“Unique Characters Bedevil Beijing” by Sharon Lafraniere 1. Many Chinese people from China wish to have creative, individual and symbolic names with meaning but they cannot choose those names because of the Chinese bureaucracy’s order to have similar names with other citizens. It should be part of our freedom to have the right to choose our own names and to embrace it. When a person changes their name, it would cause disturbances to certified and legal documents. This also causes a lot of confusion because many citizens have the same names with 70,000 people in the same country.
Just a few years before this document was written such events as the Massacre at Wounded Knee happened, I believe this was just too fresh in the minds of government officials that they didn’t want to risk having another situation similar to this with the Chinese. There were some very relevant points to be considered such as the Chinese were only contributing their wages to society if it was absolutely necessary for their survival. They would live in the worst of conditions and eat as little as possible to try to save as much as they could to take back to their families in China. This is a very real problem because they start to become leeches, for lack of a better word, and they put none of their wages back into the US economy. This could in turn hurt the economy if too many of the immigrants were living this kind of
I believe Richard Rodriguez is correct about being separate from crowds of citizens, but with family members, to achieve distinctiveness. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria”, I agree with Richard Rodriguez about his opposition to bilingual education. The reason why I agree with Richard Rodriguez is that knowing two different languages makes a person more versatile in the public. A person does need to know public language to be more accepted among the masses but losing your closeness with your heritage hurts more. I believe one day that when people hear beyond a person’s voice then we as the public will also become very
Towards the end of the tale, Kingston tells of a song Ts’ai Yen sings: “Her words seemed to be Chinese, but the barbarians understood their sadness and anger…her children did not laugh, but eventually sang along” (209). In the scene, Kingston alludes to a conversation that goes beyond understand or interpretation and transcends to a state of peace between the two cultures, barbarian and native. Without even knowing the language or the culture, the barbarians understand the truth of the words. Music is a universal expression that unites. Although the children, representing Americanized Chinese, are rather separated from their mother’s culture, they still find a tune they can relate to.
Without the one-child policy, the population of China will keep increasing. With a big population stress Chinese families cannot get better living conditions. The increasing population is only not a burden for China; it is also a burden for the world. With the limited natural resources, controlling population is a good way to ease the presses. In other words, one-child policy is another way to reduce the resources.
Through the conversation between Le and Ke, Le has developed her knowledge about China. The statement of Ke “Because they don’t affect you, here they affect all of us” provides Leah a new source of knowledge and understanding about China. It also destroys the distance between Leah and China. She starts to understand the political and historical about China. She is able to understand the reason that why the students making a protest because she also a student.
Cultural differences number one may entail language barriers; that in itself can make communication difficult. Cultural difference not only is focused on the patient, but on the provider as well. Providers in the states are so diverse and come from all over the country. In my experience with working with different cultured providers, some do not understand the American demeanor and can be very frank and straight forward because caring for a patient is strictly work to them. It is not in their culture to build personal relationships with the patients, they are just respected for their work and that is what they do.
Buddhism was introduced to China through migrants and through trade, and it rapidly spread and several opinions about it sprung about. A large number of people were pro-Buddhism, while various others were completely against it. There were even certain individuals who just wanted unity and for Confucianism and Buddhism to coexist. As expressed in documents one and two, Buddhism is a good, new religion. The Four Noble Truths are spoken of in document one and they are said to help an adherent to steer clear of sorrow and suffering.
If we could all just understand each other, then maybe this world would be a greater place. Maybe their wouldn’t be as much conflict in the world, if we all spoke one universal language. Its easy to see how language affects our communication , and forming of relationships with others. Because we’re all so diverse and we all speak different languages sometimes it is difficult to understand each other. Language is what makes us.
For an immigrant to believe English should be the official language is surprising and a powerful statement, because it is not even their natural language and yet they still believe it should be the official language of the United States. One argument Hayakawa provides is the fact that for centuries the Chinese and Japanese did not get along. In the United States during World War II, there was an abundance of Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the country. It wasn’t until they both learned how to speak English did the two groups finally get to know each other. This proves how having a common language can bring diverse groups of people together.