The trip was just another field trip to me because we didn’t know or have experienced living on other side of the DMZ. But for Haejung and the other teenage defectors, their tears were tears of worry about their family’s well-being. I felt an emotional surge when the teenage defectors prayed at the DMZ, hoping that reunification can happen soon enough to see their parents and siblings before they die. I see my parents and brother everyday, even at times when I want to avoid them. I took them for granted, but I realized I shouldn’t. Also, I thought Haejung was very, very brave in showing her face in the video. Even though her face has changed so much that North Korean authorities cannot recognize her, there are possibilites of death threats for this North Korean defector during a time of intense North Korea-South Korea relationship. The video helped me gain a modern perspective to the separation of the two Koreas because previously, I read books like “Aquariums of Pyongyang” and “Still Life with Rice” which reflected 1950/1960′s North Korea.

Pop Art gained popularity in the U.S. in the late 1950s. A major pop artist, Andy Warhol made paintings of iconic American products like Campbell soup and of iconic American celebrities like Marilyn Monroe. Thus, he combined visual art and commercial art.

 

Jackson Pollock thought that the journey toward making a work of art was as important as the work of art itself. Thus, Pollock moved away from traditional easel painting and dripped paint and other materials from all four sides of the canvas.

A famous Korean video artist, Nam Jun Baik constructed many different things from a robot to a turtle ship (in the photo) out of real TVs.

Eiffel Tower was at first met with much criticism and skepticism because critics thought the tower didn't match the city plan of Paris. However, it is now one of the biggest tourist attaction in France.

Mark Twain

William Faulkner

The author of NYT’s article on All the Pretty Horses compares McCarthy to Faulkner and Twain for their distinctive writing styles. McCarthy’s prose style effectively uses a series of run-on sentences for elaborate descriptions of vast landscapes, kind of like Faulkner’s stream-of-consciousness technique. His lack of use of quotation marks and apostrophies in dialogue helps the reader to follow a stream of conversation, just like in a real life conversation.

2. How does McCarthy treat human characters in his story as opposed to landscape and animals like horses?

In his sleep he could hear the horses stepping among the rocks and he could hear them drink from the shallow pools in the dark where the rocks lay smooth and rectilinear as the stones of ancient ruins and the water from their muzzles dripped and rang like water dripping in a well and in his sleep he dreamt of horses and the horses in his dream moved gravely among the tilted stones like horses come upon an antique site where some ordering of the world had failed and if anything had been written on the stones the weathers had taken it away again and the horses were wary and moved with great circumspection carrying in their blood as they did the recollection of this and other places where horses once had been and would be again. Finally what he saw in his dream was that the order in the horse’s heart was more durable for it was written in a place where no rain could erase it.

Interestingly, McCarthy treats landscape and animals, especially horses, as central to his fiction, whereas human and human thought alone are more secondary. A small excerpt from All the Pretty Horses presented in the article shows that even while sleeping, John Grady Cole thinks about the horse’s every little movement and not much about the character’s thoughts are discussed. Throughout the novel, there are extensive descriptions about nature around John Grady, and to begin with, John Grady would lose meaning in life without horses. McCarthy emphasizes the interaction between the environment, animals and humans, not just between humans.

3. What type of dialogue does the article state McCarthy uses?
As mentioned above, McCarthy mainly uses realistic dialogue. To portray the carelessly succinct and rustic conversations of Southerners, McCarthy uses short, coming and going dialogue, commonly using words like “aint” and “yessir.” The article doesn’t extensively talk about the McCarthy’s dialogue style.

4. What is notable about his diction (word choice)?
McCarthy is creative and eclectic in that he draws his diction and phrasing from all over the evolutionary history of English. Some words he chose are  so strange and unheard of today that they seem like new words. According to the article, All the Pretty Horses is one of the more approachable of his books because of his less archaic word choice. He occasionally uses Spanish dialect, which the reader may not understand, but add to the meaning and the reality of the text.

Click here to see the post.

