yī èr sān (one two three). . .

A pile of paperback books is perched precariously on my desk. Resting only a few inches from the edge, they are in danger of falling off and spilling the stories of Chinese history right onto my bedroom floor. These three books, Modern China, Postcards from Tomorrow Square, and Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, are the foundation upon which I will rely on for my upcoming expedition to Beijing, China this November.

The Forbidden City's grand Hall of Supreme Harmony

Photo by Guang Niu for National Geographic

Until a few weeks ago my knowledge of China was limited. Very limited. This is what I "knew" about China. Prepare yourself...

1. Chinese food is delicious.
2. Beijing is the capital of China.
3. China is the most populous country, followed closely by India.
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an awesome movie.
5. The United States owes China a ridiculous amount of money.
6. The renminbi is the official currency of China, abbreviated RMB.
7. Mulan.
8. The Chinese calendar is a cycle of 12 years each represented by a different animal.
9. Almost everything I buy is made in China.
10. Chopsticks are frustrating.

Oh and don't forget how informative YouTube is on the subject of China.

Yeah, pretty bad. Which is why I elected to take China Mobile Journalism and Chinese Film as my first semester core classes. As I blogged earlier, I'm kind of a photography and cinematography enthusiast. Each class presented me with the opportunity to enhance my understanding of China through a medium of which I am passionate. I dove right in, deep into the pages of history and culture. Immersed in the murky depths of Chinese civilization I was surrounded by the makers of history; Genghis Khan, Khubilai Khan, the Emperors of the Tang and Song Dynasties, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Zedong.

Cyclist on Liulichang Street

By Guang Niu for National Geographic

While I have learned much about Chinese history and its influence on modern Chinese society, there are three readings that summarize a few significant focal points of China's development as a nation. Consequently they have become lodged in my hippocampus.

The first is an excerpt from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, which details the Mongol view of religion.

"Unlike the other steppe tribes that had embraced the scriptural and priestly traditions of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, the Mongols remained animists, praying to the spirits around them. They worshiped the Eternal Blue Sky, the Golden Light of the Sun, and the myriad spiritual forces of nature. The Mongols divided the natural world into two parts, the earth and the sky. Just as the human soul was contained not in the stationary parts of the body but in the moving essences of blood, breath, and aroma, so, too the soul of the earth was contained in its moving water. The rivers flowed through the earth like blood through the body, and three of those rivers began here on this mountain. As the tallest mountain, Burkhan Khaldun, literally "God Mountain," was the khan of the area, and it was the earthly place closets to the Eternal Blue Sky. And as the source of three rivers, Burkhan Khaldun was also the sacred heart of the Mongol world" (Weatherford 32-33).

The second is a quote from Mao Zedong reprinted in Modern China. It summarizes Mao's views about the Chinese Communist Party in 1949.

"It is a very good thing that China has a big population. Even if China's population multiples many times, she is fully capable of finding a solution; the solution is production. The absurd argument of Western bourgeois economists like Malthus that increases in food cannot keep pace with increases is population was not only throughly refuted in theory by Marxists long ago, but has also been completely exploded by the realities in the Soviet Union and the Liberated Areas of China after their revolutions... Of all things in the world, people are the most precious. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, as long as there are people, every kind of miracle can be preformed" (Moise 162).

The final reading is an firsthand account from the author of Postcards from Tomorrow Square, Jim Fallows, in response to China's industrialism.

"Half the time I have spent in China I have spent in factories. At least that's how it feels-and it's a feeling I sought. The factories where more than 100 million Chinese men ans women toil, and from which cameras, clothes, and every other sort of ware flow out into the world, are to ne the most startling and intense aspect of today's China. For now, they are also the most important....Every account of modern China mentions them" (Fallows 66).

Not only did these passages expand my factual knowledge of China, they permitted me to see beyond the obvious historical figures and events that manipulated China and as a result had a hand in creating one of the world's greatest economic powers. 

Xie Xie!

Anya