WR 121 2011Fall Essay 3: Occupy Wall Street: Time to week up from the dream

Xiaorui Huang
WR121 College Composition I
Essay 3
Grade: A

 

Occupy Wall Street: Time to week up from the dream

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) series of nationwide demonstrations has lasted for 90 days and is expected to continue and expand. Speaking for both middle and lower classes, the OWS gains consents, if not support, from plenty of people and social groups. However, accusation and vilification from the rich and politicians against the protests have never ceased. A well-known example is from Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate. Cain argues about the protestors “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!” While attributing all miseries of those who suffered to their personal responsibilities, Cain based his statement on the ideology of American Dream that everyone has equal opportunity to succeed and those who pay efforts will be rewarded. However, the OWS, what Cain criticizes, unveils exactly the fact that American Dream is merely a myth because the protests show how corporate power makes the society unequal by differentiating people’s life chance by influencing job market, the real estate market and the government policy making.

Cain’s argument is not unpopular. His relentless words earned cheers at the Republicans presidential debates. Those who agree with Cain may argue that the lower classes deserve no more than what they possess currently because that is what their personal efforts and competency can give them. By taking stance with the long-time ethos of American Dream, which defined by writer James T. Adams as a “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”. According to this definition, the American playing field is equal; everyone will get their niches according to their competency and efforts. Paupers take drugs and suffer, the wealthy work and earn.

As a national ethos, American Dream has undeniably contributed the prosperity of this country and some people indeed have earned a success through personal efforts, yet, considering the recent social trends, things have deviated since 1970s. According to the Congressional Budget Office, since 1979, the top 1% wealthiest family has increased their average annual pre-tax income by around $700,000, while that of the bottom 90% decreased by $900 (2011). There figures demonstrate that most American people’s lives do not get better and richer as stated in the definition of American Dream.

Also in the American society, the opportunities are not corresponding to personal ability or achievement. On the contrary, the rich buy more opportunities with their money and then gain achievement and the cloak of personal super power. We cannot subjectively judge whether or not Bill Gates is extraordinary smart, but what is certain is that without his wealthy parents buying him into the expensive Lakeside School, he would have no chance to access computers as a secondary school student, to develop his interest and skills, and to trigger his Microsoft empire. Based on the research of psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winner, about the capabilities of wealthy people, being wealth does not necessarily correlate to personal competence (2011). In other words, life chance does not accord with abilities or achievements in the American society.

A land in which lives of the majority get worse and poorer, with opportunities for uncorrelated to ability or achievement but money. This is the society what we have, exactly opposite the wonderland in American Dream, yet, this cruel truth has not been publicly acknowledged until the OWS protests. For many protestors, their salaries become increasingly insufficient to afford a living, some lost their jobs and some had their houses foreclosed. This is largely caused by the corporate power that makes the playing field uneven.

The unemployment and welfare downgrade are the results of corporations’ socializing risks and privatizing rewards. On one hand, when economic recession occurs, companies transfer their burdens to employees through layoffs, salary cut, and welfare downgrade. In this way, the rich company owners and high management minimized their loss while employees suffer. For some company, executives even get rewards by “promptly save the company”. On the other hand, during boom period, companies can gain large profits. While the majority of the benefit becomes the bonus of the high management due to their “excellent decision making”, only a small piece of pie is distributed among middle and lower-level employees. In addition, it is because a boom period usually accompanied by some inflation, the slight numerical increase of employees’ wages almost vanishes. In this sense, because of the corporate power, lower classes financially suffer in both economic recession and boom, while the rich accumulate their wealth. 

 House foreclosure, another serious problem lower-classes confront, is also brought about by corporate power. When bubbles appear in the real estate market corporations continuously encourage people to invest on properties. As price goes unaffordable, corporations lure people to loan from them and the company owners huge earn profit from the mortgage. Then when bubble bust, the loaned house owners suddenly find their houses become negative equity (e.g. the value of the house is lower than the money they lend from bank to purchasing the house). When unexpected financial emergencies come, the house owner can neither continue afford the loan nor sell the house (as no one will buy a negative equity) but to have it foreclosed (anon., 2010). Since lower-classes people much less available contingency fund, foreclosure is much more likely to occur to them than to the rich. Indeed, the bubble also impact corporation owners greatly, yet, their networking with the policy makers can always earn them a bailout. It is clear that corporate power also privileges the rich and exploit the poor in the real estate market.

