Extra Credit Story: A Good Fall

A Good Fall story is a very touching story that tells about an extraordinarily honest Chinese young monk called Ganchin, who had worked for Master Zong’s Gaolin Temple in New York. Ganchin was a Kung Fu instructor in Gaolin’s Temple for over two years, and got fired by Master Zong, the CEO from Gaolin temple due to his visa was expired, and with no opportunity to an extension. Very disappointed Ganchin from the request to be removed from his position at the temple, he demanded at least the payment of his salary for the last past two years, since he never received a penny for the work he had done in the temple. After Master Zong had explained that due to the loading and board he had provided to Ganchin they had nothing else to discuss, Master Zong demanded Ganchin to leave the temple the following day. When Ganchin decides to leave the temple his health was in no good conditions. The very sick young monk, worry for the situation, penniless, and without the possibility to go back to China, as concecuense of, all debts he had in China for his parents were depending on him, he decided to call his friend Cindy, who was a twenty five years old flight attendant’s girl and speak fluent mandarin, to inform her about the bad news, and to let her knows that Ganchin was moving in with a fellow Chinese called Fanku, who lived close to downtown in a small studio apartment. As a result of Ganchin’s poor health, and lack of communication because of the barrier of a new unknown language, it was impossible for him to get a new job. As time pass, in Ganchin’s situation everything was getting worse along with the desperation for the bad circumstance he had end up living in. In a moment of despair, Ganchin decides to commits suicide, and start thinking for a proper and sure place where he can take his own life at once. He starts walking around until he finds a brick building where he decides to jump and kill himself. After all Ganchin’s misfortune, this attempt was just a good fall with a bit of luck and as consequence end up in a hospital with the medical assistance that he needed it due to the fracture in one of his legs and the bad Tracheitis that he was suffering. For this reasons this particular story tells about a young Chinese monk who has been living a rough time due to the lack of consideration and abuse from Master Zong, and the unawareness of the rights and obligations of a human being in America, and how life turns in a good way after his fall.

Vocabulary Words

Tracheitis|ˌtrākēˈītis|

Inflammation of the trachea, usually secondary to a nose or throat infection. It is classified under "Acute upper respiratory infections."

Hooded|ˈhoŏdid|

(of eyes) having thick, drooping upper eyelids resembling hoods : a dark man with hooded eyes.

Lodging

A place in which someone lives or stays temporarily. (thesaurus)accommodations, place to stay, housing, shelter; residence, habitation.

Board 

The provision of regular meals when one stays somewhere, in return for payment or services.

Bribing |brīb|

Persuade (someone) to act in one's favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement, by a gift of money or other inducement.

Elders |ˈeldər|

A person of greater age than someone specified.

Antsy|ˈantsē|

Agitated, impatient, or restless : he was too antsy to stay in one place for long.

Sigh |sī|

Emit a long, deep, audible breath expressing sadness, relief, tiredness, or a similar feeling.

Feng Shui Outline

Feng Shui, is a way of life that brings balance and order into places, and help us live in harmony with the environment in USA, China or any other country around the world.

A - Origins of Feng Shui

      1. Feng Shui, (literally “wind and water,”) was originated many years ago in the Western Chou Dynasty (The Chou or Zhou dynasty ruled China from about 1027 to about 221 B.C. It was the longest dynasty in Chinese history).

      2. Feng Shui has endured as an art of site selection in East Asia for more than 3,000 thousand years and still remains popular in Chinese societies and around the world.

     3. Feng Shui, is a traditional Chinese philosophy and technology of site selection. The ancient Chinese developed a unique ways of interacting with the natural environment harmoniously in order to survive.

B - Chinese Feng Shui

      1. Feng Shui has been profoundly interwoven with many aspects of Chinese life. It deals with many characteristics, including physical, ecological, spatial, and temporal, as well as spiritual, psychological, religious, and sociological.

      2. Selecting proper places in which to live is a fundamental and necessary activity for both animals and humans. Since site selection plays such an important role in human survival, reproduction, and welfare, researchers have proposed theories to explain human habitat selection.

