http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/ en Copyright 2007 Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:46:40 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss How surprised I am when I find that I am in the newspaper. Actually , I have never been reported in the newspaper in China. But in America---the first time I have gone to America ---I go so far as to the newspaper. What a wonderful experience to me . And I am sure my parents and relatives will feel happy and surprised too . To be frankly, during this one mouth time, America , VCU and all the inters give me pleasantly surprised one after another . The clean environment of the city, comfortable living condition , friendly American people and hard working inters all give me a great impression and change my original opinion about USA. And I finally know why USA is the most powerful country in the world . The reason is highly developed education producing high quality people. If China wants to catch up , we should pay more attention to our education. Only the quality of people is improved , the country will flourish. Finally , I want to say I appreciate all the receptions here, thank you for all inters’ help. They are so nice . http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/08/i_am_in_the_newspaper.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/08/i_am_in_the_newspaper.html Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:46:40 +0000 My summer school program in VCU will soon come to an end. The day after tomorrow I will depart VCU for New York . How excited I am now and I cannot wait any longer to fly to the big apple. New York---the biggest city in USA ,also one of the biggest cities in the world ---is the economic ,culture , finance center of USA and even of the world . Various cultures and religious come together in this place sparking vigor and glamour of this city. What attracts me most is the diversity of this city. The people there come from different continents and different countries .They speak different languages and have different living style. But no matter how different they are, one point is the same ,that is to seek the dreams of themselves. And this city offers equal opportunities for different people only if they work hard. New York is similar to Shanghai. Both of them are the economic and finance center of respective countries . Of course , New York has a lot of advantages that Shanghai can learn from. I think mutual learning is benefit to both cities and countries . I love Shanghai and the live style there ,so I think I will also fall in love with New York. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/08/new_york_i_am_coming.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/08/new_york_i_am_coming.html Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:26:11 +0000 Considering how jazz is transcribed in Chinese (jueshi), you may be misledsintosassuming that it is an aristocratic cultural form. Nothing could be further from the truth. It originated among black Americans at the end of the 19th century, at a time when they occupied the very bottom of the American social heap. So how has something that was created by a once downtrodden and despised minority acquired a central place in today's American culture? Mr Darrell A Jenks, director of the American Center for Educational Exchange, analyses the phenomenon for us here. Jazz: the soul of America Perhaps the essence of America is that you could never get two Americans to agree on just what that might be. Certainly things like individualism, success ,innovation and tolerance stand out. But these things come together because of the ability to work with one another and find common purpose no matter how diverse they might be. Some, like African-American writer Ralph Ellison, believe that jazz captures the essence of America. For good reason,for in jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned above come together. The solos are a celebration of individual brilliance that can't take place without thesgroupsefforts of the rhythm section. Beyond that, though, jazz has a connection to the essence of America in a much more fundamental way. It is an expression of the African roots of American culture, a musical medium that exemplifies the culture of the Africans whose culture came to dominate much of what is American. Jazz brought together elements from Africa and Europe, fusing themsintosa new culture, an expression unique to the Americas. Out of this fusion came an idea that Americans believe central to their identity:tolerance.Americans acknowledge that in diversity is their strength.Jazz music is the embodiment of this ideal, combining elements from African and European culturesintosa distinctly American music. Jazz reflects two contradictory facets of American life. On the one hand it is a team effort,swheresevery musician is completely immersed in what thesgroupsdoes together, lis-tening to each of the other players and building on their contributions to create a musical whole. On the other hand, the band features a soloist who is an individual at the extreme, a genius like Charlie Parker who explores musical territoryswheresno one has ever gone before. In the same sense, American life is also a combination of teamwork and individualism, a combination of individual brilliance with the ability to work with others. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/08/jazz_in_america.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/08/jazz_in_america.html Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:18:02 +0000 I visited an ordinary American family yesterday. Carman Glass, the hostess, is a teacher who teaches Spanish in VCU. Her husband---ken is businessman. They have three daughters---Anna,Dania,Christina .One of them is 16years old. The other two are about 20 years old. The three girls are all pretty and beautiful but the youngest one was a little shy to us . However, it doesn’t matter, we enjoyed a wonderful time in their family. The whole family was so kind and hospitable . They treated us just as their family members. They prepared a lot of dishes for us . I had a wonderful dinner or maybe the best dinner since I came to USA. The hostess leaded us to walk around the community. I was impressed by the beauty of surroundings. How I admired that one day I could live in such a community to enjoy my life with my family. They raised a female dog named lisa which was a good girl. Though I am afraid of dog , I also made friends with lisa. Their house was a typical American style. The parents respected the decision right of the children, so all the living rooms of their daughter’s were decorated by their daughters. We enjoyed the different styles of different rooms. I think family democracy is a good way to keep harmonious relationship between parents and children. After dinner , the hostess taught us a kind of American card game which name was “spoon”. What a pity I failed at last but I enjoyed myself. