Write on one of the following three topics. Write just your first name (not anonymous) in your comment. This reflection is due on Wednesday by 10 p.m.:
Current event — Provide a link to an article related to something going on in Asia. Then, write a brief summary of the article and discuss its relevance to topics covered recently in this course.
Legalism — Legalism is based on the premise that people are prone to commit misdeeds, and government's job is to maintain order through strict rules and authority. Do you agree with this basic premise that people will do bad without the threat of punishment? Is order the most important concern in a society. Is order more important than personal freedom?
Chinatown — We will be going to Chinatown this week! What do you associate with this part of town? Be as specific as possible with certain sights, sounds, activities that you come to expect when you go there. Why do you think Chinatown is such an important neighborhood that nearly every major city has one?
18 comments:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/business/worldbusiness/24visa.html?ref=world
This article talks about how the only credit card China is accepting, is Visa. They are saying this is a bad problem because it is seriously hurting the tourism in China, and not as many people are going to hotels or other resorts. The main thing they are worried about is that not many people will be coming to the Beijing Olympics because they are unable to withdraw money or they have an invalid credit card. In fact, restrictions are getting pretty tight on Visa themselves. The people are hoping to get 500,000 people and 4.5 billion dollars from the Olympic games, but economists are doubting that will happen.
-Kyle Sugii
Legalism was a set rule in the Qin dynasty. They set this rule to punish the bad harshly so they won’t make the same mistake, or do other misdeeds to the society around them. I believe that people will do very bad things without the legalism act because legalism is what threatens them to stay away from crimes so they won’t have to go through harsh punishment. People would do so much bad and crimes without this system because there would be nothing to stop them. They could do whatever they want, whenever they want and keep on doing it without any trouble from the people who serve justice. Without legalism, I don’t think there would be a good punishment for the crime doers, and everything would be chaotic. You would see people doing drugs on the sidewalk without a care in the world, and people shoot someone without heavy consequences.
Order to me is important in society because it what keeps balance in the society. You want order so people don’t do as many crimes as they would. If they do, then they shall be severely punished. It is so important, that without it, the balance would be off, causing horrible things, letting crime doers get away with what they want, and what they did which to me is bad. Order is more important than personal freedom because with personal freedom, you can do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t mess with the law. If the order does contract with the personal freedom of the people, it is all worth it, because order keeps the good doers safe and gives them more peace of mind.
I agree with the intension of Legalism however the way it is practiced and the strictness of it is what i believe is not the best way to go. I think people won't necessarily do bad things and become unjust if there is not a threat of punishment involved. Punishment is good to a certain extent but it's the type of punishment and the reasoning behind it that counts and should be considered before actually happening. Order is a really important when having a strong society. I don't think that it's the most important thing but it's definately is one of the more crucial aspects to a strong society. This is because if you have an organized government and they know how to keep the society under control, it makes it easier to move on to other things to benefit your society. If you have a society that is crazy and out of control, it will probably lead to outrages and other things which could possibly ruin the whole society altogether. Personal freedom is definately good for people in a society to have. This is because even though it's a good thing to be able to keep everyone in the society under control, if the people don't have enough personal freedom, they are going to be mad and start to deviate. Overall, there needs to be a balance between order and personal freedom in a society to for it to consist of pleased and happy people.
Going to Chinatown this week isn't really new to me due to the fact that my grandmother goes there basically every weekend. I probably associate merchants that need things sold to be at this part of town. When i go to Chinatown, I usually see people just set up stands anywhere they want and start selling what they want. Sometimes when your walking around Chinatown, you don't really know what to expect. You may see a homeless person sitting around. You may smell things that you may never want to smell again in your lifetime. I know i feel that way about some smells. Basically, Chinatown is a very friendly environment, where you can get different types of cuisine for a low price, at good quality too. I believe that almost every major city has a Chinatown because instead of going to China to see things that are out of the ordinary, you can just go to Chinatown and see it in the city you are in. You will see many unique and exciting things in Chinatown, whether you are expecting it or not.
Chinatown is one of my favorite places on the island. I don’t go to this part of town very often, so it is quite a treat. Usually Chinatown’s cheap prices are enough to make up for some of the things I don’t like about this place. I often think of Chinatown as kind of dirty place, and when at the stores I sometimes question how high a priority hygiene is. Chinatown is also very loud from all the people talking and the cars trying to squeeze through the narrow streets without running over an old Chinese person. Most people there seem to know exactly what they came for. Most people don’t want to wander around looking for fun things to buy like I do, but know exactly what store they like to buy their char siu from.
When I go to Chinatown, I usually look for Chinese sweets and candy. I used to love this one sweet shop’s mochi rolls, but they recently closed down. The other place I went to also closed, so I no longer know anywhere I can buy all my favorite Chinese sweets from. I also love looking around the market for amusing toys I can buy. Most things are extremely cheap, so I can buy lots of things to clutter up my messy room.
