Day 4 Blog

Over the course of day four of the china culture J-Term, our group participated in a number of activities ranging from discussions and readings to an excursion to a Buddhist temple. We kicked the day off with a reading about early Chinese and other Asian immigrants and the hardships that they faced while attempting to immigrate to the United States. This reading also included detailed accounts of life in pre-industrial china and the impenetrable social hierarchy that existed at the time and made immigration to the US such an attractive prospect. This discussion was followed by a short break and then we watched a documentary about Japanese immigrants and their experiences with World War Two racism in America and how they were treated in their internment camps. It was a very interesting and powerful documentary and really highlighted the racism that Asian Americans have had to endure. 

After our lunch break, we watched a quick video introducing us to Buddhism and then visited a Vietnamese Buddhist temple. It was very interesting to compare their customs and culture to western religion. The temple consisted of on big room decorated in the traditional Buddhist fashion, its walls lined with sculptures of gods each representing a different aspect of human life or nature. In front of each sculpture, there was a table with different food made as an offering to that particular god. The food was accompanied by a small pot for incense burning.