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MONSOON
The Asian Journal of Brandeis University
Vol IIl, Issue 3, October 2005
Through the Eyes of the Hermit
by Baya HARRISON
Masculinity in Chinese History
by Mu ZHOU
The Last Empress of China - A Misunderstood Figure
by Zoe Yu JIANG
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Contents
The cover PICTURE features an extremEly overcast day at Fenghuang,
Hunan Province, China. MONSOON WOULD LIKE TO THANK KAI HE FOR HIS
CONTRIBUTIONS. HE IS A THIRD YEAR STUDENT AT BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY,
MAJORING IN ECONOMICS AND MATHEMATICS.
October 2005
A Message from Monsoon’s Co Editor-in-Chief
2
Foreword by Jenny Feinberg
3
Through the Eyes of the Hermit
by Baya HARRISON
5 Even Half a Sentence is Too Much: Another Wasted Opportunity to Improve the Unproductive Political Culture of Hong Kong
by Tak-Hin Benjamin NGAN
6
Globalization, Poverty, and Growth in Bangladesh
by Janice HUSSAIN
8
Masculinity in Chinese History
by Mu ZHOU
10
The Last Empress of China – A Misunderstood Figure
by Zoe Yu JIANG
13 Japanese Culture in America – A Unique View from Otakon 2005
by Yunyan Jennifer WANG
A Miao girl in typical Miao costume (The Miao is a minority ethnic group in China).
Monsoon8.indd 4-5
14
The Market for Fair Skin in India
by Janice HUSSAIN
16
Acknowledgements
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
1
20/10/2005 22:41:01
As a third-year premed student at Brandeis, I have been working in the
Brigham & Women’s Hospital Emergency Department since the beginning of last
Karen Jiang (‘07)
semester. My job as a Business Specialist revolves around secretarial work and
Mu Zhou (‘06)
assisting physicians. My goal there, of course, is to check off one of the countless
criteria set by the medical school admissions, a hopeless struggle to maintain my
Managing Editor
position in the ever-increasingly competitive medical school application process.
Howard Gou (‘06)
Besides being able to observe emergency medical procedures, my work
General Managers
was mostly tedious and mindless, until one night, on my shift, I came across an
Ruodan Lan (‘07)
article in the Brigham & Women’s journal, titled “Touching the World.” The article
Diana Kwok (‘08)
caught my eye because it mentioned a very familiar name. The name belonged to an
emergency room physician, Dr. Cranmer, whom I worked with occasionally. I never
Production Manager
had much interaction with Dr. Cranmer; she gave me an impression of someone who
Tsz-Kwan Ko (‘07)
is serious about her work, and not exactly a sociable type. Nevertheless, as I read the
article about her four-week long stay in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami
Senior Editor - Global
disaster as leader of a medical relief group, I soon developed wholehearted respect
Baya Harrison (‘06)
and admiration for this doctor who I never got to know.
Senior Editor - Greater China
As of April 8th, 2005, the estimated number of lives that were swept away
Stuart Kottle (‘07)
by the December 26th tsunami was 217,241. The countries that suffered the top
death rolls were Indonesia (163,978), Sri Lanka (30,957) and India (16,389). When
Senior Editor news of the tsunami broke, Dr. Cranmer received a call from a friend who said that
Northeast Asia
the International Rescue Committee needed doctors to help the tsunami victims.
Jessica Kim (‘07)
Without hesitation, on the night of January 5th, Cranmer packed for her departure for
Indonesia. Upon landing, she was immediately faced with the severity of the situation:
Senior Editor contaminated wells, overcrowded refugee camps, psychologically traumatized
Southeast Asia
victims, and rampaging illnesses such as scabies and malaria. Cranmer kept a journal
Hoong Chuin Lim (‘07)
during her work in Indonesia, which records the difficulty of organizing relief work
Senior Editor due to the lack of resources that had been a problem even before the tsunami. Her
South Asia
entries also describes the devastation the victims had endured, the strength they
Janice Hussain (‘08)
showed in the battle for survival, and the compassion they demonstrated in helping
others in disaster relief. One such entry dated January 31st, 2005, writes:
Founders
One of the nurses we’ve been working with at the clinic came by the hotel to
Kassian Polin (‘05)
say good-bye to a team that was leaving. He had just returned from Banda Aceh himself,
Tak-Hin Benjamin Ngan (‘05)
with the sad news that no one is left from his entire family. He and his wife and child
Elliott Veloso (‘05)
will now move permanently to Seunuddon. And he made sure to let me know he’ll be
Daniel Kaufman (‘05)
Editors-in-Chief
HOW TO REACH US
To submit an article:
e-mail mbz@brandeis.edu or
jiang@brandeis.edu
To advertise with us:
e-mail jiang@brandeis.edu
______________________
Monsoon is a chartered organization of
Brandeis University and a member of the
Brandeis University Media Coalition. The
LOUIS catalogue call number for Monsoon at the Brandeis library is LD571.B85
M656.
Opinions expressed in the articles are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board at
large.
1
Monsoon8.indd 6-7
ready for work tomorrow, amazingly. He has been a treasure at the clinic…helping as
much as he can, along with his wife, who is a midwife. I know he is sad to see this team
leave, but he will be a great asset to the next [team] coming. How he finds the strength
to do so is just unfathomable. He doesn’t cry—none of our staff have, at least not in
front of us.
After reading the article, I cannot help but wonder: will I, one day, get to
make a difference like Dr. Cranmer did? Will I have her strength and ability to lessen
a people’s suffering, to change the world for the better? Often, as we are busy studying
and working to reach our goals, we might have forgotten to slow down a little to ask
ourselves these questions. Is going to medical school really about earning a six-digit
salary? Or is it about arming yourself with the knowledge and the ability to make
a difference where you are needed the most, whether it be the tsunami or Hurrican
Katrina? Maybe some of us will find that the satisfaction of having helped others in
need is incomparable with anything in the materialistic world.
Karen Jiang
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Foreword by Jenny Feinberg
President,
Student Union Government
To the Readers and Members of Monsoon Magazine:
In the fall of 2003, as Monsoon Editor-in-Chief Karen Jiang and I embarked on the beginning
of our college careers, the Brandeis community faced tremendous racial and political
tension. There was a clear need on campus for enhanced outlets of diverse discussion. As
first-years, many students and I found solace in the founding of Monsoon magazine, the
first Asian journal of Brandeis University. Monsoon’s rich content provided numerous
opportunities for Brandeis students to learn about Asian culture, connecting us to new
information.
While much work is still needed to bridge cultural divisions on campus, I feel confident that
the continued work of our community leaders will gradually establish deeper understandings
between our community members. Through social events, debates, and discussions, we must
all work together in this worthy effort. As a community leader myself, I feel extremely
fortunate to read Monsoon every semester and gain a closer connection to so many of my
peers.
Thank you so much, Monsoon, for providing me with such an opportunity.
