad and came back to China to find a job with their intelligence. The title also represents those who have not studied abroad and lived in China throughout their whole lives. The Chinese people are returning from a low life to a higher life by working hard to live up to that dream.
In many of the Chinese films, there are fighters flying above roofs, balancing on bamboos, and gracefully soaring through the sky. All of us know this is very unrealistic and very stupid of the Chinese to emphasize the mastery of martial arts. However, there is a reason to why the Chinese do these kinds of movies.
The Chinese are proud of the martials arts they have come up with centuries ago and they want to show the “warrior tradition” to the world to show that there are certain elements a warrior must abide by.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Watching a few clips of Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, many of the warriors are disguised in order to hide their identity. If they were to blow their cover, people would know who the mysterious warrior would be. The young lady warrior in Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon disguised herself in black outfit so that the guards would not notice her. When she stole the valuable sword, the guard called, “Get him!” Because of the hidden identity, the guard was unable to figure out the theif’s face and gender. Another important element is the avoidance of killing someone else. Again, in Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Jade Fox accidentally killed a fighter in a scene and she was forced to flee from the scene. Another scene was with the young lady warrior who fought 55 “warrior wannabes” and defeated them all without killing a single man. It is interesting to see that many of the Chinese movies did not show many killing, except 2 or 3. The warriors are trained to show strength against their foes, not kill their foes.
The natural work in relation to martial arts is quite revealing in many of the Chinese movies and books. In Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong, the fantasy warrior that Maxine Hong creates in chapter 2 goes to the Tiger Mountain to train herself to be stealth-like and be able to head back home where the two old couples lived. To survive, the fantasy warrior relied on nature. She used the snow as water by melting the pack of snow, she imitated the tigers’ movements, and a rabbit sacrificed itself into meat for her to eat.
Two warriors flying gracefully in nature
In Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon and House of the Flying Daggers, the forests and bamboo forests showed the warriors as graceful in movements. The natural scene shows how skilled the warriors are in terms of movement with their whole body. A warrior could even balance on a bamboo tree even with the branch moving up and down constantly. It seems like nature is working with the warriors by providing them resources and also a scene to show gracefulness.
Gender roles in these movies and the book we have read and seen are very revealing. In Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the warriors were always men back then. However, when Jade Fox was a beautiful woman, she poisoned her master to take the scroll of the martial arts and learn it herself. Basically, women were not neccesarily considered as fighters, but instead as royal highnesses or mothers taking care of children. In Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, we see that there are 3 woman warriors who fight skillfully. This is the emergence of woman trying to have the same thing as men do. In Woman Warrior, Fa Mu Lan was a woman warrior who disguised herself as man warrior and fought many armies and was very victorious. All of these woman are tough and skilled, but overall, men seem to still dominate in fighting. For example, in a scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the master fights Jade Fox and stabs her right in the breast. The master barely smiles and most of the time, emotionless, but he lets out a smirk when he stabs Jade Fox right in the breast. Also, Jade Fox seems to be always down and on the ground, while the master fights her with only one hand, and with limited movement. The male dominance here shows that the woman warrior (Jade Fox) isn’t as skilled as the master.
I found it interesting how all the warriors make a pose before they fight their opponent. If you take a look at this clip, they make a few pauses from time to time. The reason for this is that the warriors are checking each other’s strength. Another reason is that by making funny poses, it increases their “chi,” which is the inner spirit that helps build confidence and strength in fighting.
“…the most remarkable, and often overlooked, quality of The Woman Warrior is that it is a book without a genre. At various times it has been described as a memoir, an autobiography, a novel, a manifesto; yet anyone who spends 10 minutes with it understands that none of these labels really apply. Not because Kingston sets out to exaggerate the “facts” of her own experience, à la James Frey, but because she deliberately acknowledges that to write autobiography is to stand at the borderline between memory and invention. Like the “ghosts” in its subtitle (the word refers to the white Americans around whom Kingston grew up in Sacramento), The Woman Warrior stubbornly refuses to be either entirely fictive or entirely real. Perhaps the second most remarkable thing about the book is that in its wake, the American literary world still seems to regard the tissue-thin boundary between memoir and fiction as absolute and inviolable.”
Maxine Hong Kingston, the author of Woman Warrior, is a very unique writer. This quote Jess Row’s article, from above explains her style of writing; she tends to change her views and really confuse the reader. When I was reading the first two chapters, I was lost for a few pages because the point of view and the setting suddenly changed. I ask myself, “Why on earth woud Kingston mix her point of views and confuses readers?” Later, I thought that Maxine Kingston is only doing this to create a connection between the past and the future. This style of writing is called talk-story. Kingston relates the legend of the woman warrior to herself in the present.
Maxine Hong Kingston as Woman Warrior
You argue whether The Woman Warrior a memoir or a fiction because of the continuous change in point of views. I find this style of writing very new and confusing, but it is fun to have us readers figure out the point of view. Just like how the author of Blindness does not put any quotation marks for his dialogues as his own style, Maxine Hong Kingston goes back and forth with different point of views for her own style.
It is almost too sad to be talking about this article. Living here in Korea, there are so many Koreans wanting to go to America to have education in American colleges. So, they study their butts off in hagwons to basically buy their way into colleges.
This article…is pretty much self-explanatory. Almost 44% of the Korean students drop out of the top American colleges. Samuel S. Kim says that the reason for the dropout is because Koreans spend most of their time studying and not being active in many social activities such as sports and clubs. They isolate themselves to study in order to do well in college. Well, that is not always true. College students also need social lives. Koreans, unfortunately, tend to think this way because of attending to many hagwons at such young age and trying to get 2400 on SAT and 800 on SAT IIs.
Asian Nerd
Compared to other groups dropping out, Koreans are 10% higher than 34% Americans dropping, 19% higher than 25% Chinese dropping, and 23% higher than 21% Indians dropping. 44%…this is ridiculous. Almost half of the Koreans attending colleges drop themselves out.
“According to the thesis, Korean students consume 75 percent of their time available for studying, while they allocate only 25 percent to extracurricular activities such as community service.”
College is a huge thing for all of us and we all need to be prepared for it. As a Korean, I do not want to follow the other Koreans by studying hard and living their lives only in the dorms. I like to explore the college life and become very social. In order to be like this, we need to be active in many clubs and sports in high school. High school prepares you for college and it also helps you acknowledge your interests for college. I want to get engaged with people in college and play sports from time to time. Of course I have to study, but I also need to have a little bit of fun in college.
College Hockey
I do not have to go to a well-known college like Harvard or Yale to get the best education. All colleges give you the best education. Honestly, any college that will make me comfortable will do enough for me. Let us not all fall into the traps of studying 70% of the time when we get in college. Balance out your activities with your studies. We all have lives…so let’s explore!
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