Much of the latter part of The Good Earth is taken up with death, marriage and procreation. Discuss what you have learned from this book about the Chinese culture in regard to these major life milestones.
Respond to this post and comment on at least 2 of your classmates' responses prior to class on Friday, March 20.
Chinese culture is interesting in the way that they celebrate life milestones. Marriage is treated as if it was a business proposal and the business of finding women to marry is an entire industry. The way that Chinese culture views marriage and having children is that without these things, you are a waste. Procreation is extremely important in Chinese culture, especially the procreation of sons, to carry on family names and honors. Having daughters was once considered a downfall, and many families would have to dispose of their "downfalls" before the community heard about it. Death was treated as a sad truth, and something that many people prepared for and embraced it, due to their strong religious ties. Nowadays, China is a very different place. I believe that it's important to learn about other cultures and the way that they handled things, no matter how long ago, to understand our own culture better.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that marriage was treated as business. It's interesting to think of like you said that without marriage and children you are not very useful.
DeleteI agree that Chinese culture is interesting. It is weird how different the finding of a partner was then to now. Also it is sad how girls were not wanted and they only wanted boys.
DeleteI think its true to describe marriage as a business. Many times wives were chosen because of their wealth and nothing else.
DeleteI agree that they're very interesting. It's weird how they would most likely rather have a son then a girl, because that's not how it is here.
DeleteI strongly agree with you. it is true that they're culture is very interesting in what they do. and it's very true that they see marriage as more of a business relationship.
DeleteIn the Chinese culture I have learned that it is a good thing if you get a nice coffin before you die. Olan got to see her coffin before she died and Wang Lung had his coffin before he died. This is different from our culture as we don't think about seeing our coffin before we die. Also marriage was arranged a lot during this time period as it didn't really matter about love or a relationship. The women have their role as a wife as Olan did. They have the kids, cook and clean, and they work in the field. They also had to deal with men having concubines. They wouldn't speak out they did what they were told by their husbands. Also with procreation it was better and more wanted to have a son. The sons where more important to carry on the family. From The Good Earth I have learned that the Chinese culture is very different from what we are used to.
ReplyDeleteI agree that their culture is much different from ours and what we are used to. How they see their coffin before they die is something that we do not think about and that is something much different from what we are used to.
DeleteI agree that love didn't have much of a role in marriage and the wife had to do chores and deal with concubines. I think that is very different from how marriage is seen today.
DeleteI agree how death is different because people today wouldn't think about seeing their coffin before they die. I think that Chinese culture is very different from what we are used to also.
DeleteWhat I have learned about Chinese culture death would be that that they like to know where they will be buried and they like to know what coffin that they will be placed in before they die. For marriage they are not that much different from us in that they celebrate marriage but they are much different in how the partner is found. Marriages are set up by parents or like how Wang Lung found O-lan by going to a great house and asking for a woman. What I have learned about procreation is that they want a boy much more than a girl. A son is much more valued while girls are called “slaves”. They want to have many children and to keep having them.
ReplyDeleteI also talked about how marriage is set up and a spouse is found for them. I agree that it is much more wanted to have a boy then a girl.
DeleteI agree that marriage is much different when it comes to how the partner is found. That is also a good point on how they want to keep having more children, because that is true.
DeleteIn "The Good Earth" marriage is a pretty big deal in the Chinese culture.As what i can tell from the book marriage seems more of a friendship and a team work action more than a love type of relationship. O-lan and Wang Lung do love each other but they love each other more as friends than lovers. Procreation is a big deal too, one of the main purposes of a women in this book is to have kids, especially boys. When you have a family, when you die then you have someone to pass your "riches" or culture down onto. Death in this book is a pretty big deal also. When someone dies, I feel that in the Chinese culture it's a pretty big deal and that person is to be remembered greatly. They should be honored.
ReplyDeleteIn The Good Earth, I have learned a few things about marriage. I have learned that even though you may be married to someone, in that time it didn't matter if you were "with" someone else. I also learned that sometimes the women you are married to possibly are just used for labor and for children. From this novel, I also learned that having boys was much more significant than having a girl. I also learned that it wasn't un normal to kill your child if it was a girl. The birth of a girl also relates to death because of the fact that they could be killed.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that men were allowed to do whatever they wanted to while the women had to sit by the sidelines and allow them to. I don't know how parents could kill their children.
DeleteIt seems wrong to us that people would have concubines but it was normal for the Chinese. It seems wrong that the Chinese kill their daughters but, it seemed like a burden to feed another mouth that won't work the land.
