Classroom Discussion
The East Asia for all podcast talks about the movie we watched in class called Warriors of the Rainbow. We discussed topics from the podcast, as well as some of the topics that interested us. These topics included gender, tatoos, female voice, violence, ethnic groups, head hunting and poetry. In the movie, the women were not included as a centerpiece. Thier voice was seen through song and the suicide scenes, but they showed honor. The tatoos were made by the women and signaled adulthood. The ethnic groups int he movie included aboriginal people (and groups within including those who became Japanese policeman), Han people (merchants who were not oppressive toward aboriginal), Japanese (some good towards aboriginals and some bad). The movie gives a message that head hunting is okay and we can forgive it because it is an ethnic tradition, but it is very violent. Epics in Western society (that seen in Hollywood movies) shows heroism through violence and the lesson of regret many times (although there is Greek poetry about farming, human nature did not tend towards that being the main one). Epic in Chinese tradition has a different definition and does not have an equivalence of epic poetry in Western society. In Chinese tradition, poetry has a rule that you avoid arms and can not glorify them. Instead, farming is glorified. We also talked about the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere when talking about how Taiwanese view Japanese and the Japanese thoughts on Chinese people. We talked about YANG Mu. He composed Memories of Mount Qilai when he was in the United States studying. We went through his poem and circled repeating words, then read it outloud with words and actions. We then talked about CHI Po-lin, “Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above” documentary. He was the first Taiwanese to fly in a helicopter to document Taiwan from above.
YANG Mu, “The Flames of War Burn in the Distant Sky”
YANG describes life in Taiwan’s coastal region of Hualien. Although he lived through World War II and multiple typhoons, YANG and the landscape around him are not unscathed by it. These changes did not impact his memory of the landscape of his coastal home: from the sea and mountains, to the smells. The poet describes the sunlight coming through the window. The description of it created beautiful imagery and captured the reader in that memory of the poet, while the typhoon was violent and reoccurring. The sunlight and the typhoon are two things that the poet will always remember and they offer an insightful contrast. Although the typhoon occurred every year, it was easily forgotten about because of the “dazzling” sunlight that was soon to follow. Although the typhoon uprooted trees from the mountains, the mountains were still “watching over” the city after it passed.
YANG Mu, “An Inkling of Poetry”
YANG describes how the terrifying experience of an earthquake had induced the first “inkling of poetry” in him. The natural disaster that he could not forget had inspired a powerful experience within him at the time, even as it made him consider further the notions of religion. He had considered that time a “black spring” from which a stronger understanding of myth arose—and myth itself, YANG claims, is explained by poetry. The poem on page 87-88 includes many repeated words that offer an incredible insight into the mind of the author. He talks about “this” shore and “that” shore, which describes “home” and “away”. This shows the many ways to look at one thing and contruct a poetic work. YANG’s perspective through part of this is in his youth from a “high spot”. This contrasts with the perspective in “Gazing Up”, where he is older and admiring the mountains from the ground.
YANG Mu, “Gazing Up”
The “wave” that Yang mentions here is the wave of memory; it touches his mind and brings him serenity and remorse, which both plays an important in his life. According to him, the mountain remains as the eternal of youth, which is the spirit he pursues for years. However, the writer has already become old; it is only the spirit of youth that he can pursue. The last sentence depict the writer himself and the youth (green) of the mountain in the same picture with personification that describes the mountain (youth) as a beautiful and weak girl who is looking at the old “I” who still wants to keep a young spirit.
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