Tiananmen

   The footage of the Tiananmen shooting completely shocked me. China's own Communist government were shooting down its innocent people, the people they were supposed to protect. Bodies filled the street. Deng was supposed to help the people, giving them freedom and equality, but instead, he was turning against the people in protest. It seemed that they were intentionally killing the students and citizens, giving them a short time to run before shooting them down like a game. Death to me is never an option, even if it was the last resort. Although a crackdown was necessary, like Lee Kuan Yew stated, an ex-prime minister of Singapore, there were several less violent, reasonable solutions that could have been done instead of having the loss of lives. It is true that if the protesters had gained power, chaos would erupt because of the various stances that the people took, and the Tiananmen Square event did prevent that but there are many other life-saving, resolutions that could suppress them.
   In my History of China class, we talked about if China would be better off without communism and going with a government that allows the people to fight for their rites, such as democracy. It does seem that China's economy is improving nowadays, but the working conditions and lifestyle that the majority of China's working class is living in is unacceptable. Some workers don't even get paid until the end of the year and if the employers bail on them, they have wasted an entire year with their hard labour, which happens almost all the time. Before I get even more off topic, what I'm trying to say is that even though communism is what makes China unique and how it is today, I believe that the people are not getting the rites they deserve and that should be changed in any way possible, with a new leader or even an entirely new government.

To Live - Movie Reflection

      Part 1/2
   In the Movie To Live, if you didn't know the background information during the time period, not much could be understood, by me that is.  It was crucial to realize that all this was during the time of the civil war between the communists and nationalists of China. When the main character was captured by Chinese, it was quite confusing for he was just entertaining them the day earlier. After reading and understanding the history, it all became much clearer. Later on in the movie, when the nationalists had been defeated and Mao Zedong was in power, the Chinese peasants began killing landlords and mainly any rich person. At this point was also very important to know that all this happened under the 'speak bitterness' campaign which caused them to show such animosity at a time of unification. Also, when all the people began creating backyard furnaces, it was also unclear why all the metal needed to be taken and wasted until I read the chapters. I've realized that to understand many Chinese movies based on history, some background information always needs to be known.

      Part 3
   During the cultural Revolution, in the movie To Live, it was quite clear that Mao Zedong was worshipped, and if I had no background information whatsoever, I would've probably thought he was a God. When Mao was painted on the family's wall during the movie and was included even in the wedding picture, it could be related to the worshipping of Jesus. Both are significant figures which were worshipped and studied about throughout the day and both were sung praises to. During the end of the movie (spoiler alert), when the the main character's wife goes through labour and ends up dying, it was much surprise to me that all doctors were removed; it was obviously not planned properly. The book titled China Since 1900, explained that communist culture was put before education, closing colleges and schools to study about the governments ideas. Although Mao's rule was very effective economically, because of his ideal word of one class, removing the educated, especially doctors, was not thought through, resulting in probably many deaths throughout China.