Posts

Abstract and Works Cited

  Abstract Both the Chinese and Western Dragons have been around for centuries. While the Western dragon was more of a character in stories, the Chinese dragon was integral to the religion. Each dragon portrayed the mindset, ideologies, and characteristics of their respective audiences. The Western dragon personified the enemy with classic ‘St George’ type myths. The Chinese dragons were ‘palace-dwelling’ and revered. These mindsets can be categorized into a ‘nature’ or individualism’ through process or ‘culture’ or ‘socialism’ through process. The cultures have developed their ideas through the time they have spent without contact with each other, but later there is a clash in culture when an open line of communication is formed between the two. This caused the Western dragons to take on more of the Chinese ideals, changing the dragon to be viewed less like an enemy and more like a companion. All aspects of the stories are affected with the clash of cultures, the dragons themsel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Literature Review #5

Image
 The Dragons of Mythology and Legend and Art Visual: Citation:  LEYLAND, JOHN. “THE DRAGON OF MYTHOLOGY, LEGEND, AND ART.” The Magazine of Art, Cassell and co. [etc.], 1891, pp. 330–33. Summary:     This source is a newspaper article that describes the purpose and characteristics of dragons from Aryan to Chinese to American. It goes into detail for each aspect, the stories, origins, characters, connections and finally the dragon itself.  Author: John Leyland was a journalist for the magazine of art.  Key Terms:  The term 'universal enemy' was used to describe a dragon,  showing how in American culture, it is only viewed as a villain and nothing more. 3 Quotes: "wings to endow him with greater terrors" (333) "in china... dragon reaches highest pinnacle as in of reverence" (332) "dragons became oppressor of man... hated and feared as the universal enemy" (371) Value: This sources adds more information about the specifics of the American view on drag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Argument & Counter-Argument

Image
Argument:  After the nineteenth century, through the exposure to Chinese dragons, American dragons have begun to transform from an enemy role to a power that could be harnessed, also changing the view on what power means. My research question was how did the clash in American and Chinese dragons affect the portrayal of the dragons themselves and the people who would be affected by the stories of dragons? I am answering this question by first figuring out what the initial for of stories about dragons are and therefore the mindset in each country. Later I would look at how the two cultures came into contact and what effect they have on each other. This can be how the stories have changed or how the audience has changed. My counter-argument will be coming from the idea of colonization of the Chinese dragon. The source, Western European Reinvention of China, by Joe Sample talks about how America and Europe has colonized the Chinese culture and the dragons and use dragons to represen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Extra Credit

Image
https://www.netflix.com/watch/81062189?trackId=13752289 The video that I looked into was 'The Mind Explained: Dreams', an episode of a Netflix original series giving an overview of dreams through history, what they meant and what they mean today. As one of the many that have dreams and yearn to know exactly what they seem to be about, I was quite interested in what the series has to say about it and I was not disappointed. Although there was some emphasis on what dreams could mean, there was more of a scientific approach on what influences dreams instead of just correlations and superstitions.  This source is not directly related to my project in terms of the material itself, but this episode has shown me that the storyline of what is being written does not need to go in one direction. Initially, I believed the entire episode to be all about dream representation throughout history. Later on, as I completed the episode, I was surprised to see that they went into the importance o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Case

Image
My main case to illustrate my argument is the Chinese-American author Laurence Yep. He has write a lot of stories and essays relating to the dragon and both how the dragon is viewed in the eyes of different people. His own thoughts on dragons and their portrayal is vital to my argument, especially by section about the clashes in cultures. Yep and other Chinese-Americans are prime examples of the outcome of the relatively recent connection of Western and Chinese culture.  A book he wrote best shows the difference in cultures through dragons. The story of the 'Dragon Prince' is one where only a women sees the beauty of a dragon, whereas her sisters only see the outside, calling the dragon vicious and ugly. This story and Yep's own experiences are primary sources on the effect of a culture clash, especially views that are so opposite to each other.
Post a Comment
Read more

Theoretical Frame

Image
A frame that I used in my essay is the Culture vs Nature concept. Martin Arnold talks about this concept in his book "The Dragon: Fear & Power". It is essentially stating that there are two views, one being the calm and composed view, which is culture, and the other being the chaotic, which is nature. Culture, in this case, means community and with community comes a calm and sophisticated way of viewing things. This is essentially the way that the Chinese Dragon will be viewed on in my essay. Nature is very chaotic and aggressive, so I will be using that term to explain more of the American/Western Dragons.  Another analytic term I will be using is 'clash'. I am using this in the part of my essay in which I talk about the reactions of American and Chinese cultures to each other and their effects on the dragons and their portrayal. Since the cultural views and ideas on dragons and other aspects differ so much, the term clash is perfect to describe what happens.
Post a Comment
Read more

Literature Review #4

Image
  Dragons in English: The Great Change of the Late Nineteenth Century Citation:  Cheetham, Dominic. “Dragons in English: The Great Change of the Late Nineteenth Century.”  Children’s Literature in Education , vol. 45, no. 1, Mar. 2014, pp. 17–32.  EBSCOhost , doi:10.1007/s10583-013-9201-z. Summary: This sources discusses the role of dragons in stories for American and Chinese before any interaction with each other. Then, the source goes more into detail about the change that occurred mainly to the view of the American dragons, and other aspects of the story as the two cultures were in contact with each other, Authors:  Cheetham Dominic teaches children's literature at Sophia's University. Since he is a professor and has written a lot of other essays, he is pretty knowledgable in the topic. Key Terms: Some key terms are the words that Dominic uses to describe dragon from both sides, as either evil with no intelligence or moral and speaking. Three Quotes: “evil, a...
Post a Comment
Read more