Before embarking on my studious journey of taking China Mojo, I have to be honest, I was not the most versed historian on the Far East - if they even call it that anymore. I knew the basics if you can even consider it
that: I had heard that China was now a communist country who has lent our country billions, I knew that their language system was entirely different from what I was familiar with, and of course that there was an ancient Great Wall.
The Great Wall of China
courtesy http://www.crystalinks.com/
Okay, maybe that isn’t everything, but I had never given China much thought, it had always just been the place where they had cheap labor and created basically everything from plastic toys to acrylic hats.
Chinese Labor
courtesy http://www.dispatch.com/
I have picked up what I know about china from the various courses that I’ve taken over the years, but really none of them ever touched on what China is like today. I guess I just never really thought about it, which is easy to do when they exist on the other side of the globe. There aren’t very many mainstream outlets for discovering the culture that I can think of, and I think that has shaped the fact that I don’t have as big of a focus on the juggernaut of a country that is China.
Chinese Crowd
courtesy of http://asiasociety.org/
Personally, I would like to fill in the gaps in my understanding about the place. I would like to get a clearer understanding of what life is like for these people that make up such a large portion of the worlds population. One day I think it would be fascinating to actually take on the challenge of learning the language and writing system, which currently seem so foreign to me. The reason for me taking this class was to really get an understanding of how different their culture is, and to explore these differences in the eventual adventure of a lifetime.