******
Fondly,
Jenny Feinberg
President, Student Union Government
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
A Message from Monsoon’s Co-Editor-in-Chief
2
20/10/2005 22:41:01
- by Baya HARRISON
North Korea is a geopolitical anachronism. Its
place in the international community is that of a living
diorama, into which outsiders peer to observe the vestiges
of an era past. As the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991
and other communist states either collapsed or opened
their governments and markets, North Korea clung to
its command economy and totalitarian dictatorship.
A combination of government repression, misguided
economic policies, and natural disasters has left half
the population malnourished, a quarter of a million
displaced, and upwards of a million killed by famine. An
army of one million men, armed with equipments from
the 1950s and ‘60s, stands along the four-kilometer-long
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) facing South Korea. North
Korea’s most recent offense is also its gravest: in 2003,
North Korean negotiators claimed to have produced
nuclear weapons.
Though officially titled the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea’s isolation
from the international community has earned it the name
“hermit kingdom.” President George W. Bush called it
a member of the “axis of evil,” and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice termed it an “outpost of tyranny.” The
U.S. perception of an evil North Korea run by madmen
presents few alternatives to regime change as a solution to
the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear aspirations.
On the other hand, understanding North Korean
leaders as rational actors concerned with the security of
their country gives a more realistic interpretation of their
pursuit of nuclear weapons. A recent publication by the
Woodrow Wilson Center provides evidence for just such
an argument.
In May 2005, the Wilson Center released a
series of diplomatic correspondences from Russian
and Hungarian archives. These documents include
communications between Soviet and Eastern European
foreign ministries and their ambassadors in North Korea
between 1962 and 1986. While most analyses of the North
Korean regime take place from the outside looking in,
these documents offer the unique perspective of foreign
dignitaries working directly with North Korean officials
and sometimes with Kim Il Sung himself, North Korea’s
“Great Leader” from 1948 to 1994. These exchanges
strongly suggest that North Korea’s search for nuclear
weapons was a rational effort to guarantee its security
against a U.S. attack.
The documents make it clear that Kim Il Sung
believed a U.S. nuclear strike against North Korea was
not merely a possibility, it was a certainty. In November
1967, Kim expected the U.S. to reignite the conflict in
3
Monsoon8.indd 8-9
the Korean peninsula, despite the deep U.S. involvement
in Vietnam.1 As late as February 1976, two decades after
the armistice ending the Korean War, high-ranking DPRK
officials did not believe that peaceful means could unify
Korea. They were ready for the next war, which they
anticipated would be fought by nuclear bombs rather
than armies.2
The North Korean leadership recognized that
its lack of nuclear weapons would pre-determine any
confrontation with the U.S. In August 1962, Pak Song
Ch’ol, the DPRK Minister of Foreign Affairs, observed
that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was an obvious advantage
over North Korea: “Their possession of nuclear weapons,
and the lack thereof in our hands, objectively helps them,
therefore, to eternalize their rule.”3
The Great Leader initially took comfort in the
belief that North Korea’s mountainous terrain would
limit the destruction of a nuclear attack. His military
advisors presumed that similar terrain in Vietnam
prevented the U.S. from using nuclear weapons there
as well. Kim concluded confidently that “a lot of such
bombs would be needed to wreak large-scale destruction
in the country.”4
Nevertheless, Kim undertook extensive measures
to protect the North Korean leadership from a nuclear
attack. By 1963, Kim claimed to have constructed a
nation-wide network of caves and tunnels to shelter the
military and government. The caves were stocked with
provisions to provide their inhabitants with “everything
that they needed.”5 In 1967, military attachés from
several communist Eastern European governments
reported that the North Korean army staged military
exercises simulating a nuclear attack. They also noted
that preparations had not been taken to prepare civilians
for such an attack.6
By 1976, however, the capital city of Pyongyang
was prepared to shelter its population in its cavernous
subway tunnels. According to one account, North Korea
“has been turned into a system of fortifications, important
factories have been moved underground…and airfields,
harbors, and other military facilities were established in
the subterranean cave networks.”7 The accuracy of these
statements is doubtful, as the same report indicated that
the DPRK had already manufactured nuclear warheads
through indigenous capabilities, which it had not.8
Though his preparations for surviving a nuclear
attack were extensive, Kim Il Sung’s determination to
obtain his own nuclear deterrent was notable from the
outset. In 1963, Soviet specialists studying raw uranium
ore in North Korea observed that the North Koreans
were determined to mine large amounts of uranium
ore “despite all odds.”9 When a Soviet specialist told a
Korean engineer that the impoverished DPRK economy
prevented production of a nuclear weapon, the engineer
retorted that North Koreans would provide free labor
for years if necessary.10 This dedication brings to mind
Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto’s statement
that Pakistanis would eat grass until they could afford
to build a nuclear weapon. The notable difference is that
many North Koreans have indeed been reduced to eating
grass to finance their leaders’ military expenditures.11
North Korean efforts during this period to acquire
nuclear weapons from its allies were persistent but came
to naught. In April 1963, the Czechoslovak Ambassador
assured a North Korean colonel that the USSR’s nuclear
arsenal provided security for North Korea, at no cost to
North Korea. The North Korean colonel responded that
the USSR could improve the North’s security further
by giving nuclear missiles directly to the DPRK.12 In
1975, the Hungarian embassy in North Korea reported
that China considered giving the DPRK tactical nuclear
weapons to offset the U.S. nuclear forces protecting
South Korea, but the idea never reached fruition.13
Failing to obtain nuclear weapons through
a direct transfer, Kim made determined yet largely
unsuccessful attempts to acquire the technology and
scientific knowledge necessary to create an indigenous
nuclear program. In March 1967, Kim Il Sung requested
the delivery of a nuclear power plant from the USSR.
Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Premier
Aleksei Kosygin denied the request, on the grounds that
North Korea actively obstructed the flow of information
from the experimental reactor the Soviet Union had
helped to establish at Yongbyon in 1965.14 In December
of 1967, a delegation from North Korea visited the
German Democratic Republic (GDR) and requested
cooperation on the development of nuclear technology.
The GDR agreed in principle to cooperation on the
transfer of knowledge relevant to nuclear technology
but deferred requests for equipment until the DPRK
had received the permission of the USSR.15 In January
and February 1976, Korean officials requested Soviet
assistance in creating a nuclear power plant. The Soviets
again rejected the request, this time citing the military
consequences and the sizable investment required for
such a project.16 Several months later the DPRK repeated
its request, and the Soviet Union again refused.17
Kim persisted in his search for foreign assistance
for several more years. In February 1979, a North Korean
official asked the first secretary of the Czechoslovak
Embassy to provide equipment for mining uranium and
to build a 440 megawatt nuclear reactor in the DPRK.18
In March 1983, the DPRK requested that Hungary
train Koreans to operate and manage nuclear power
plants.19 Hungary deferred a response to the request
indefinitely.20
Unable to attain nuclear weapons or the means
of producing them, Kim gradually came to the realization
that a favorable military solution to the division of the
peninsula was for the moment impossible. By October
1986, Kim had revised downward his estimate of the
number of nuclear attacks his country could absorb.
