It had a strong and peaceful government during the Qing Empire and imperial powers such as Britain and the U.S. were interested in Chinese goods. By the late 1700s, however, China was experiencing internal strains with the population and with the government (columbia.edu). China had often looked down on foreigners and did not accept their cultures, but in 1793, the Chinese emperor agreed to meet with an English ambassador. The ambassador brought with him modern gadgets of that time such as clocks and instruments (Beck 371). The emperor was not interested and then the British realized they would have to find a product to trade with China so they could balance out the trading with China; that product was opium (Beck 371).
There are distinct differences between the Chinese culture parenting style and the Western, but the key commonality is that both parents desire the success for their child’s future. Chua, starts her article by addressing the most common question. “How Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids?”(Chau1). Her answer is quite simple: most of the things that other children are allowed to do, hers were not. Take playing an instrument for an example.
Professor Roger Ames began his lecture by speaking of the misconceptions that Americans have about the Chinese. Usually the Chinese culture is either romanticized or demonized. China and America are both are powerful countries and Ames spoke of the fact that if they do not join peacefully they are stunting the possibilities they have to change the course of the world. Ames spoke a lot about the focus on competition, a winner, loser, and every situation. Whereas Confucius would focus more on flourishing relationships and being respectful and loving all.
After acquiring the Philippines, the United States gained interest in the vast resources of Asia. John Hay states in his Open Door Notes that, “Earnestly desirous to remove any cause of irritation and to [e]ensure at the same time to the commerce of all nations in China... shall enjoy perfect equality of treatment for their commerce and navigation within such spheres.” The purpose of writing the document was to reduce the power countries had gained from their spheres of influence. The United States had no spheres of influence in China because it had just recently taken interest in Asia. Therefore, John Hay sought to prevent other countries from having more power than the United States. Although many nations did not like the letter, all countries to which it was sent, except Japan, had expressed approval at the ideas and goals that it espoused.
The Daughters in The Joy Luck Club battle the cultural differences between the ancient values of their immigrant mothers and the American way of life they live in. In China, the mothers were taught strength of character was built through obedience. In modern American, the daughters are exposed to a society where women have more freedom of expression. Even clothing is different in each culture. The daughters are being raised on conflicting cultural differences.
Japan however, never succeeded in creating an effective centralized and bureaucratic state to match that of China but they did try to borrow that idea from China and produced it to the best of their ability. China was a major state during the period of 600-1450, therefore many of their ideas, recourses and culture were borrowed by many other states. Because of the fact that many borrowed from China, the state also became greater. Southeast Asia and Japan were two that borrowed heavily from Chinese culture. They borrowed their rituals, religions and
During this entire conflict, the European powers (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia) had carved up China and Africa into “spheres of influence” for themselves to keep. Although the US had just received many ports to trade with, it didn’t completely satisfy the American economy. So, naturally, the US wanted to be able to access these Asian ports, especially Hong Kong. Secretary of State John Hay dispatched his famous Open Door note, which urged the European nations to keep fair competition open to all nations willing and wanting to participate. This became the “Open Door Policy.” All the powers
This essay, mainly focusing on Suyuan Woo and her daughter June, is aiming to further analyze the causes and manifestations of this complicated mother-daughter relationship. The relationship is by no means conflicting and it is not hard to understand. First of all, the conflict is due to the daughters’ attitudes towards their Chineseness, which can be normally understood as the Chinese character and traditional culture, in all, it can be understood as the temperament of a Chinese. Different from their mothers, the daughter generation is born and raised in America, what they have experienced is enculturation, and they are trying to get rid of their Chineseness and every influence of the mother generation. Far from knowing Chinese culture and without the awareness to know, the mother generation is alien and ridiculous to them.
Even though raising a child the Chinese way has shown an outcome of very well educated and intelligent individuals. The sender Amy Chua tells about the strict upbringing of her children, and how she was the result of her parents raising her the same way. She doesn’t believe that she is raising her children too strictly, but rather thinks that the western way of upbringing is too loose. She is one of the Chinese mothers who believe that “stressing academic success is good for children" (p.2, l. 12) in contrast to the 70% of western mothers who think it’s wrong. The main philosophy of the way of raising her children is that hard work pays off, and that is why she puts in a lot of hours of drilling academic exercises with her children.
Chua’s text is very harsh toned, yet effective due to the use of all three appeals: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The author is raised by Chinese parents, which defines a big part of who she is. In the text Chua uses Ethos to establish her personal experience with parenting. She chooses a hard, and a time consuming parenting technique “ The Chinese method” to raise both of her daughters. For instance:“ A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids well I can tell them, Bachour 2 !