Signing off the blog ...

Dear ENG 4020 Class:

I am officially "signing off" the blog and closing it down for discussion. Thanks for your curiosity, your engagement, and your hard work all semester! Do well and prosper this week as you finish your long critical discussions.

-Prof. Graban

Representation in Up the Yangtze: Hegemony, Alterity, Diaspora

In Up the Yangtze, hegemony, alterity, and diaspora all play a role in the film in light of representation. These words can describe both how the director, Yung Chang, chose to present the issues to the audience and how the audience receives them. These different concepts can be seen in the lives of the Chinese, both higher and lower classes and the tourists on the boat.

"Up The Yangtze" as Terministic Screen(s)

Chang's documentary seems to address a multitude of conceptual nuances we've experienced in this unit of representation, the most relevant and interesting to me being Burke's terministic screens. While watching the film there exists a heavy dose of discomfort, due to a combination of elements that include the visual, emotional, and rhetorical realms. Never having personally traveled to China, nor having extensively educated myself on the PRC as a nation prior to watching this movie, I can honestly say that I was affected by the film's content. Beyond that however, there are elements strictly from the film and its style that catch the attention of the viewer even if they've somehow tuned out. The lack of vocal narration, save for, you could argue, the moments when Chang's dialogue is present in a few interviews, catches attention immediately and speaks volumes in itself.  The "voice" of the Yangtze, even of China, seems to be slow, mysterious, daunting melodies, causing the viewer to make their own assumptions and curiosities based on the images. While containing no text, these images function as terministic screens and allow the audience to construct their own personal reality of the People's Republic of China, or at least the portions that we see in the film.

Up the Yangtze

Although I was unable to attend the inclass screening, I watched Up the Yangtze on my own and was very interested in the material and information at hand. The audience was definitely in mind when this documentary was created. While the storyline was taking place in China, the majority of the film was in English and allowed the audience to really connect with the material. The comparison between the eastern and western cultures allowed the audience to feel empathy with the people affected by the dam, which was suppose to bring something positive to the area, when in reality it did not.

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In America we come to expect a certain level of political or authoritative involvement when things get out of control or start to collapse. I think it’s easy to assume that the same thing happens in all first-world countries because its part of our understanding of a country.  It’s this, which caused a certain level of shock in me when there didn’t seem to be any social relief coming from the government to prevent this lower class from loosing their houses.  I couldn’t imagine what it's like to have to leave home and sacrifice so many things at such a young age to work in an industry that directly profits from that which is forcing me to make that decision and causing such devastation not just to my family, but my community.

Up the Yangtze Re/Presentation

The documentary Up the Yangtze, gives insight on the dam that was built in China. Although this dam was supposed to be seen as something positive, the audience of this film is not exposed to the positive features of this drastic change. Instead, the audience is shown how families and communities are forced to move all their belongings and head for higher ground due to the flooding caused in certain areas by the dam. 

Up the Yangtze, on audience

Chang constructs his documentary for mass appeal. Really, any group of people interested in cultural change, from westerners to Chinese nationals, would find this piece interesting. Given that the documentary is mostly in English, with English subtitles, and focused on showing similarities and differences between western and eastern cultures (or perhaps this is just my terministic screen forcing this interpretation) it appears it was created with westerners in mind as the primary target audience. From the night out drinking to the hopes and dreams of the rural children, there are many relatable traits that help the audience see the oneness between people and cultures. But there is also the contrast between culture and lifestyles, differing levels of opportunity for growth and class movement.

Up theYangtze

I must say that I really enjoyed this documentary. It really opened my eyes to an unfamiliar type of struggle and allowed me to see that every culture of people has their own struggle as individuals and collectively as a culture. I felt so bad for Cindy and her family, I hated that they were so unfortunate and that their struggle was so hard. I felt so terribly bad for Cindy’s family and others in their culture that felt or witnessed to having corrupt government officials that they couldn’t turn to for help during their time of need. I felt horrible also when Cindy told her mother that she wasn’t a good mother when Cindy asked her about walking her to the boat to see her off. I understand why they sent her to work because they were so poor, and they needed the money that she would make, but Cindy sacrificed her education in order help her family survived. Great sacrifices were made by Cindy's family for survival. Cindy sacrificed her education, young adult freedom, and time away from her family. Her parents sacrificed time away from their daughter, and also they had to sacrifice her physical help in order to receive financial help by having her go to work on the boat/ship.