He stated to GDR Secretary General Erich Honecker
that it would take only two nuclear bombs to destroy
the DPRK. The presence of over 1,000 U.S. nuclear
weapons in South Korea proscribed a DPRK offensive
against the South and its American protector.21
These documents carry a useful lesson. For all
his failings as a leader and a human being, Kim Il Sung
was not a madman in foreign relations. Kim’s fear of
a nuclear attack was based on explicit threats from the
U.S. during the 1950–3 Korean War and the presence
of U.S. nuclear forces in South Korea. He and other
North Korean officials justified their pursuit of a nuclear
deterrent as necessitated by the overwhelming military
strength of the U.S. By seeking to level the vastly uneven
playing field between North Korea and the U.S., Kim
took the only rational action available.22
Though half a century has passed since the
Korean War, Kim Il Sung’s son and successor, Kim Jong
Il, also has reasons to pursue nuclear weapons: North
Korea is quite literally on a U.S. “hit list.” In the 2002
U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, the Department of Defense
named North Korea a potential target for attack, perhaps
nuclear, if the situation on the peninsula deteriorated.23
The 2003 U.S. war against Iraq demonstrated to North
Korea that the U.S. was willing to go to war to prevent a
state from acquiring nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, it
may also have underscored the necessity of possessing a
nuclear deterrent to prevent such an attack.
Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs
at the Kenney School of Government, notes that in
pursuing nuclear weapons, North Korea has simply
mimicked the actions of the permanent members of the
Security Council, which developed nuclear weapons to
deter their enemies.24 The recently released diplomatic
correspondences support Walt’s claim: North Korea may
be an international pariah and an anachronism, but its
leadership is still rational and bent upon survival. Even
hermits need protection from the rain - North Korea hopes
that a nuclear bomb may just be the perfect umbrella.
Sources:
“Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, 25 November 1967,” p.12.
2 “Report, Embssy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 16 February 1976,” p. 20.
3 “Conversation between Soviet Ambassador in North Korea Vasily
Moskovsky and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Song Ch’ol, 24
August 1962,” p. 2.
4 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 15 February 1963,” p. 3.
5 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry. 27 May 1963. p. 5.
1
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
T
hrough the Eyes of the Hermit
4
20/10/2005 22:41:01
Baya HARRISON (’06) is a final year student
at Brandeis University majoring in Politics
and Economics.
E
ven Half a Sentence is
Too Much: Another Wasted
Opportunity
to
Improve
the
Unproductive Political Culture of
Hong Kong
- by Tak-Hin Benjamin NGAN
As my article “The Unproductive Political
Culture of Hong Kong,” published in the April 2004
5
Monsoon8.indd 10-11
issue of Monsoon, depicts, the political culture of Hong
Kong embodies the unwillingness of both the Hong Kong
government and the so-called Pan-Democrats to engage
in productive cooperation with each other. I concluded
my article by warning that the hostility between the
two parties would become “more severe if none of the
two parties would attempt to leave their positions at the
extremes and start learning the virtues of productive
cooperation.” As a lamentation to how both parties, and
particularly the Pan-Democrats, have been harmfully
unproductive to Hong Kong’s political development,
my article ended by suggesting that the Hong Kong
politicians “may well just all go home and pray that
‘Politics for Dummies’ will be next in the publication
series.”
As strange as it may sound to those who are
accustomed to Hong Kong’s unproductive political
culture, the situation did begin to change in recent
months. Perhaps some sort of “Politics for Dummies”
did indeed land in Hong Kong together with its new
Chief Executive Mr. Donald Tsang, who replaced Mr.
Tung Chee Hwa upon the latter’s resignation on March
10, 2005. Hong Kong’s “political climate” has been
improving significantly as evidenced by the increasing
number of dialogues between government officials and
the anti-government Pan-Democrats. Be this a result of
the new Chief Executive’s pro-active and open-minded
approach in dealing with opposite voices, or be this an
improbable softening of the hostile stance of the PanDemocrats due to the resignation of Mr. Tung Chee
Hwa, Hong Kong’s “political climate” did seem to have
been heading towards a more promising direction than it
ever had since 1997.
A recent episode in Guangdong, however,
reminds one to not be too optimistic about Hong Kong’s
political culture. The Pan-Democrats, as described in
my aforementioned article, have after all been “playing
the role of the ‘protestor’ who stands in the opposite
end of the political spectrum to both the Hong Kong
government under Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa,
as well as the Chinese government under the Chinese
Communist Party.” The unproductive environment
in the Legislative Counsel since 1997 has taught one
to see the Pan-Democrats as “politicians” who know
only how to create turbulence and to do nothing else
productive – are the Pan-Democrats, then, capable of
engaging in productive cooperation even if opportunities
were presented to them? The answer, from the recent
Guangdong episode, is a resounding “NO.”
On September 25, 2005, the new Hong Kong
Chief Executive led 59 legislative counselors on a
historical official visit to Guangdong Province in
China. On the one hand, the visit represents a pro-active
engagement of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region in dialogue with the Chinese government. On
the other hand, it also signifies a friendly gesture from
the central government in cooperating with and listening
to the Hong Kong politicians. Amongst the legislative
counselors who participated are the Pan-Democrats from
the Legislative Counsel, who joined a two-hour meeting
with Guangdong Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang. The
meeting, however, was reported to have become a verbal
battle between several hard-core Pan-Democrats and
Party Secretary Zhang.
A day after the meeting, Singtao News of Hong
Kong reported a comment by Party Secretary Zhang
regarding his dialogues with the Pan-Democrats during
the meeting – “Even half a sentence is too much for
those who aren’t on the same page,” an old Chinese
saying that is usually used to describe hostile and
unproductive conversations. The Pan-Democrats, on
the other hand, appeared furious upon their returns to
Hong Kong, accusing the Chinese government of being
“dismissive” of Pan-Democrat opinions. Once again,
as usual, unproductive hostility dominated Hong Kong
politics.
What seems most unusual, however, is that
both the Chinese and the Hong Kong government are
adopting a proactive approach in the hope to break the
ice between themselves and the Pan-Democrats - a move
that was seldom seen before Mr. Tsang’s reign as Chief
Executive. To demonstrate its sincerity, the Chinese
government had removed several Pan-Democrats from
the “black list,” which banned them from entering the
mainland, to facilitate their September 25 Guangdong
visit. The Pan-Democrats accepted the invitation - but
it turned out that they arrived in mainland China with
hostility and turbulence on their agendas rather than to
seek rooms for productive cooperation.
Four Pan-Democrats – Yang Sum, Lee Cheuk
Yan, Lee Wing Tat, and Leung Kwok Hung, for
example, put the slogan “Pingfan 64 (re-evaluation
of the Tiananmen Square Incident)” at the top of their
agendas as opposed to prioritizing concrete concerns
that has to do with the well-being of the Hong Kong
society. Leung Kwok Hung, also known as “Long Hair”
by most Hong Kong people, further voiced several
“suggestions” regarding Hong Kong’s “democratic
progress,” while those “suggestions” would actually
have violated the Basic Law of Hong Kong if they were
to be implemented. Living up to his reputation as a “street
protestor,” Mr. Leung further questioned Party Secretary
Zhang regarding the “one-party dictatorship problem”
in China, hence pushing the tension in the meeting to
its peak. Martin Lee, another long-standing “icon” of
the Pan-Democratic politicians, even went farther as
to suggest that the concerned visit was in fact a “trap”
set up by the Beijing and Hong Kong governments in
an attempt to use its friendly gestures to entice the PanDemocrats to “forget what they have been fighting for.”
