Museum Visit

“Two Worlds”, 23 x 17 1/2 inches, was linoleum cut by Margaret Burroughs in 1996.

That is one of the most distinguished African-American artists created by Dr. Margaret Burroughs. This artist shows us a person who raises his hands to his neck, with many leaves background in black-white. The person is compared clearly with a line, which put him to two opposite colors cross, black and white. His left face, right neck and left shoulder are white, and his right face, left neck and right shoulder are black. Two completely different colors are put into one person. It is surly not a realistic artist, Margaret created this artist with her own emotions. The Black Pride movement of the 1960s had generated a new interest amongst the African-American community for the reappraisal of African-American history and their roots, and Burroughs found linoleum cuts to be the perfect media in which to communicate and disseminate positive images of African-Americans, their history, and culture. So, she used linoleum cuts to create the “Two World”. Although the name of this artist is “Two Worlds”, she doesn't want the different color of the skins make the people to the different areas. Differences are shown in the same picture, the same person, the same environment, “Everyone are created equal” can be shown though this artist. I have learned about a painting “John Brown Going To His Hanging” by Horace Pippin. It shows a person named John Brown, whose activities to try to free the slaves caused him to be arrested and put on trial in the state of Virginia. All the people are showed in black, but the wagon, which took them were white. I think it is as same as the “Two Worlds”, surely symbolic of the black-white drama. In my opinion, both of the artist are showed the wish about everyone can live in the same world, without fighting, discrimination, and unequal.

The Great Wall of China

AE2-Term 082
Julie Bird
April 3rd , 2008
Zhi Chu Huang

The Great Wall of China

A Ripley’s Believe it or Not! From May 1932 claimed that the wall is the “the mightiest work of man, the only one that would be visible to the human eye from the moon.” And Richard Halliburton’s 1938 book Second Book of Marvels makes a similar claim. Although it has been provided that is not true, the Great Wall is really a famous, magnificent and historic building and you also can see a beautiful orange line on the earth though the Space Shuttle. The past president of United States, Richard M.Nixon has said “This is a Great Wall and only a great people with a great past could have a great wall and such a great people with such a great wall will surely have a great future.” So, in my opinion, the history of the construction, the useful of the Great Wall and the rich connotations of history and culture of the Great Wall are three main reasons to talk about the Great Wall.

The first reason is the history of the construction. Chinese were already familiar the techniques of wall-building by the time of Spring and Autumn Period, which began around the 7th century BC and finished in 1880 AD. During almost 2000 years, include Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, Qin, Han, Northern, Sui, Jin, Ming and Qing Dynasty. The most famous is the wall built by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, he used 300,000 people to build the Great Wall, and Han, Ming Great Wall are all as the most important parts of the Great Wall. It’s really a huge construction. Possibly as many as three million people died building the Great Wall during the Ming dynasty. In addition, the Great Wall was made up by three parts are Passes, Wall and Beacon Tower. Passes usually built in the narrowest way between two mountains. The Wall is the main part of the Great Wall, all of the Great is stretches to over 13,000km. It made up by the large stones from the local mountains by manpower. I think the most useful part of the Great Wall is Beacon Tower. There are a large number of Beacon Towers built on the wall. The soldiers burn to make different types of smoke to transinformation.

The second reason is the useful of the Great Wall, The basic purpose of the Great Wall is to defend the other nationality. From Qin Dynasty, in order to defend the invasion of other nationality, such as Xingnu, almost every dynasty repaired and built the Great Wall (except Tang and Song Dynasty, because Tang was too strong to use Great Wall, and Song was too weak to repaired and built it). Soldiers stood on the wall used the spears and the arrows to attack the enemies. Soldiers could live in the Great Wall, defended at any time. Furthermore, the Great Wall can promote the communication with other estates and nationalities. The most important effect is agriculture and animal husbandry. Agriculture and animal husbandry are two different parts of production. They are two types of economic and cultural, often cause serious imbalance and confrontation. The construction of the Great Wall exists, created an important way to protect the agriculture and restraint the animal husbandry. Not only put these two different productions in their own ways, but also make them unite together. Also the Great Wall began a way to communicated with west Asian, middle Asian, Europe and African on business and culture. Through the Great Wall, people can trade the tea, silk, medicine, horses, metal, and so on. It is good to the development of China; also it is benefit to the advancement of the economical of the world.

The third reason is the rich connotations of history and culture include the words, the Weights and Measures, the Emperor who wanted to build the Great Wall, poems and songs about it and different kinds of the legends. From these, I really interested in the legends of this great construction. One of the most famous stories is the “Meng JiangNv”. In the Qin dynasty, there was a woman named Meng JiangNv. One day, she met a man named Fan XiLiang, who escaped the work to build the Great Wall. Because of the cruel system, there were too many people to count starve and tired to death. The kindness Meng saved him, and took him to her home. A few days, they became into the love, after the parents’ allowed, they got married. During the espousal, every people are very happy, but just at this time, the solders rushed in, and arrested Fan XiLiang to build the Great Wall. Meng JiangNv was very sad to that, she thought her husband every day. Finally, she thought she would rather came to the Great Wall to find him, than she waited at home,. So, she began a long, hard way to the Great Wall, after much more difficult, she reached to the Great Wall. But, after few days’ searching, she didn’t look for her husband in crowd. She had to ask the captain whether there was a man, named Fan XiLiang with very big courage. The caption told her he was really here. Meng JiangNv heard that feel very happy and exciting, and she asked where she could find him. The captain said he was died yesterday, and his body was covered up in the corner of the wall. After heard that, it is really Shocking news to Meng JiangNv, she could help to crying. She cried the whole three days, the sound of crying made the god was touched, suddenly, It became more and more dark, and the wind was more and more violent. Suddenly, a part of the Great Wall was destroyed by her crying, a body was appeared in the Great Wall, and that was her husband, Fan XiLiang. Meng JiangNv finally saw her husband, but he didn’t saw her forever, he was died under the tired work to build the Great Wall. That is the most famous story about the Great Wall. This story makes too many people to move and it can also appears that the built of the Great Wall with large numbers of people’s life.

In conclusion, from the beginning of the Great Wall in the Spring and Autumn period, developed with the 2000 years development of the feudal society in China. Although the Great Wall cannot be used to be a defend tool, it is magnificent posture and strong physique, make the people to be healthy, increases the knowledge, contact comity and develop the economic trade etc. And the most important is that the Great Wall symbolizes the perseverance of overcoming the difficult and the strong and unyielding spirit of the Chinese nation. The length time of construction, the arduous of construction, the wide of communication, the rich connotations of history and culture, the more and more deeply effect in the world, and he strong and unyielding spirit, these are well-deserved make the Great Wall become the miracle of human history.