By putting money in election campaigns of all levels, corporations and the wealthy also extend their power to government policy making, which aggravates the inequality on people’s life chance. Not only a bailout in crises, corporation boards gain benefits from policies very often. A typical example is the policy on tax reduction for business and wealthy. This policy is cloaked by the lie of “trickle-down economics” that the wealth increase of the upper class by tax reduction can trickle down to eventually benefits the whole society. The wealth of the rich never leak downward even for a little bit. This kind of class-biased policy inevitably results in the expanding gap of wealth in this country. The rich get richer because they have money to buy these policies while the poor have to suffer.

Lurking in the myth of American Dream, corporations are encroach on vital aspects of our lives, namely incomes to pay our living expenses, shelter to inhabit our bodies, and governments to regulate our society. The Occupy Wall Street protests make these uneven playing fields visible, which is important but the very first step. With the awareness of these inequalities, it is now the moment to restore the once profaned ideology of American Dream, the pursuit of a society that truly rewards everyone with what they deserve, as the dream of the America. Try to alleviate the social inequalities and eventually make America an even playing field, this is what we should do next!

Reference

Kahneman, D. (2011). Daniel Kahneman: How cognitive illusions blind us to reason - Science - The observer. Retrieved December 8, 2011 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/30/daniel-kahneman-cognitive-illusion-extract

(anon) (2010). Why foreclosure happens - Foreclosureradar. Retrieved December 8, 2011 from http://www.foreclosureradar.com/foreclosure-guides/foreclosure-101/why-foreclosure-happens

Whoriskey, P. (2011). CBO: Incomes of top earners grow at a pace far faster than everyone else’s - The Washington Post . Retrieved December 9, 2011 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/cbo-incomes-of-top-earners-grow-at-a-pace-far-faster-than-everyone-elses/2011/10/26/gIQAHlVFKM_story.html

(anon.) (2011). Occupy wall street - Wikipedia. Retrieved December 8, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street#cite_note-ref_name-41

(anon.) (2011). American dream - Wikipedia. Retrieved December 8, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_dream

WR 121 2011Fall: Essay 1: Reflection on In-school English Education in China

Xiaorui Huang
WR121 College Composition I 
Essay1
Grade: B+

 

Reflection on In-school English Education in China

The past decade has seen a boom of the English learning market in China. Thousands of after-school English training centers have been established to meet the needs of Chinese ESL learners. Numerous current students from formal pre-tertiary schools constitute the majority of the after-school English learner group. It is worth noting that these students take English class both in- and after- school. This fact makes people wonder what it is that drives these students to spend substantial time and money studying the same subject, English, in two places at the same time. Pursuing opportunities to study abroad could account somewhat for the large number of students, nevertheless, the unsatisfactory quality of formal English course in schools is probably the root.

Today’s in-school English education in China, although improved by several reforms, focuses on standardized examination almost exclusively. Practically, it neither treats English as a tool of communication nor as a medium of literature. Furthermore, it instills students with an incorrect learning model, which probably undermines their future language learning.

Languages fundamentally function as tools of communication. This should also be the primary goal of language teaching in elementary and secondary schools. In fact, nearly all series of formal English teaching materials in China include contents of conversational English. However, due to the implementation of standardized test, these daily English contents must also be formulated in some formats that are applicable to standardized grading system. This combination of daily English and standardized test results in inflexibleness of teaching contents and methods. For example, 10 years ago when I was in elementary school in China, teachers required me to respond to the question “How are you?” by “Fine, thank you! And you?” in both class practice and tests. Last year, I acted as a voluntary English teacher in an elementary school in another province of China. When I greeted those kids with “How are you?”, they answered ”Fine, thank you! And you?” without even thinking. I was shocked not only by the identical words they used, but also by the obviousness of their conditioned-response. In English speaking countries, we all know that various sentences can answer “How are you?” and they keep changing with time. English as a tool of communication, like any languages, is highly dynamic and flexible. Teaching English in such a rigid way, as teachers do in China, can do only but mislead the students. Eventually, the English education in pre-tertiary schools will deviates from the goal to teach practical English for communication purpose.