What is worrisome is not that there exists
politicians in Hong Kong who hold minority or even
radical opinions, but that another opportunity had been
wasted for productive cooperation between the Chinese
government and Hong Kong politicians. At the historical
Guangdong meeting initiated by the governments of
China and Hong Kong, the Pan-Democrats, rather than
showing a gesture of friendliness and willingness to
productively cooperate, instead, wasted their time on
issues that were not directly related to Hong Kong’s
well-being or on topics that were created for the purpose
of showing opposition against the Chinese government
– something that they have always been doing, and
unfortunately something that they seem to be committed
to in the future to come.
Hostility and unproductiveness still characterizes
the nature of Hong Kong politics. Yet, this time, these
negative qualities of Hong Kong’s political world was
around, only because the Pan-Democrats decided to
slap the friendly hands offered by the Chinese and the
Hong Kong government. The door for dialogue was
opened, and opportunities presented, yet it was the PanDemocrats who refused to downplay the differences
in political stances and engage the friendly hands of
their “enemies.” Perhaps a “Politics for Dummies” is
no longer appropriate this time– the Pan-Democrats of
Hong Kong should instead reach for the mirror, to look
and see how and why they themselves are the source of
the many problems in Hong Kong’s political culture.
Tak-Hin Benjamin NGAN (’05), currently a
PhD student in Economics at Johns Hopkins
University, is the co-founder of Monsoon.
He graduated from Brandeis University in
May 2005 with a B.A. degree in Economics,
Politics, and a minor in Mathematics.
G
lobalization,
Poverty,
Growth in Bangladesh
- by Janice HUSSAIN and
“In Bangladesh, it is not uncommon to see a majhi, a
fisherman or boatman, fishing from his boat. Often he
is alone. He spends many a lonely hour, casting his
hand net into the water, trying to catch a few fish for
his family or perhaps to sell some in the market so he
can earn money to supplement his family income. When
one sees the sight of that majhi against the shining sun,
what emerges is a silhouette, a dark human image with
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
“Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 8 May 1967,” p.11.
7 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 16 February 1976,” p. 20.
8 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 16 February 1976,” p. 20.
9 “Conversation between Soviet Ambassador in North Korea Vasily
Moskovsky and Soviet Specialists in North Korea, 27 September
1963,” p. 6.
10 “Conversation between Soviet Ambassador in North Korea Vasily
Moskovsky and Soviet Specialists in North Korea, 16 October 1963,”
p. 7.
11 “North Koreans ‘Forced to Eat Grass,’” BBC News, 20 June 2002.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2055658.stm.
12 “Conversation between Soviet Ambassador in North Korea Vasily
Moskovsky and Czechoslovak Ambassador Moravec, 15 April
1963,” p. 5.
13 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 30 July 1975,” p. 18.
14 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 13 March 1967,” p. 10.
15 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 25 November 1967,” p.13.
16 “Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 15 April 1976,” p. 21-22.
17 “Telegram, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 25 June 1976,” p. 22.
18 “Telegram, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 17 February 1979,” p. 26.
19 “Memorandum, Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, 7 March 1983,” p. 28.
20 “Letter, Hungarian Foreign Ministry to the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, 6 April 1983,” p. 29.
21 “Report on the Visit by Erich Honecker to the DPRK, 18-21
October 1986,” p. 31.
22 “North Korean Military Official Speaks at Meeting to Mark
Army’s Anniversary,” BBC Monitoring International Reports, 26
April 2005.
23 Simon, Jacqueline, “North Korean Nuclear Weapons Program,” in
Weapons of Mass Destruction. Eric A. Croddy, James J. Wirtz, and
Jeffrey A. Larsen, eds. Santa Barbara, CA. ABC-CLIO, Inc. (244247) p. 246.
24 Walt, Stephen M., “Taming American Power,” Foreign Affairs 84,
No. 5, September/October 2005. p. 114.
6
6
20/10/2005 22:41:01
In September of 2000, the leaders of the world
assembled at the United Nations Millennium Summit. In
this three-day meeting, one of the most urgent problems
they focused on was global poverty. Of the world’s 6
billion people, almost 3 billion lived under $2 per day.
South Asia alone had 44% of the world’s poor. Regarding
poverty and inequality, the UN conference set several
goals of international development to be accomplished
by 2015. Some of these goals included reducing half the
proportion of people living in extreme poverty, providing
primary education, reducing infant mortality by twothirds, offering universal access to reproductive health
services, and implementing strategies for sustainable
development in every country by 2005.
Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, Permanent
Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations,
states that poverty is not only defined by having low
income. He explains that poverty is also about low
national achievements in education, health, and nutrition.
These factors are embodied in the lack of opportunity for
human development, jobs, credit, markets, and health
services. Bangladesh encompasses many of these issues
that Chowdhury associates with poverty.
The economy of Bangladesh is dominated by
agricultural industries such as fishing, raising animals,
and farming. These industries employ over 50% of the
labor force and 35% of all export. The majority of the
population (80%) lives in rural areas. Bangladesh is the
most densely populated country in the world. It currently
has a population density greater than 900 persons per
km², while the world’s average population density is 42
persons per km². By contrast, Bangladesh has the fewest
arable land per capita in the world (.15 acres per person).
Among all the crops, Bangladesh produces mainly rice,
which occupies up to ¾ of the total cropland and is grown
virtually everywhere except for hilly areas. Bangladesh’s
tropical climate and abundant water supply allow farmers
to cultivate and harvest rice up to three times a year.
Bangladesh faces the challenge of achieving
economic growth and reducing the immense poverty
that afflicts nearly two-fifths of its 135 million people.
To confront this challenge, the government initiated free
trade policy in the mid-1980s, which were effectively
implemented in the 1990s. These reforms were aimed at
creating an open economy that is integrated in the global
economy. During the 1990s, progress was made in the
Bangladeshi economy. The economy began to expand
rapidly while maintaining stable growth. The average
annual growth in per capita income had accelerated from
7
Monsoon8.indd 12-13
1.6 percent per annum in the first half of the 1980s to
3.6 percent by the late 1990s. A slowdown in population
growth and a sustained increase in GDP growth
contribute to this economic performance. While most
low-income countries depend largely on the export of
agricultural goods, Bangladesh has made the transition
from exporting jutes, which was a cash crop but land
intensive, to exporting garments, which were labor
intensive. The country took advantage of its abundant
supply of labor, and avoided the disadvantages of having
scarce land.
Another benefit to the Bangladeshi economy
was the increase in the number of temporary workers
working across the border. Migrant workers’ remittances
amounted to about $2.5 billion from the early 90’s to
the year 2001. Migrant workers were mostly unskilled
and most of them came from poor rural families, making
their remitted savings an important source of family
income. However, remittance inflows depend on the
economy, policies, and the attitude of the foreign nation
towards guest workers. Most of Bangladesh’s temporary
migrant workers are in the Middle East, most of whom
being illegal immigrants.
