Teamwork

Well, well, well. It's been a long long time since I've written something on this post. Yes. It had been really long. Because of all the uni work and stuff. I know that this blog is supposed to be something related to my uni stuff. And so, our topic today will be about Teamwork.

I remembered when I was in my Secondary 1, I was 13 back then, I attended to a camp that was organized by my school's choir club. It was some sort like a 3 days master class. It was fun. Everything that we done that time, I still remembered it until today. There was a session, where I forgotten who the speaker was. She was talking about being as one, singing as one.

The master class started like this. How would you cook a plate of delicious fried rice?

So all of us have different answer to it. Rice, ketchup, egg, onion, abalone, prawn and etc.

So it related back to what I wanted to say now. Teamwork.

While you are working in a group, doing your group assignment and stuff, sometimes you will be assigned to the members by your teacher or your lecturers, and sometimes, you get to choose your own team mates. Well, not necessarily on assignment. You can also think about work, sports, anything that required teamwork.

But, every time you choose a partner, or group member, or you were assigned, you won't know their personality. Everyone in the group have their own personality. Some might be those who can uphold the role of the leader and some are those who can be a team player. It depend on what type of jobs or assignments that you are talking.

So, people have their own personality, like I've said. You can't choose what type of personality they will have. Being in a team, and to maintain the teamwork in the group, is first, to learn how to tolerate to one another. Like a plate of yummy fried rice. You need a lot ingredients to make it tasty with different taste. In a group, if there is one less people, your job would not be done nicely.

Tolerating each other's weakness is the first step. I know, people do have different temper. It takes different things to tick people off. When you are in a group, you must always know when to help and when not to help. The time you help is the time you are tolerating to them. They might not know how to do it, you help. If they are overly attached to you, asking you whatever, that is the time you push the responsibilities back to him/her.

The second step, is to listen. Youngsters are very impatient, and sometimes egoistic. They always want everything to go in their way. But that is not how it works. Being in a team is to accept all the ideas given and take the once that will benefit the group the most. Everyone's ideas are different. Try taking a part of the idea from one person, putting it with another person. Well, at the end of the day, you will find something amazing created from this teamwork that we are saying.

The third step, is to work together. While we are doing assignments, we will be like:" Oh you do this part and you do that part. By day XXX give it to me and I will combine everything." But, but but..... Not to say this is a bad way of doing things. Everyone does it this way. But have you ever wondered, if you are doing it together, you will know where are your strengths and where are your weaknesses? When you know them, you can ask help from your team mates or you can provide help from your team mates. It's the same theory as sports. If not, why are the sportsmen train together? Why does a team of football player required to train together? Provided you not talk gossip when you are working.

So this is the 3 steps that I think can improve teamwork. Sometimes it works and sometimes it don't. I took all of this based on my own experiences. If you think otherwise, please don't hesitate to tell me. I will be more than happy to discuss it with you.

Cheerios,
YiXin Ching
[chingyixin1@gmail.com]

Week 12 and 13 Panel Discussion: Arts

This two week's discussion is about Arts. Arts in like many forms like singing, dancing, playing instruments, and many many more. But here today I will talk about the instruments of the east Asia and the South Asia.

As I've always said that different places have different types of things that they are proficient in. But for music, for instrument playing, they have their pros at both of the civilization. Just that the pros in the field of instruments are different. There are so many types of instruments throughout the world and we can't really like identify how many if we don't do a specific research. China alone have more than 20 instruments that could be played. For example, we have Er Hu （二胡）, PiPa (琵琶）, and more and forth. Er Hu is somehow similar to Violin and the PiPa is somehow similar to the Guitar.

For Indian, I can't tell for sure. But they also have a variety of instruments that they play. So I have to do my research on that. So, what are we gonna do with all these things? We use them for performance of course. For Chinese, our traditional instruments are basically used as talents. Many of us do not play those Chinese Traditional Instrument anymore. It is because the way we write on the music scores are totally different from the west.

Speaking of West. Something pops out in my mind. Why does all these instruments not in the Western Countries? When we go to the western, we can hear the more frequent used instruments. We know that the European Country did came to Asia and started taking over places like China and India. But when they were there, they took a lot of the paintings and porcelains. But why did they not take the instruments? Why did they not learn for the music?

Do they think that Chinese Music is not one of the treasures? Somehow when I think of it, I do feel quite lucky that they did not take it. It they do, now, there are even lesser people that will be playing on the instruments. Just a fact.

So here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkjRrM5k_Co. This is a fusion of East Asian and the Western music instruments. Have a look.

So because this topic is quite short, I will be adding on some of my own topics that I've read for the panel discussion. I've forgotten to say. This two week's discussion were being done in a Panel Discussion way. In a group of three to four members, we are to discuss on the readings that we were given and discuss. Not present but discuss. My topic is on GuoHua which means National Paintings.

China had been such a wealthy country for century. It's full of treasures, in the sense of the jewellery, paintings, arts, porcelains, and many more. Just that paintings are far more easier to be taken. So when the europeans went to China, they took mostly gold and paintings. Half of them were taken, half of them were burnt when the Chinese tried to defend their palace, some were missing and some, I don't even wanna talk about it.

People in the Republic of China are looking more heavily towards this paintings. When time passes, the people had to adapt to the system. A lot of the painters changes their way of drawing the painting from using floral and animals to draw on love and filial piety and yeah some other stuff to what they draw today, of politics, economics, well mostly on the current matters that they faced.

So it is very hard to find someone that is proficient in drawing using Calligraphy brushes and ink. One painting nowadays using calligraphy brush from a painter can cost up to thousands but if you have the traditional paintings from the Ching or Ming Dynasty, you could be a millionaire in the matter of minutes.

So here, I am going to end my topic. I'm gonna do a little conclusion on the subject.

Throughout the semester, I've learn so many things that I have not had ever dreamt of studying. I had actually no interest in the subject. When I saw that I have to choose between Psychology and this, I had a brief idea of taking on psychology and not this. But in the end, I chose this. I explored so many things. Things that were not in my comfort zone. I've learn to scan texts and not read the whole passage form head to toe. It had been a wild journey for me in my university life so far but it had been a great experience.

I must thank my lecturer, Dr. Clarissa for guiding us throughout the semester. Without her guidance, I think I will die doing this course. Initially from the previous lecturer, this course was to be a lot of memorizing and theories but Dr Clarissa changed it. She changed it to be more to reading and understanding of the texts. So much thanks for it.

It was fun being able to write all my thoughts and I am so proud of myself to see how I've grown as a student. In the way of thinking and everything. I've learn so so much from this whole course. So I think this is getting faker. So I'm going to stop here.