      3. The practice of Feng Shui is complex and is generally applied by Feng Shui masters. The Feng Shui masters' judgments are intuitive and somewhat subjective, but two schools of Feng Shui theory can guide them. One is called Luan Tou (mountain peak), which is based on analyses of physical phenomena at a site, such as topography, vegetation, and climate. The other is Li Ch'i (arranging Ch'i), which emphasizes using a compass (Lou Pan) to judge proper site orientation and placement for settlements according to the residents' birthdays. Ancient Chinese believed that the specific year, date, and time of birth were closely related to a person's character and fate. Ch'i is blown away by wind and is accumulated by water.Thus, an ideal site would attract little wind and stand near the water. This is, in fact, where Feng Shui's name came from literally;Feng Shui means “wind and water.” Yin and Yang are two kinds of Ch'i with opposite characters. Yin, characterized as female, dark, void, or negative energy, is passive; while Yang, characterized as male, light, solid, or positive energy, is active. Therefore, only when Yin and Yang meet and stay in balance can life begin.

   

C - U.S.A. Feng Shui

      1. The first fundamental principal of Feng Shui is integration with nature. There is an emphasis on maintaining or enhancing the surrounding ecosystem, when people design a new structure based on Feng Shui methodology.

      2. Feng Shui helps increase your wealth. It’s easy to see how a little knowledge can result in some bad choices for the environment. Feng Shui as become a kind of architectural acupuncture. Therefore, use their metaphysical sensors to detect the flow of good and bad energy. 

      3. A popular Feng Shui belief is that planting bamboo is a sure-fire way to cure a negative flow of energy 

The ways of human adaptation to their surroundings reflect and manifest themselves in human behavior. The unique Feng Shui concept of Ch'i has profoundly influenced many aspects of the Chinese. Given that the most ideal situation of Ch'i is harmony and balance, the worldview of the Chinese is a mediated equilibrium; anything should not be too much or too little. Since the origin of all life is the same source of Ch'i, all humans, other species, and environments are equal. No one is superior or inferior to the other, and all should coexist together in peace and harmony 

MLA

(Modern Language Assoc.)

Works Cited

Hilts, Elizabeth. "Fabulous Feng Shui." E: The Environmental Magazine 15.1 (2004): 45-47. 

Works Cited

Han, Ke-Tsung. "Traditional Chinese Site Selection-Feng Shui: An Evolutionary/ Ecological Perspective." Journal Of Cultural Geography 19.1 (2001): 75. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2011.

Extra Credit: Mao's Last Dancer Movie (restrictions vs freedom)

Mao’s Last Dancer, is an inspiriting and lovely story that help us understand the difference in between American people and Chinese people, back in the 60’ until the 80’. This particular story is about Li Cunxin’s life, he reveals how hard was his life before he arrived to Houston, Texas U.S.A. back on 1980, and how that particular poor lifestyle gave him the strength to become the successful person that he is today. Li Cunxin was born on 1961, into Mao’s communist China, he was the sixth boy from seven in the Cunxin family, they were very poor peasants and work very hard for their family, they shared everything, there were very honest, polite and respectful people. The family lived in a small village in Shandong Province, China. At age of eleven years old his life took the first step to a new cycle full of challenges and huge responsibilities, along with the big opportunity to be part of Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. As a very disciplined boy he started to learn about the biggest break of his life, away from his family, the greatest support Li’s ever had. Extremely far from China where the life of a Chinese family took place in “Children as Enemies” story, a very different style of life from Li Cunxin family, in which the kids did not respect their family believes, religion or wishes. In “Children as Enemies” story, the grand parents are not part of the family decisions, the kids does not respect the Chinese culture or any of their traditions, but in Li Cunxin family decisions were supported by each member of the family, specially from Li’s mother, she was a very hard worker woman, whose always wishes the best for all and each of her children. The Cunxin family applies very good some of the element of Feng Shue, this so poor family share everything in a complete harmony, their knowledge about Feng Shue transferred from his ancestors help them always to find balance in every situation even the day the did not have food to eat. Li was a very honest, kind and passionate child due to the incredible values and principles that both parent had inducted on him during the first ten years of his life. He was a child with no opportunities for his future, so he decided to find the way to create at least one option to make the change for his entire family, he decides to join to the academy in Beijing without knowing what this would bring for him or his family, he just pray for hope never disappear. When Li turn eighteen years old, he achieved his best performances in ballet  and Chairman Mao Zedona passed away at that very same year. After Comrade Hua Guo Feng has been chosen as successor to Chairman Mao, Li is selected for an academy in Houston, Texas U.S.A. as an exchange student for the summer. Here is when his second cycle of hard work, perseverance and bravery begins. Once he arrives to U.S.A, he discover the huge different in between China and USA, he meets the freedom that never was allowed to experience, and along with the honesty, creativity, discipline and all his hard work, he find himself as one of the biggest artist in ballet.