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/home_visit.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/home_visit.html Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:32:04 +0000 In today’s lecture, senior director Yang Szu-Sung gave us some useful suggestions about culture adaptation. This is an important issue that everyone who is abroad will encounter. How to adapt the other culture quickly is essential to the people who wants to study , work or live in the other country. Culture shock cannot be avoided. What we can do is not to ignore it , but face it and capture it. So in order to adapt the other culture well and quickly, two things should be taken into consideration. The first is language ,the other is communication. To learn the other language well is the first step to adapt the other culture . It is impossible for a people whose language level is low can adapt the other culture well. When we learn a foreign language , not only we learn the spell and pronunciation of words but also learn the origin of this language as well as the origin of some key words. By dong so , we can understand the culture better because language is the reflection of the culture. Only learning language is not enough , we should communicate with local people as much as possible . Do not be afraid making mistakes. We all humans , that is to say mistakes cannot be avoided . To some extent ,mistakes are the must presupposition of promotion and success. So ,just devote ourselves to the local community , that is the bigger classroom for us to learn language and adapt the other culture. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/culture_shock.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/culture_shock.html Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:10:19 +0000 Material wealth is probably the most widely accepted measure of social status in America. Rejection of European class structure and the adoption of a more classless society saw the emergence of a substitute for judging social status. The quantity and quality of an individual material wealth became that substitute. However Americans pay a price for this: hard work. That is also the essence of America dream for many foreigners.That is to say if you want to be success,hard work is requested. The land and other rich natural resources were exploited by hard work as was the industrialization of America. The wealth generated was and is still converted into material possessions and a high standard of living. Hard work has rewarded many. Material possessions are the tangible evidence of this. During the past few days, I have witnessed the flourishing and rich of this country. There are various villas along the road. Almost everyone here owns at least one car. The whole city is clean and I can hardly see any pollution everywhere. The relationship between people is in harmony. I think that all of this mentioned above are the fruits of hard work of America people. Our country—China, is under the way of developing. Though the economy is increased significantly , the problems and crisis are revealed. For many people of China nowadays, the only goal of their lives is money . They want to be rich ,want to have an American style life, but they ignore some very important values during this process as justice , morality , conscience. Many of them make a fortune by cheating not by hard working. This kind of fortune is not what we want. Any one who has conscience should blame it or else our country will have no future. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/american_values_and_beliefs3ma.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/american_values_and_beliefs3ma.html Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:31:38 +0000 President Lincoln expressed the value of “equality of opportunity”. Americans understand this as the right to have equal chance for success in life but not that everyone is or should be equal. They see life as a race for success. Equality means that everyone should have an equal chance to enter the race and win. In other words, equality of opportunity may be thought of as an ethical rule by ensuring that the race for success is fair and that a person does not win just because he/she was born into wealth. If life is seen as a race, then a person must run it in order to succeed. A person must compete with others. This is the price paid for equality of opportunity. It is expected that everyone should attempt to be successful. Americans match their intelligence against that of their neighbors in a competitive contest for success. The more successful are considered as winners. The pressures of competition in life begin in early childhood and continue until retirement. Learning to compete and win is part of growing up. Competition and the desire to win are considered healthy and desirable. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/american_values_and_beliefsequ.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/american_values_and_beliefsequ.html Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:09:45 +0000 Due to limitation of the power of Government, Church and absence of Aristocracy, the early settlers created a climate of freedom with emphasis on the individual. The new independent United States (post 1776) instilled the concept of individual freedom, probably the most basic of American values. A key belief of people in individualistic cultures is that the smallest unit of survival is the individual. American culture is sometimes referred to as the “I” culture since it is the individual rather than the group which is emphasized. Freedom for Americans means the right of all individuals to control their own destiny without outside interference from government, a ruling class, church or other organized authority. Americans are therefore expected to take the initiative in advancing their personal interests and well-being and to be direct and assertive in interacting with others . A price is however paid for individual freedom: self-reliance. Americans believe that the individual must learn to rely on themselves or risk losing freedom. This often means achieving financial and emotional independence from parents at the earliest time possible. The need to “stand on theirs own feet” is considered a priority. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/american_values_and_beliefsndi.