Lastly, I really thank Dr. Clarissa for everything. For more information on Dr. Clarissa, Please do visit her blog. https://scandalousthoughts.wordpress.com/

This is it for Eastern Civilization Forum Posting.
I hereby announce that I've finally ended in writing the blog posting.

Cheerios,
YiXin

P/S: If you still have question and comments, you are always welcome to post something or comment on something. XD

Discussion Week 11: The Roles and Problems of Gender in Asian Civilizations

This is for week 11, where one of my best course mate is presenting for this topic. Carmen is the one presenting but unfortunately, she was ill and could not present well. So, she prepared a script for me and I presented it for her stead. So yeah. Let's get started.

This week's topic was discussed together with Carmen, one of my best reliable course mate that I've met. Better than someone else. So much better. It was about Gender and Inequality. When we talk about gender what do we normally think? Men and Woman? Like seriously? Hahahahahahaha. Yes. Most of us think of Gender or for some one else sex as this. Men and Woman. But try thinking it in a different perspective. Someone might have a different view of things.

So here are mine. In some parts of the world, I think in most part of the world, women are not being look at as important figures during times where World War 2 started. It only became an issue due to improvement of civilization. They only give more respect to woman after World War 2 when the world is at the stake of falling backward.

Inequality treatment in woman. Like how? Looking back in China. There have been so many dynasties and so many rulers of China but HOW MANY do you see them as a female? Or I should say, How many of them are Female? Only One. Wu Ze Tian (武则天). If you want to know more about her, there is a drama in China that talks about her. Go google it up. Find 'The Empress of China' and you will find it.

Women are being treated as not important back in that time. Their jobs is stay at home, take care of the houses, clean the house, take care of the children, cook, wash, take care of the elders and I guess that is most probably it. They have practically no rights on everything. Why does this happen? I think that is because the men always have the chance to go out and fight for the family. Where woman, they will just depend on the men, back in those days.

For a woman now, it is about their rights. What they do and what they have. Sometimes for some woman, they tend to misuse their rights here. It became something that annoys anyone when the woman misuse the rights. But I won't talk about that just yet. I will be talking about what they look forward to now.

Alright then. Woman nowadays tend to look more heavy on the money that they earn, they position that they have and a few percentage of them don't put their family on top. Some, they could not because of some factors but some they tend to neglect it by choice. They wanted to focus on their work and all but what will you do when you are old and things? So I don't feel like talking more on this. The more I talk, the more woman I will be offending, the worse ending that I will have.

I think that's it for now.
Thanks for being through with me for this few weeks.
The next posting will be the last. I will combine 4 discussion together as one.

So yeah
Cheerios,
YiXin.

Discussion on Week 10: Knowledge and Political Economy of East Asia

So Here I am back to this boring job of writing blog postings. Just kidding. I love writing blogposts. I just do not have the time to do it. I really love writing the postings. Seriously I do. Believe me. >.<

So here I am today, I will be writing on the Knowledge and Political Economy of East Asia. There are 4 readings that were posted up on our system. To be honest, I did not read any of those things. So today's posting will be more on what I thought and what are my opinions on stuff.

First off, answering the questions. I seriously do hope that I can.

1. What do you think if the European Industry Revolution did not occur?

Well, from what I think, it would not affect too much on the day now. For what reason I said this? Think back from week 1 of this lessons. Try to think back to what I've came through for the whole of the semester. For this whole semester, I've taken two subjects that are deeply connected together, which is this, Eastern Civilization and another one TITAS. So in both subject, we talk so deeply about Eastern Civilization. And after so many weeks of processing, I think the definition of Civilization will change from what I've proposed during the first blog posting. Let me get back to the posting and give you a screenshot.

So I've wrote a 2 paragraph long words to describe what Civilization means during that time of the time. But now, I think my perspective got changed a little. Civilization does need improvement from the things that we have. So yeah. If the European Industrial Revolution does not occur, we will still have what we have today. Because of IMPROVING. Improving is something every one in this world are doing.

Take China for example. China was once a so successful civilization, a so so successful nation that everyone wants to have a relation with. Of course, it got worse and the Republic of China took over. But that's not the point. As we know, China invented the 4 most greatest things, which are, Paper, Printing Technology, Gunpowder and Compass. The thing about China, during that time, is that they do not improve. Taking Gunpowder as example. Although they invented it and well, used it for as firecrackers during their time, but they did not improve it to be better. And so, people outside get to know about this and they used the technology and made it their own.

Till the Last China Dynasty, Ching Dynasty, they were invaded by the Europeans and they mess up terribly in defending themselves. What I wanted to say here is that China is not stupid. They just did not know of the importance of improving until they fall and now, they are one of the biggest country in the world. If they would have improved, now people would be wearing Traditional Ching Dynasty clothes with all the embroideries and patterns and large headpiece on their head instead of a plain sexy dress. Just kidding.

So to conclude the answer, I think that the evolution of the technology, political views, knowledge and economy will still be going on if the European Industry Revolution did not happen. People of every places are improving.

2. Based on your discussion, are you in favour of Capitalism to be your nation's economical system?

Well, let's not get into any conclusions yet before we know clearly of what Capitalism is.

1. Capitalism is an economic system and a mode of production in which trade, industries, and the means of production are largely or entirely privately owned and operated for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage labour and, in many models, competitive markets.

(Copied from wikipedia)

So for me personally, parts of me will agree to this and part of me won't. Why do I say this is because everything have a good side and a bad side. For Why I agree is that it helps in building the nation's economics. It is like the country tax you and they earn from what we earn. Yeah. It sounds so nice. People could be uber rich and uber poor here. And that is the bad thing. When people are uber rich, some they don't tend to give back to the people. Eh. Where you think your business come from? Where do you think your money come from? Your money come from the society that buys your products. I think that is why Malaysian Government make all the company to do charity work for the society twice in a year. So yeah. Funny right? 

People might agree on this and might disagree on this but I think that the economics in Malaysia to better be like China. Their gap of rich and poor people are not that widely separated. So I think it is much better in so many ways. We have equal amount of money for all people. But another problem is that Malaysia still does not have the ability to do so. Let's not discuss it here on why. I might be caught under ISA. So no thanks. 

I think that is my post for this discussion. The next post I think will be up in 2 hours. For now, Cheers

Cheerios,

YiXin :)

Week 9 Discussions: 2/3 and 4/3: Militarization and Imperialism and Science and Technology Policies and the Industrialization Process in East and South Asia.