Since the Millennium Summit, Bangladesh has
seen some of the most successful initiatives in reducing
poverty. Along with the government, non-governmental
organizations have been working in Bangladesh, many
of whom have primary focus on issues related to poverty
eradication. Despite Bangladesh’s innovative programs,
poverty, and under-nutrition persist. Trends in the
overall poverty has shown signs of improvement, but
the standard of living of those in extreme poverty has
not improved, which didn’t meet the United Nation’s
goals. Within poor households, pre-school age children
and pregnant or nursing women face risks of acute
malnutrition. More than half of all children in Bangladesh
under the age of five are underweight for their age.
About one-fifth die before their fifth birthday. Twothirds of these deaths are related to malnutrition. This
is partly due to the high growth rate of the population
(an annual 1.8%) and frequent natural disasters such as
floods, cyclones, riverbank erosion, and drought. Due
to inadequate protection against these disasters, rural
households above the threshold poverty line fell below
it, and those that were already below it slipped. M u c h
of Bangladesh’s population is landless or owns very little
land. There is a huge gap in land ownership. 60 percent
of the farm households own less than 25 percent of the
land, while the wealthiest 10 percent own 25-50%. The
poor farm households produce the bulk of agricultural
products, yet they are usually unable to produce enough
to feed their family, especially after natural disasters like
riverbank erosion, which result in a decrease in arable
land. Politically, the majority of these landless people
could not voice their opinions in the government, and as
a result, their interests cannot be fully represented.
Apart from natural disasters, policies from
international agencies also hindered the improvement
of the poor. An example of this would be the Bretton
Woods Institutions’ Structural Adjustment Programme
introduced in the 1980s. Its objective was to control
the GDP growth of Bangladesh at 5% per annum to
maintain macro-economic and budgetary stability. The
government consequently enforced a tight monetary
policy to reduce public spending. These policies
included the withdrawal of subsidies from food and
agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, and
also cut back on public schools and hospitals’ spending.
Bangladesh was severely hit by the policies of Bretton
Woods.
increasingly “less masculine.”
To understand the Chinese ideology of masculinity,
one must possess some basic knowledge of zhouyi, a
philosophy originating from the Western Zhou dynasty
(11th century BC - 771BC), and the concepts of wen and
wu, derived from Confucius’ writings from the Spring
and Autumn period (770BC - 476BC). Both philosophies
had long lasting effects on the Chinese ideology of
masculinity. Zhouyi depicts the universe as a mixture
of two vital energies: yin and yang. Yin is feminine
whereas yang is masculine. These two essences are
interlinked and supplement each other. They are placed
in a dichotomous position in the taiji symbol, as shown
in the image below:
Sources:
“Building on Progress: Issue Brief: Poverty in Bangladesh
Building on Progress” World Bank.
Chowdhury, Anwarul Karim. “Poverty Eradication: The
Experience of Bangladesh”..
Global Envision. “Bangladesh Faces the Challenge of
Globalization”. 1
Shrestha, Nanda. Nepal and Bangladesh. Santa Barbara:
ABC-CLIO, 2002.
“Virtual Bangladesh: Economy: Industry” <http://www.
virtualbangladesh.com/economy/ind.html>
Janice HUSSAIN (’08) is a second year
student at Brandeis University majoring in
IGS and minoring in French.
M
asculinity in Chinese History
- by Mu ZHOU
The ideal image of a masculine man in China
in 1840 bears almost no resemblance to its western
contemporaries or its predecessor a thousand years
ago. Westerners at that time perceived Chinese men as
“sexless” or “feminine,” while the Chinese perceived
western men as “barbarians equipped with advanced
weapons.”
The concept of masculinity in China is closely
associated with the economic and cultural development
across different regions and over different historical
periods. However, its overall trend of development
throughout Chinese history has been quite linear. By the
end of the 18th century, the ideal Chinese image of the
bearded, martial warrior had gradually been replaced by
the image of the dainty scholar. Given this phenomenon,
in the eyes of Westerners, Chinese men had become
Yin is the black sphere, while yang is the white sphere.
Both yin and yang occupy a spot in the dominant sphere
of the other, representing a potential for change.
Mr. Kam Louie, a native of Hong Kong and
a professor of gender studies, writes in his book
Theorising Chinese masculinity, “real men are supposed
to have plenty of the yang essence,” which is “defined
vaguely as determination, strength and good selfcontrol.” However, the ideal man is not absolutely yang,
but possesses both masculine and feminine merits. As
Louis points out, “the ideal situation is when [the man]
absorbs yin essence from the woman, without losing
his precious yang essence to her.” The opposite holds
as well. In Confucian ideology, which originated in the
Spring and Autumn period (770BC- 476BC), the state
is run by two forces: wen and wu. According to Louie,
the core meaning of wen centers on literary and cultural
attainments that would distinguish a civilized man from
an untutored savage. The core meaning of wu centers on
martial, military, force, and power. As for whether yin or
yang is to account for these traits, Confucius emphasizes,
“wen and wu necessarily occurred in the male sex.”
People adhering to wu were restricted to the rules
of being righteous, courageous, responsible, selfdisciplined, and loyal to the emperor. According to Louie,
they were different from European knights, because
they “eschewed women,” and didn’t have as many
“aristocratic values” or “lofty ideals” as the European
knights did. They also differed from the Japanese
samurai, whose behaviors were not guided by righteous
ideals, but were only loyal to their feudal lords. People
of wen, in contrast, were not less righteous, disciplined,
nor courageous, but expressed these qualities through
arts and literature. The scholarly government minister
who drew paintings and composed great poems is the
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
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no identity. To painters and innocent eyes, the image is
quite artistic. But for countless of Bangladeshis, it is a
metaphor of life, a shadow of bare survival as it serves
as a constant reminder of hardship” 1
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guiding government policies. China had been unified,
and in addition, the threat of invasion from barbarian
tribes had diminished. Therefore, economic and
cultural development commanded most of the central
government’s attention. Moreover, as Louie argues,
Confucius mentions in his The Analects that the rulers
of the state should rule with moral power, instead of by
force. According to Confucianism, “wu is inferior to
wen as representing the need to resort to force to achieve
one’s goals.” Naturally, wen officials came to enjoy
higher positions than wu officials did. With the official
adaptation of Confucianism, wu officials and force
became relegated to a minor role, only to be called upon
when problems could not be solved by wen officials, or
by means of courtesy and benevolence.
The growing influence of wen is not to say that
Chinese men in general had necessarily become “less
masculine,” as perceived by westerners in the 19th century.
The majority who lived on the toil of manual labor
was by no means “sexless” or “feminine.” However,
they were not considered “masculine,” and because of
masculinity’s association with power, they did not enjoy
high social status and a high position in officialdom.