Chinatown is a nice way for Chinese and Asian people to buy all sorts of ingredients for foods they love. They are also nice tourist attractions in many towns because of their low prices. I went to Chinatown in San Francisco and the main street was tourist attraction, but the side roads were all Chinese people who only spoke Chinese. I think this is a good way to encourage a variety of people to live in different cities.
I think people are prone to do bad things if there isn't the threat of punishment. I know that my parents tell me not to watch TV when their gone but I do it anyway because they aren't there to stop me and they won't be able to tell if I did anyway. Anyone will do something they aren't supposed to if they think the won't get caught or they know nothing bad is going to happen to them. I don't think order is the most important thing in a society. I think the people are the most important thing in a society. Not the rulers of the magistrates, but the common people, the guy you see working in on the farm every morning or the woman that opens her shop before dawn each day. Without the support of the people in your society you can try all you want to create an orderly civilization but it won't happen. The people need to trust and believe in their government before they will ever obey the laws and regulations it makes. Order in a society should never be the reason human freedom is lost. The biggest reason why countries have revolutions is because there is a large group of poor, oppressed people that don't have any rights. Taking away the personal freedoms of the people will only make them more unhappy and make them more disorderly. Having order in a society should never be at the cost of human freedom because if human freedom is lost the government will lose support of the people and the civilization will crumble.
Aromas smother me as soon as I enter, sweets, pork, and noodles—deep-fried in hot oil. Chicken, Ducks, Gao, floral scents fill my nose as I wander through the streets. Left and right, my vision sees shops—shops for everything; leis, clothes, accessories, and many more I can’t even remember right now. Just thinking about Chinatown I can hear people bustling about down the streets—speaking in Chinese or maybe even broken English, the sound of food frying in heavily oiled pans—sizzling, and cars as they try to drive through the busy streets. I picture heavily crowded streets, dirty shops, and cheap prices.
Chinatown is a great way to expand cultures, in San Francisco, there’s more than just Chinatown, there’s Japantown too. Areas such as Chinatown, in each city are a taste of the Chinese lifestyle that we don’t get to see. They give us a taste of their culture, just as we, Americans, give them a taste of our culture; even if they are manufacturing our products, they still get an idea of American lifestyle. Chinatown lets people, Asian or not, experience Chinese food, traditional clothing, traditional accessories, and did I mention the food? But all jokes aside, Chinatown is a really unique place, not just because of the food that they have but also the culture that you can see. Chinatown is a place where people can connect to their heritage; people get to learn something about another culture. Although, I think the food is a big reason why people go to Chinatown; that could just be my thinking.
--Kacie Young
Every Sunday, when my parents drag me to Costco with them, we always ride through Chinatown on our way home. I love watching people in the various small stores, trying to bargain for a better price. The smell of locally grown fruits mix with the smell of the ocean fish that were swimming no longer than two hours ago. The various cuts of meat, including duck, hang from the ceiling of stores and from the outside as well. They almost serve as decorations, lighting up and attracting attention to the areas where paper lanterns don’t. I also associate our Chinatown with bananas. Whenever we drive by, there is always this one store with a huge display of very yellow overripe black spotted bananas. Not once have I seen the banana display with a single green banana. I also associate our Chinatown with little pink packages of noodles tied with tan string because of a poem I read by a local poet who wrote a poem about Chinatown. In the poet’s poem, she talked about a trip to Chinatown with her grandmother to pick up a pink package of noodles. The author talked about being frightened of the hundreds of people shopping around Chinatown and how everything was unfamiliar to her until she saw the pink package of noodles. For some reason, whenever I hear the word “Chinatown” I think of that poem and noodles.
Chinatown is such an important neighborhood, found in nearly every major city, because Chinatown is rumored to have very exotic foods and medicines that, outside of Chinatown, can only be found in China itself. Also, Chinatown is rumored to be very cheap (one can thank the stereotype of Chinese people that states Chinese are cheap for that rumor). People are always looking for a good deal so a place like Chinatown is perfect for the bargain hunters. Major cities also have a Chinatown because it shows that the city is not only accepting of different countries and ethnic groups but also embracing the differences in various ethnicities. In other words, it shows that the city is diverse.
I think that the premise that people will do badly without the threat of punishment is true. Humans are selfish beings. Babies or small children will cry when they don’t get what they want. The idea of them getting what they want and being selfish; that is what a humans natural instinct is before anyone has taught them anything. So if we didn’t have any rules or structure in our lives, there would be major chaos. People would do whatever they could to help them and become on top. Sure, there may be a few people who are compassionate and caring but like I said, humans are a selfish species that probably would be reckless. These teaches us that unless you want to be punished again, I suggest you don’t do wrong again. Just like how a parent punishes a child, if the kid bites another kid then the parent may give that child a spanking and then the child gets the message.