Well, as you can see from the LONG LONG title above, I'm combining the two posting for last week as one. As you all might have know, UCSI have this unknown policies for students only that all the assignments are cramped through these few weeks and there are so many things that I need to do and of that I need to settle. Not only that, I have to review other people's work as well, since I'm mostly the team leader for all the assignments. I'm extremely exhausted. I really am. I really thought of giving up for the semester, but I can't. I have to continue and face the challenge ahead. Well, that's life. I have to suck it up.

So, thanks for looking past my first paragraph of my complaining of my life nowadays. Let's get back to the topic. Last week was Aji's presentation for the first day and on the second day, we have a guess lecturer, Dr. Por. I didn't manage to catch her background but she is an interesting researcher and lecturer. She gave me a lot of things to ponder...

So back to the first discussion. It was about Imperialism and Militarization. Although it is similar, but both of these things are totally different thing to one another. What does Imperialism mean? The definition below was taken from Wikipedia, for your information. Imperialism is a type of advocacy of empire. It is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, uses of military forces or other means. It has greatly shaped the world. So with this whole long definition, can we conclude that Imperialism was to concur a country and make it their own? And after concurring it, what do they want to do with the place? For personal use? For military uses? Or for other?

From what I think, it is, yes concurring of country using all methods. Taking Malaya as example. We were concurred firstly, Portugal, then Holland, then British, then Japan then back to British again and then finally, we got our independence. The whole thing started back in 16th century. When people wants things that they don't have in their place, they will start looking at other place. Like how all imperialism started. They wanted resources for themselves. So it is not good to just take it from them. So they might as well concur it as their own land. For Malaysian readers out there, try to remember back to your History. When Portugal came to Melaka (during that time it was called Melaka), they have the 3Gs as their motto, Gospel, to spread Christianity out, Gold, to earn more for their own nation, from concurring and from doing business and lastly, Glory, to be better than other Western forces out there. So those things are that influences them to concur and later named as Imperialism.

Next, imperialism does not only uses brute force to concur a nation. They also used agreements to fight for the rights on a particular nation. Well, it's a whole year of history when I learned it. I can't say it here. If you are interested to know more on this, Google is your best friend. Go ask him/her. I can't identify whether Google is a girl or a boy.

Alright. Let's leave imperialism a side first. Going further back into the time, we know that Chin Shi Huang （秦始皇） was the first emperor of China. Well, if I'm not wrong, he was the first to combine every space that he concurred from places. He unified all the states together and made it to what we have as China today. Before today, Japan, Korea and Taiwan was a part of the states. He later created the great wall of china to protect his land. If you want a more detailed example, just point your fingers to the world map where USA is located. It was the similar concept, except that they did not have an emperor to control the country.

So after decades and decades, we soon have feudalism in China where they have lords controlling on certain places. Those people are chosen in the imperial court by the emperor himself and so, we later have so many lords in one country. But, not to forget the emperor is still the head of the pyramid. Later, Chin Shi Huang died because he had taken too much mercury to extend his life. That story everyone knows about. So I don't feel like talking much on it anymore.

Back to Japan. In Malaysian history book, we first start heard of the term imperialism was during the time of Meiji Restoration. It was again a long long history and I didn't want to talk too much about it. In result, it made the Japanese want to fight for more and to climb up to the level of the Western Country.  So I have a question here now. Does militarization starts during this time in Japan. We know that China never had Militarization last time and even now. So does militarization even existed in the Japan or India? Anyone please. If you have an idea, please tell me.

I know that in Malaysia, Militarization happened for one short while only. Back in the 1940s, after Japan retreated from Malaysia, our country was governed by the Communist Party for 14 days. Well, most of them are chinese anyway. They made a hell of a mess in Malaya, and later British have to come back. So that is the time when they started using Militarization as a way to control the country. As British was severely injured in their forces back then, this was the only way that they could control ALL the countries that they have concurred. So yeah. That is when Malaysia had militarization, only for a SHORT SHORT moment.

In India, we also know that there are the existence of dynasty. So let's not talk more on that. What we know on India is that their women have so little saying in everything that they did. So yeah. I don't know about now.

So with this I end the whole topic.

Continue dreaming and I will. Just kidding. This is getting way too serious to continue. So i decided to crack a joke out of this. Chill people chill.. Hahahahahaha. Speaking of chilling, I once was scolded by my group of friends who were quarrelling for asking them to chill and not quarrel anymore. It was a bad bad experience.

Alright. To Dr Por's presentation on Science and Technology Policies and Industrialization Process in East and South Asia. We must surely thank Dr Por for giving us such an interesting lecture on this. So when she started, she asked one question. Why do people study Science, Technology  and Industrialization.

What I can think of is that they want to improve on what they already knew and what they already had. Like how we have all the inventions nowadays. It was through STI that we have all these today. According to her, it was also used as a measurement on level of civilization. Mostly i think that this statement is true. How do we gauge a civilization whether it is civilize or not? Is it by the language that they use? Is it by their culture? Is it by their clothings? NO! A best way to measure it is by using how advanced their technology and science is.  But we can't say that is all correct. We have to also think of the attitude of the people and the way they speak. It also will gauge a civilization whether the people in it are civilized or not.

If we want to gauge on the science and technology, back in the days, China could be counted as the most civilized country. They created things that people didn't even know back then. Like gun powder, paper and two more I forgot is what. But that are the things that they did and they created. Undoubtedly and undeniably.

So there are a whole lot of question. Like: Who and why produces STI and for WHOM? Who and why? I think that is the inventors that was the 'who' and why was to improve on the civilization itself. For whom is for the people living in the civilization. Not much to discuss.

So the last thing on this post is: What does the similarities and differences tell us about the Eastern world and the Eastern Civilization?

This is a very interesting topic. Like these group of people. After weeks and weeks of thinking this question What is Civilization, I can say that it's an improvement from one time to the other time at a specific location. So the difference between Eastern world and Eastern Civilization. How does it differ? I think it depend on the culture itself. For example, although Australia was in very near to the eastern countries, does it belong to the eastern civilization? I think that australia is a western country. They have so many things that are so much similar to the western culture that it could not be said to be as a part of Eastern Civilization.

Alright. I finally ended this long winded post. Please not feel offended for what I've wrote. Feel free to comment on things. Please do comment. I really need to know all the answers to the question in my mind. Thanks thanks thanks again and again. So I guess I should stop for now. Thanks for reading through such long post. Good Bye for now.

Cheerios,
YiXin :)

Week 8 23/2 Presentation by Hong Jie: philosophy of science through history of science in Asian Civilizations

Well well well. I know that I'm late in doing this post. It was seemingly quite interesting. I've gotten so used to blog writing that I did like really not that well for my thesis writing. Oh well, I guess I have to start to be back at thesis writing. >.<

I was supposed to do this last week but I did not manage. I have a reason for it. I didn't attend to the session because I was on holiday break and didn't want to touch any of my homework. Yes I know that some of you might think that I am irresponsible but well, I need some time off.

