Blog #6

Paraphrase:

"Feinberg (2002) explains that these statutes create a legal responsibility for people not to maltreat animals but do not clearly assign rights to the animals themselves."

Since this essay discusses about the questions of animal rights and emphasizes that animals should be given protections from human harm; this source clearly supports the writer’s idea about animals should be given more rights and have more protection. This paraphrase appears in the introduction of the essay, so it provides the reader a general idea of the whole essay.

Quotation:

“No legal rights have been granted to animals”

This quotation also appears in the introduction of the essay “Radical But Right”. This is one very crucial supporting idea of the essay. The writer chose to directly quote this sentence instead of paraphrasing it because it perfectly fits the writer’s idea so no change need to be made. As what I mentioned before, this research appears in the introduction of the essay, so it gives the readers a broad idea of what the essay is talking about.

Blog #5

History is considered to be solid and accurate in many people's minds, but it could be totally different depends on who's telling it. In the long progress of human civilization, the winners are the only people who have the "pen" to write and spread the history. The Chinese Civil War is a perfect example of winners writing the history.
The Chinese Civil War, which began in 1927 and ended in 1950, is one of the most significant events in China's modern times. The result of Communist Party of China winning the war changed China from a democratic and capitalistic country to a communist country. The civil war carried on intermittently until the Second Sino-Japanese War interrupted it. After Japanese army being defeated in 1945 and marking the end of the World War 2, the full-scale civil war resumed in 1946. After four years, the People's Liberation Army defeats the Nationalist Party's army. In result, People's Republic of China was founded in 1949(controlling mainland China and Hainan Island). And the Republic of China (Nationalist Party) had to flee to Taiwan Island. The history of the same war is taught differently by the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. In Taiwan, the civil war declared by the Communist Party of China is considered an act of betraying the country. On the other side, the civil war is called the War of Liberation.
There is no right or wrong in these things. The only difference is people's perspectives. As what people saying "The truth will tell."

Blog #4

As a person who was born and raised up in China, Liu has a strong inner connection with Chinese culture. When he arrived at America for the first time, everything around him is new. For example: different language, different culture, different races, and even different environment. It was extremely difficult for Liu to get used to his new life. He naturally started to hang out with Chinese people not only because they use the same language, but also they share similar sense of value. Liu felt more comfortable with Chinese people. Many international students including me who studies abroad have similar experience as Liu does. Homesickness and loneliness could be very harmful to people who stay abroad for a long time if he or she can not handle it well. Consequently, it is really common for international students like me to be with other Chinese people even they are strangers.

1. Punctuation: the marks, such as full stop, comma, and brackets, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.
2. Sarcasm: the use of irony to mock or convey contempt
3. Delegation: it means a body of delegates, a deputation; the act or process of delegating or being delegated

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication plays an important role in our daily lives. According to a research conducted in the US, in the sense of communicating attitudes, 93 percent of the message was expressed by the tone of the voice and by facial expressions. Nonverbal communication varies in different cultures. Nonverbal communication like gestures, eye contact, and body space is quite different in Chinese culture compare to those I have seen in the US.
The first difference I found between Chinese nonverbal communication and American nonverbal communication is gestures. A typical example would be the way of expressing numbers in these two cultures. In Chinese culture, we can show numbers from one to nine simply using one hand. The Chinese way of showing one, two, three, four, and five is the same as the American way; but we have very special way of showing six, seven, eight, and nine. For expressing six, Chinese people use the thumb and the little finger together to show the number. The shape of this gesture is like an ox horn. Americans usually use the first finger of one hand and five fingers of the other hand to show it. The Chinese way of expressing seven is relatively complex. Chinese people put the first and the middle finger on the inner side of the thumb while curving the ring finger and the little finger. It is interesting, isn’t it?
Talking about eye contact, the difference in the two cultures is evident. In China, people tend to avoid eye contact when they are talking with each other. Traditional culture has a huge influence on people’s behaviors. Men and women looking at each others’ eyes is a sign of expressing love in ancient China. Many Chinese people feel nervous when looking into each other for a while. Nonetheless, Americans feel very comfortable about eye contact. Since I came to America a year ago, all my teachers were encouraging me to have more eye contact when giving a presentation.

Culture Impact on Individuals

Culture has a huge impact on people who live in certain society. How people behave in public varies with different cultures. As you know, China has more than five thousand years civilization. During this long period of time, Chinese people developed a philosophy of what we called middle-of-the-road policy. We tends not to show too much of our personal opinion in front of public. The reason is that in Chinese culture, conflicts and arguments should be avoided as many as possible. To conceal your own emotion is the best way to achieve this philosophy. In Chinese culture, people barely show too much of their emotions, especially negative emotions. For example, if an award ceremony happens in China, winners may not look as happy and excited as they truly feel; nominees who do not win the award may not seem sad even though they are very disappointed. In old times, Chinese people are not allowed to kiss, hold hands, or hug in public before marriage. Actually there were no concrete laws or rules that forbid people from being demonstrative, but it was tradition that made people feel embarrassed to do those things in public. Nevertheless, Chinese society has changed significantly over years due to globalization. Chinese people especially young generations are more demonstrative.

Difference of Language

Language is one of the most significant elements of human civilization. It has been playing an important role in people’s lives for thousands of years. Numerous information is carried by language so that people could communicate with each other for all sorts of purpose. Since language has such a deep connection with human activities, it is also being affected by the change of human society. Language itself may have many variations due to the difference of occasions and the difference of culture background.
Along with time passing, language has very distinct changes. One example is the way of greeting by two different generations in Chinese oral language. Among the generation of Chinese speakers like my parents, the opening sentence of greeting would very often to be “Have you eat already?” The deeper reason they are used to ask this question is that their parents and some of their contemporaries had experienced the so called Three Years of Natural Disasters in China. During the year of 1959 and 1961, because of poor economic policies and series of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, nationwide famine occurred in China. Most civilians could not even feed themselves at that time. Due to this special historical event, Chinese people were getting used to talking about daily meals as their way of greetings. Oppositely, my peers and I are living in much wealthier and happier environment than our parents, so that we do not have to worry about food. Naturally, we do not ask “Have you eat already?” when we met each other. Instead, we say “How’s going?” or just “Hello.” when greeting.
Generally speaking, people around me are the main effect of my language when I am in a specific situation. In formal occasions, I have to be very respectful to elders; it is not permitted to call elders directly by their names. There are specific titles for elders in different ranges of age. Usually I will wish the elders long life and happy family. When I am in less formal situations like hangout with my friends, I do not have to concern about ages or social positions when talking to others. I can make jokes and call others by name.

Who I Am

I am Ruihua Tang from China. I was born in Nanjing; a beautiful and peaceful city in Southern China.Nanjing is not only the capital, but also the economic and cultural centre of Jiangsu Province. My hometown is famous for its wealthiness and terrific environment. I really enjoy doing sports with my free time. Among all kinds of sports, playing basketball is what I like most. I strongly recommend you guys to play basketball. You can get better fitness by playing basketball. Furthermore, you can also release stress that you get in daily life. When talking about sports, I have to mention the impact I got from my father. During his childhood, children were lack of entertainment. They did not have video games, even no TVs. So like many of his peers, my father chose to spend a large part of his free time doing sports. He won a lot of regional trophies when he was still in high school. My father taught me how to play badminton and table tennis. I really learnt a lot from him. My mother met my father when she was 25. My father was attracted by her because of her brightness and independence. They fall in love and got married a year later. They love each other very much and I hope it lasts forever.