Lavender Walls

Reading Week and Footbinding

I am extremely relieved that midterm week is over and that I can finally take the yoke off of me! I spent the weekend catching up on some of the sleep that I lost while I was studying for midterms and preparing for a presentation on footbinding for HIST 481 the week before.

One interesting thing about the practice was that it varied from region to region and was not prevalent throughout pre- and early 20th century China. The author of this site states agricultural reasons for the prevalence of footbinding in the North as opposed to the South. There are many arguments over the origins of footbinding. The most common one concerns an imperial concubine of the Later Tang (923-935 AD) who bounded her own feet to make them small and curve up like little moons. During the Song (Sung) dynasty (960-1279 AD), this gradually spread from the palace and entertainment quarters to the homes of the elite, who were frequent visitors to those quarters. From there, the practice trickled down to the lower echelons of society.

Another argument places the start of footbinding not in the Song dynasty, but during the beginning of the Qing (Ching) dynasty (1644-1911) where the practice arose amongst the Han Chinese as a form of silent protest against foreign (Manchu) rule. Note that Manchu women did not bind their feet nor did Hakka (Kejia) women even though the Hakka are a subgroup within the Han Chinese. The practice of binding women's feet became an ethnic marker especially in the North because northern China had always been more susceptible to nomadic invasions and bore the brunt of those invasions. Thus, footbinding became popular in places where Han and non-Han coexisted and less so in areas where they did not and where the population was more homogenous. In southern China, footbinding was class-dependent. That is, only elite women bound their feet and mainly because their families could afford to not have them labour in the fields or in other industries *.

*For further information on an economic-related perspective on the spread and decline of footbinding in China, please see Gates, Hill. "Footbinding and Handspinning in Sichuan." In Kenneth G. Lieberthal et als. Constructing China: The Interaction of Culture and Economics. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan,1997.

I apologize if the format of the citation is not correct as I am an undergraduate student and I have not yet mastered the type of sophisticated referencing required of graduate students and academics.

What Age Do I Act?

Midterm Week

I wrote my first and sole midterm for History 394 yesterday morning and it was surprisingly long for an exam that was supposed to completed within 45 minutes. It was not difficult and I finished right on time, but I finally got a sense of how he tests his students. Before the midterm, he told us that we were to go over the material in the text, the coursepack and the lecture notes. However, it turned out that the entire exam was actually based on the lecture notes. That has always been a common feature in my test-taking experiences where I almost always end up studying more than I had bargained for. I think it is good in the sense that the exam may seem easier to me because I end up studying more material than what is given in the actual exam. The only bad thing about this is that I usually end up spending the entire night studying everything with the result that it takes out a fair chunk of my energy. Now that I know how he tests his students, I think I will place more emphasis on the lecture notes when I prepare for the final in April and strive to go to bed at a decent hour so that I will be well rested on the day of the exam.

Here's my midterm and presentation schedule for Winter 2005:

• Tuesday: CHINA 323 midterm
• Wednesday: HIST 481 presentation
• Thursday: CLASS 102 midterm
• Friday: HIST 390 midterm

Next week will definitely be the second last hell week of my university career. I now look forward to reading week more than ever.

Chinese New Year

Happy New Year, everyone! =DDD!!!

It's the Year of the Rooster and if one were to begin counting from the reign of the mythical Yellow Emperor in 2696 B.C, as the Chinese have traditionally done, we are now officially in the year 4702.

I also recently discovered that Chinese now make up the largest ethnic minority group in Canada. Apparently, there are over 1 million individuals in Canada who identified themselves as Chinese in the latest census.

Lunar New Year's Eve

We had five pieces of home-made sesame seed tong yuen boiled with milk (Thanks, Auntie Cecilia!) and some noodles (longevity) a while after dinner tonight. They were delicious complements to and reminders of the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner that I will be missing again this year at home.

My first midterm is this Friday. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I will do well! V^^V!

I have also cut back my volunteer hours to once a week every Friday afternoon. My schedule has gotten heavier and if I want to continue to volunteer at both the library and the gallery, I will need to alternate between the two. Thus, I will be putting in two days per month for both places until April. I have also submitted my MLIS application to the SLIS (School of Library and Information Studies) at the U of A last week and I hope that I will get accepted. I am going to work on the rest of my MLIS applications to the other universities during reading week later this month.

Tina, Terry and Tana: Thanks for all of your comments!

