Day 2: Religion in China

In the morning we had a presenter, Mr. Liu, come and speak to us about the Chinese government and freedom of religion in China. Mr. Liu is a devout Catholic whose from China and he shared a lot of valuable and interesting insight in the cultural regards of religion (specifically Christianity and Catholicism) in China. He also told us about the Human rights activism being done in China and some well known Chinese activists. He emphasized the importance of us as the next generation to learn about the world and global issues in order to have to knowledge to change the world.

After our talk with Mr. Liu, we went to a Buddhist Temple. We went inside the temple and we did a mental excercise. Some nice people there told us about some of the groundworks of Buddhism like the 8 fold paths and the 8 noble truths. It was really neat to get to learn about a religion I don't really hear a lot about in the mainstream, and it was interesting learning about their views and beliefs. There was also a beautiful landscape with all kinds of really neat statues of buddhas. We took some cool photos.

Next we had lunch at a really good Sezchuan restaurant and got to practice using chopsticks, While we were eating Mr. Zhou told us some Chinese manners, like letting the hosts sit at the seats that face the door, and to never leave chopsticks sticking up in a bowl.

Comments

Day 4: Kabuki Theater and Beijing Opera

Today we started the school day by walking to the Asia Society Texas Center to learn more about traditional Beijing opera, a category of Japanese opera called Kabuki. We started our tour at the Asia Society Center by listening to a presentation on the similarities and differences in between Kabuki and Beijing opera. Here's a Venn diagram that about sums the presentation up. After the presentation, we toured the Kabuki-based exhibit that featured many amazing 1900s based Japanese print work that all focused in the souvenir department of Kabuki Theater. The artistic style of Kabuki was evident in all the works of art. Many of the display cases showed aspects of Kabuki Theater combined with pop-culture, such as a artistic rendition of a New Orleans' Saints mural spray-painted on a 5 feet by 9 feet canvas. The center piece of this canvas was a large samurai-like character, and he stared at the viewer, creating a strong air of intimidation. In addition to this painting, there we...

Day 7: The Chinatown Scavenger Hunt

Today, several students had prepared a presentation for the 8th graders of The Post Oak Middle School introducing the high school Chinese language class, Chinese J-Term and China A-Term. The presentation included information about the history of the Chinese language, our personal experiences with learning Chinese, the cultural learning opportunities that are offered even if you don't take the language class and writing and pronunciation tips for learning Mandarin Chinese. We applied their knowledge to an exercise by giving them worksheets so they would have a taste of our homework. Not a lot of students had experience with or even much exposure to the Chinese language. The presentation was aimed towards informing students of the choices they have and how learning Chinese isn't as complicated and difficult as they might think it is. Then we wrapped up our individual research presentations on Suzhou, Beijing, Houston's Chinatown and international Chinatowns. We headed out f...

Day 8: Chinese Community Center, Calligraphy, and Noodle House

John Mazziotti Mr. Zhou The Chinese History, People, and Culture J-Term January 16th, 2020 Day 8 On the 8th day of the Chinese J-Term, we continued our research for our "China Rule or Fail" presentations. These points of view from 2 separate sides of our class fabricate an argument whether China is to "Rule or Fail" in the near/far future. Jorge, Elliott, and Cidette working on their presentation. After our short morning work session, we boarded our transport to the Chinese Community Center to witness performances done by various members and groups of the center. This performance is directed by Master Frank(He is on the right), he is the Tai Chi teacher at the Chinese Community Center. These 2 gentlemen are depicting a sword fight. These are 2 Chinese Vocalists This is the Community Center's dance group dancing to traditional music. After the performances finis...

China, The Chinese People, and Chinese Culture POHS 2020

Search This Blog