Cultural Changes
By: Duc Tran
Many countries struggle when it came to cultural changes. Adopting new ways of doing and thinking has never been easy for people to do. Everyone likes sticking with the "norms." But whether or not people like it, things do change. During the late 19th century, China, after of hundreds of years of the Qing Dynasty, was making some very big change in the country. The old rule wasn't needed anymore and outdated. Change was needed not just for the country but for the people as well.
In the story, the "Sea of Regret", we can see different cases where the new and more western ideas and old Confucianism ideas clash. The story is based around the Boxer Rebellion. During this time the country had just started to change. In the story you see the main characters fighting to keep with their old ideas that they have always been taught, but slowly as the story progress you can small, but very big changes in what they do. For example Dihua, in the beginning she was very trouble with Bohe even being in the same room because of her morals. She also doesn't speak all too often and leaves the speaking to either Bohe or her mother. But when she is separated from Bohe, you see her talking to more people and kind of losing her old ways of thinking and being less conservative as she is looking for Bohe.
In the short stroy, "Diary of a Madman" by Lu Xun, he uses a lot of symbolism to show what the old ways of thinking were doing and where the hopes of change where. In this story Lu Xun uses cannibalism in a symbolic way to show the old conservative way of doing things. In this story a village has been practicing cannibalism for thousands of years and the culture has change very little. This was much like China's culture. Though for most people the practice of cannibalism would be seen as very wrong, for the villagers this was the way it was and was not wrong to them. The main character of the story saw and knew that it was all wrong. The only thing was that he was the one being called mad and crazy by the villagers. In the village, he was the minority. His idea conflicted with the rest of the people. As so he was called mad. This was used as symbolic way of saying that its very hard to change something when it has been the same for a very long time. And the that the Chinese culture was "eating" and "consuming" the people. The story ended with the saying "Save the Children...." (Xun 41). Lu Xun used this line to say the hopes to change the country and its culture rest on the shoulders of the youth.
In the next story I want to talk about is "The Slave Mother" by Rou Shi, the story talks about a woman is sold from her first family to make another for a different husband. In this story Rou Shi shows a bit of the female role during his time. Also in the story the slave mother is torn between her new family and her old family. In the end she chooses to be with her old family. To me this was also symbolic. The new family represented the better and new way of life and the old family was filled with despair and a poor way of life. For most people it would seem like the new family was choice she should have made, but she didn't. Why was it? Well her morals and ideas told her she needed to go back. To me this a way of saying that China's old teachings would leads them to a poor way of life and life would be a struggle. Rou Shi wanted to people to see that before they go to enrich their lives in China, they first must get rid of the old ways of thinking look for something new and better.
The three stories discuss many things about China's culture. A lot of it to do with how change was needed using symbolism as a tool to tell people. These three short stories, though not real, showed real ideas and helped guide the China and it's people to a new era.
