My knowledge of China is not very elaborate or extensive, it comes from High School history class, television, movies, random news articles, and encounters with foreign exchange students from my high school. In my mind China is based off of cartoons, kung fu movies, and pictures from texts books of the Great Wall, terracotta soldiers, and terraced mountainsides. China is rural farmland, however china is over overpopulated urban areas that even our largest cities appear small in comparison too. There is one thing I am certain about though and it is that China is a colossal country that is vastly diverse and contains rich ethnic and historical roots that date back centuries.

           

Through reading articles online I encountered what is called “The Great Firewall of China.” This is a firewall that the government has put in place in order to censor all Internet content entering China from other countries, as well as what can be posted online by Chinese citizens. The article I was reading concerned Google and how its servers are located in Mainland China, because they are located within China’s borders they must comply with the country’s censorship rules. One thing that Google has done that I found noteworthy is that they not alert users when their search results are being blocked or censored by the government. China is exceedingly strict when it comes to what information is shared with the public not only through the Internet but through all mediums.

While speaking with foreign exchange students from China at my high school it became increasingly clear to me just how much the Chinese value education, and how much pressure is put on students to do well. One of the exchange students and I were talking one day about why it is so important to them and he explained to me that only the best students get into good schools and what schools you get into dictates what type of job you will be able to do in the future. A stereotype that he and the other exchange students all seemed to fit into was that they were far better at mathematics than I or any of my other classmates were. I remember one day one of them was talking to me about how they had covered the material we were learning in our junior year math class back when he was in fifth or sixth grade in China.

            In history class we would always learn about the Qin Dynasty and how Qin Shi Huang and how he united the previously divided provinces of China under his dynasty. The teachers would always tell us stories about his grand army and how they traveled through the country conquering province after province forcing China to become united under his power. Then we would learn of his elaborate tomb and the thousands of terracotta warriors that he filled it with. After all this is the man who began the construction of The Great Wall of China, a landmark that today is visible even from outer space. We would then go on to learn about feudal China and how the power was distributed amongst lords who would pledge their loyalty to the emperor, and in return would gain power over peasants in their specific region. This is the basic and brief overview of China’s history that our teachers would teach us year after year.

 

 

           

  China’s economy has been booming for the last several years growing by double digits yearly. The thing that gets me about this is that even though China’s economy is growing so rapidly the people in the lower class do not seem to be seeing any increase in their quality of life. The rich seem to be getting richer and the poor seem to be remaining just able to get by. Most of the products that are made in China are not available to the Chinese even though it is their cheap labor that allowed the products to be produced in the first place. There are more and more people living in the slums because as the economy expands there are more factory and migrant jobs available in the big cities and people from rural areas continue to venture to the city in search of jobs.

            I would like to learn more about China’s educational system and how they are able to teach so much information so quickly to young children. I am curious about how they get students to stay so focused. The other thing about Chinese education is the learning of Chinese itself because I have always been taught that it is an extremely difficult and complex language to learn.

 I am excited to actually visit china and learn more about their culture and history. It will ne nice to finally be able to put some images and experiences of my own into the image of China I have created in my head prior to seeing it in real life. Actually seeing China for myself and learning from experience what is true and what is false about my previous conceptions of China and its people.