English is somehow treated as a rigid or dead language in formal schools in China. Someone may guess that English education in China focuses on literature, like Latin teaching in western countries. Indeed, the English teaching materials used in China include extracts from some of the great authors, like Mark Twin and Jack London, and it is common in secondary schools in China is to use these literary works to teach student reading comprehension. However, unlike the way we treat Chinese literature, with discussion and inquiries into the human spirit, students are only taught to learn vocabulary and sentences from the English works. What made these masterpieces great, the insights of authors, are excluded from the classroom. I can still remember the paragraphs of The Old Man and the Sea from which I learned several verbs about paddles. However, I did not know how much meaning it is behind the persistent old fisher until I read the Chinese version on my own later. It turns out that the English classes in secondary schools in China treat literature as no more than vocabulary and sentence guide books. In other words, English’s function as an approach to literature is virtually neglected.

Daily English but no flexibility, literature but no insight, then what are left for students to pick up in English classes? I see only vocabulary, grammar and basic sentence structures. Indeed, they are fundamental building blocks of English learning. Nevertheless, without teaching students the ability to use English to communicate effectively or to appreciate great works and gain insights, English education becomes rather meaningless. What students spend years learning is literally a subject to be tested and nothing more.

The current English teaching in pre-tertiary schools in China is not only pointless but also harmful. After nine years in mandatory schooling and attending English classes, students are trained to be passive note-takers and rigid memorizers but not active communicators and independent thinkers, at least with regard to English. They tend to rely on stuff like word lists, grammar guides and mock exam papers in their future language study. This way may work with an ultimate goal of passing examinations, but to master a language we need to do far more than just passing exams. We need to master their communication etiquettes and understand the social and cultural background behind languages. Can note-takers and memorizers possibly do this well? Unlikely. Therefore, today’s in-school English education in China instill students an incorrect learning mode, which will undermines students’ future language study.

What students acquire from formal English class in China are a singular response to “How are you?” and several verbs from The Old Man and the Sea. What students lose are their active learning habits. This is the image for current in-school English teaching in China. It is then understandable that plenty of students choose to attend after-school English training. Not redundant, but they just want to pick up what they miss in schools.

     In after-school English training centers, students learn both vivid conversational English and comprehensive literature appreciation effectively. I have studied in two training centers and visited the other two. They basically provide two streams of classes, namely Social Talk and Salon. In Social Talk series, instructors organize discussions on topics vary from social etiquette to current energy crisis. Unlike in formal school, students here do not learn how to answer in tests but how to contribute in discussions and benefit from them. In other words, they acquire practical skills for effective communicate, knowledge about current issues and cultural background in English speaking countries.  

    For the Salon series, students learn to appreciate popular novels, plays and movies in English. According to my experience, instructors post a guide sheet online several days before class. Students are encouraged to preview the works that will be discussed. Then in class, instructors will lead students to share their insights of the works. The exchange of ideas deepens students’ understanding of the works. Meanwhile, with the knowledge they gain from Social Talk classes, students sometimes discuss connections between the works and reality. In this process, students’ overall appreciation skills are improved considerably.

Apart from the core activity, teaching, after-school English training centers also devoted to simulate a native English speaking context. In all of the training centers I have been, most their non-teaching staff are recruited with adequate English skills for social and business occasions while instructors are all native speakers of English. If clients agree, they will be communicated in English from the reception desk to course counseling office, let alone classrooms. As a result, learners of these training centers even improve their English skills by just being there.

     What after-school training centers succeed to teach, daily English and literature appreciation, are exactly those students who are disappointed in formal school yearning for. Together with their constructive English speaking atmosphere, after-school training centers outstrip formal pre-tertiary schools in English education greatly. Formal schooling itself is purely for educating people. Therefore, to achieve a better English education for all students, formal pre-tertiary schools in China should learn from the after-school English training centers. Specifically, it is suggested that discussion be encouraged to alleviate the rigidity in teaching methods. Besides, singular standardized answer could be substituted by open reference answers to restore the liveliness of daily English. Human spirit should also be included in the teaching of literature.

