Tea in China....

I find it very interesting how much Tea itself means for Chinese people. It is not only used as a drink, but also it is an important part of their lives. Tea is used by Chinese people as a medicine and as a regular drink. They have whole Tea Ceremonies that are different for every occasion. To explain how much tea means for Chinese people is easy by comparing it to coffee in America. For example when they want to show respect for older people or invite somebody somewhere to visit with them they offer to go for a cup of tea; here in America people always invite to go get coffee. This is another aspect that shows the difference and much healthier style of living of Chinese culture.

The "Goddess of Democracy" carved by students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and erected in the Square during the protest. I found this picture very interesting. This is Chinese students protesting in Tienanmen Square in April 1989. I think this picture shows the difference of the culture compared to other nations in the world. Here they not only brought flags and posters but even a statue that represents what they are protesting for. In other nations you usually see aggressive remarks towards government on the posters and people yelling and screaming. This is why i found this picture very unique and interesting.

I have noticed that China is very good about covering things up. Everything that can play against them they erase from history completely, so that nobody even knows about it. For example about famine in my previous post and Tienanmen Square protests. I was very surprised that people in China have no idea what happened in Tienanmen Square. History is very important for each country, as one famous saying goes "...Those who don't remember history, are doomed to repeat it..." So, i think in a way it is really bad to keep important historical events away from people. Of course for the communist government it is to their advantage, but i think it will get back at them one day.

Famine in China....

It surprised me how well China's government was able to cover what was really going on in the country from 1958-1962. Horrible starvation, millions of deaths, and even cannibalism in some areas was hidden from officials of the party. I think it is not right to do something like that, if other countries would found out about what was going on in China maybe they would be able to help and less people would die. But, it was not in China's interests for everyone to find out.

Movie....

What really surprised me is the part where they showed how hard people worked in the fields to produce something for the government. But, the most shocking part is that they were not paid for this, and they believed that it is okay. Government choose very good tactic of saying that it is like farming their own land, it is for their own good. It is scary how much government controlled people of China.

Movie...

An interesting fact about great Chinese leader is that he was teaching his family not to get used to luxury. This is very uncommon for western civilizations. In our culture we always can pick out people who are wealthy, because they have luxury cars, houses and clothes. In China, if you would see Mao walking down the street by himself you could probably not even notice that he is a wealthy leader of this country. Here is another example of how different Asian culture and mentality is.

Movie

What impressed me about movie is how many people showed a real deep sorrow at the funeral of their leader. Those people never knew him personally, but they were crying like it was someone they knew really well. This shows how different the mentality and relationships towards another person (especially a leader) is in China. I don't think you could see anything like this in western countries, i personally watched many documentaries about countries and their leaders and politics, but i have never seen people to react like that to the death of their leader....There was just as many people at the funerals....some were crying....but not as emotionally as in China.