Reflections on events in China

Gabbie: i think that the great wall of China means a lot to China as many people died building that wall to protect their country from foreigners  and war and this is something very admirable as they are able to build such a long wall just by human and no technology. In the past, China probably had a lot of unexpected wars and so they built this as to defend themselves and it can also serve as a offence strategy. I think that they are quite smart to think of this idea and the wall is quite lasting as it has been a few hundred years and the wall is still standing and has become a tourism attraction, this shows that they want to protect their country as they love their country a lot so we should learn from them and start doing things to help our country, even a small action would become a bigger action in the future.

Yi Xiang: The picture I chose was the Great Wall of china. It means hard work, the effort put in by the peasants who built the Great Wall of china, blood, lives of people that are lost when building the Great Wall of china. It also means peace. China build the Great Wall to defend themselves from enemies that are intruding china. Due to the Great Wall, there is hardly and war due to the strong structure. The Great Wall brought peace to the villagers. i can infer that their belief system was that the sacrifice of lives was okay as long as more people benefit than the loss of lives. From this I can learn that it's okay to sacrifice some stuff for the things we love more.

Petra: I chose the picture of the Great Wall of China. It represents hard work, blood sweat and the lives of those who were building the great wall. What it means to me is an amazing structure that was build with man's own hands and is true-ly magnificent as the wall is so long and so strong and it was not built with any construction cranes etc. Also it is precious to me as our ancestors might have died building that wall. To china, it was a defence against their enemies in the past and now it is a tourist site. Also it contains the blood and sweat of those who had to go through tremendous hard work to build the wall thus is also a structure that brings us back to the past makes us remember those who helped build the wall. I infer that their belief system is that it is okay to sacrifice many lives for a cause. I think we can learn to be hardworking like those who helped build the bridge as i am sure they had put in alot of effort since the bridge is so strong.

                              

Jean: This picture actually shows policemen extinguishing a man, after he set himself on fire at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The man conducted this self immolation act (setting oneself to fire as a form of protest) near the portrait of Mao Zedong and policemen put out the blazing man in about ten seconds.

Tiananmen Square holds a lot of historical importance since it is the place where Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China in 1949 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcol3SJ6ww and it has been regarded as the most politically sensitive location in the country, ever since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, in which declared for Martial law (imposition of military power over designated regions on an emergency basis) and resulted in the death of estimated a few hundreds to the thousands. I think that since Mao Zedong is a very respected man and also being regarded as the father of the People’s Republic of China, what the man demonstrated, and of course where the man demonstrated this act of self immolution (he had set himself ablaze near the portrait of Mao Zedong + in Tiananmen Square) was considered disrespectful to China. I am quite shocked, the fact that according to a British tourist, many people in the square did not do anything when the man set himself on fire. This incident was also not reported in any Chinese state media, thus not a lot of people know about it. I think that it is probably because of China’s belief in communism and such acts cannot be tolerated as it is a form of protest. We can learn that we must obey the system of any government as you might not know what the consequences may be like.

Kai Ming: I chose the picture of the bird nest structured stadium built for the 2012 Olympics held in Beijing. There really isn't a point of placing the picture here everyone can get it by googling "Olympics Beijing bird". Olympics is an event held once every four years and is prestigious as one can get because every country gets athletes to take part in it. Beijing was given the opportunity of hosting the 2012 Olympic and because of that, they specially built the bird nest looking stadium. Since the Olympic is broadcasted on the television throughout the world, the stadium is also hence, known through out the world. Thus making the stadium a landmark of Beijing and China. To me, it represents how proud Beijing is about the Olympics and how much work they would put in for it. To me, it shows a bit of modern and olden architecture. The bird nest design must have been inspired by a bird's nest which is an olden type of tonic. The metal and great design showed that they still wanted a modern and cool design. Now this stadium is known world wide and is something china is proud of.