DeleteIt seems a lot different to us then to them because their culture is different than ours. we don't really understand why they do the things that they do.
DeleteThe Chinese culture is very different from what we know today. In the Chinese culture marriage is not about love. Your parents would pick the spouse for you. The dowry received was a big part of the spouse your parents would pick. Procreation is also different in the Chinese culture. Every family valued boys births over female births. Males are able to carry on the family name and can do more work. Girls would be sold as slaves to help earn the family money. It was also normal for the husband to see other women and even reproduce with them. The view of death in the Chinese culture is also different. The Chinese were calm about death unlike the people of today. Also, they were very glad about having a coffin by their bedside,so when they were dying they knew where their body would go. Now if people saw a coffin by their bedside they would be scared and confused.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting how you stated that Chinese people are usually calmer about death. It is very true in The Good Earth
DeleteThe Good Earth shows how different cultures deal with death, and celebrate marriage and procreation. For example, buying a coffin before dying is customary and can bring peace to someone such as O-lan when she was on her death bed. Marriage was in a sense, a quieter celebration in Chinese culture because there wasn’t a big ceremony or a bunch of friends. It was mainly for the family. If a woman has a baby that is a male, it is celebrated, especially if it is the first-born. On the other hand, if the baby is a female it is considered a slave and worthless. Overall, The Good Earth exposes the reader to a different culture and way of living.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the reader of The Good Earth is exposed to a different way of living. It was different seeing the way other people would act in certain situations compared to how another culture would.
DeleteI like the way you said that reading this book exposes us to a knew way of life, and I very much agree with you. Reading this book as changed my way of thinking of the world.
DeleteI learned that the Chinese had completely different views in regard to all three of these things. With marriage, no one in the book married for love. It was always arranged, and sometimes it was just for status or wanting a woman. In Chinese culture, it really wasn't as valued as it is today.
ReplyDeleteDeath was also viewed a lot different. Most people in today's society won't put their wife's coffin next to her death bed. People may still pick out their coffins before they die today, but sleeping next to it is definitely not something that would happen today. I learned that death was taken differently, and in a way it was not feared as much.
With Procreation, i already knew that female babies were treated poorly in Chinese culture, but it was really surprising to find out that they were often killed. I find it hard to imagine that any culture wouldn't value children lives enough to kill them.
I agree that it's hard to imagine killing a child just because it was a female. Chinese culture in The Good Earth was definitely very different from our culture and sometimes it was hard to understand why they did these things.
DeleteI agree that we might find it different that they sleep next to there coffins. That is something I don't think many people do in the United States.
DeleteIn Chinese culture, at least at the time Wang Lung was alive, many people would be betrothed to someone picked by their parents. People would get married at a young age and for financial and status gain. There was also not much of a connection between someone and the person they marry, which is typically the main thing someone looks for in a partner in Western culture.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone in the family is dying, in Wang Lung's culture, it is a considerate thing to buy them a coffin before their death and display it to them. While on the other side of the earth, it is a tad creepy to do that and hints that the person who bought the coffin, wants the dying person to die sooner.
During rough times in China when Wang Lung was alive, it was a burden to give birth to a girl; however, birthing a boy was a sign of great fortune and something to be celebrated.
It's interesting how different and black/white their culture was. It seems like no one was actually doing what made them happy, but what society expected them to do.
DeleteI agree that it is a little creepy in other parts of the world and that it does seem like they want the sick person to die. I don't quite understand that custom, but I do think it is interesting.
DeleteIt is interesting how family members would put a coffin by the bedside of their family. I would be rather scared if that occurred now. I agree that it is a weird tradition, but it is interesting.
DeleteMuch of the latter part of The Good Earth is taken up with death, marriage and procreation. One of the things I learned about Chinese culture that sticks out to me the most is how the women are treated. They are expected to work hard and do anything the husband desires. The women don't really have much of a say. Like if your husband were to get concubine, you can't say anything about it, you have to deal with it. Clearly you would be upset, but it is a normal thing in the Chinese culture. I know personally I could never do that, it just shows how different their culture is then ours. When girl babies are born, a lot of the times the girl is killed. In Chinese culture they consider the boy more important. Another thing I learned would be how the Chinese just get married, basically out of the blue. Wang Lung met O-lan the day of their marriage. What if you would end up not liking that person at all? Also your marriage most likely gets chosen for you, at a young age. The Chinese culture has very different major life milestones then we do here in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot about the Chinese culture and customs from reading this book. Some of the major milestones a person can go through are getting married, having children, and dying. Getting married is expected of people in this culture. They usually get married very young.