GEC 2606 2010-2011 Semester 1 Research Paper: Corridors in Private and Royal Traditional Chinese Gardens

 

Xiaorui Huang

GEC 2606 Appreciation of Chinese Art

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Research Paper

Score: A

Corridors in Private and Royal Traditional Chinese Gardens:
 

 A comparison in corridors between

The Humble Administrator’s Garden and The Summer Palace 

 

Widely acted as covered routes that provide visitors directional guidance as well as adequate weather protection, corridors are massively used in traditional Chinese gardens (Chen, 2001). However, differences exist in some specific aspects of corridors between royal and private gardens in China. In this essay, I will refer to the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Summer Palace as the representatives of private and royal gardens and make a comparison between the corridors in these two gardens. Firstly, the common points between them will be discussed and interpreted. Then I will mainly focus on the distinctions and finally a conclusion will be drawn.

Similarities in the corridors between the Summer Palace and the Humble Administrator’s Garden mainly lie in the roof structure and materials. Firstly, the roof structure designs of corridors in these two gardens are almost identical. As shown in Figure 1, the corridor roofs in both two gardens are supported by two layers of timber joists that are connected by hangers. Besides, two timber purlins are placed on the top of the second joist to support the upper section of rafters. This roof design actually involves the concept of a flying bird which could be dated back to the Shang Dynasty (Lam, 2001). As a classical architectural element created by the Shang rulers, the “flying bird” design expresses a feeling of floating in the air (Lam, 2001). Since roofs act as overhead shields, it is necessary to create a sense of secure that they will not collapse. The “flying bird” design fulfills this requirement because it gives people an impression of floating. Consequently, this design was widely adopted by architects to both private and royal architects during the history of Chinese traditional architecture.

 

Figure 1 Roof structure and flying bird. The Humble Administrator’s Garden (upper left);

The Summer Palace (upper right)

Along with the roof structure, in the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Summer Palace, same materials (i.e. timber) were applied to build the corridors roof and pillars. The use of timber is also partly related with the sense of secure. Compared with other common construction materials like stones and bricks, timber is the lightest and is more suitable to build “flying-bird-roof’ that express the feeling of floating (Lam, 2001). In contrast, heavier brick and stone will somewhat make people feel unsecure once applied as roof materials (Lam, 2001). Besides, timbers are easier to get, manufacture and construct than stones and bricks. Considering these advantages of timber, the massive use of it on corridor roofs in both the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Summer Palace is understandable.

Though the roof structure and materials are similar, corridors in the Humble Administrator’s Garden and in the Summer Palace distinguishes from each other. The corridor type, route and color style are the three major differences between them.

The most fundamental contrast lies in the corridor types. In the Humble Administrator’s Garden, most corridors are supported by timber columns on one side and a brick wall on the other side. And there is a parallel corridor on the other side of the wall (as shown in Figure 2). According to Wang (2009), this type of corridor is named double corridor and can provide the functions of both corridors and partition walls. In private gardens, it is commonly applied to “extend the space”. Generally, the spaces of private gardens are limited. If there is no partition, the whole garden can be seen by visitors at one single place, which directly unveils the limited scale of the garden and is unimaginative and inferior (Chen & Yu, 1986). By using a double corridor, only one side of scenery could be appreciated by the visitors when they walk on it and they have to go through the corridors on the other side of the wall if they want to see the scenery there. This method “forces” visitors to cover the same route twice and significantly extend the “visitable zones” in the limited space. In addition, to reduce the tedium caused by the monochromatic walls, window openings with engraved decoration were created. The scenery on the other side of the wall may give visitors particular impressions through these openings, which is also an effective way to attract visitors (Zhang, 1991).