I think it is almost impossible to live disconnected from all media, but if I tried, I would have to stop going on Facebook, search for information in my textbooks and other books and eat dinner silently without TV. I would also have to restrict my conversations with friends to my cellular phone and hear about the latest news about celebrities and global issues from my friends a day later. There are probably a dozen more things I have to change in order to live without media. If I were unplugged from the Internet for a day, it wouldn’t be such a big deal because once in a while, I can’t be bothered to go online, but if I didn’t watch TV for a day, I would be a little anxious for missing out on the TV shows I watch on a daily basis. If I were disconnected from both TV and Internet for a week, I would have major problems in keeping in touch with my friends and become outdated. MSN messenger has become a significant way in which I establish and maintain my relationship with friends and upper/underclassmen. Often times, I feel obliged to go on MSN messenger to get closer to someone overseas that if I had to go without Internet for  a month, I would become frustrated and literally crazy.  

#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?

It depends on how much homework assignments I have, but I spend at least an hour on Facebook and another two hours on MSN messenger. The benefits are befriending new people, for example, people who you will be attending college with for the next four years. Through Columbia facebook groups, I added around twenty new “friends,” including Class of ’13ers and current Columbia freshmen. It’s a good experience to learn about people outside my immediate circle because all along, I was insecure about meeting new people, especially in a whole new environment next fall. Another benefit is learning about what happens around the school. I am not the most well-rounded person and it might sound stalker-ish, but I get to know about new facts about people and their relationships. There are obvious disadvantages that make me question whether I should still be an avid fan of Facebook and MSN messenger. For one thing, I spend too much time (today, 4 hours) on both that they take away hours from my sleeping time. For another, reality and virtual friendships are totally different things because of the fact that I can’t see my friend’s facial expression when I talk, a crucial way of checking out their reaction. Online, for the surplus of emoticons, ’lols’ and punctuation marks, I can’t tell whether they are really laughing or just hitting “hahaha” because they have nothing else to say.

#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?

 I see a lot of both on Facebook and social networking sites such as www.naver.com and www.daum.net , which have many editorials displayed on the front page. I am not always aware when I read editorials, but I think almost all articles have been written to promote a new Korean boy band, a new cafe at Apgujeong or just about anything. These days, quite a few articles reveal new celebrity couples, which contrasts with the Korean celebrity tradition of hiding their relationships for the fear of losing fans. However, I read somewhere that entertainment companies release these news articles on purpose to make their celebrities more famous and strongly engraved in people’s minds. More direct form of marketing is found on Facebook. On the right hand side, there is a humble logo with a few sentences that advertises “shop at Ralph Lauren,” “become a fan of Park Tae Hwan” or “10 in April.” I don’t see the consistency in what these advertisements try to sell (a product or an idea?), but this subtle but always-there marketing  is pretty powerful because I am always on Facebook.

#4 Personal response based on your individual viewing of “Growing Up Online”.

My parents have scolded me about being on the computer for longer than I need to, but they have never put my computer in the family room or put a lock on the computer like the parents of kids on “Growing Up Online.” It was quite a culture shock because none of my friends’ conservative parents would go to such measures. Thus, Korean kids my brother’s age tend to waste time playing Starcraft, Bnb or other online games, but that’s only for a while, and it’s only a phase. Kids would quit when they realize they have better things to do, such as doing their homework assignment. I think kids should learn how to control themselves and their use of the Internet because they will find deceptive ways to get around their parents’ eyes if their parents allow only so much, and this makes them more curious. On the flip side, I have tried to control myself by turning off the monitor when I am doing homework or turning off the computer when I have many things due the next day.

Gruber's, Princeton Review, Barrons, REA... the list is endless

Really, the first thing I thought when I finished both articles is: “What is happening?!” Integrity and some sense of guilt have flown out the window, and hagwons have become Korean students’ first home. I have heard from boarding school friends shipped off to New Jersey SAT hagwons for Thanksgiving. I was used to seeing pictures of SIS alumni (Class of 2007, 2008) partying and enjoying their time on holidays that when I first read the Hagwon article, it brought me back into perspective.

I think “Hagwon in U.S. Cash in on Korean Undergrads” really discusses what should’ve been in the “44% of Korean Ivy League Students Quit” article. As vague as the standards were for Dr. Kim’s statistics, the reason why almost half of the Korean Ivy League Students dropped out was not very convincing and specific.

Kim said in the thesis that such a high dropout rate is largely attributable to Korean parents forcing their children to study rather than participate in extracurricular activities, an essential part of overseas education for foreign students to acclimate themselves to American society and get a good job in the long run.

Ready for the game?