So here are some question that Eason had posted for us to think about. I can do this because I have read about the readings that Dr Clarissa had given to us. It may not be correct but most of the things here is from my brain. I think things through before I posted it up. So yeah. Again, everything is my comments and my knowledge in this field. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

1. Chinese are more concerned about efficacy in practice than explanation. In west, explanation has long been considered central, even critical to science. Which one is more reliable? Why?

In chinese culture, it is always believed that the more you practice and do, the more that you will know how to handle. Like baking and cooking. For the first time, I was taught how. Then for the second and third time, I might make mistake. Towards the forth and more time cooking a dish, I will be better in cooking that dish. I will know how much oil to put, how much water that are needed, how much salt that I can put and do I put sugar or what. But when we are speaking of reliability, I have to say that it is the Western way. Things that happen needed to have proof to know that these things are true or not.

For example, we can't try hundreds of time with the same mistake to build a plane. We must have explanation on something. When we make mistake, we must know where the mistake is and how can I emend to the mistake to make things better. That is why we have science nowadays and people believe more in science and not the myths that the older people believes back then.

2. In your point of view, how does acupuncture been discovered?

As we know, acupuncture had been in the history for a long long time. It is been say as a Chinese way of treating a patient. I don't know whether the western people uses this or not. Using acupuncture is putting needles in a person's vital point and it will heal some sickness. Normally in the days when there are still emperors in china, they uses acupuncture to raise someone from coma and they help people that was poisoned when the medication does not work.

Acupuncture was, like I've always said, passed down from tradition and every tradition does not just pop out like that. In human bodies, there are a lot of vital points like for each vital point carries different meaning of things. For example, when we have a terrible headache, we will rub the two end of our forehead. The two points we in Chinese called it as 太阳穴 which translate to Sun Pressure Point. It is called Temples actually. Hahahahahahahaha. So, back to the topic. These vital points have different usage. If we have a back ache, the doctor will use the needle to maybe poke you in the back to cure you.

So when we discovered that we have these points, people will find a way to use it. Human are curious and we will always ask what is this for and what is that for. So maybe it is because of that, they found out that using a needle to poke on a person's vital point can cure some sickness.

3. What do you think of supernatural?

What Do I think of supernatural? The drama series in US that had millions of hits every single week. Nah... I'm just kidding. Supernatural are those spirits, ghosts and things like that. Not to forget about the gods and all. Everyone of us are being brought up by supernatural stories. I've heard one story here from my grandaunt. When the thunder strikes a tree, it means that the tree has something dark and shadow in it. It is not normal for a thunder to strike a tree. 

That is a myth isn't it? They were taught like that and we listened and learned it. Ok. So here's the thing. In science, we know that a tree is obviously made out of wood. It is the purest form of wood. So it is not a conductor of electricity. But why does thunder want to strike down that particular tree? It could not be by chances. So when I think that there is no explanation, I believe to the myth that was told and taught. If anyone know that why the electricity hits a tree, please tell me. I do want to know. The reason why I'm in social science is because my pure science was terrible.

4. What do you guys think about "good act" and "bad act"

It is something psychological. It dwells in a person's mind and it is something that we learn and taught in school or at home. When we were little, we often will do something that will get punished or rewarded. Like if we eat a candy on the table without permission, we will be scolded for stealing the candy. Then we know that when we take something without permission, it is stealing and it is a bad act.

It also have to combine with a person's moral acts. When things happened, will you justify that this is a good act or a bad act? So It is very subjective on what people thinks. 

There were 6 questions that were asked but I think I will manage 4 of these question. So anything to add or to decipher my questions please feel free to comment. 

Cheerios,

YiXIn

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

Week 4: 28/1 Discussion: Literacy, Writing, and History of the Book in East and South Asian Civilizations

The topic stated above, like I've said is my topic. I presented this topic for the people in my class. But, so unfortunately, there are not many people in the class when the topic was really interesting, for what I think of course. My opinion. Being a leader for a discussion group is not easy. I have to make sure that when people listen to what I'm saying, they will not feel sleepy. I do hope that people do not feel sleepy when they hear my explanation.

The way that I did my presentation was that I tried to explain everything and hope that people understand. How i did that was like I explained the facts and make it seem like a story for everyone. Who doesn't like story. And in the middle, I will try to put some fun fact in it so that it will not get more boring than my voice. I sound like a duck for people who didn't hear me speak before. So, the topic that I guided in the class was about Literacy, Writing and History of the Books in East and South Asian Civilisation.

The most thing that I discussed about is that China History of books. I wouldn't like to repeat it here again because the whole thing took one and a half hours for me to just explain about the books. So if you want to have an insight of what I've discussed in class, the link is  https://prezi.com/uutcdvqowc0j/literacy-writing-and-history-of-the-book-in-east-and-south/.

Alright. Back to the question that I have now.

1. Was there first have books and literature or was there first have civilisation?
In my opinion, I think that it is a cycle. First, when there is existence of human being, there must have language and words that they used back then. After that, they will have improve their language and they will have civilisation. But, when they existed civilisation, they will also have newer language. The newer language was then being created and the improved version of civilisation will exist. So for me, it is a cycle.

The cycle started dated back since the history of human being started, as how I said just now. Every now and then, there will be people making different changes toward the language we have now. The most frequent changes that I can see for my civilisation now is the Malay language. Every few years, I will hear that this is the newer rule of how it should be used in writing an essay. But a few years later, they will have to change back to how they said it initially. It is really messy in a way because the graduates like me and a lot others would not be able to know. When we try to write an official Malay letter, we are not able to know what the rules are.

2. What are the differences in the Writing, Literature, and History of Books in the Western civilisation to the Eastern Civilisation?
How would I say this? In the western way of writing is like totally different in how we write in Asia. In my second reading that I failed to discuss because of time constrain, there are the Visitation of the Gods. Like they will get what ideas when they dreamed of god being in there with them. It made them write to like it is the story of Gods. That is why they have what we now called Legends. I think those stories came this way.

In the western country, dated so early back then, the way of the western writing are quite emotional as in like how Shakespeare writes. How he wrote was that all about emotions and all about love. The eastern people do not write that way. Comparing to the China people and the English people, they both have different way of writing. But, let's not forget about the similarities of how they write.

