This week, we explore themes of culture as they begin to adapt and change. Tradition and modernization are important themes throughout these Chinese stories:
“Diary of a Madman” by Lu Xun
“Sealed Off” by Zhang Ailing
“Man of La Mancha” by Chu T’Ien-Hsin
All three authors explore the ideas of the New Culture Movement as Westernization begins to occur in China in the early 1900s. Among all three stories, the characters face the challenges of a new emerging culture and the feeling associated with leaving old traditions behind. We see the most abrupt changes in setting and language, we go from the traditional writings that are written with beautiful imagery of nature to the new writings set in the city. The language changes as well, leaning more towards Chinese vernacular which makes the works more available to the common man. Through these stories, some very interesting questions arise about culture and how it adapts the stands against the test of time. Some questions to think about when reading are:
Is culture static, or does it change with time?
If culture can change, what does that mean about the importance of tradition in culture?
How have you seen culture change in your lifetime?
Can traditional and Western cultures coexist?
After reading these stories and presenting the history on the New Culture Movement, what can we say about culture in America?
America is a land of migrants and indigenous combined, with more cultural diversity than most of the world. It is important for students to understand the complexities of culture and its elasticity throughout history. Understanding how historical events can shape and mold culture is especially important when reading cultural texts, maybe offer to students the history and why the culture began to shift, this way we can begin to think critically about the history of our world and how it had impacted groups of people for centuries.
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