According to the philosophy of zhouyi, ideally
speaking, neither the yin nor yang should consume
too much of the other. In most parts of Chinese history
after Confucius, an ideal masculine man had possessed
both wen and wu qualities. For instance, an official
disciplined in both his pen and his sword had been highly
recognized.
Historical records show that the wu spirit lingered in
Chinese society until the early Qing (1644AD-1912AD)
dynasty, and was recognized as late as the Ming dynasty
(1368AD-1644AD). The following description is
excerpted from a book written by H.R. van Gulik,
entitled Sexual Life in Ancient China:
At that time [“Ming”] athletics were still admired, young
students practised boxing, fencing and archery, and riding
and hunting were favourite pastimes. Thus bodily strength
was one of the recognized attributes of a handsome man.
They are depicted as tall and broad shouldered, and the
nudes of the erotic albums show them with heavy chests
and muscular arms and legs.
According to Gulik, during the Tang (618AD907AD) and Song (960AD-1279AD) dynasties,
proficiency in the arts of archery, riding, sword fighting,
and boxing, which were practiced by both civilian and
military officials was highly praised. These evidences
show that despite being surpassed by wen, the ideal
Chinese masculine man at that time continued to bear
qualities of wu.
Nevertheless, by the late Tang dynasty, observes
Louie, “civil ministers were sneering at the illiteracy
and brute strength of the military ministers,” as a result
of wu being considered inferior to wen. Louie quotes
the Confucian classic, Spring and Autumn Annals: “The
virtues of wen are superior, the greatness of wu is lower,
and this has always and will always be the case.” He
argues that in most of Chinese history after Confucius,
wen officials ascended to the elite part of the hierarchy
of talents, and the wu officials stayed in the non-elite
part.
Part of the reason for this trend is that lack of
necessity degraded military readiness, while the emperors
of China began centralizing their power by reducing
the role of the military. As soon as he was enthroned,
the first emperor of Northern Song (960AD-1127AD)
announced that all leaders of the municipality, many of
which were wu officials, be replaced by wen officials.
He also persuaded his generals on a banquet to give up
their position in the military and be content about being
a millionaire. The emperor did so because he didn’t
want any treason in the military to pose a treat to his
rule. This policy of degrading wu officials undermined
military strength on the one hand, but on the other, it
extinguished any possibility of the outbreak of civil wars
within the dynasty. The policy also promoted the status
of wen officials, which reduced the aggressiveness of the
entire nation. This centralization of military was mostly
carried on and carried forward in later dynasties.
Physical strength no longer appeared in the criteria
in judging a Chinese masculine man. The ideal masculine
man had gradually become a knowledgeable and
intelligent person, who was consummate in reasoning
and morality, and at the same time, loyal to his emperor
and country. Many heroes who emerged in the later part
of China’s dynastic period, which ended in 1912, were
wen officials, who defended their nation against foreign
invasion. For example, Prime Minister Wen Tianxiang
(1236AD-1283AD), who defended the Southern Song
(1127AD-1279AD) against the Mongolian invasion,
was well known as a patriotic writer. General Qi Jiguang
(1528AD-1587AD), famous for his feats in suppressing
the Japanese pirates in alliance with Chinese bandits,
was also a poet who achieved high literary recognition.
The decline of wu reached its bottom during the
Qing dynasty (1644-1912AD). As Gulik observes:
Ardent lovers [were] preferably depicted as younger men
without beard, moustache or whiskers…The Chinese,
and more especially the members of the literary class,
began to consider physical exercise as vulgar and athletic
prowess…The ideal lover is describe as a delicate, hypersensitive youngster with pale face and narrow shoulders,
passing the greater part of his time dreaming among
his books and flowers, and who falls ill at the slightest
disappointment.
This observation corresponds to Lu Tonglin’s somewhat
radical approach, as she asserts in her Gender and
Sexuality: “Chinese literary history has been a history of
men who want to become women.”
The aforementioned phenomenon of the Qing
dynasty might not had necessarily been the result of the
progression of wen’s dominance over wu, arguably due to
the official adaptation of Confucianism; perhaps rather,
as Professor Schrecker of Brandeis University contends,
it was “a period in which a culture fell on hard times.”
In his lectures, Professor Schrecker quotes the
zhouyi philosophy: “things rise when at their bottom,
and fall when at their peak.” The May Fourth generation
condemned the old Chinese masculine image even more
virulently than the most critical western intellectuals
of the 19th century, and the masculine image changed
drastically from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th
century. Perhaps this explains the revitalization of the
wu spirit that had occurred throughout the 20th century.
Mu ZHOU (’06) is a final year student at
Brandeis University majoring in History and
Economics.
T
he Last Empress of China – A
Misunderstood Figure
- by Zoe Yu JIANG
Empress Tzu Hsi is a much-maligned figure in
the Chinese history. She is often portrayed as a vicious
and scheming leader whose ineffective rule ruined China
by failing to resist Western imperialism. However, this
monstrous image of Tzu Hsi originated from people with
decidedly biased political and personal agendas, and may
not be historically accurate. Some of the accusations of
and rumors associated with Tzu Hsi need to be analyzed
in terms of source motive and accuracy, and may allow
readers to see her in a rather different light.
Tzu Hsi entered Beijing, the Forbidden City, in
1851. She was later chosen to be the concubine of the
Qing Emperor Hsien Feng. In 1856, Tzu Hsi gave birth
to Tung Chih, first son of the emperor. Following Hsien
Feng’s death, Tzu Hsi became empress dowager and
governed China with another concubine of Hsien Feng,
Empress Hsi An, since Tung Chih was at that time too
young to rule. Shortly after coming of age to take on the
full powers of the imperial throne, young Tung Chih died
of smallpox. Following Tung Chih’s death, Kuang Hsu,
another youngster of the royal family, became emperor,
and Tzu Hsi continued her co-regent rule. With the death
of Hsi An in 1881, Tzu Hsi in effect became the sole
ruler of China.
In the 1890’s, Kuang Hsu came of age, and Tzu
Hsi voluntarily retired to the countryside. However,
from her seclusion, Tzu Hsi kept a watchful eye on the
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
epitome of wen.
Due to differences in economic and cultural
development, the perception of masculinity in different
regions of China differed significantly. In many poor
regions in ancient China, where people exerted every bit
of their manpower to grow crops, there were hardly any
cultural improvements, nor were there gender roles. Men
and women had to work in the fields all day long, or else
the whole family would die of hunger. On the contrary,
rich areas such as the Jiangsu province had obvious
gender roles, since women were not needed in doing
heavy manual labor. Moreover, men were more couth in
rich regions in the south than in poor regions in the north.
As a result, soldiers in the northern part of China were
more valorous in combat than the ones in the south. This
difference in the concept of masculinity is primarily due
to the variations in economic development. Gender roles
and masculine ideology could only exist in relatively
rich, particularly urban, areas of ancient China. It was
in these areas that the notions of yin and yang, wen and
wu, had become most striking and prominent in defining
masculine roles in the society.