Yes, order is most important in society. We may not notice, but many of us run on structure, schedule, and daily routines. All of our activities are based about our daily routines and schedules, and our structure is one that obeys the laws of the government. So if we had no laws to keep us in check, we would have no structure to our lives and we would either be reckless or so lost. Structure is a necessity for people. We live with it everyday, and without is society would go nuts.
Although I think that order is important, I do believe that it should be lenient enough for people to have some freedom. Personal freedom is also important so people can live they lives that they choose to live. This personal freedom just needs to be at a certain extent, which is why we have laws and order. So basically, I do believe that structure is a key role to our lives, but freedom is important so that we are all independent individuals. I don’t like the idea of how legalism is so strict it’s practically fascist. But I do believe the idea their idea of how without order and authority, humans would do bad things.
- Kayla
I don’t go to Chinatown very often. Sometimes I go there once every few months because my grandma goes there often. I think Chinatown is a very interesting place. Every time I go there, there are new and different shops to look at. When we go to Chinatown, I expect to see very many food stores and side stores located on the sidewalks. I think we will also many different kinds of foods never seen before, like different kinds of fruit and meat. Since part of my family is Chinese, I may recognize some of these foreign foods and items, but I anticipate to be exposed to different foods. I would expect to also see many unusual cultural foreign items. For example, we may see medical herbs. I think I will hear different Chinese languages, and not only English. Every time I go to Chinatown, there’s a distinct smell in all the meat and poultry shops. I don’t especially like the smell, but it is really different to what I’m used to smelling at Times or other supermarkets.
I think Chinatown is important because it brings in foods and culture from other foreign countries. Chinatown sort of ties China customs with United States customs, and exposes people to Chinese practices. It helps to give a better understanding of Chinese traditions. Also, some Chinese people who live in the United States still value Chinese products and foods. Different Chinese products allow the Chinese to have access to items not sold in regular supermarkets. It also seems that Chinatown may be a place of comforting place for Chinese. I think Chinatown could be a good place for Chinese people to come together, and share their culture with each other.
patrice
I don’t think that people are necessarily “prone to commit misdeeds”, but they are naturally selfish. The legalists take it a little far saying that people are inherently bad; we can be really self-centered, but people don’t just go around committing crimes for no reason. When people do commit misdeeds, such as stealing or killing, it’s probably because they have a problem they’re trying to solve. They just don’t make very good decisions about how to solve these problems, which is why the government has to have laws. These laws are trying to stop people from making bad decisions, but it doesn’t necessarily change anything about their being naturally bad.
Having order kind of allows personal freedom. If there was no order and everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted, no one would really get anything done. For a society to function, there has to be some kind of order. If you go with the assumption that people are naturally selfish, everyone will be just doing what’s best for them. Usually stuff has to get done by teamwork, but if everyone is only doing what will help themselves, with no rules, it isn’t likely they’ll help other people. A society with no rules would order would be pretty dysfunctional.
A society should not have strict enforcement with its people instead the people should be able to have freedom and do what they desire. This is a reason why I think legalism is wrong. Also Legalism goes to an extreme in punishment. You need some laws for order in a society. You also need some sort of punishment for people who break the laws. I also disagree with the fact that the overall picture of a society is all that matters. You don’t just have a society without any people. You create a good society first by having good people. All the individuals create a society. Also Legalism didn’t work out well in China. China’s economy is now growing but they used to be a very poor country. The Chinese government has been starting to give their people more freedom. I think a society works better when people make up their own creative decisions instead of other people telling them what they can or cannot do. I believe there should be a balance between enforcement and laws with freedom the people need to have.
Legalism is a system of government that is very strict on just the littlest crime assuming that people are going to commit a larger crime. The punishment given for smaller crimes is extremely intense so that it will scare people away form doing larger ones. This form of government shows that the government and leaders of that time had little faith in their people. I think that legalism is a bit over the top. Yes, people are compelled to be bad but not all people. Not all the people, who could very well have just made a little mistake or had a moment of weak judgment, are criminals. Those people are punished severally and unfairly in my opinion. I think that government should encourage not committing crimes through other means than pure fear of punishment. Civilians are not five-year olds afraid of a spanking, they’re adults who should have good morals integrated into their minds when they were younger. Not tortured into fear of committing crimes. I can understand how Legalism was needed after the Warring States’ Period when the people needed some sort of strong government but later on it wasn’t necessary. I think they should have enforced a more peaceful but more still strict form of government.
