Discussion on Week 8 26/2: Traditions and Changing Epistemics: Asian Civilization Against/With the World.

Well, I have been absence for the past few weeks in this blog. I can explain why. Firstly, I had to go back to my hometown for Chinese New Year. I had no connection back at my home town. That is why I did not do anything for the posts that I was supposed to do. Cheers.

Alright. Let's get back to the topic. This week, the presenter was Dr Clarissa herself and we were asked to read two readings. It was about Marxism and it was quite interesting. There are things that we discussed and I was partnered with Jaise, or Kah Yee if you prefer. In the first reading, there is 5 question and all of us are put into groups of two. Each group was given one question and we are supposed to give our ideas on the questions.

So here goes. Did they substantially modify the original spirit of Marxism, which was grounded in the European Enlightenment? In that process, did Marxism lose its original fervour, or is it that a new variant of Marxism, namely, Asian Marxism, emerged out of this negotiation between the East and the West? That was my question.

I think that when Marxism been passed through people from the European country, it might not be as pure as it used to when Marx taught it. When Marxism was taught in Europe, things might happen and people might not like it. After that, they would just accept it and pass it to another country like the Eastern Country. Somehow, most of the communist countries had more influences toward the Marxism. After it happened, they made some changes to the things that they originally had and pass it down like that. After that, I think that is why Asian Marxism existed and it was passed down till now.

Marxism did not emerge from a very early date like Confucianism. Marxism only appears after World War 2 and it was around 1940s. It took time passing from the east to west. But it could not be said as a new variation for Marx because it was being brought to Asian countries from Europe. When things come and go, we are deem to make suitable changes so that we ourselves will adapt to the things happening. So, I do not think that Marxism in Asian country is the new variation. Just taking Malaysian Chinese as example. When our ancestors were brought to Malaya at that time from China, they had pure Chinese background and teachings. But when they came here, they have to adapt from things that they had here so that they could survive. That is why we have something called Malaysian Chinese. I do admit that the Chinese here that we use is not very pure compared to those Chinese people in china. 

That was my idea and answer to the question that was asked. 

Here was Jaise's answer. No,I think that the ideology of Marxism are accept by a lot of people in the world.Althoughthe new variant of Marxism ,Asian Marxism will not lose the Marxism original fervour since that they still have some differences between East and West Marxism.

1.values

-Eastern Marxist ideology-the Eastern States underdeveloped countries (because these countries, the worker-peasant alliance led the political and economic process of the country, so the worker-peasant alliance class ideology dominant ideology of these countries). -Western Marxism -Western proletariat international proletariat or the ruling class ideology.

2 .epistemological

Western Marxist -determine the relations of production

Eg:the Oriental Marxism is productive relations of production decisions.

3.ontological

Western Marxism - unipolar world dictatorship of the ruling class

 - the political and economic system with public ownership as the main body.

Eastern Marxism - multi-polar world dictatorship of the ruling class 

So I do really have to agree on what Jaise had written. I have to say that I did not really study much from the reading that Dr Clarissa gave us. It was Chinese New Year and I had midterms to study to. I know I am not supposed to find reasons for myself.  I've been continuing to do this for the past two months. So yeah. I might not be able to participate in the sessions to come as the assignments dateline is getting nearer and nearer. 

Fingers crossed,

Cheerios,

YiXin 

Week 6 Discussion: South Asian History of Science in Antiquity

This week, it is the same as last week's discussion. So we again was being segregated into two group with 5 and 6 groups in one group. My group was given a shorter number of pages which is 'Sanskrit Scientific Libraries and their Uses: Examples and Problems of the Early Modern Period'. So we are asked to prepare some question and answer all our own questions. So here are some questions that we manifested today.

1. What is Indology?
It is the study of history, culture, language and literature of the Indian Subcontinent. So this is the answer for a definition. If it were for my understanding, I think that it is the learning of every continent in India and learn about all about the culture and everything.

2. How did people acquire archives of Sanskrit in the European Country?
During the mid 19 century till the mid 20 century, the European country come to Asia and try to take over what we have. When they did, they will have people here to study about the culture here. This is when the people manage to acquire all the things that we have now about Sanskrit. After they did their researches and everything, they bring it back to their country. But, all the things that they took back might not be accurate. There are things that might be incorrect when they interpret the text from Sanskrit to English. We will discuss this in later questions.

3. What were the problems that they faced when they are acquiring about Sanskrit?
Well, people faces problem. Everyone does. Even for geniuses. So it is not wired that they face problems. They have people helping them in collecting of the information. When people go to a place to look at the manuscript, they were treated coldly by other people, till people only show them those manuscript for a brief moment. Like I've said in the past post, manuscripts are so much scattered all around the places. There are people who kept the manuscripts, manuscripts that are hidden and have not been found at all and so much more. People need to go all around to find one manuscript. The time used up is so much and the money and resources would also be so expensive to just retrieve and recover those manuscripts.