Figure 2 Double corridor in the Humble Administrator’s Garden

Different from the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the open corridor instead of the double corridor is the major type erected in the Summer Palace (Figure 3). An open corridor refers to those that have both two sides supported by columns (Zhang, 1991). The main purpose to apply open corridors is to provide a weather-proof pathway without obstruct the sight from one side of the corridor to the other. Besides, visitors in an open corridor can appreciate scenes on both sides. The widely use of it in the Summer Palace is related with the natural condition of the garden as well as the dominant and egocentric characteristics of the rulers.                          

 

 Figure 3 open corridor in the Summer Palace

For natural condition, the Summer Palace is of large space and contains substantial natural sceneries. Compared to their counterparts in the private gardens, those scenic spots in the Summer Palace are in much larger amount and scale （(anon),Dan Qing Tu Shu You Xian Gong Si, 1987）. Thus, space extending techniques like partition are basically unnecessary. Moreover, the use of partition may further damage the grand landscape of the real mountains and rivers. Considering the dominant and egocentric personalities of imperial family (they tended to remove or destroy whatever hinders them), the non-sight-obstructing open corridors are much more favorable than double corridors in royal gardens like the Summer Palace.

The corridor routes in these two gardens are also of conspicuous difference. In the Humble Administrator’s Garden, designers intentionally applied turnings and gradients to the corridors and made them highly tortuous and waved. According to Ji Cheng[1] and his famous book Yuan Ye (The craft of garden), this design greatly infuses changeability to visitors’ view. Specifically, when walking in the tortuous corridors, the viewers’ sight scenery will keep changing in direction. Thus, scene “varies” as viewers move, which creates a “dynamic” topography in the garden (Chen & Yu, 1986). Besides, bended design of corridors could also create a sense of space stretching for visitors. This is achieved because twisty corridors together with partition walls, groves and rockeries separate the space into many different isolated parts （(anon),Dan Qing Tu Shu You Xian Gong Si, 1987）. As shown in Figure 4, when walking through tortuous corridors, visitors will encounter these particular sceneries one by one and each one can give them a brand new impression. Consequently, visitors will gain a feeling that they have gone through several different spaces instead of only one in the straight-corridor-case. Since private gardens are generally quite small, this space-extending esign

is of great significance and is commonly applied.       

 

 

 Fgure 4 the Humble Administrator’s Garden (upper); the Summer Palace (middle); Model of straight corridors and zigzag corridors (bottom)

In contrast, having the Long Corridor as the representative, corridors in the Summer Palace are relatively straight and flat. Though Chen (2001) pointed out that the route of the Long Corridor undulates with terrain elevation of south Longevity Mountain and shoreline of the Kunming Lake, it is far less tortuous than its counterparts in private gardens. As mentioned before, “extending space” is less important in the Summer Palace. Instead, providing convenient, comfortable and weather-proof transport channel to connect scenic spots that disperse in a large area comes to the first priority. With a relatively straight route to achieve shorter length and four pavilions for rest, the Long Corridor fulfills this requirement. Besides, as architecture in a royal garden, the Long Corridor (Figure 5) is grand because of its straightness and symmetry. This somewaht reveals its owner’s dominance and elegance.

Figure 5 the symmetry of Long Corridor (Retrieved from Google Map)

Color style of corridor is another significant factor that differ the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Summer Palace. In general, most corridors in the Humble Administrator’s Garden are painted in black, grey and white style whereas in the Summer Palace they are much more colorful. For private garden especially those in Suzhou and Hangzhou, designers intended to make them places for living in seclusion. This could be deduced from these gardens’ names like the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Master of Net Garden[2]. Therefore, stressed by Ji Cheng, simplicity, plainness and tranquility are fundamental elements that should be employed in garden design. Explained by Chen & Yu (1986), designers were supposed to “pursue tastefulness and eschew vulgarity” (p.35). Regarding the tinting, on one hand, the natural colors of materials themselves are highly preferred （(anon),Dan Qing Tu Shu You Xian Gong Si, 1987）. Even in the cases that painting is necessary, designers tended to choose colors like black, grey and white that are consistent with the environment without standing out. On the other hand, showy stuffs like bright red column repel the principle of simplicity and were disgusted by private garden designers (Chen & Yu, 1986). Based on this reason, vivid colors were excluded in the corridors of the Humble Administrator’s Garden.