Right now as we speak, what do we mean by literature? Does it only mean that the poems that we study now? Again let's not forget that the indian people also have poems, but their poems are more to the godly stuff. Alright. Turning the time back till the twentieth century. People are getting educated by the english people and slowly, how we write are being influenced by the english people. For example, using Malaysia as one. We have been concurred for so many centuries back from 16 century till now. So our style of writing had been influenced so much by the conqueror. Like the poems now, we don't really use those that 'dreaming of meeting with god' stuff to write on our poems.

3. How was the writings back then influences our writings nowadays?
For my opinion, it was the legends stuff that influences us. You see, if we do not have those people who 'dreamed of meeting with gods', how will the legend appear now? And If we do not have those things as what we now call legend, how are we going to write all those storybooks that we have now? It is an endless cycle you see? These writing that we have now, might be the a variations of what our children might write in future days. So, I think that the core of the story written was still being used now as we are writing.

If you do not understand what I've wrote, from the question 2 onward, I am still partially asleep. So sorry if you do not understand it.

So something to think about. After I've talked so much on books and literature, I asked the class that day. Was ebook a book? So for some people, they might think that it is and some might think not. I always say this and I will say this again. It depends on how people thinks. Everything is based on people's mindset. For me personally, I don't think it is a book. A book has it own smell, the uniqueness of the smell, the feeling when you hold it, the feeling of having something vintage on your hands.

Whereas, ebooks. EBOOKS do not have all the smell, the feeling, and everything. As technology grows, it is easier for people to have ebooks. I admit that I also use ebooks. It is so much easier to come by. Why buy a book that is really heavy and it cost so much. But somehow, for me, I have the satisfaction of buying books. When I have a collection of books, it proves that how much I've grown since when I was a little boy without any books with me. Even though I have ebooks already saved in my phone, well if you are wondering, I'm using HTC One M8, but after I finished reading the ebook, I will still insist on buying the physical one for collection sake.

So It varies in people's perspective. I think that ebook is not a book, where it is just electronic file with many pages attached within. No offence to anyone here.

Last thing for the week. I am so happy for that people are visiting my blog and I am not doing this for my own self. Thank you guys for visiting and I hope that you do have a new perspective of what is going on. Please, if you have anything to say about the topic or even about me, you can comment below or if you would like to text me privately, email me at chingyixin1@gmail.com. I will reply you as soon as possible.

Thanks again and again. Tata for now.

Cheerios,
YiXin

Week 4 Discussion: Karma and Indifferences.

Prior to last week's topic that we talked about, it was logic. Well, for me, it was quite hard to understand and it is what I don't really get about. To be frank, I have no logic, which meant, my common sense is not as good as normal people. Laugh at me all you want but I am proud that I have less logic in my mind. I don't think things to deeply. So yeah. I am logic-less. Hahahahahahahaha..

Well, we went to the class yesterday and it was kind of what I'm quite interested in. Karma and indifferences. For me, it is what I'm really used to and what I knew since I was a little boy. Depend on what people thinks, karma is different. Some might perceive something and some might do others. Karma for me, is that what we did now, we will get it back later either in a few year or in your later life. So what do you think? Some people do not believe in karma but some will. Mostly for the Buddhist and the Hindus, they think very importantly on karma. Every little thing you do will affect what you are in past life.

Some other religion might think put it in different words, but it is all the same. Don't you think so? Yeah. Thanks to my classmate who spoke that idea out. He says that, Every religion we are, it is all interrelated, just the names and how we teach to our children and our newer generations are different. So don't you guys agree on him? I think it was Salleh who said this. So yeah. Thanks bro.

Yesterday's presentation was done by Aminath. She talks on First, Karma, Morality and Evil and Second, Indifferences and Negative Ethics.

Here's a picture of what I found on Google. It reads Keep Calm and Let Karma Finish it. I wanted to find the official symbol of karma but somehow there aren't any logo about karma. The most related one is that the recycling logo with the word karma on it. If anyone found something, please post it up here so that the world can know. At least I can know. I don't know anything, to be honest. >.<

So for a brief definition, karma is that when you did some action that is violating and wrong to people, it will affect you in the future time. Basically, what goes around comes around. So like I've stated above, karma is mostly believed in Buddhist or Hindus. So the teachings, or what we called, Karma Doctrine, is that, there are 3 things. It is Morally Vacuous, It involves in irresolvable dilemma and Blaming victims for their own afflictions.

Before we proceed, what is the meaning or moral Vacuous? Moral vacuous is that people who lacks of intelligence in what we call morality. What is the relationship between Moral Vacuous and Karma? Some people who did not have the intelligence of something, they will act in a way so that people will 'think' that they have it. It is the same case here. For a positive implication of moral vacuous, people that believes in karma gives them the idea to behave virtuously. It also mean that person will blame karma for the misfortune that one gets. For example, I am a person with minimal morality knowledge and somehow my friend got into trouble and what I will tell him is that karma. He deserve to receive what he got. Well, somehow I think that only the older generation people will think that way, like those people who got minimal education will think that way.

Next, it involves in irresolvable dilemma, and in other words, Karmic Dilemma. Here is the example, When a executioner delivers a lethal injection, Will the executioner face bad karma for performing the act? So here is the discussion about. Will the executioner gets the karma? For me, I think he will somehow. There is a choice for him whether to work there or not. It is his chance whether where he wants to work. So IF he choose to work there, he will get what he deserved. During the discussion on class that day, we said that he might have been appointed to do so. That might be true but back to the question. Why does he choose to work there? He can choose to work at a firm or being a taxi driver. So the whole class conclude that it is a cycle, a chain for a human life. When we kill someone, their family members would want to kill me, and if they succeeded, my family members will kill them. So this is how war forms.

Thirdly, It is the blaming of the victims. Well, let me put it this way. Malaysia had terrible flood even until today. The flood started since after Christmas. At first it got worse but somehow the water managed to flow back to the sea. Here's the question. Did they deserve to got these kind of treatment? Like karma. Did everyone of them who caught in the flood did bad things till they got the flood and all other types of sickness? I don't think so. What I think of is that the 'people' up there would like to punish certain people who did great sin till they decided to flood the whole thing. That is what I thought. Was it karma? I think it is for some of them and not all. IF they were caught in karma, and they really did bad things, that means they deserve it. If some of them managed to be rescued and be healthy after that, they might not have done really good things but they did not do bad things as well. So that is all about karma.

For what I think, Karma, it teaches me that what I do will reflect back on me. If I kill a chicken, in the next life, I will be the chicken and I will be slaughtered for my meat or something. So being a human, I believe that what I did in the past life which so I deserve to be who I am now. I have a wonderful family and I have so many great friends out there. I am blessed to have all these. I have to thank my past life for doing so much good deeds till I get what I got today. Well, I know I sound like a monk in the 14 century but I still feel this way.

