Tom Carter's Unsavory Elements: On the Loose in The People’s Republic of China

In Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets,” setting unfolds an important aspect of the story by positioning a ‘where’ and ‘when.’ Throughout the story, June May struggles with her internal conflict of resisting her Chinese culture. However, she begins to release this resistance as she ventures through China. The setting perpetuates the theme through the usage of transportation, the significance of the color gray amongst colors, and June May’s transition into a Chinese-American. As reflected by the setting and external places visited in “A Pair of Tickets,” June May’s interior state becomes more Chinese as she explores her native country.

Bob Fu conveys clearly the inexorable control that Communist leaders in China have over their people. For example, after Fu and his friends participated in the Tiananmen Square protests, Fu was coerced, day in day out, to write a confession of his purported misdeeds against China and her people as a “counterrevolutionary” (79-82, 85, 87).

When Jan Wong first arrived in China, she was filled with the complete belief that China’s totalitarianism way of government was the best way of governing, and that no other way would do. While natives smiled behind false expressions, she failed to realize the true extent of the miserable lives under the Maoist regime until she herself experienced the injustices faced by the Chinese citizens. In Red China Blues, author Jan Wong writes of her experiences during her life in China and after, and how her whole journey led to the realization of the harsh reality that Maoism really was. As Wong learned more and more about the truth behind the totalitarian government, her own experiences helped her to transform

These two tragic deaths, both filled with dramatic irony, reveal Zhang Yimou’s critique of communist collectivist culture and the class structure and power in revolutionary China. Communist collectivist culture may produce benefits such as communal kitchens and giving poor townspeople a sense of hope. However, the class antagonisms between revolutionaries and counterrevolutions produces an environment where no one challenges authority and where blind patriotism sometimes morphs into hysteria like

Fears of polluted air and water, and the extinction of wildlife species due to contamination have overtaken the western world. In an excerpt, titled “The Filth They Breathe in China,” taken from American historian, Michael Auslin’s book, the author focuses on the nation where, due to its rapid industrial growth, these effects of pollution are most prominent, China. In his article, Auslin, uses anecdotes, uses strong diction, and uses appeals to logic and credibility in order to capture the enormity of China’s pollution problem.

This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

The Sun of the Revolution by Liang Heng, is intriguing and vivid, and gives us a complex and compelling perspective on Chines culture during a confusing time period. We get the opportunity to learn the story of a young man with a promising future, but an unpleasant childhood. Liang Heng was exposed to every aspect of the Cultural Revolution in China, and shares his experiences with us, since the book is written from Liang perspective, we do not have a biased opinion from an elite member in the Chinese society nor the poor we get an honest opinion from the People’s Republic of China. Liang only had the fortunate opportunity of expressing these events due his relationship with his wife, An American woman whom helps him write the book. When

“The Party: The Secret World Of China’s Communist Rulers,” by Richard McGregor is a book which provides detailed insight into the Communist Party of China, revealing many of the secret underpinnings of how the party is run, and explores the question of how they have continued to stay in power for so long. While other strong socialist powers, such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany, fell at the end of the 20th century, the CPC was able to stay in control and ultimately come out of that period even stronger. In McGregor’s own words “the party picked itself up off the ground, reconstituted its armor and reinforced its flank. Somehow, it has outlasted, outsmarted, outperformed, or simply outlawed its critics, flummoxing the pundits who have predicted its demise at numerous junctures.” Instead of letting its own ideologies weaken its power, the CPC has continually adapted and transformed its policies and goals in order to maintain their stronghold over the nation. Through his impressive list of Chinese scholars and political contacts, McGregor is able to lay out the fundamental workings inside the Chinese government and the impressive actions they’ve taken to remain such a powerful organization.

The Gang of One, by Fan Shen, is an extraordinary narrative of perseverance and dedication through one man’s fight against a hugely oppressive system with the power to break and kill men. This first-person account centers around Fan Shen, a Red Guard on the front lines of the Cultural Revolution. Fan quickly realizes the randomness and lawlessness of the violence gripping China, leading him to doubt in the stability of the communist regime. This endeavored Fan to improve his lot in life by using, manipulating and, in the latter part of the book, fighting the Communist Party. Fan was born into a family of revolutionaries, his grandfather and granduncle fighting “against the Qing and the foreign devils, (during the Boxer rebellion)” and his parents fighting against the Japanese during the Second World war and later the Nationalists during China’s brutal civil war.

A Touch of Sin is not simply an action-based film documenting modern day exploitation, but an angry, violent, satirical representation of what Jia Zhangke clearly sees as a “wasteland” in China. A Touch of Sin is Jia Zhangke’s attempt to present China as a globalized economic power suffering due to the new and aggressive Cultural Revolution of consumerism and money worshipping. Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin is a pessimistic, but truthful, representation of the social and human price of a ‘successful’ economic reform. Jia’s film tells the audience the world is not a pretty place, and the modern Chinese world requires more than “a touch of sin” to survive.

Within these four pages, Carter uses their sexual encounter to explore patriotic views on men through the characteristics of the Marquis and his treatment of the girl. This encounter foreshadows the outcome of

I soon began to work with Quentin Young more to get ready for the expedition. Respect grew between us during the long days of collaboration. Young conjured a chinese name for me. It was “Ha Gansi” which is translated as “ laughing with courageous thoughts”. China has given me piece of mind that I have never had before, and a calmness that is a great relief. I began to worry about how we were going to keep the panda alive, etc. so I began to think that a baby panda instead of an adult was a good solution. Though, it would be hard enough to find a panda, a baby panda would be impossible to find. “I was told that Western China was no place for a lone white women- especially a woman with no experience in business or traveling. I did not believe it. I was also warned of the present possibility of running into bandits in the interior of Szechwan and reminded that Bill had been compelled to run back. I had done too much to admit defeat before I started.” I soon began to discard my Western ways. My American clothes were left behind in Shanghai. My Shanghai tailor fashioned for me loose-cut, boxy jackets and matching trousers made out of blue cloth and coolies wore. I was hoping to forget all things Western and absorb all things Chinese. Just miles out of Chengdu there were reports of bandits in the area. We came across a man sprawled on the road next to an open field and pierced with bullets. This was a freshly murdered body of one of the

A survey of Shanghai’s nightlife demonstrates a sociological dichotomy, both in economic and social hierarchical aspects. In recent decades of progressive economic and social change in China, social inequality and class division have deepened in the rise of the sex industry, primarily prostitution. Among the fastest-growing industries in modern China, from the world of electronics to global exports of technology, prostitution is among China’s thriving economic industries. An observant 10-minute walk through any Chinese city guarantees an encounter of China’s active sex trade in some subtle disguise. Prostitutes in China are employed in even state owned hotels, they walk the streets, and service in clubs, bars, massage parlors, sauna houses, barber shops, beauty salons, and even buzzing karaoke buildings.

I was a naughty kid 15 years ago: almost every night, my grandmother tried her best to tuck me into bed, and still I refused to sleep. The only way she could make me obedient was to read books to me. At first, she read fairytales like Snow White; those did not really interest me much. She then started to read Chinese traditional historical tales to me. It was then that I became fascinated by Chinese culture and knew I would like to know more about China’s history.