Up the Yangtze and Hegemony

I feel like hegemony was really present in the film. I saw hegemony because I felt like one could clearly see the power struggle going on. The Chinese government has exuded what seems at times an unfair amount of power and control over the people. Unfair because in the film there is a scene where a peasant is explaining to the director how the police and the corrupt officials treat the people. The corrupt officials and police beat and threaten the people, which I think is inhumane and an abuse of power. It's an example of hegemony because one sees how the lower class is treated, and how much control and power the officials have.

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I see Anna Julia Cooper as being a phenomenal race theorist. In A Voice From the South, Cooper proposes two types of authors in general—without race being a factor:

1. "[T]hose in whom the artistic or poetic instinct is uppermost" (Cooper 380) (art for the sake of art).
2. "All those writers with a purpose or a lesson" (Cooper 381) (referring to writers that act to push an ideal upon their audience—intended to persuade an audience in a certain direction about something).

She goes on to apply the second author type to authors that "have . . . attempted a portrayal of life and customs among the darker race" (Cooper 381).

Gates, Jr. "Writing Race"

I can definitely see how racism fits perfectly into the realm of terministic screens.  The influence of past experiences and ideology of a person has much to do with how they view other races.  With their predetermined feelings on race they see all people in that race with a tarnished view.  This prevents them from having a clear and fresh view on each person as they have predetermined screens that have been in the making their whole life and in some cases before they were alive with family values.  These terministic screens can be evident in writing about race.  The view of the author alters their writing on certain races just as their though process is altered when a non author views someone in a race other than their own.  I would not go on to directly state that race is definitely a terministic screen in the way that Gates historicizes “race” as something that someone rights.  I would say that it definitely can be.  To state that it definitely is would be generalizing all writers and that is impossible as writers come from all walks of life and have limitlessly differently views on life and race.

Re/Presentation & A Suggestion

Cooper & Johnson both speak for their respective cultural groups when they claim misrepresentation by the majority. Through literature especially, both the black woman and the native american (“Indian,” Johnson used ironically) woman have been either flattened or entirely voiceless. Specifically women are discussed in this week’s readings because they are the most unrepresented or misrepresented people groups in art and literature, women of color even more so. This is an effect of a selective majority who historically (and so habitually) hasn’t “quite put themselves in the dark man’s place,” and so cannot accurately present them through art (Cooper 380). 

Gates and Race

Gates’  Writing “Race” and the Difference It Makes, addresses the importance of the topic of the “other.” I found this article interesting because although it seems apparent that race is a factor that separates us from one another, Gates dives further into the issue. He explains, In much of the thinking about proper study of literature in this century, race has ben an invisible quantity, a persistent yet implicit presence” (Gates 2).  While race has been present, I agree with the fact that it has not been explicitly addressed.

Cooper and Johnson: Protofeminists or Spokeswomen?

Cooper and Johnson both talk about their respective races and how they are always misrepresented in European literature.  I do not view them as protofeminists but as two women who are fighting for their people's voices to be heard in a white and male-dominated society.  While some feminist qualities can be found in Cooper and Johnson's excerpts, there focus is not on women's progress but progress for their entire race.

Race? Is it Important?

Let's first come to an understanding that Gates defines race in literature as merely a subcategory. I think it's evident that Gates supports the idea of race in literature being presented by people who has shared similar experiences as their characters, “'race' was the source of all structures of feeling and thought: to 'track the root of man'... is 'to consider the race itself... the structure of his character and mind, his general processes of thought and feeling'” (Gates 4). In essence, only black literature can be written by black authors, black voice can only be represented by black voices.