On the second half of the day, we talk about Indifferences and Negative Ethics. So when we talk about indifferences, we can relate to the Taoism. They are those people who thinks that it is important to live in harmony with Tao, where in Chinese, 道. I can't explain verbally more to this. But there is a phrase to explain to this. Everything happens for a reason. Good things that happened might turn out bad and bad things happened might turn out to be good. Try and think of it. Sometimes we ourselves will have this occurred. For instance, I got a watermelon by the roadside and think that I could eat it at home. That is a good thing right? But when I slice it open and wanted to eat it, the watermelon is full of worms. I know this example is gross but somehow, it is a great example of thinking what is discussed so far.

Back to the Tao. Here is a scenario. When a child falls into the river, a Dao priest saw it and he save him up from the river. So when we are saving the child from the river, we will think that it is a good deed to do. But for the priest, he won't think this way. He will only think that it is natural to do so. So from my understanding, indifferences is that how we think differently than other people. The whole Taoist Community think this way, where they only act naturally where their instinct tells them to. Well, so think about this. If the whole world does this, will the world we have now change to be a better place, or a worse place? For what I think, It will be a worse one. For everyone to think indifferently, thinking to do what is natural to them, is not right. When people want to kill, they kill without any consequences. So i think it is not a good thing to do.

We as humans, born after many generations of civilization and teaching. We have our own set of norms and rules. We are following those rules that were made years ago. We were taught how to act now. So It is quite hard for me to feel how the people who thinks indifferently thinks. Everyday we learn new things and we will have to think about new things. But will these things affect what had been taught since we were little? No. We will follow to what we were taught.

As a summary, I think that all human lives through karmic life. We will know what to do and what not to do. Everyday when we did something, will you think back on what you have done? Like when you prank your friend. Will you think that one day you will be prank as well? Yeah. This week's topic is quite easy for some ways. For the next presentation, it will be a new one. We will be talking about books and literature.

So long for now.

Cheerios,
YiXin

Week 3 Discussion 2: Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization

It's me back again. The topic that we discussed on last Wednesday was, Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization. It was quite fun to discuss. We will be discussing about a lot of logic. Well, in some sense, people nowadays have lots of logics till they have non of those. As an example, there are so many people neglected their children for money and for work. So they gave up time to spend with their kids. Children learns from their parents and they will also do it later when they grow up. They will think that it is logical to do so. But it is not.

Interesting fact isn't it? Just something about logic nowadays. The topic that we discussed on Wednesday, again, was Logic, Ethics and Attitudes to Knowledge in Asian Civilization. The group discussion was led by Wong Kah Yee, aka Jaise. Well, I knew her since my foundation years and we knew how each other works. So, it was lucky for me. She is a really good presenter, just that she need to polish her English. Just saying. No offence, Jaise.

So what Jaise talked about was that there are 3 readings this week. The 3 readings were all focusing on the 3 main influence or what we call ethnics in Malaysia, the Indian, the Chinese, and lastly the Islamic. It was all really long and confusing but thanks to Jaise who make all these things so much easier to understand.

So when we talk about 'logic', what comes to your mind? For me, it is something about common sense. Everyone have common sense. So, giving an example: A is C, B is C. So A is B. We can conclude it this way right? So yes. this is logic. In the 3 readings, they talk a lot about all these. In the first reading that we discussed, it was about Indian Philosophy. They have different type of argument when it comes to what centuries the civilization are. When there is a different period, there will be a different teaching. And in the conclusion, they have this Principles, where we can segregate people based on the way of their thinking. We have the Principle of Non Contradiction, the Principle of Excluded Middle and the Principle of Double Negation.

All these things are about what people thinks and how people thinks. And lastly on Indian Philosophy, we have Orthodox and Heterodox. It is different way of how people thinks. Orthodox people believes in the Trimurti and the Heterodox people are the other people that does not believe in the Trimurti. We know that India is a really big country and it can go as big as China. They have schools for all these people who teaches different logics, All these teachings somehow relates back to the historical background of what a country had gone through. Like for example, the Orthodox people learns logic through the books that were left by the ancestors about the trimurti. So, for what I think, it is all back to the roots.

In the second reading, we discussed on the Islamic Philosophy. For them, where I mean them is the Muslim people, their law is their logic and reasoning. Whatever they do, they must not disobey the law of their own. So when they think of logic, they are quite controversial about their thinking. There are different people stating different things like for instance, Abu Bishr Matta thinks that logic is not the superficial detail of a particular language and does not need to examine those ordinary lexical meanings when Abu Said al-Sirafi said that the logics that the Greek uses is only for their structure of the civilization and they do not do for others. This is like two different people saying two different things where one logic said that it should embrace other culture with different logic but the other says the opposite.

And when we talk about logic, Aristotelians thinks that logic is an Instrument and Platonists thinks that logic is as part of every civilization and philosophy and it is being related to some aspect of being. It goes very similar on what Abu Bishr and Abu Said says. But when I think of it, it just depends on how you want to put it in words. It's like how people think on one thing. It is the same as how people's common sense works. Different people have different logic and different way of thinking. There is also al-Ghazali and Avicenna's way of thinking. That is too much to talk about so I will just skip it. It's just basically what and how they define logic and philosophy.

Lastly on this, we have the famous debate of Essence vs Existence. This is a really famous debate. There is Avicenna's theory and Averroes's theory. They both have different way of saying this. Just a thoughts, it is essence that precedes existence. Things need to have an idea before that they were created. So this is what we meant by essence precedes existence. Just a thought. If you have different thoughts, please do not hesitate to comment below.

I know, I know. This is being very very longwinded. So I will cut things short. Last reading is on Chinese Philosophy. Chinese had been through so many dynasty and all those dynasty have their Own logic that was brought down to the next dynasty. And in the starting of everything we have the concept of Ying and yang. Ying is the negative and Yang is positive. Their logic is that when there is positive things, there will be negative things going together. It is very normal for them. Everything was created for a reason. Lastly we talk about the five phases which consist of Wood, Fire, Water, Metal and Wind. It is really famous is all of Chinese philosophy. It is by saying that which is suitable with witch and which is not suitable for which. Before marriage, we will be asking people of Feng Shui about this. They will tell us based on our Chinese Date of Birth.

So after we talk of all these, There are questions like is there really a god that exist? It depend on how people things actually. Some might think that there is and to those non believers, there are none. For me, As I am a Buddhist, while not a really deeply believing one, I do trust that there are god existing in this world. I also believe that there is not. In Buddhist's believe, we only think that there are Buddha and He is not a Creator. He is the first one who knew the life and death cycle while meditating for a week under the tree.

