The Home Song Stories

May 22, 2010

The Home Song Stories, based on a true story, stars Joan Chen as Rose. Joan Chen was born into a family of doctors and educated in China during Mao’s era. Chen is considered the Elizabeth Taylor of China and delivers a powerful performance in this movie, which won a slew of foreign awards.  Rose is a lost soul with two children who moves to Australia after marrying an Australian sailor she meets in Hong Kong.

It is late in the 1960s and the Australian sailor turns out to be an admirable character. You would have to see the movie to discover why.

Later in the movie, it is revealed that at sixteen Rose was sold to become a concubine for an older man.  Rose fell in love with her master’s younger brother, an artist, and they run off.  A few years later, the love of Rose’s life dies from  tuberculosis. To survive, Rose becomes a night-club singer who takes a string of lovers.  The story is told from the son’s point of few, who is a child.  Rose’s daughter is a teen for most of the movie.

I couldn’t find copies of The Home Song Stories in the US but did find copies on ebay from Australia. It’s too bad this movie did not gain wider attention in the US.

Discover more Chinese movies, Not One Less

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Leave a Comment » | Chinese arts and music, Chinese Culture, Chinese women | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Democratic Confucianism

May 22, 2010

I heard from a reliable source that the Communist Party had been moving cautiously toward implementing a form of democracy  systematically just as they have  done to build the highly successful market economy that is driving China’s prosperity today.

Then in 2008, the last year of the G.W. Bush presidency, lack of government oversight and greed from Wall Street and American banks almost crashed the world economically and China’s leaders reeled in shock—cancelling their plans.

I read Moving China Toward Democracy: A Confucian Framework written by Kyle Baxter.  It is a thoughtful piece. If Baxter’s ideas will work is still to be determined.

What has been the cornerstone of most Chinese governments has been a form of Legalism, with its harsh punishments.

If Confucianism were to be the bedrock of  a democratic government in China, China’s critics in the West would have nothing to complain about. 

China has never really adopted Confucian principles for political rule. Since Confucianism values individual rights along with family values, this transition would pave the way for China to retain its cultural identity and join the world as a democratic partner.

Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping said it best, “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.”

See the Influence of Confucius

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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2 Comments | China, Chinese history, Confucianism | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Cultural Differences and the Ignorant American in Vietnam

May 22, 2010

Another example of American ignorance and arrogance happened when I served in Vietnam. During the Vietnam war, a US senator spoke out and what he said was quoted in the media. He was angry that women could be bought and sold in Thailand, a staunch US ally. Thailand told him to stuff it and that they would continue to live and run their country as they saw fit.

Vietnam Mural

Forty years later, Thailand hasn’t changed much. Women can still be bought and sold there even though Thailand is considered a democracy.

When I was in Vietnam, we fought alongside a South Korean division–great troops to have on your side. Brutal and tough. Another US senator complained about their brutal tactics with the Vietnamese, like the time they took a suspected Vietcong and hung him upside down from a tree branch and skinned him in front of an entire village to get villagers to reveal where the rest of the Vietcong were hiding.

The South Koreans got what they wanted and cleaned out that VC nest. When that US Senator complained, South Korea said “Shove It” (that’s not exactly the language they used but it means the same thing). The South Korean’s said, if you don’t like the way we fight, we will pull our division out and send our troops home.

That senator stopped protesting and the South Koreans stayed. I fought with the ROKs on an operation and was glad to have them by my side. At that time, The South Koreans hated communist due to North Korea, which made sense then.

Discover Why the Generals Laughed

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Leave a Comment » | America, cultural differences, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Cultural Differences, the Ignorant American and Western Imperialism

May 21, 2010

Before Western Imperialism attempted to change Asia during the 19th century, China was a regional super power for more than two-thousand years. Over time, the Chinese believed they were too civilized and powerful to be threatened by anyone on the planet.  Then the British, French, Portuguese, Germans, Americans, Russians and Japanese arrived and waged war in China for a century starting with the First Opium War.

Opium Wars

China learned a lesson from all of these wars. It only took a century to recover and start over.

The leaders of China are called Communists, but the men and women who rule China were born Chinese and the decisions they make are based on being Chinese—not being Communists. The Chinese culture is a collective culture and when an “individual” crosses the line and breaks the rules doing or saying something that is unacceptable to the collective culture, they are erased (given a death sentence) or reeducated (if possible). That’s how the Chinese collective culture on the mainland does things.

In time, interaction with other cultures may change that.  In fact, China already has changed to some degree. Friendly, harmonious interaction is the key—not hate and accusations like those from Americans like Timothy V.

See Respecting Cultural Differences are Out-of-Focus

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese history, cultural differences, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Cultural Differences, the Ignorant American and Star Trek

May 21, 2010

I’ve watched Star Trek since the 1960s and have seen most of the spin offs.  In the Star Trek Universe there are many cultures and races—far too many for even Christians or Islam to convert since that seems to be a driving force behind both of these major religions even if it means using war and violence to make it happen.

One way to look at this is to consider cultures and countries like China, Japan, both Koreas, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and others as if they are light-years away from Western culture.

If the US sent a spaceship to a far off world around another star and discovered a culture that was alien to our way of life, but these aliens had powerful, modern weapons and a strong military to defend themselves there would be no way to force them to change as the West did to so many cultures during the 19th century and a good portion of the 20th.

But what if this culture around that foreign star had products and materials  we wanted or needed for our civilization to survive. To do business with them, we would have to accept that culture the way it was and not attempt to change them or judge them as if that planet were an American Territory to be terrorized and converted.

None of the Asian cultures on our earth developed from Christianity, Judaism or Islamic roots. Even our staunchest allies in Asia, Singapore and Thailand, are Asian cultures with governments that do not fit the America model.

What does loss of Face mean to most Chinese?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Leave a Comment » | Christianity, Confucianism, cultural differences, Islam, religion, Taoism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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