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/american_values_and_beliefsndi.html Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:15:59 +0000 In the past, I just saw the beautiful beach scene of America in TV. At that time , I wondered some day I would have a chance to wander by myself . Yesterday, this dream of mine came true. It was my first time to go to the beach. Also , it was my first time spend my weekend there. Surprised , curious and other complex feelings fixed together. Actually, I had never see such a beautiful beach as well as azure blue sea and clear sky. Because in China, especially in Shanghai, the pollution is heavily. I can hardly see the blue sky . The color of ocean near shanghai is yellow and a litter dark. But the Virginia beach and the ocean around it are quite different from the ones in China. In is a good place for people to relax ,how I admire that the American has such a good opportunity to relax themselves in such a wonderful place because in China , there are always numerous people in some famous scenic spot, especially during the national holidays, at that time, it would be a terrible experience if you visit such places due to little spaces which is belong to you. But here, the number of people in the beach was limited . I had enough spaces and resources to relax myself. During the whole day, I did a lot of entertainments such as played volleyball, surfing, played soccer and so on. The operation of the beach was quite professional in my view. There were enough supervisors on the beach to ensure the safety of tourists. The helicopters flied back and forth every other time. Al l these measures enhance my sense of security. I really spent a wonderful day on the beach and I will remember this place---virginia beach ----all the time. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/wonderful_beach.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/wonderful_beach.html Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:15:49 +0000 The main topic of today’s lecture is about media in America and China. As a matter of fact, the difference of media between China and USA is notable. From my viewpoint, there is no absolute freedom of media no matter in China and USA. I think the Chinese media suffers more control than the one of America. Yet, during the past 20 years , especially since the reform and the opening to the outside world, Chinese media has more rights to report different social issues. It can expose the corruption of some officials. It can report nature or social disasters. It can also make comments about the current governmental policy. But if you ask me whether Chinese media can report whatever it wants or not, my answer is negative. It still has a long way to go. For example, In China, if the media gives negative comments on central government or central leaders , it may make a trouble. Yet, the media can criticize the faults of some local governments , but the authority of central government can not be challenged. There is also a strict censorship system. All the reports should be supervised by certain agency of government . If government regards one report as a violation of certain ideology. The report will be forbidden .Besides that, the author of such report may be warned by the government . So in general , the media in China is under the strict control of our government and CCP. I don’t know whether it is a good or bad thing to my country. But I am used to it. After all, media should be controlled in my view. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/some_thoughts_from_todays_lect.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/some_thoughts_from_todays_lect.html Sat, 21 Jul 2007 02:53:48 +0000 I have finished a series of “first” since I came to America. For example, it is my first time to live in a total English-speaking environment as well as the first time for me to study abroad. It is also my first time to prepare dinner by myself . Today, I made the first meal ---tomatoes fried with eggs—by myself. Though it is so easy a dish, someone may feel ridiculous , for me, it is a break through .The most important is that my labor is approved by my friends and teachers. Their encouragement is the source of my proceeding. As a Chinese , I prefer Chinese food rather than western food. However, around VCU campus , it is not very easy to find a Chinese restaurant. Though at last I find one, the cost of food sold there is expensive. That is to say , I can not afford to have dinner there everyday. Tonight , I ,together with my friends decided to solve the “problem” by ourselves . But the only dish I can cook is just “tomatoes fried with eggs”. What is worse is that I have not practice this dish ever before . I just know the way to cook but have not do it yet. At first ,I distrusted myself and did not dare to do. But one of my friends just encouraged me to devote myself and don’t be afraid of failure. Finally , the fact tells everything. I did’t dissatisfy my friends. And my fruits were approved by great majority. The conclusion is that “trust yourself ,you will be better”. None of us is expert in every field. When we encounter an unfamiliar field , we need to give ourselves more chances , more confidence as well as more encouragement . We can make miracle only if we break through the blocks of our hearts. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/another_first.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/another_first.html Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:08:08 +0000 Today is Monday ---the first day of a week. Today is Monday--- also the first day of my trip to USA. Excited, nervous, joyful, curious---these motions blend together as soon as I arrive here---the totally new world to me . Before I come to USA, I have learned a lot about America through different medias. I have got the basic knowledge of America politics and policy making due to my major. I have some impressions about ordinary people’life by watching America TV plays or films. I have learned the necessary common senses about American geographical features by taking school courses. As if I were familiar with this country , but the fact is opposite . I realize that this country is mysterious to me in almost every aspects after coming here. I am now full of curiosity to know ,to understand the country better. By now, I have two deep impressions about this country ---more exactly--- both about the traffic condition of the place where I am now. America is regarded as a country on wheels. This is a proper statement to describe this country . I have seen various kinds of automobiles parking of driving around the campus during these two days. And there is little people walking on the street even in the day . The whole town appears a little desolate. This is my first deep impression about the traffic condition around VCU campus. My second deep impression is that though there are various cars on road, the drivers almost do not ring the horn---at least I do not hear a ring. It is impossible in China. Maybe this phenomenon is just the symbol of high civilization of USA. And in my opinion , Chinese drivers should learn from America drivers. With the days continue , more and more fresh phenomenon will be discovered .And I am sure that I can learn this country better through this summer school program. http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/beginning.html http://blog.vcu.edu/luy5/2007/07/beginning.html Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:18:51 +0000