for responding to 100-150

Please choose a five-ten page section that interests you and focus your response on it.  What's interesting about the section?  Why?  What can you learn about writing from it? 

Post 3

Reading about Peter Hessler and the race he participated in was not very interesting to me. I can understand why he participated in the race. For a while, he was getting annoyed for being known as the foreigner and it seemed to handicap both Adam and Peter communication wise. When he talks more about not being able to really have conservation with his students or the people in the village it lowers his self-esteem. He feels like he is not really understanding the Chinese culture if he can’t really understand their language. However, the race has nothing do with culture. It is just about Hessler being happy about racing and proving a point to the Fuling community that he is a good runner.
After the race we read about the race being posted in a newspaper and reading what a Trade School student had to say about a foreigner winning the race. The Trade School student said “I feel ashamed. This gives us a wakeup call: our students and adults need improve the quality of their bodies, because if we improve our strength, we can be victorious! (92).” Usually after a race people don’t say how they are ashamed and that we need to build up our strength as nation. It more like “better next time” or “I just need to work harder”.

Mimi Zycherman

Blog post #3

In pages 75-100 of River Town, Hessler talks about alcohol consumption in China. Apparently consuming alcohol and calling yourself an "alcoholic" is a "ritual". I find that hard to understand, because it is being forced. Being an alcoholic is an actual disease and is not something to be proud of. As Hessler describe the bizarre "ritual", he goes on to tell how most people are light weights and "were genetically unable to become alcoholics", yet they still claim to be alcoholics. Also, since Hessler and Adam's alcohol tolerance were much higher than the Chinese, they gained immediate respect. They were considered to be alcoholics in China and probably just casual drinkers in America. I find that to be a little extreme and offensive just because the Chinese have a lower tolerance. I wonder what a real alcoholic would be considered in China.. I’m sure they are not trying to reach a higher status and gain more respect just by drinking; race and culture does not matter, it is just a serious addiction.

Blog Post #3

This section mainly focuses on the alcohol ritual. The simple fact that drinking is looked at like a competition between men is ridiculous. I could never understand how people purposely torture themselves just to be ranked the highest in drinking. Peter and Adam had been warned not to drink and completely overlooked it was not smart. Personally I don't find any purpose or entertainment in getting drunk or being around drunk people. You can't control what you do or say when your drunk and you only end up hurting people around you. When Teacher Sai is being bullied into drinking by Party Secretary Zhang I find that to be so childish. It makes no sense for the town to execute someone because they got into a fight and not doing anything about adult bullying. In my opinion, that is so backwards. I don't think that Peter's race has anything to do with the drinking ritual, it's the cultural difference. In America, drinking is not frowned upon until a certain extent. It is ok to have a few drinks but it is very important that you know your limit and how often it is ok to drink. From Peter's point of view in the book, they have these banquets 2-3 times a week where the drinking competitions go on. That means 2-3 times a week a group of people are getting ridiculously drunk inorder to maintain a certain stature of their manhood. For these men to be as educated as they are, they should respect other people's request when they don't want to drink anymore.

Post 3

In this week's reading of Peter Hessler's River Town, I was most intrigued to learn about the white cane ridge.  What already sounds like a beautiful natural occurrence in nature, the marble slab who's markings tell the story of many dynasties that once ruled.  As Hessler told the story of the sort of ritual that took place as later and later dynasties kept re-discovering the stone carp engravings, I could not help but notice that there is a level of pride that went into the actions of the kingdoms that took part in the creation of the ridge's importance.  It's a sort of, "we're all on the same team" kind of feel that I got from this section.  It was really interesting to see through someone else's eyes, the creation of a very important landmark, who's creation was through the process of social history and coming together as a culture over the span of centuries, rather than being known for a battle, or anything with negative connotations.

Blog #3

Since we'll  talk about alcohol consumption in class, please focus on Peter Hessler's race or the White Crane Bridge section in this response.  What especially interests you about one or both of these?  Why?

The thing I found most interesting in pages 75-100 would be the fact that it was critical for a man in Fuling to drink and have a shot of baijiu. "This was one reason why local drinking patterns were so abusive with relatively light consequences; most people were genetically unable to become alcoholics" (80). When reading this it made me very upset to know that they would like to be known as alcoholics, but have no ability to become alcoholics because of their genetic light-weight tendencies. I found it very foul and upsetting that get drunk is one of the biggest customs in Fuling. "Once or twice a week they might be able to drink heavily, but they got too sick to do it all the time. IT WAS A RITUAL RATHER THAN A HABIT" (80). I capitalized the parts that I found the most barbaric. I find that part appalling because when intentionally getting drunk, you are known as an alcoholic, in my book, it doesn't matter whether or not you continuously consume alcohol, it matters whether or not you can live without it. In their culture, it is known as a ritual, therefore they have to do it. I found this very intense and aggressive that they are making Peter and Adam be a part of it. 

Mackenzie Ogden

response to 75-100

Since we'll  talk about alcohol consumption in class, please focus on Peter Hessler's race or the White Crane Bridge section in this response.  What especially interests you about one or both of these?  Why?