ReplyDeleteAnother important part of the Chinese culture is having children, and a lot of them. If the first born is a boy, like in The Good Earth, this is a very important event since boys are more desired in this culture than girls. Having a lot of kids is normal because as you get older they can work, provide for you, and take care of you. Sometimes people will kill their child, or sell them, if they believe they cannot provide for them.
Dying is also a major milestone. People often buy coffins for their loved ones before they are dead, like Wang Lung did for Olan. I think these things are also important in our culture; however, we think of them in a different way for the most part.
I agree that all these things are still important to us, but we just view them in a different way.
DeleteIt's hard to believe that in this culture girls were killed as children because boys were more valued than girls. But at the same time it's understandable for the time period that they were in.
DeleteI agree with you on all your point, I like the point about having children and how they believed that it was better to have a boy as a first child instead of a girl.
DeleteThis book has taught me a lot about the Chinese culture and how these major life milestones are treated in their culture. To me I think that marriage is one of the biggest milestones in the Chinese culture. Who you marry is really important depending on your social status and there are different standards you must meet to be considered beautiful (example: small, bound feet). But in this culture it also does not matter who you marry as long as they can provide what you need. Olan claimed Wang Lung didn't love him, but they still married and she provided him with what he needed because that was expected of wives. The wives were expected to be obedient and accept anything that happened. In the Chinese culture it is commonly accepted for wives to be acquired from places like the House of Hwang and for wealthy men to buy concubines. I think I learned a lot about marriage in Chinese culture from The Good Earth.
ReplyDeleteAs for procreation in Chinese culture, it was better for a couple to have a son rather than a daughter. Sons were seen as having more potential, they could get an education, learn to work the land, and much more. Girls were kind of extra baggage and in Chinese culture were often killed or sold to wealthy people which is kind cruel and hard to believe. Through reading The Good Earth it opened my eyes to the strange customs of other cultures and we got to see how they handle different milestones in life and as weird as some of their culture was it was really interesting to learn about.
I agree that it is better for a couple to have a boy rather than a girl in the Chinese culture. The son could provide for the parents as they get older, whereas a daughter could not do that as easily.
DeleteMarriage is very important to the Chinese culture. Most young men marry at a young age. This is for them to have more time in their life for procreation. Procreation is the most important part of Chinese culture. They feel that females are a disgrace because they cannot work the fields and be pretty. The Chinese want their wives to bear boys. This is for them to work the fields when they come of age. Death is seen as the end of a journey. They bury the deceased with the fullest respect that can be given with their family.
ReplyDeleteIn Chinese culture, death is handled very differently. When a relative dies, it is proper to wear white as a sign of mourning. If it is a family member, the considerable amount of time to wear the sign of mourning is a year.
ReplyDeleteAmericans usually date for an average of a year before they marry. In Chinese culture, it is normal to be married the same day that they meet. On their wedding day, they have a "celebration of uniting" by drinking and eating wine and rice separately, then mixing their wine or rice with the others' before continuing.
When a son is born, eggs are dyed red in Chinese culture. To have a son is an honorable thing. If a "slave" is born, nothing is done.
I definitely agree with you that death is handled differently in Chinese culture. I also agree with you about dating in this culture. It would never happen in our society that somebody meets and marries someone in the same day.
DeleteI agree with how the Chinese handled things differently than us. I liked how you mentioned the red eggs because I forgot about them.
DeleteI like how you mentioned that where we live, you date for a long time before getting married, but in the Chinese culture they can get married the same day that they meet.
DeleteI agree with you on how Chinese culture handle these milestones differently from us. The point about marriage is interesting because its so different from our culture.
DeleteChinese culture is very different with the marriage aspect. In America, you are married to one person, and anything else is cheating, or adultery. In their culture, they have concubines for those "needs". Marriage can also be arranged, which isn't common in the US. Procreation is also a big thing. Wang Lung and Olan had MANY children. Mainly people will have 1-3 children. In their culture, depending where you live or work, children could prove helpful when working in the fields or anything like that, such as they were in TGE. They treated deaths about the same way as us. They purchased coffins, but mainly the wealthy could afford. They also had funerals, but again, mainly for the wealthy. Also they didn't treat the death of a girl as they would that of a boy.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, in America being anything but faithful to your partner is considering cheating and immoral. But in the Chinese culture this was completely understandable and often encouraged. Which is pretty crazy to think about.