So another question that was asked by my classmate Jaise is that Civilization comes first or Logic and reasoning comes first? I would say that logic and reasoning surely comes first. While there is first thinking and only they will have a civilization.

Ending this chapter, It was really confusing for me as why people think so many things to confuse themselves. Hahahahahaha.. But it was really interesting to know that the logics behind the civilization. Every civilization starts from a believe and those believes soon to be manifested to the logic that we think now.

So long for now. I will be presenting and leading my class session next Wednesday. So if you want to know what I will be doing, just email me. I will tell you.

Cheerios,
YiXin

Week 3 Discussion 1: Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Asian Civilizations

Well, this week, the topic was Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Asian Civilizations. Yay!!! Just kidding. For me it was quite interesting as I did not know much of Judaism. This is a great chance for us to be discussing on this topic. The topic was lead by my classmate Shahrukh. Let me give a brief review on this topic first. When I first knew that I will be reading on this, It was a little scary as I never knew about Judaism before.

So, We first speak on, very briefly, about the story of Moses.Then, we discuss further on Christianity. Then Islam. I was told that Jesus was a Jew. Is it true? Can anyone confirm with me on this? And later after that, we disussed on Edict of Milan. So this is just a brief introduction about everything that we discussed.

Topic ended.



Just kidding. Hahahahahahahaha.. We still have not touched on those religions in Asian Civilization. Let's first talk on the Jews. The Jews can be founded at Kochi, Japan, China and SEA, specifically, in Myanmar. I think the Jews are later drove out of the country later by the Japanese during the World War for the reason that they were Allied with German.There are not much Jew in the whole continent in Asia. I think there are only 45k people in the whole of Asia. Well, it was wired. As I knew, Jews are quite a big society as in there are a lot of Jews. Speaking of Jews, what are they? I have still not much of understanding on the religion. What is to do with Germans and Jews? No idea. Anyone kindly enough, please comment below.

That is about the Jews. So about Islam in Asia. They are widely founded in Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey and some other more countries. For me, I knew how Islam was founded in Malaysia. It started around 15th century and the Kings of Malacca Empire. I think it's from the 4th King and it started since. He was the first King that was called Sultan where the Islamic people called their kings. How did they come to other parts of Asia? They started in the Middle East country where it is not called Asia right? This topic is getting more and more confusing by the moment.

So lastly, It was about Christian. How did they came into Asia? Last time we did learned that in our Malaysian History that when the Portugal people invaded the Malacca Empire, they came for 3 things, the gospel, gold and glory. So with the motto that they made, of course they came to spread out Christianity. They first came and they stopped at India. Only till the second time they came, they came to the Straits of Malacca. So is that where they stated to spread Christianity here? Are there not any signs of Christianity before that?

So time for the thoughts. Just be honest, I can't understand the leader of the group discussion. No offence. It was kind of hard for us to understand how he speaks. It was really quick. But, the better thing is that he did encourages us to keep on participating on the discussion as he will ask us some question and makes us to give out our own comments.

He did asked one question on the topic. Out of these 3 of the Religion, which one does endured the most? For my opinion, it was the Islam. Everyone seems to always been racist toward them in the past few years. No matter what they did, no matter what they say, It was those people of the stronger, who keeps on bullying them. This is civilization and from TITAS that I learned today, we discussed on the negative effects of civilization. When we discuss on this, the answer that the lecturer gave is that one big civilization always wants to stay on the top and it caused the people to go for war. Just to prove to people that they are the best and they are the leader of the world.

Not much to discuss. And so, I will be posting for the next discussion by today. The next discussion is on Logic of Thought in East and South Asian Civilizations. It is even more confusing than this topic.

Cheerios,
YiXin

Introduction to Eastern Civilization Discussion Week 2

This is a continuation of what I've written above. As a recap of my last post, I was being absent in my last session which is yesterday and one of my classmates Stephan who was the leader of the class discussion. I was being really blur when I was asked to do this. I forgot that I need to do this. So here goes. Here are some question that was posted by Stephan and was discussed throughout the session. I have to do it on my own. Yay for me. :(

1. What are the sorts of philosophies the East Asian Culture/Civilization lived by?

Asia is a really big continent with many different but unique country. They all have their own unique structure that made what they are now. So talking about the East Asian countries, we are talking about Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China. These are the most notable country in the Eastern Asia. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan's roots were all part of the China civilization, if I am correct. In in 4 of these country alone, there are already countless types of philosophy. What do I mean by philosophy here? By definition, It was given by my friend Stephan here that Philosophy is the Study of Fundamental Nature of Knowledge, reality and existence. It is we can put as another word, believes and theories.

Speaking on Believes, like how I've mention in my previous post, it varies a lot with culture and cultures we often put them together with our religions. So, correct me if I'm mistaken here, can I assume that believes is also speaking about religion? Well, that is what I think of. There are so many religion in China. COUNTLESS if I may. China is such a big country and who knows when there exists so many types of religion. But we here today are going to discuss on Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Shintoism.

2. Were there any differences between these philosophies in comparison to the Westerns at that time?

So relate back to the different materials that we are reading every single week, China was often marked as a curious land and remarkable. Well, I personally don't understand why they are marked as curious? Are there gold to dig in? I don't know. But Yeah. Westerners always mark this land as curious and remarkable. This made all these curious westerners research on the great land of China. What those westerners are doing is that they are looking across the ocean. So this is what the Westerners assume. They assume things that somehow are not true like how the China have all these religions.

Aside from that, there are these One World Cosmetology that was followed by the Chinese. It is somehow for me, like Feng Shui. Everything has to be in place. As we perceive, we Chinese people do believe in a lot of 'Qi' which translate in the Chinese Character as 气. This Qi is somehow like psychophysical energy that releases in various form and context. When we go into the jungle, we will pray and watch out for our mouth as there are spiritual energy in those forests. It may sound funny to some but this is what taught by my grandfather and what I will be teaching to my grandchild next time. It is all a part of the civilization. Back to our question. any differences? I say yes. Does the westerners thinks that there is qi? And we also have Ying and Yang which converse to Positive Energy and Negative Energy. Does the Westerners believe in those? I think they do. Only for the positive polar and negative polar. Just a Joke. Nothing too serious here.

Besides, we do also have Radial Harmony. It's that how we always revolves around a centre point. In my culture, we always do find a balance in things. Often we can hear that when there is too much Positive energy in one place, we will put some negative energy there. So to balance up something. Even our human characteristic. One couple, the female who talks a lot is better to find a male who listen more. This is where I agree that both the eastern and western culture have. They have the same thought on this thing but we do not know what it is called for each side. So, Cheers. It's simple science. When there is too much negativity, put in some positivity. So one more thing that I can conclude is that Civilization have a lot to do with science. We might talk about it later..