4. What did the collectors wanted to do after they got the materials?
Most probably writing all the informations in the manuscripts into books. They spend so much time and so much energy to get all these manuscripts. That is why they must made all their efforts worth it. I'm here to discuss what I'm understand within the text and not copy and paste the text. So I think that somehow like china, the scholars from Europe would like to collect all the manuscript there are and compile it into what we have today, books.

I think that is all the question that I could answer in the time being. All the other question are based on facts and do not need much understanding and discussion. That is why I will stop here today. This is a particularly short post. :)

Cheerios,
YiXin

Week 5 Discussions: East Asian History of Science in Antiquity

This week, our way of discussion is different. This week, we do not have any to present. Instead, we have different readings that were given to all of us. So we only need to focus on our readings and we have to come out with question. The reading that was "The Textual of Knowledge". To be honest, I didn't manage to finish all of the readings. I only did my readings in class. That is why I could not manifest the question before the class. I did my very very best in doing so. Forgive me. Hahahahahahaha..

So like I've said, my title was The Textual of Knowledge. The article itself was quite long but quite easy to understand. Way easier than what I've read previously. It was so surprisingly easier to understand and surprisingly long. Hahahahaha.. Alright. So here are some question that my group and I have came up to. There are a few so bear with me. It is somehow related to what I've discussed last week.

1. Why manuscripts were created and why is it so important?
I think why manuscripts were created is that the people last time wanted to pass on their daily activity to their children. All the experiences and all the knowledge that they gained everyday, recorded in the form of words or during the Palaeolithic times, drawings on the stones, gave the generation later a better view of what they have. If they do not record things down, will we have all the knowledge that we have today? Here's a fun fact. We have 24 hours a day and we used up 8 hours for sleep. 16 hours left to do whatever we wanted to do. Minus off the chores and things, we still have so much time left. What do they do having so much time left? Well, they have nothing to do not like what we have today, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and everything. What they have is trees and rocks. So they spend their free time to record down all that we have now. Hahahahahahaha..

2. Since when and how manuscript were found?
In the reading itself, manuscript were founded in a cave in china. But in my mind, there are so many different dynasty in China. Did they only found the manuscripts in that cave or did they manage to find some more later? This is a question in my mind. How were they founded is like how normal people find things. They go all around the world looking for the things that could help them improve what they already have now. So I think that it is the same way of how they found them. They might have left a map when the first found the manuscript and they got all the locations for the manuscripts now. Who know right?

3. How did the ideas of writing on bamboo and silks came by?
I guess that people last time when they live in caves and riverbanks, they move all around. When there is a shortage of food in their area, they will move around and find more food. Then they will stay there and when there are no more food, they move again. So when they move place to place, their recordings couldn't be moved. So it is inconvenient for people that time. That is when they started to think of recording stuff on silks and bamboos. It is so much easier to move around. Which later, the creation of books come by.

4. What were recorded in Manuscripts?
There are so many things to be recorded in manuscript. Like for example, how to hunt, or how to be a seller. All these things that were recorded in the manuscript were just like drafts. People combined all these drafts that were passed down generation to generation and it became so many types of books that we have nowadays. Before books and papers were created, they used the to record stuff on scraps so that those things would not be lost. So when they knew about something like how to train a pet, they write it down in a manuscript.

5. Is there a proof that all the things written on the manuscripts were true?
I don't really know about that. Centuries passed. It depend on you whether you wanna believe that things written on it or not. It's just like how we are now. When you read an article, you think it is untrue and what they wrote is not what it is. So you write another article to correct what the people had written. I think that it is the same last time. When they have written the manuscript, it is most probably their own experience on the matter. And then, it was passed down to another generation. So when the people get it and found out they have better way to do things, they will make correction on the manuscript. That is how it works, isn't it?

6. Who decides on which part of the manuscript is important?
As I've said in the previous 5 questions, books were created out of the so many manuscripts created. When people are compiling the manuscripts, they will pick which is important and which is not. So when they think that it is related to what they are writing, they will choose that. So when you have so many manuscripts, not every one of them is useful. You will need to pick up things that are useful to what you wanted to do with.

7. Did the manuscript been destroyed or just went missing?
During the transition of a dynasty to the other dynasty, people might think that it is very important to keep their knowledge as a secret. They would not want their secrets and knowledges to be robbed by other parties. So some of the scholars and emperors will think that it is better to burn all the manuscript. That is one of the way. Secondly, the emperor might think that his time is almost up and he will try to keep those manuscripts in a well hidden cave or something. This is how they found the manuscripts in the caves in later days. Or third, like the Qing Emperor, he did not want his people to know of his cruelty and stuff, he just decided to burn and destroy everything so that his people would not be able to gain any knowledge.

About the missing part. When they are moving things into the cave or anything, they might have made some pieces fallen while carrying it another place. So it just went missing like this. Or people might have not been able to discover the pieces and so, they determined that it is missing.

So there you have it. All the questions of my group member and the answer that I manifested in my mind. This post took too many days and I'm so sorry for it. I was having my holiday at the beginning of the week and the mood is still with me until today that I need to do it. So sorry about it.

Thanks for reading and if you have any question or responds or anything, please do not hesitate to leave a comment on my blog. Thanks a lot~

Cheerios.
YiXin