I guess immersing in school spirit and attending sports events are a huge chunk of college life. However, considering how they are academically driven, extracurricular wouldn’t have been a huge factor in their decisions. Rather, academic rigor and expectations for high grades (and not getting their A’s) would’ve determined this radical decision to drop out of college. It is a disgrace, for both the family and the individual, if he/she quits college in the States as U.S. education is a hot topic among gossiping mothers and news really spreads fast. I’ve seen college students come back to Korea for awhile as exchange students to Korean universities, and numerous rumors spread about him/her that you hear some ridiculous stories. My point is, that these students put so much at risk to drop out. We can really imagine what they are going through, and they can’t go through it by themselves.

I’ve always been skeptical of students who resort to hagwon too much. But now that I think of it, they just don’t know how to study by themselves. I don’t think you learn anything at hagwon, especially at SAT hagwon. They say they teach you skills, but those skills never worked for me. In fact, they messed up my June exam so miserably that I went back to doing it my way. On the flip side, going to hagwon for some help on things you really can’t understand by yourself is the way Koreans should take advantage of hagwon. There is nothing wrong with that because it is only getting some extra help, not learning or pre-learning(?) material that you should learn at school.

Class of 2013!

Friday was a big surprise for me. Wow- Columbia. Honestly, right when I saw the decision, I realized that SATs didn’t mean as much as I thought. No, I am not one of those uber-exclusive 2250-2400ers (as College Confidential members, ”CC’s,” like to call themselves). I am a bad test taker, and I read very slowly because I eye each word with much care. Since long ago, I knew SATs weren’t my thing. My SAT II’s were very successful because it was relevant to our school material, and I studied hard in school. As for memorizing thousands and thousands of SAT vocabs, I am proud that I made at least a hundred of them mine. Well, the downside is that I couldn’t get through the entire Word Smart I and II in time. I’d say, quality over quantity.

Wow, all I can see are those bolded blue 800's.

As my mother put it, I proved that SATs were just numbers and did not make the rest of my efforts go to waste. All the Korean hagwons persuade parents that 2400 is a must for an Ivy Leaguer, and I, too, at some point, thought that if I didn’t get 2250+, I shouldn’t even apply to my dream school. Yesterday, I was talking to a senior from last year, and he told me that at about nine admissions officers review individuals’ applications, and that it wasn’t sheer luck I got in. I believe him because there are so many factors to admissions that students should be so burdened by SATs.

Now that I actually got into the college of my dream, I am starting to worry about college life, itself. I thought all problems would be resolved if I finish my apps (I still had 6 ish to go). As writing essays is my weakest point, I’ll have to work on it during the second semester. Honestly, through the application process, I improved a lot at letting myself out, and allowing all the rules and grammars to fly out the window because they were holding me back. I had to reread a sentence, delete it, rewrite and continue this, that writing was such a torture. I wanted to be a perfectionist and get it right the first time. But I knew that was impossible. Now, even writing blog posts is a lot easier because I can go back later and make all the corrections. And, I will read LOTS and LOTS of books this coming semesters, as I am less anxious about school grades, and don’t have any apps to worry about. The next half of the year would be a time for self-improvement!

Looking over a friend's shoulder isn't the only way to cheat. Methods of cheating have evolved so much since when our parents were in school.

(second reply to post #18)

At least once in their lives, everyone has lied or cheated (not sure about stealing), but what a recent article American teens lie, steal, cheat at ‘alarming’ rates: study concerns is a lack of conscience.

“Despite these high levels of dishonesty, these same kids have a high self-image when it comes to ethics.”

At first, the article was a big blow in my face because all along, I thought cheating was an issue exclusive to Korean students. I remember that the 2007 January SAT’s scores were canceled after the investigation was done and some students had clearly taken advantage of unreleased test material. I was only a junior then, so the incident didn’t affect me. Nevertheless, it was a huge shock.

I wish the article gives us more detailed information about who were surveyed, not merely the numbers. Whether students go to a private religious school or a public non-religious school doesn’t really define them and their morals because most of the students don’t go to religious schools by choice. Usually, their religion is their family’s religion. However, if the article gave information about the specific races, economic class or where they live, as much as it would be controversial, the author wouldn’t have to make a big generalization. The United States is not completely a melting pot, and cultural differences are still distinguishable. Putting these statistics in perspective, we will be able to know more accurately if this upward trend suggest that teenagers today are becoming senseless, or another reason more relevant to a certain culture or economic group.

