Blog for dingx

This morning we took the lecture about the American literature given by professor James Kinney. He mainly talked about the different periods in history of literary works in the US. I have already read some of the books he listed on the handout, such as A Farewell to Arms, Sister Carrie and the Grapes of Wrath. But there are also many books mentioned in the lecture that I've not known, like Lost in the Funhouse or Gravity's Rainbow. And I found myself so interested in these stories that I really want to have a look at these books right now.
Though American history is pretty short with no more than three hundred years, but the American culture is so rich with which there is hardly a nation on earth can compete at present.
Though the WASP culture is still the core of the American society, there has been so many changes through the years that more identities have been acknowledged, such as African Americans, native Americans, Hispanic Americans, so on and so forth. The multiculturalism is gradually taking the upper hand while the values such as ethnocentrisms has begun to fade away.
Also, as we learned, America is called the melting pot while countries like Canada is seen as a salad bowl. I used to wonder what is the difference between the melting pot and the salad bowl. And after finishing all these wonderful lectures at VCU, here is my understanding: In the US, though there are people from a variety of social and religious background, the inner force of the society, say, the American value, is still so strong that it always can internalize different values and beliefs. The American value, from my perspective, are things like freedom, democracy, the spirit of exploration, heroism, materialism, etc. In a melting pot, different ingredients will still have different functions and flavors, but on the whole, their forms are changing, and they gradually become alike, and finally they are internalized as a whole which is Americans. However, in countries like Canada, people of various kinds live together and maintain their own identities. There is not such a forceful idea that can make people give up their original lifestyles. And therefore, one of my former friends who has already immigrated to Canada told me that she didn't observe huge differences between living in Ottawa and living in Beijing, because she lives in the way most people live in China; she speaks Chinese, eats Chinese food and celebrates Chinese festivals.
This is the first time I came to America, and so far I've learned a lot, played a lot and I've been thinking about many issues concerning America and my country. There's no doubt I'll miss here so much, the interns, the teachers, the fascinating places I've been to, the wonderful conversations I've shared with people here, and the lovely experiences I've had for the last three weeks. I want to thank all the people that have been so generous and kind to help me, and my friends, and I can tell this will be one of the most valuable and memorable periods of time in my life.

Since I arrived in the States, there have been many opportunities of getting me in touch with the American music. It seems to me that music is indeed a very essential part of American students' daily life. When we were in Erik's apartment in Richmond, we saw so many instruments put in a single room, some of them guitars and drums. Both Erik and his roommate Billy love to play guitars, and they can do it very well. They also had the video game in which they can use the handle to follow the movement of the beats in a song.
Last night we went to listen to a Jazz presentation. It was cool to hear the typical American music. Though this is not the first time that I got exposed to Jazz music, it still sounded pretty new to me. To me, the tuneless music to some extent symbolizes the freedom of America, and the mingled anger and joy inside the music makes it more thought-provoking and rich in meanings.
Talking about American melodies, I also like the country music which may seem a bit old-fashioned but genuinely dulcet and catching, maybe because I'm a sort of nostalgic person. But generally speaking, American music is my type.

The charming girl we met in the party on Saturday was called Whitney. She is one of Erik's friends. Through the conversation, we knew that she is a sort of environmentalist. She got a great sense of environment protection. For example, she always chooses to walk within short distance instead of driving her car, and when she buys stuff in the supermarket, she always looks for goods made in the local area which basically needn't be sent from far-flung areas through transportation.Her roommate was originally a person caring not so much about the environment issue, but has been transformed by her into someone who puts personal convenience and the benefits of surroundings in an equal position. Whitney obviously was pretty proud of what she had done to change people's minds around her. And I really appreciate her dedication to the protection of our environment.
This pushes me to think about another issue related to the same topic. Could human beings make the economic progress and environment protection go together? Are these two things always contradicting with each other? And why people usually choose to realize the maximization of material profits at the costs of poisoning the environment? Gore's film the unspeakable truth shows people how nature tends to revenge on the irresponsible deeds of human being, and I think we really should devote much time to solving this serious problem right now.

Monday at noon we went to the downtown area in Charlottesville where there were loads of bookstores and places to eat, and there is an eating place called the York Place which is said to serve delicious Chinese dumplings and noodles. So we went in. I saw my classmate Mellon and she told me that the patron here was a native Beijinger. At the same time I was shocked to hear someone behind the serving table speaking very authentic Beijing accent. I turned around seeing one guy busying himself with serving the customers. He looked exactly the same as the people I saw in many Hutongs in Beijing. They like chatting with people and they don't care much about the their outer appearances. But he looked pretty cool. The food we had there was really tasty. The dumplings tasted even better than those we had in China. And so did the noodles.
We had great fun there, and before leaving the restaurant, Wu Jie and I took a picture with him in front of the gate. It felt good meeting someone from one's hometown on a foreign land. Even though most of the time we don't know each other, but we can sense there are always some cultural links there.

Monticello is one of the most prestigious historic sites in America, and after visiting both the Capitol in Richmond and Monticello, I found the American traditional style of building is inherited from Greece, and mostly applied by Thomas Jefferson. I think there are indeed some differences between the idea of a Chinese historic architecture and that of an American one.
The most obvious distinction between these two is color. The classic Greek style is white, but given the fact that in China there used to be so many empires, the most classic color is yellow, or golden, especially in places such as the Forbidden City and the Yonghe Palace in Beijing. Golden architectures symbolized the indisputable authority of the royal family, and therefore common people were not allowed to paint their house in yellow at that time.
Then comes their differences in terms of the relationship with nature. What I have found in America is that the historic buildings established more close connection with the surroundings. For example, Monticello is so intimately linked with the nature that the building, the large piece of grassland and the hills in the background cannot be separated. However, in China, the historic royal buildings are always located on a large piece of land, and the essence of the architectures is magnificence of the style, but not the coexistence with nature. But if we put the royal buildings aside and have a look at the traditional buildings in the southern part of China, such as Jian Su and Fu Jian Province where the atmosphere is more peaceful and harmonious, the style is completely different, for the art of Yuan Lin is mainly shown through the correlation between the living place and the environment.

Erik's house is set in a woods where trees looked tall and strong. The whole land seemed very tranquil and refreshing. There are two cats in his house, both of them cute and lovely. I always dream about having a place far from the hustles and bustles of the city, and after spending much time here, I found this dream grow concrete. I can picture exactly what sort of house I want to have in the future. The William and Mary College also gave me the same kind of feeling. Located in the isolated woods in Williamsburg, this college has the air of both peace and intelligence. I do like these two places. There's no doubt I'll miss them both!