I disagree with the whole idea of Legalism. The idea of punishing people very harshly for even the most minute crimes seems like it may have an ok effect of crime in the community through fear, but seems to have some dangerous effects on other aspects of a country. People will do bad without the threat of punishment anyway. There will always be derelicts in society and there will never be a perfect community. The idea of Legalism is based on an almost utopian society that just doesn’t and never will exist. The whole idea of this perfect society makes me think that legalism was almost the forerunner of communism. Order is a very important part of society, and does keep many of the laws intact and prevents corruption, however order should not take priority over things like providing for the community. These things should take priority over anything as they keep your community thriving as an economic force, which I believe will have a positive effect on the crime rates of a community as well. If your people are happy, then they will be less inclined to commit crimes against the state. Theft and trespassing will be much less common because the good economy will give everyone in the society resources. I'm not saying that a good economy will eliminate crime, but it certainly can help to reduce it dramatically.
Because Legalism is based on the idea that humankind on general is prone to bad choices, one of the main concepts is that if people are made an example of for doing small things, it will discourage larger infractions from occurring. I actually don't agree with the idea that people are inherently bad, so it's a bit difficult for me to agree with the other parts of legalism. I think that in general people will do whats right, and if they don't it probably has more to do with their upbringing and surroundings than just their nature. I think that the question of order in society vs. respecting the personal freedoms of individuals is kind of a loaded one. From one side, you don't want the government in on your every move. You don't want to need permission for everything, even small things. From the other side, it's better to be safe than sorry, and from the point of view of someone running a country, they'd rather lose one life than multiple lives, I'm sure.
I think that in the case of legalism, a more effective way of dealing with criminals would not be using the threat of harsh punishments to cow people into doing what you want, but maybe starting with education of all people, helping to teach them better morals and how to make better choices. In other words, taking more of a preventive stance, rather than a disciplinary one.
-Emily
When I think of Chinatown I think of Chinese candy, dim sum, and auditions. These are pretty much the only reasons I ever go into Chinatown as my mom doesn’t really care for it. Every Chinese New Year’s we make our annual trip down to the same little shop to buy all the Chinese candy we could ever want. We then usually make our way over to Golden Palace where we get dollar dim sum. At this point, unless we have some other reason to be there, we usually get in our car and leave. Other days we go to Chinatown with a completely different mission. I act and the top casting agency on the island is located in Chinatown. About once every couple months I get a call to head over to Anna Fishburn Casting and audition for a part in whatever they are casting this time. But as soon as I leave the office we just get in our car and leave once again. My mom has somewhat of a phobia of Chinatown. She was a drug and alcohol counselor before and knows more about the bad part of Chinatown than she cares to. I wish we went more often to that noisy, chaotic place. I like the fast pace of it and how there is always so much to look at. I love the quirky shops that all sell the same things but all try to convince you theirs are the best. I wish I went to Chinatown more because I find it to be probably the most exciting, eclectic parts of the island.
I’m honestly not sure what makes Chinatown so important that one is in every major city. I think it’s just that, unlike most cities, it has history and it has color. Chinatown gives you a short glimpse into another place and I think many people enjoy that experience. It serves and a place of multiculturalism where different races intermingle and learn more about each other. In addition, people can find good Chinese food and products at reasonable prices. It makes for a great tourist attraction, which would explain why one is in every major city. Chinatown is a place that people can go for a fun outing and a new experience.
Legalism is a very complex idea that people are born without an idea of what is right and wrong, and can’t make good decisions on their own. It is also the idea that without guidance and punishment, people do bad things. This idea includes the government stepping in with strict punishments and laws so that people are guided in the right direction through example. I agree that the basic idea that people do not automatically know what is good and bad, although I do not agree with the idea of the government being so involved in people’s lives that it becomes hated by the people. I think that having punishment for people is good to a certain limit. Too much punishment will just lead the people into a hate mob and leave them angry. This will make them wanting to do bad things and then they will have ironically done the opposite of what was wanted in the first place.
This leads to the discussion of whether personal freedom is more important than order. I think that if that is a question that needs to be answered, the law has gone too far. I think that people have the right to do whatever they want, except that knowing that it will result in a bad outcome will usually stop what they wanted to do. This relates back to what I was talking about earlier with the idea of people doing bad things with the threat of punishment.
Georgia Kelliher
When I think of Chinatown I think of strange Asian foods and interesting jade jewelry. I haven’t been there since I was in elementary school but things such as these seem to remind me of Chinatown. Sounds like honking, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages, and bike bells ringing all remind me of being in Chinatown. Stores full of Asian foods like bakeries and restaurants that serve pigs feet and chicken legs, jewelry and clothes along with herbal medicine stores all come to my mind and activities like the new years dragon. Chinatown is an important neighborhood because it is like taking a whole continent and putting it in a few blocks. Chinatown has almost everything you would find in Asian continents but in a tight package. It’s interesting, different and attracts tourists. Because so much of the world is Asian it makes sense that almost every major city would have a China town of its own. It’s a place that people form Asia can go to to buy their groceries like they would in Asia. Chinatown is a unique and exciting place that is an experience all on its own.
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