According to Louie, Confucius and his followers,
who originally introduced the concept of wen and
wu, evidently favored wen over wu. In his writings,
Confucius would often praise scholars and bureaucrats
as the most influential members of society. Nevertheless,
by the Western Han dynasty (206BC-8AD), wu was
dominant over wen in male society. In earlier periods of
Chinese history, particularly in the Spring and Autumn
and Warring States (770BC-221BC) Period and the Qin
dynasty (221BC-206BC), wu officials in general had
enjoyed higher positions than wen officials had, because
the ruling class had placed emphasis on military affairs.
One of the kings of the Zhao Kingdom of the Warring
States, for example, ordered a mass mobilization of
troops, instructing his people to dress in the fashion
of warlike northern tribesmen, so that the people of
Zhao could gain the martial skills and ferocity of the
tribesmen. In another, more grisly example of wu’s
dominance over wen during the aforementioned periods,
the first emperor of the Qin dynasty ordered thousands
of scholars to be buried alive and their works burned, in
order to strengthen his dictatorial power and weaken the
influence of Confucianism and wen. The Qin emperor
put great trust in his generals, who governed vital areas
of the empire, and were in charge of the construction of
his mausoleum and the Great Wall. At that time, instead
of bookworms, a man endowed with physical strength,
bravery and leadership among soldiers was highly
recognized and admired upon.
Later on in Chinese history, particularly since the
Western Han dynasty (206BC-8AD), Confucianism
became officially accepted as the official doctrine in
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handkerchief for Tung Chih to wipe his face.6 Tung Chih,
already sickly due to his indulgent lifestyle, was unable
to survive the combination of syphilis and smallpox.
With Tung Chih’s death, Tzu Hsi’s detractors claimed,
the empress was able to continue her rule as regent by
putting yet another child-emperor, Kuang Hsu, on the
throne.
It would be a mistake, however, to say with
certainty that Tzu Hsi was responsible for Tung Chih’s
death. If Tung Chih had indeed died of foul play, there
would have been other suspects who had the motives to
kill him. For example, many princes, including Prince
Kung, an ally of Tzu Hsi, were embarrassed by Tung
Chi’s decadent lifestyle, and feared that the empire
would fall apart if such an inept figure took on the full
powers of the throne. This great concern might have
led to the murder of Tung Chi.7 Furthermore, Tung Chi
and Tzu Hsi were described as quite affectionate toward
each other in their mother-son relationship, making it
less plausible that the empress dowager would kill her
beloved son for the sake of power.
Despite these facts, in many historical accounts
Tzu Hsi was the scapegoat for Tung Chi’s death, primarily
due to the rumors spread by K’ang.8 K’ang claimed that
he had many personal encounters with Tzu Hsi, and that
he had many insights into the imperial life in Beijing.
Following the failure of the One Hundred Days Reform,
K’ang evaded capture by Tzu Hsi and fled to Japan, where
he would launch venomous attacks against the empress’s
reign, accusing her of the grossest indecencies.9 Hailed
as “the sage of modern China,”10 K’ang easily gained
the belief of Westerners and Chinese readers despite the
obvious tendency for bias in his description of Tzu Hsi.
Another rumor concerning Tzu Hsi involved
her alleged sexual escapades with palace eunuchs.
There were hints that Tzu Hsi’s favorite eunuchs, An
Te-hai and Li Lien-ying, were not castrated, and that
they served as sex slaves of Tzu Hsi. Lim Boon Heng,
K’ang’s host in Singapore, made tantalizing references
to sex and intrigue in the palace: “after the death of [Tzu
Hsi’s] husband, she was obliged to exhibit her beauty to
vulgar eyes within the palace.” Lim was also a reformist
publisher of anti-Manchu articles, and left readers with
a twisted image of Tzu Hsi: “She… did not hesitate to
repeat in almost every detail the crimes and intrigues of
Catherine de’s Medici.”11
The rumor about Tzu Hsi’s sex life probably
was a slander. The procedure for choosing eunuch was
meticulous, and the imperial palace had a strict rule on
the selection of the eunuchs. In the inner palace where
the concubines lived, the emperor was the only intact
male present. It was impossible for a false eunuch to
escape detection at court because every eunuch was
required to pass an entrance examination which made
fraud impossible.12 Furthermore, after the death of Hsien
Feng, Tzu Hsi was not firmly in power yet, and her virtue
was constantly under inspection, especially by powerful
rivals like Empress Hsi An. Any misdeed would have led
to fatal consequences. It is quite hard to believe that Tzu
Tsi would have dared to violate palace laws for the sake
of a few eunuchs during her early days as co-regent.
Another accusation surrounding Tzu Hsi involved
the empress’s role in the Boxer Uprising. The Boxers
were a group of anti-Christian and anti-foreign peasants
from the impoverished province of Shantung. In 1900,
Boxer rebels occupied Beijing and besieged foreigner
churches and consulates. The Chinese government did
little to remedy the situation, and an allied coalition of
Western troops stormed Beijing to rescue the besieged
foreigners. In Beijing, the allied troops conducted
massive looting, and many Chinese residents were killed
in the chaos.
There were many versions told about Tzu Hsi’s
role in the Boxer Uprising. In Princess Der Ling’s
account, Prince Tuan was the one who supported the
Boxers. Tzu Hsi was initially hesitant to go against the
foreigners due to their armed might, but Prince Tuan
arranged a clever hoax to demonstrate that the Boxers
were immune to Western firearms in front of the empress
dowager. By fooling Tzu Hsi, Tuan gained authorization
to aid the Boxers, and led to the ruinous occupation of
Beijing by Western troops.13 In some other accounts, Tzu
Hsi was goaded into action when Prince Tuan presented
to Tzu Hsi a forged letter from foreign governments
demanding that Tzu Hsi step down from power. Enraged
beyond control, Tzu Hsi proceeded to side with the
Boxers against the foreign governments.14
From the above two versions, it can be concluded
that Tzu Hsi did not intend to attack foreigners, that she
was fooled by Prince Tuan. Furthermore, according to
Seagrave, contrary to popular Western belief, Tzu Hsi
did not “declare war on the world.” It was the allied fleet
which initiated official hostilities by attacking Chinese
forts en route to Beijing in 1900.15 Nevertheless, at the
time of the Boxer Rebellion, most Westerners believed
Morrison’s account of the storming of Beijing, which was
published in the Times and then in various adaptations
by other newspapers around the world. In Morrison’s
narration, the cause of the Rebellion was blamed solely
on Tzu Hsi: “The anti-foreign, anti-Christian movement
which has now culminated in the occupation of Peking by
the allied Powers… was from the outset encouraged and
fostered by the Empress Dowager and by the ignorant
reactionaries whom she selected as her advisers”. In
another article that Morrison published, he pointed out
that General Tung, “a favorite bodyguard of the empress
dowager,” was responsible for the death of a Japanese
consulate official during the Rebellion. Morrison did
not mention, however, that Tzu Hsi had issued an edict
stating her regret and sorrow for the official’s death. As
the only foreign correspondent in Beijing, Morrison
easily established his biased accounts as the official
Western version of events surrounding the events of
1900.
The aforementioned rumors and other negative
accounts of Tzu Hsi can been seen in Backhouse’s book.