Lastly we have Philosophical Syncreticism. This means that even though there are differences in our culture and the civilization that happened, we still have things that are shared together. Not only western culture but also their teachings were brought into us when they came to us. Take Malaysia for an example. We are a multinational country that have different ethnicity and so with different believes and everything. So talking back to history. When the Britian came and concur us, they brought in their way of handling a country and so this is how we run our country now. Like the parliament and everything. So we learned things from them and not to say anything but they have also learned things from us. This is what we all can agree on.

3. What are the outcomes from these philosophies?

The outcome are so visible even those who are blind can see it. We are now living in a peaceful world and every country helps each other for things that they need. All these are moral values that came from those times when we were taught by our ancestors. They were brought down generation by generations, year by years, day by days. All the teaching from our culture and believes that we hugged so tightly on, embracing every single detail that were passed on by our ancestors, were it not part of the civilization we are talking about? All these are the good outcomes. The bad outcome is that one globe have to be separated into so many different parts. We all are human race. We should be as one. Everyday I can see news from everywhere saying that people died from being verbally bullied and the authorities could not do anything. Those bullies are the bad outcome of those philosophies. If there is no believes that teaches us to segregate among ourselves, there would not be any of these issues. This is just purely what I think of. Please don't be offended.

How does it been applied into present times? I must say that I'm currently out of ideas. Let me have a rest and I will edit this once I am clear of my mind.

So here is where I'm going to stop for this week's review. Tata for now.

Cheerios,
YiXin

Introduction to Eastern Civilization Group Discussion 1

Well well well, It's me back again. Initially this blog was supposed to be for Introduction to Journalism class's tutorial. 4 months after that, I finished that class and I would not want to leave this blog to useless piece of junk. So I intended to make it a News blog for me to update the current news in the world. But somehow, I do not have the time to do so. So It was thrown a side by this irresponsible me, YiXin.

This blog is again revived by me. There is a reason for that. In my current semester in UCSI University, I was to undertake the subject Eastern Civilization and I am pretty happy to do it. To be honest, it was not my first choice and I would not even DARE to risk my CGPA for this. But after a few classes, I think, SCREW THAT MY MIND!!! So no offence made to anyone I hope.

Alright. Let's get to the main point shall we??

The lecturer of the class SL105 Eastern Civilization is Dr Clarrisa Lee. She is a wonderful lecturer although I've only met her twice now. Some of you might ask why am I doing all these nonsense blogpost again. Well, I was given a privilege to design all my own way of doing my class homework. So I will write out all my thoughts and things in this blog, partly to revive this blog and mostly for my homework.

This week was a really unlucky week as I was really sick and I could not attend to the session that my classmate Stephan Netto did. I really regretted for not going to the class. I was totally blur when I realised that I also have to be doing this. Sorry Stephan. (If you did ever see this). So, all I can do is to imagine what my classmates and my lecturer had discussed in that small little classroom who someone once said that could fit more than 60 students. It was real.

This week's topic was regards to Dialogue of Civilizations: East and West and the Idea of an Asian Civilization. The first half was done by Dr Clarrisa herself to show us how to guide a class discussion. Many thanks to that. So here goes my thoughts and summary.

Who in the world of youngsters knew there were so many meanings behind one SIMPLE word of CIVILIZATION? Well, now that I've known partially about it, I wouldn't call it simple. It's such a grand word and there are so many things that could be discussed in it. I remembered about a question that Dr Clarrisa asked me. It goes SOMETHING like this: How does civilization happens? Is it a large group of people or small group of people?

So the question was something like that. I was half dead that time as I was not feeling too well but I clearly remembered my answer about it. I answered that it was started with a small group of people. They started all the civilization and they passed it down through every generation. It couldn't be for a civilization to be large at the very start. So that is what I answered. But now that I've think of it, is culture the same as civilization? Culture is that everything is passed down through generation. For example, the way of how my father holds his chopsticks was pass down through his father aka my grandfather and how I hold my chopstick was imitated by looking at how my father holds his chopsticks.

Isn't civilization the same? How one era succeed and failed, everything was passed down to another era to be learned. Pick up from the succeeded, improve those who failed, build it up, to be a civilization. To me, civilization has pass through a lot. Really, a lot. There are so many changes made through the civilization and there are those who was kept till today. Like how China has it own Civilization for being in the history for so long. Marking from the date of the most prominent true fact, it was marked at 1264 B.C. And how many eras were there? How many changes made? How many years till now they have built their civilization? To cut the story short, to me, civilization is like culture. It is being pass down generations by generation.

So After this whole passage on me saying what I think about civilization, let's look back to what we discuss on. Eastern Civilization. Many people think differently about eastern civilization. Some may think that it was a copy of the Western civilization. Some might think that they have their own way of civilizing. But there is a quote from Huntington. It goes like this:

The importance of regional economic blocs is likely to continue to increase in the future. On the one hand, successful economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-consciousness. On the other hand, economic regionalism may succeed only when it is rooted in a common civilization. The European Community rests on the shared foundation of European culture and Western Christianity. The success of the North American Free Trade Area depends on the convergence now underway of Mexican, Canadian and American cultures. Japan, in contrast, faces difficulties in creating a comparable economic entity in East Asia because Japan is a society and civilization unique to itself.Culture and religion also form the basis of the Economic Cooperation Organization, which brings together ten non-Arab Muslim countries: Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. One impetus to the revival and expansion of this organization, founded originally in the 1960s by Turkey, Pakistan and Iran, is the realization by the leaders of several of these countries that they had no chance of admission to the European Community. Similarly, Caricom, the Central American Common Market and Mercosur rest on common cultural foundations. Efforts to build a broader Caribbean-Central American economic entity bridging the Anglo-Latin divide, however, have to date failed.

Does civilization varies with one's economical status? For me I doubt that. Is this saying that only rich people deserve to have civilization? So if that is what they are thinking, are we apes that still lives in the tree or the gorillas who still living in the forest? LOL! Funny thing they could think this way. No offence to anyone. 

We human evolves through period of times. Everyone does the same thing, When we evolves, our brain starts to generate ideas. THOSE ideas are the one who created what we have now and now, the civilization that we are so proudly holding on to. The civilized people that we are today. How can people say that civilization varies through economic? 

So that was everything that we basically discuss on the FIRST session this week. I will post another one later today for the second session which is yesterday at 14/1/15. If so happen anyone who wants to comment on what I've said, please do. This is an open discussion to the whole world. Thank you and have a nice day.

Cheerios,

YiXin