Unlike the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the color style of the Long Corridors in the Summer Palace is gorgeous. Apart from its amazing length, the diverse color paintings on beams, lintels and purlins are exactly what it is famous for. In all its 273 sectors and 4 pavilions which have a total length of 728 meters, over 14000 paintings including landscapes, flowers and birds and narrative painting of Chinese traditional literatures are drawn (Figure 6) (Beijing Summer Palace Administration Office & Department of Architecture of Qinghua University, 1981). The color patterns of each sector are similar and red, green and blue are widely used to paint the structure members. Though this style is completely unacceptable from private-garden-designers’ perspective, it is consistent with the royal custom. As a royal garden with an emperor’s office area, the overall color use on the architecture in the Summer Palace resembles that of the Forbidden City- red, gold, green and blue. Thus, the Long Corridor mainly painted in red, green and blue coordinated with this imperial color style very well. It is also worth noting that the purpose of building royal garden also counts for the Summer Garden’s vivid color use. Distinguish from private gardens, royal gardens are mainly built for the imperial family to entertain but not living in seclusion. It is understandable that for the emperor there is no pursuance for seclusion, which makes Ji Cheng’s simplicity principle unnecessary. To please the emperor, designers applied flamboyant paintings and patterns to make the Long Corridor extremely gorgeous.

 

Figure 6 Color painting and decoration on the corridors in the Summer Palace

To sum up, corridors in the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Summer Palace have their roof structure design and materials in common while the differences include the corridor type, route and color style. The roots of these features are related to the gardens’ environmental condition, function and designers’ intention. Nevertheless, further studies may be required to provide a more comprehensive analysis.

Reference:

Beijing Summer Palace Administration Office & Department of Architecture of Qinghua University (1981). Summer Palace. Beijing: Zhaohua Publishing House.

Chen, C. Z. (2001). Zhongguo yuan lin jian shang ci dian. [Dictionary of Chinese garden appreciateion]. Shanghai: Hua Dong Shi Fan Da Xue Chu Ban She.

Chen, L. F. & Yu, S. L. (1986). The garden art of China. Hong Kong: Timber Press.

Ji, C. (1988). The craft of gardens. (A. Hardie, Trans) New Haven: Yale University Press. 

Lam, L. S. (2001). Origins and development of the traditional Chinese roof. Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellen Press.

Liu, Z. P. (2000). Zhongguo jian zhu lei xing ji jie gou (3rd Edn).[Types and structures of Chinese architecture.] Beijing: Zhongguo Gong Ye Chu Ban She.

Shao, Z. (2001). The art of Suzhou classical gardens. Beijing: China Forestry Publishing House.

Wang, Q. J. (2009). An illustrated dictionary of architecture. Beijing: China Machine Press.

Yu, C. H. (2006). English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary of architecture. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiao Tong Da Xue Chu Ban She.

Zhang, C. A. (1994). Zhongguo yuan lin yi shu ci dian. [Dictionary of Chinese garden art.] Wuhan: Hubei Ren Min Chu Ban She.

 (anon) (1987). Zhongguo yuan lin jian zhu yan jiu. [Study of Chinese garden architecture.] Taipei: Dan Qing Tu Shu You Xian Gong Si.

 (anon) (2007). Suzhou yuan lin liu ji [videorecording]. Taibei Xian Zhonghe Shi: Tai Sheng Duo Mei Ti Gu Fen You Xian Gong Si.

Summer palace- China (c. 2010). Retrieved November 13, 2010 from, Administrative office of the Summer Palace Web site: http://www.summerpalace-china.com/en/attractions2.html

The Summer Palace Beijing- Google maps (c. 2010). Retrieved November 23, 2010 Web site: http://maps.google.com.hk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

---

[1] Ji Cheng (1582-?), famous garden designer in late period of the Ming Dynasty. He composed <Yuan Ye> (the craft of garden) which the earliest comprehensive guide book of garden art (Zhang, 1994).

[2] “Master of net” means fisher (Shao, 2001)