DeleteEverything is backwards in Chinese culture. If someone buys you a nice coffin and you get to see it before you die it's supposed to be comforting. But for us it can be seen as disrespectful and only something your archenemy would do. With marriage, it's almost like going to the store and being given a wife. Wives, at least at the time period in The Good Earth, are not regarded very highly in society. That is definitely the opposite in America in most cases because if you treat your wife like a Chinese wife she'll end up leaving you or worse. Having a child in China seems it can be a 50/50 whether or not you're really happy, if you have a boy or a girl. In America, we get what we get and we don't get upset.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that some things seem backwards in their culture. And it seems weird that they get married to someone they never met. This is Chinese culture and it is normal to them.
DeleteI agree with how we can see these things as backwards. It is weird to think that people in this time saw this as normal.
DeleteI have learned a lot about Chinese culture from reading The Good Earth. The topic I found most interesting was how the marriage worked. When men wanted to get married they would usually pick a female slave that they have never met before. Men and women usually got married at a young age. This was unusual to me because today you usually meet someone and date them for years before marriage. The women were more slaves to the men then their wives. I also learned about the death in Chinese culture, and people wanted to know a lot before they died. They wanted to know where they would be buried and what coffin they would be placed in. Another interesting topic that I learned about was the procreation. People usually wanted male babies because they had more value then females did. Some families had often killed female babies because they couldn't care for them, which is really sad. Families would also sell female children as slaves for money. I have learned a lot about Chinese culture and it was interesting to see how different America was and is today.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with how interesting it is that men would casually purchase a bride they have never met! I can't imagine being in either O-lan or Wang Lung's place when he went to the House of Hwang to be married.
DeleteBefore reading The Good Earth, I was not aware of all of the customs that were in Chinese culture. When it comes to marriage, I learned that men and women never truly love the one they marry. It is more of a business type of relationship instead of actually marrying the one person you love. It was also custom to have a concubine while the man has a wife. That seemed unusual because the wife could not really say anything just for the fact that is a custom. I learned that in China, male babies were preferred over female babies. Most female babies, or babies that couldn't be cared for, were killed before the age of one. This process is commonly known as infanticide. I understand that it is some form of population control, but I personally wouldn't be able to kill my child. Reading this novel definitely opened my eyes to see how different other cultures are compared to the life in America today.
ReplyDeleteI was also not aware of the customs before reading this novel. Having a concubine did seem very unusual, but that is just because we are not use to it.
DeleteI don't think anyone in today's society would be able to kill their own child. I agree with you and Abbey that concubinage is a strange thing and I don't think that it would be acceptable for a man to have a concubine while his wife knew about it.
DeleteThere are many customs in past Chinese culture that I had been unaware of. Marriage is very important to them. Getting married was something that happened at a somewhat young age and you can not choose. Your parents choose who you are to be with. Procreation is very important, especially sons. Sons are the heir to the land and house. Women, at the time, were not as important as men. Families wanted sons over daughters and wives were treated slaves. Another custom I learned was that buying a coffin for a loved one before they died was very expectable. Chinese culture was very interesting back then and still is now. Our ideas and views on life and the way things should be done differentiate from theirs. Reading The Good Earth proved just how different the Chinese culture is than ours.
ReplyDeleteI have learned from The Good Earth, that getting married and having kids is like a business deal. They don't have kids or get married because they want to, but they see it like they have to. When they have kids they want to have boys. At one point in the book, Wang Lung didn't even think that his grandchild could be a girl. He assumed it would be a boy because that's what he wanted and expected it to be. I also noticed that they didn't seem scared of death. They just seemed to say, hey this is the way of life. Also if someone in the family died, they would wear white out of respect even if they didn't like that specific family member.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said they don't have children or get married because they want to, they do it because they have too. I thought it was interesting that you interprited it that way.
DeleteYou are right in that marriage and having kids is like a business deal. They do it because its something that everyone does and has to be done to keep a family going. I like your opinion, though.
DeleteIt seems that the characters in the book accept what comes to them. No adults in the book put up a fuss with anything that happens to them. I learned a lot about the Chinese culture through reading The Good Earth. With marriage, there was no actual ceremony between Wang Lung and Olan, and probably a large majority of married folk in China at that time, and they had talked for the first time on their wedding day. The woman’s main job in Chinese culture is procreation. In Chinese culture, the birth of boys were preferred to the birth of girls; however, women generally did more for the family than men. All of the characters that had lived life and died in the book seemed to accept it; they know that their time has come. Death was a normal thing and no one in the book grieved too much about someone dying.
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