Class blog

In this class, we have been using the blog as a communication tool to update our process of work and inform one another about our works. Blog is created to be used to facilitate other parts of assignments. In everyday life, blogs are created for the purpose of communication as well, and blogs can effectively involve other people into the ongoing dialogue at the present.

Blogs !

CP prompt

I was previously a meat lover, until I have some sense of why Buddhism encourage meatless diet. However, I grow up in a society where religious belief is not at all ingrained in people's mind, and the food industry has developed maturely centered around meat eating. It's hard to dine out without being tempted by those well cooked, delicious and well advertised dishes of meat. Therefore, in order to become more determined on the way of becoming a vegetarian, I deliberately search for all kinds of information that would work to persuade me. However, I see a lot of organization and article they write focus on animal rights. As a meet lover, those information barely work for me. I'll have a hard time struggling between my own appetite and the high moral stand of animal rights. Faced with those critics of cruelty, I started to question myself, "Is it because I don't care about animal welfare enough that I'm a meat lover?" From my perspective, the answer is no. It's not that we don't care about animals. We're born in a meat consuming society, and the meat industry has already established its hegemony for a long time. Our eating habits, and even our thought about meat consuming is somehow shaped by this dominant culture. The most delicate specialty in every restaurant, or the most representative dish in every place, is almost always those dishes made from meat. One simply can not avoid meat consuming unless the person make meals himself/herself. Besides, we're inundated by information that tells us how meat is good for us and how meat is an absolute necessity for our daily dietary intakes. It's not really because we're born indifferent about animal welfare. Therefore, I come to think that if those vegetarian organization and those vegetarian website focus more on the health issue concerning meat concerning instead of animal rights critics, maybe more people would find themselves easily giving up habits of meat consuming.

4.27

My primary source are two album cover of a Chinese rock band which employ elements of Chinese mythology figure. My secondary source is articles which talks about Chinese rock in general.

 I will use it to expand my statement about how and why Chinese elements are integrated in Chinese rock and the background of Chinese rock, and why are Chinese elements important in the development of Chinese rock. Besides, I will use my secondary source to explain why some of Chinese rock bands have a transition to a softer style when they become famous compared to when they were underground.

Class blog

Evidence should be used to support claims, and to test and refine the idea of claims. Evidence from both sides should be examined to qualify claims and make it more accurate and specific instead of too general.
It's important because if you only find evidence that support the claim and dismiss others which don't fit into the claim, you'll narrow your thinking and shut more refined, accurate ideas out. If you just put all the evidence together and don't explain explicitly in what way do they support your claims, you're letting the evidence speak for themselves, but often times evidence can be interpreted in many ways and their relationships to claims are rarely self-evident, so leaving the evidence speak for themselves will make your claim not persuasive and substantiate.
When apply secondary sources in writing, it's important to find not only evidence that support your claim but to find evidence from both side, in this way claims will be more specific and qualified. Meanwhile, you should explain explicitly why you think the evidence support your claims, and you should present your thinking process to connect evidence to claims. Use 10 on 1 to analyse a specific resource instead of making a over generalized claim for several evidence. Don't just pile up evidence without making them support your claims, since otherwise they'll become pointless evidence and decrease the persuasiveness of your writing.

PSA summary

The primary sources I'm going to analyze are figures of Nezha used as symbols for rebellion and liberty pursuing by a Chinese rock band called "The miserable faith" on covers of their albums.
Nezha is a mythology figure in Chinese literature. The first cover is an episode taken from the film "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King". In the episode, Ao Guang, the Dragon King sends out soldiers to capture young children to eat, but his soldiers are defeated by Nezha. Infuriated by his bold behavior, Ao Guang sends out his son Ao Bing to kill Nezha, but Ao Bing fails and get killed. As a consequence, Ao Guang gathers the other three dragon kings and creates thunderstorm and flood in the area, claiming to kill the whole family of Nezha and make people in the area miserable. Intended to negotiate, Nezha's father, the local commander Li Jing takes away Nezha's weapon and scolded him for good. He commands his son to confess his guilt, and even intends to kill his son to calm down Ao Guang, only that he doesn't have the heart to do that. Nezha refuses to regret what he has done, however, watching people suffering and children being flooded away, he stands out and says he will take the whole responsibility of killing Ao Bing and doesn't want his parents or anyone else to be implicated. Using a sword, he then slices his flesh and bones to make up for his debts to his parents and kills himself to stop the havoc dragon kings inflict on people.  He then is resurrected by the power of his teacher and has a revenge on four dragon kings.

Nezha is actually an influential figure in Chinese literature. He never gives in to cruel authority figure and later swears to fight against any evils to protect  Buddhism. The rock band "Miserable faith" employs the figure of Nezha as its logo, and as a symbol of fighting against suppression of government and pursuing liberty. They always take an extreme political stand and has made the Nezha figure somewhat classical in Chinese rock and roll field. 

The first cover put above is from an album called "No". The picture depicts the scene when Nezha kills himself to save lives of his parents and people in that area. Nezha seems unyielding and angry under dragon king's suppression, even when he decides to kill himself. The cover depicts vividly the band's strong attitude towards (supposed) suppression of the government.  The second cover above is from the album called "Don't stop my music", which is a surprisingly soft album compared to what they made before. In the album, Nezha holds his hand together, with his eyes calmly closed, and seems to be less aggressive outside but still tough inside. Corresponding to the cover, the music is less straightforward and outrageous as it used to be. It seems like the band has taken on a new ideology of rebellion and liberty. I decided to analyse the symbolic meaning of Nezha compared to other mythology figures like Sun Wukong, and the reason this transition in the ideology of rebellion takes place, as well as how common is this trend in Chinese rock and roll, and also the meaning of Nezha holding his hands together.