Lying like a pinocchio; please don't lose your integrity!

1) Why do you think Miranda Hong describes her generation of Chinese as “confused?”
Her generation of Chinese is culturally “confused” because they struggle between traditional Chinese beliefs, especially about women, and newfound values in modern day China. Wei Zhangyan left her rural home for the city where she can be a poor, yet independent and free, woman. In a sense, she is being non-traditional by working somewhere that is not the farming fields. She works eleven hours a day and has to meet the quota of 600 wires per hour, which is tiring, but she is still happy to have her own space. However, Wei Zhangyan is tied by an arranged engagement back at home, which shows that Chinese traditions haven’t received the changes in its culture yet. Wei Zhangyan is confused about what she should do, but she breaks it off with Sheng Xiabang and dates her true loved one. Similarly, Jing Jing questions the moral standards in China, if any, as she refers to the saying—men aren’t considered successful unless they hold multiple women in their possession. Socially and economically successful women like Jing Jing and Miranda Hong are confused and trapped in the cultural restraints of modern day China, which still upholds male superiority. In a different context, Lu Dong regards bribery as immoral by his American standards and points out Chinese people’s insensitivity to corruption. Nevertheless, he knows that he needs bribery to get what he wants in China and compromises his moral standards with bribery for profit. To make up for this, he became a Christian and reads the Bible to filter corruption. Turmoil almost always accompanies transition, and Miranda Hong’s generation is just undergoing a big change.

If the water isn’t clear, you have to get used to it.

3) In what ways do you think Ben Wu, the entrepreneur launching the Internet café, is representative of the “new” China?
Not only is he leaping into a new area of business, Ben Wu actually puts his business school education from New York into practice through the Internet café and works with American investors. He is representative of the “new” China in that he is creative, influenced by the western culture (Internet and café are both very western) and willing to take risks, which may lead to success in fields that haven’t been found yet. As we saw in the film, the Internet café was an instant success, fully booked on the weekends, and Ben plans on building his second Internet café. There won’t be a “new” China without entrepreneurial spirit. Ben’s Internet café is just a small part of what he wants to accomplish—solar panels. A “new” and improved China wouldn’t exist without some serious environmental concern because being eco-friendly is not one of the top concerns of many Chinese people. Like Lu Dong, the collar-shirt manufacturer, Ben struggles between corruption and his moral dilemma, saying that “If the water isn’t clear, you have to get used to it.” The fact that he has such conflict and confusion represents him as “new” China because most Chinese think of bribery as normal and perfectly fine (referred to in the film).

7) To what extent are the struggles of the rapper, Wang Xiaolei, unique as a Chinese artist? Do you think that his life is typical of artists elsewhere. Explain your position.
The very first thing Wang Xiaolei said was— if you have not money, people look down on you, which seemed to fuel his motives in being a rapper and owning a record studio. He is poor and lives in a ramshackle, shedlike house, in stark contrast with his black hiphop outfit, and Xiaolei seeks escape in music. I don’t think his struggles are unique experiences because looking down on the poor is a universal attitude, which is why you find most African American rappers and hiphop artists coming from humble settings. Also, I believe that many African American rappers would have had their heart broken because their girlfriends fled with their money. However, his identity as a Chinese and a rapper is unique in that he merges both identities together. A Chinese rapper inspired by the African American culture, he has bling bling necklace hanging down his neck and a baggy, black fashion, but also some Chinese character tattoos of a Chinese goddess’s name. He thinks tattoos in Chinese characters are cool. Wang Xiaolei can appreciate and fuse both cultures. Also, he adopts ‘discontented youth’ in Chinese terms and centers his lyrics around economy, tailored to the Chinese thought process and culture because money is the absolute standard of happiness.

The Warrior

The entire world was quite crazy about his martial arts in the 70's.

The wire action from the Matrix series is totally different from the one in "House of Flying Daggers." They're interesting in their own ways.

As we have seen from the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The House of Flying Daggers, some main elements of “the warrior tradition” are wire action, riding up walls and slashing the opponent’s throat with a silvery, shining dagger. We also see a lot of cartwheels and use of pressure points to paralyze the opponents. Nevertheless, the most distinguishing characteristic of Asian, especially Chinese, “warrior tradition” is that movements represent a form of art, which might be why we call it martial ‘arts’. Chinese fighters always involve certain poses that visually represent their chi and force their spirit on the opponents. It’s interesting how in western (mostly European) history, the victor is the one who slashes the other’s neck and puts the head on a stake first. This uniqueness in Chinese martial arts makes it even more elegant and subtle.