Stuff I Did Not Blog About

Friday, February 4, 2005

• Went to a Chinese New Year Dinner at New Dragon Palace last Friday evening. There were 3 tables and 30 people in total and was held by the Chinese branch of the East Asian Studies Department. It was very fun. The food was not bad. Sat with Professor Chiu, Professor Leung (gag gag!), Reginia, Reginia's boyfriend, Reginia's friend, Professor Sun, a mature Taiwanese student who has studied in L.A and San Diego prior to his studies at the U of A (I wonder why?) and these two other students that I don't remember the name of. One of them is a Caucasian guy who can speak Mandarin and has studied in Nanjing University and the other is East Indian.

• I also won something from the lucky draw, a brainteaser called Chengo Hua Rong Dao, which is essentially an ancient sliding-piece puzzle game that has been included along with the Magic Cube and Solitaire as one of the "Three Great Incredible Intellectual Games." The most recent record for the least required number of steps to complete the puzzle was made by an American mathematician, Martin Gardener, who reduced the number of steps to 81. So far, no one has been able to break this world record.

Don't look at me. I'm not up for the challenge because I have too many other important things to attend to. I also wish I could've taken some pictures but since I didn't really know anyone very well there, I decided not to. =)

Monday, February 7, 2005

• Went to field trip to the Odyssium with my History 394 (History of Astronomy and Cosmology, Stonehenge to the Space Age) class. It was very informative and confusing at the same time. Professor Smith told us that we don't need to know the more technical things such as declination because this is a history course on astronomy. The show was allow us to have a better understanding of the movements of the heavenly bodies. We went over things such as precession, the northern and southern hemispheres and how some stars/constellations can only be viewed in the northern hemisphere and how others can only be seen in the southern hemisphere (e.g Australia, Latin America etc.), the phases of the moon, retrograde motion and solar and lunar eclipses.

On the Road to Recovery

I'm currently on antibiotics. I am recovering and I have been feeling much better since I last blogged about my cold. I went to see the Lams' family doctor after classes on Monday. The very top of throat where I swallow (I am not an expert on anatomy so you biology or anatomy buffs will probably know the exact name. This includes you Terry =D!) was still slightly sore and it was kind of bothering me so I went to the appointment that was made for me upon the recommendation of Auntie Cecilia. The visit ended with a prescription for Amoxcillin, which I have to finish in 7 days (Update: It is down to 6 days now). I had gone to the University Health Centre prior to this visit and based on my past experience with clinic doctors, most of those that I encountered are definitely not at the same level as general practitioners. Dang clinic doctors. The one that I had last Friday told me that there is nothing that she can prescribe despite getting her to examine my throat and nose and this is because:

1) It's a cold.

2) It is caused by one of the 200 different types of the common cold virus.

3) Because it is a virus, you can't fight it off with antibiotics because it's not caused by bacteria (This I know from my own family doctor back home) so you can't do much except get plenty of rest and fluids and let my body recover on its own.

Comments

In m helped me fix two minor problems with my site for the last couple of days and I am happy to finally see that my more recent entries are showing up. We have upgraded to a newer version of MovableType so if you posted a comment to one or more of my entries, you will need to wait a while for it to show up. There is a built-in security feature in the newer version where comments will not be displayed on the site without the approval of the blogger.

How Well Do You Know Me?

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

MovableType Problems

Why aren't my new entries showing up? =(

Nirvana

1. Mahayana Buddhism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (97%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (93%)
4. Jainism (91%)
5. Hinduism (90%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (87%)
7. Liberal Quakers (86%)
8. Sikhism (83%)
9. New Age (83%)
10. Bah' Faith (74%)
11. Reform Judaism (73%)
12. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (66%)
13. Secular Humanism (61%)
14. Taoism (60%)
15. Orthodox Quaker (58%)
16. Orthodox Judaism (56%)
17. Scientology (55%)
18. New Thought (55%)
19. Islam (48%)
20. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (40%)
21. Nontheist (39%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (32%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (28%)
24. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (27%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (24%)
26. Roman Catholic (24%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (17%)

In light of In m's post on the belief-o-matic quiz, I have decided to take the quiz again as well. The results show that I tend to lean towards the Eastern religions and I am not surprised that I am perfectly compatible with Mahayana Buddhism for it has been profoundly influential in my life since I was young.

Nasty Little Bug

I came down with a cold two days ago and it has been acting like nothing but a horrid and spoilt little child causing me to experience plenty of nasal congestion and inducing me to sneeze every now and then. The last time I had a cold and one that was this bad was around five years ago. I guess when it decides to strike, it will strike you down quite hard. It has to strike around this time, doesn't it? Just when I will be writing midterms within two weeks and when I am experiencing "womanly things." Dang cold. =/

I don't feel much like writing at the moment, but I will provide some updates later if I am up for it tonight. I have not been very good at keeping this blog updated. =(