Journal 2

Reflect on the progress made in American and Chinese societies.

The CDE lessons have been pretty informative in the past few weeks, going very in depth with the individual presentations of students, and more information supplemented by Mr Karplus. However, I felt that it has been a little too content heavy, despite giving us brief gasps of air during the class discussions, and we could probably go for a more attractive lesson, like the first few which had videos most of the time.

To talk about the progress made in American and Chinese societies, we must first define what progress is. In my opinion (and in the context of this module), progress refers to how much more freedom women have within the society, and how much more people take note of politics. However, we must be prudent in our choice of indicators for this progress, or any progress of the sort, as the wrong one could result in a false positive or false negative, and in our case, a combination of various social indicators would probably be the best.

Political apathy is a prevalent plague in both America and China, more so in China I believe. The chinese were politically active in the 20th century, with the youths particularly active in the later half, due to the various economic and political issues that popped up within the country. This happened much earlier in the United States, possibly as they embraced democracy much sooner than the Chinese, and also allow for the freedom of speech, unlike China which has a strict censorship system in place, bringing about more discussion on the political issues among the people.However, it is interesting to note that the times when people are the most politically active are during times of turmoil and trouble, regardless of country. Political apathy in both countries today could possibly be attributed to the reduction in social and economic problems within the country, or even the ignorance of the people to such problems. It is observed that the population of the country, may it be America or China, are relatively satisfied with the status quo (except in certain rural parts in China, and possibly the lower income group in America, both of which make up the minority in the population), and hence do not want or find the need to be active or aware about the politics happening in the country, as whoever is doing their job wherever they are are already doing it pretty darn well, and who wouldn't like that? This in face could be the main reason why the people of both countries have "progressed" to become a politically apathetic society.

In both America and China, women are still discriminated against, especially in the workforce. Under Mao Zedong, the women in China were equal to their male counterparts, equally poor and hungry, but nonetheless equal. However, in present day, women are discriminated against in employment (especially pregnant women), and in pay. In America, the situation is quite the opposite, women have progressed from being oppressed and underrepresented, to becoming an increasingly dominant force in the economy and politics. This divergence in the progress within both countries, one backwards and another forward, could be a reminder of how different both countries' history are. The chinese have their traditional confucian thinking which dictates that women should submit to their husbands, and as the confucian way is deeply rooted within the chinese society, it is no wonder that some of them stubbornly cling to such backward thinking, instead of evolving the way of thinking to suit the present situation. The American society however, have women being very vocal, beginning with them fighting for suffrage, moving on to working rights and such. The open platforms and freedom of speech available in America serves as a great catalyst for the rise of women (despite them still not on equal ground as men yet), allowing them to garner support and progress in the area of gender equality.


Even though the world is so big, the problems plaguing different countries are so similar. Both America and China have been fighting for progress within their own societies, but without an overhaul of the mindsets of the people, and making certain processes (in hiring, setting basic pay levels, etc) more transparent, this progress will begin to slow down as we reach certain limits, ones that we set for ourselves.

CDE lesson 1

First Lesson of CDE

I feel pretty excited about the lessons of CDE that are ahead. The syllabus is attractive, the teacher is interesting, and the mode of assessment is the same fun thing again! As a student who hopes to further his studies in the US in the future, I find it very helpful to understand more about the country in my secondary school years first, instead of having a great culture shock when I get there (if I get there). However, I am slightly intimidated by the syllabus too, as there are many topics that I am unfamiliar with and I have no confidence in doing them well. I am particularly interested in the education aspect of the east and west.

We kick started the with the viewing of a few commercials that highlighted cultural differences between the east and the west. Even though we watched it before last year, it still helped to remind us about how important cultural awareness is. From this, I believe that CDE brings the essence of BSP to us in a single subject, rather than having either only Chinese related or English related information during normal BSP lessons and the past term's American literature. It is good for us to finally be able to look at both cultures side by side explicitly, and being able to discuss about issues pertaining to both cultures at once rather than seperately, which could lead to some interesting dialogue (which I have imagined going on in my head but never really happened during any BSP lessons).

The materials from the first lesson gave me an interesting view on the american and chinese youth, albeit much of it being covered in our BSP lessons already. What we knew was from the viewpoint of the chinese society, and it has been a great experience to learn about how the westerners perceived the (selfish) actions of the youth.