While captivated by the intense cling clang of the swords and fast-as-a-cheetah movements of the warriors, I usually didn’t take notice of the grand nature beyond the ‘petty’ fight (relatively insignificant). This time, however, I did pay attention and noticed a full moon (associated with good luck on Lunar New Year), tall bamboo trees and tall lush green-leaved trees, as well as, wide open vast of land and deserts. Also, I found it interesting that a lot of the time, fights between two warriors occurred at night, while large-scale battles happened during daytime.

It's isn't very common to see a man and a woman fighting side by side.

Gender roles are a rather unique aspect to martial arts because in western history, women weren’t even on the battlefield (perhaps, because of the bulky, floor-length dresses weighed them down). But in the Crouching Tigers, women are trained to be assassins and spies. In one of the fighting scenes on the open field, Jade Fox uses a rope trap to tie up one of the two men even before they had time to strike her. As her name “fox” suggests, she devises sneaky, deceptive plans to win. Many male fighters place their hands behind while they fight with such ease. I remember a scene when the master’s student stabs Jade Fox in her breast and smirks. He condescendingly looks down at her, in confidence that he has proved his male, masculine superiority to her. While most of the fights/battles suggests that male are physically more powerful and in control, I found it interesting that Fox’s disciple (forgot her name) named herself the Invincible Sword Goddess. The word “goddess” brings her to a totally different level, and definitely above mankind. Goddesses are invincible!

Apart from what I mentioned above, I also realized that very, very few people were killed, and warriors rarely use their swords. When they do, they never stab each other. The swords aren’t used to kill people, rather to show one’s martial arts movements and skills, again emphasizing the fact it is a form of art. In China, shame of a loss is much greater than a loss life, at least for the warriors and warrior tradition.

It’s a clip from Kung Fu Panda. Although this movie wasn’t produced by Disney, it contains some misleading characters that belittle the Chinese warrior tradition. Pandas symbolize luck and wealth in China, not some sloppy, sluggish character with a bulging belly. The prospect of a silly fat panda landing in the middle of a contest to find “the warrior” and being chosen as the one to save the entire village from the evil, powerful Tai Lung was a little strange. This movie might give a false impression that Kung Fu and warrior tradition can be mastered by anyone. I mean, in the end, the panda does rescue the village because it is not too serious and maintains a level of humor. Nevertheless, I will admit it was one funny movie, poking fun at the panda “warrior.”

Maxine Hong Kingston poses like a shy little girl in the photo.

I remember the first time Mr. Jones warned us about the book, how difficult it is to read Woman Warrior because of the lucid, thin boundary between memoir and fiction. Pages 15 and 45 show the transition more obviously with a visual break, but the rest of the book drifts in a continuous flow of unconsciousness. From the first chapter, and especially the first chapter, I see many transitions from memoir to fiction and from Kingston to her mother, and vice versa. Kingston suggests possible ways through which her no-name aunt got pregnant, mixing a bit of her own imagination with her mother’s talkstories. “It was probably a girl,” Kingston also ends the story with a speculation. Despite the lack of information provided by her mother’s talkstories, Kingston is able to make fifteen pages out of her aunt’s story because much of the details (vivid details of her aunt’s hardened breast and the baby in the well) were created by her. If she were purely Chinese, born and raised in China, Kingston’s imagination wouldn’t have added much meaning and perspective to her aunt’s story. Things like “Daughters-in-law lived with their husbands’ parents, not their own” would have been obvious and common sense to her that it was not worth mentioning (pg 7). But she sees the apparent discrepancy between the Chinese culture and the culture she was brought up in, which is why she discusses Chinese-feminine and American-feminine on page 11. In Chapter 2, the most noteworthy example of Kingston’s unique style is when she suddenly drifts into the deep mountains, which is the beginning of Fa Mulan’s lengendary talkstory. In class discussion, I remember that some classmates missed this transition and thought the story was about Kingston (in her imagaination, of course).

For the most part, I can’t appreciate or love her style of writing because it is confusing for no reason. Putting spaces between different voices and pov’s doesn’t take anything away from her liberal voice. While I celebrate her unusual mix of fiction and memoir, I think the book can have more format.