Month: June 2019

Cameron Teel

Reflection: I have not only been progressing through the book but also looking back at the beginning chapters. When we met with Tina Lu her major point on my research was characters in the book did not like Xi Feng because she was a woman in a power role. Whereas I initially thought that they disliked Xi Feng purely because of her managerial style. I am having a hard time pinpointing why she is a more disliked character. The example I think strongly supports Tina Lu’s point is Xi Feng’s relationship with her husband. He seems to resent her because of her position in the family which is magnified because she is more successful than him. Besides that, I cannot distinguish why exactly she is disliked. Does anyone have anything to add? Does anyone have input on how to gear questions to try to answer this question?

Broadly: What leadership style do the Chinese tend to like today and is it comparable to any of the notable characters in leadership roles?

Hypothesis: Based on previous time spent in China I hypothesize that the younger university students will lean towards Western values (Xi Feng) with middle aged to older professionals leaning towards traditional Chinese values (Xin Shi and Granny Jia).

Students:

1. What motivates you more – family or money?
2. What managerial style would you prefer in the workplace – friend or strictly business?
3. Outside of the workplace what type of relationship would you want with a manager – friend or strictly business?
4. Would you want a mentoring program built into your work environment or would you want to learn on your own as you go?
5. If you were a manager what would be the highlights of the culture you would want to create?
6. If you were a manager what would you want your employees to describe as the cornerstones of the work culture you created?
7. If you were a manager how would you decided who to promote?

Professionals:

1. What motivates you more – family or money?
2. What managerial style would you prefer in the workplace – friend or strictly business? If applicable could you describe your managerial style?
3. Outside of the workplace what type of relationship would you want with a manager – friend or strictly business? If applicable as a manager what type of relationship have you had with employees outside of work?
4. If you were hiring a manager would you want them to implement a mentoring program or would you want them to push employees to be autonomous? As an employee what would you prefer?
5. If you were a manager/as a manager what would be the highlights of the culture you would want to create?
6. If you were a manager/as a manager what would you want your employees to describe as the cornerstones of the work culture you created?
7. If you were a manager /as a manager how would you decided who to promote?

Happy Father’s Day, everyone! Since we’ve parted ways to read the novel on our own, I’m reflecting on my readings and diving into the text, more deeply into parts that speak to my topic, and doing a quicker content-based reading into those parts that don’t. The more prepared we get for this trip, the more unprepared I feel! Reading the book is a monumental task, but pacing myself has been extremely helpful (though I’m still a little behind!). Reading HLM is like exploring a garden that seems to change and shift around you, where everything is open to interpretation yet worth a second look… Maybe I read that in a book somewhere?

I’ve narrowed my topic down to the social context of poetry in HLM, which I am defining as tracking how and when characters use poetry, and what the addition of poetry to the text does for the events and players in HLM. I’m paying close attention to the situations in which recited or written poetry features, and comparing how these situations unfold.

I’ve also noticed the vast differences in approach to poetry by gender. Not even necessarily in terms of subject matter or temperament, but in how and when characters are motivated to use it. For example, in chapter 17, when the landmarks in the garden are getting their names, Bao-yu’s father Jia Zheng turns the experience into a way to test Bao-yu. It’s an aggressive interrogation of his literary skills, and even though the literary men Jia Zheng travel with seem to agree with (and are impressed by) Bao-yu’s suggestions, Jia Zheng rejects or attempts to improve most of his suggestions. In the end, Yuan-chun gives the final names to all of the landmarks in the garden. None of Bao-yu’s original suggestions are kept, but she modifies them expertly and these names are the ones that stick. After all that fuss, she has the final say! In much the same way that women have a surprising role in the official business of the household (an alternately subversive and parodical one)

Tan-chun (my current favorite character, for her literary precociousness) starts the Crab Flower Club by inviting Bao-yu to join a poetry writing collective. Together with a group of women, Bao-yu starts another literary venture in the garden, but this time the competition is understood as friendly and funny. It doesn’t have the same stakes, but is still rule-based and taken seriously. Jia Zheng’s literary competitiveness is not ultimately collaborative like the Crab Flower Club. The Crab Flower Club abstracts itself somewhat from the real world. Even though their poetry is based on subjects chosen from the garden and structured, it seems to happen on a kind of fantastical plane. Each poet in the club takes on another name, derived from literature and poetry, and to a certain extent embodies the characteristics of their namesake. It might be a separate project to examine the referenced characters and see how the poetry compares!

And the club’s inaugural crab-eating party, the poetry takes a decidedly non-serious turn as each poet attempts a comedic crab poem, cementing the word play of “crab” and “flower” club, and converging the worlds of dramatic and the comedic. But when the meetings adjourn, the situation of the club doesn’t follow into the business of the household. The abstractness of the club and the escapism of the pen names can’t follow, even in the same way the named landmarks of the garden do.

I’ll be interested to see how the club changes as the book continues, and how the poetry and social circle of poets evolves!