Backhouse portrayed Tzu Hsi as a ruthless, singleminded, and oversexed tyrant whose corrupt misrule
caused the collapse of an imperial system that had
endured for over two thousand years. By publishing
this book, Backhouse established himself as an expert
Sinologist. Riding on his popularity, Backhouse sold
many of his so-called rare Chinese imperial documents
to museums and people. These same documents were
later found to be fakes, and Backhouse was exposed as
a liar.16 However, Tzu Hsi’s tarnished image was not
ameliorated by Backhouse’s demise, and was continually
repeated by later writers.
Due to the scarcity of historical evidence, one
can never be exactly sure of Tzu Hsi’s personality, and
whether she was solely responsible for the events in
China during her rule. However, malicious writers such
as Morrison, K’ang, and Backhouse popularized an ugly
portrayal of the empress, and Tzu Hsi’s reputation today
remains an unfortunate victim of the pen.
Sources:
Laidler, Keith. The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China.
England: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. p. xxii – xxvi
2 Seagrave, Sterling. Dragon Lady: The life and Legend of the Last
Empress of China. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. p. 6
3 Seagrave p. 7
4 Seagrave p. 9
5 Bland, J.O.P, and E. Backhouse. China Under the Empress
Dowager. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914.
p. 166
6 Laidler p. 19 – 42
7 Seagrave p. 137
8 Seagrave p. 9
9 Laidler p. 201
10 Seagrave p. 10
11 Seagrave p. 270
12 Der Ling, Princess. Old Buddha. New York: Dodd, Mead &
Company. 1929. p. vii
13 Der Ling p. 245-249
14 Laidler p. 222
15 Seagrave p. 332
16 Trevor-Roper, Hugh. Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir
Edmund Backhouse. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. p. 209-213
1
Zoe Yu JIANG (’06) is a final year student at
Brandeis University majoring in Biology.
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
emperor through an extensive network of palace insiders
and played an active role in governing China. In 1898,
Kuang Hsu initiated the One Hundred Days Reform
with the guidance of court official and reformist thinker
K’ang Yu-wei. The reform outraged conservative forces
in the imperial court, who then urged Tzu Hsi to return
to Beijing and reclaim power. With support from the
anti-reformists, Tzu Hsi crushed the reform movement,
confined Kuang Hsu to his living quarters, and once
again became ruler of China, until her death in 1908.
In the 1900’s, the Boxer Uprising, foreign
encroachments, and revolutionary movements shook the
foundations of imperial China and eventually lead to its
demise. Kuang Hsu died shortly after Tzu Hsi, in 1908.
The Qing Dynasty disintegrated soon after, in 1912.1
Was Tzu Hsi, in fact, a vicious individual who allowed
imperial China to fall into ruin? The destruction of
Tzu Hsi’s international and domestic reputation can be
attributed to a few contemporaries of hers, who carried
distinct personal and political motives for their attacks
on the empress.
The first character in question is Dr. George
Ernest Morrison, Beijing correspondent for Times of
London. Though Morrison traveled in China extensively
and lived there for many years, he did not master
Chinese, and always relied on his translator.2 Morrison
also lacked a reporter’s impartiality. Morrison kept a
diary of events he witnessed or wrote about, and the
diary contents contrasted with the highly distorted and
sensationalist versions he presented to Times readers.3
Another source responsible for Tzu Hsi’s poor reputation
is Edmund Backhouse, a London linguist.4 After the
death of Tzu Hsi, he, together with another Times
correspondent in Shanghai, published “China Under the
Empress Dowager” in 1910. Backhouse claimed that he
had gained access to court archives and even the diary of
a Manchu monk, Ching Shan.5 At that time, Westerners
knew very little about Tzu Hsi, and most readers readily
accepted Backhouse’s account of the empress’s personal
life. Lastly, Chinese reformist, K’ang Yu-wei was yet
another contributor to the popular view of Tzu Hsi. Along
with Morrison and Backhouse, K’ang played a central
role in negatively portraying the empress dowager by
spreading rumors and half-truths.
One rumor about Tzu Hsi concerned the death of
Emperor Tung Chih. According to official palace records,
shortly after Tung Chih’s sixteenth birthday (the legal
age to take over the throne), he died of smallpox. People
were quick to blame Tzu Hsi for Tung Chih’s death. It
was believed that the power-craving Tzu Hsi encouraged
Tung Chih to engage in orgies and visit brothels, so
that he could contract syphilis and die an early death.
According to K’ang, Tzu Hsi ordered Li Lien-Ying, one
of her favorite eunuchs, to give a smallpox contaminated
12
20/10/2005 22:41:02
up at Otakon was very representative of the American
population. Having grown up in China, merely some
six hundred miles from Japan, I ironically found myself
quite ignorant about Japan and anime compared to the
Americans I met at the convention. Although these
- by Yunyan Jennifer WANG
folks live across the world
from Japan, many of them
I step into a local Japanese restaurant
speak fluent Japanese and
in downtown Baltimore, starving from a
have visited the country in
full day of walking. The scene before my
the past. I often could only
eyes immediately takes me in - it usually
shake my head in response as
wouldn’t be odd to see a man in his early
they discussed their favorite
thirties drowning sake in a corner, except
Japanese games and artists.
that this one is dressed in a bright yellow
Through my inquiries
Pikachu suit. His companion is wearing
about how the other Otakon
kitten ears and a fluffy tail pinned to her
attendees obtained so much
dress. Standing in front of me, clusters of
information about Japanese
brightly costumed people are waiting to be
culture, it quickly became
seated - looking as hungry as I am. For one
apparent how dramatically
weekend each year, this is a common sight
Japanese cultural exports
in Baltimore, as local restaurants struggle to
such as cartoons and games
accommodate members of Otakon 2005, the
have changed the lives of
largest Japanese anime convention on the
American
youth.
These
East Coast. I’ve never been to a convention
exports especially permeate
of any type before Otakon, but this year I
the children’s entertainment
decided to join some high
industry in the US. A quick
school friends at a small
glance at TV Guide reveals that
reunion and to see what Games are a crucial part of Otakon. Para Para is a
the Saturday morning cartoon linethis extravaganza is all popular dancing game played usually on a platform.
up on WB consists of back-to-back
about.
The girl shown above won second place in the Para episodes of Pokémon followed by
Otakon’s name Para Contest.
Yu-Gi-Oh and Megaman. Another
comes from the Japanese
look shows that the most prominent
word “Otaku”, which in
advertisement on Cartoon Network’s website is for the
slang refers to an overly obsessed fan of anime or manga.
September premiere of Naruto. Even the sole nonHowever, the Otakon is not only about anime; people from
Japanese videogame console, Microsoft’s Xbox, depends
all age groups and professions gather here to participate
on Japanese software companies such as Namco and
in countless events centered on Japanese video games,
Konami to supply popular games.
fashion, food, and pop culture. Many members cosplay
Besides children’s entertainment, Japanese
(costume-play) to look like their favorite anime or game
presence in American
characters. Cosplayers from
pop culture extends as
Ah My Goddess to Zelda make
far as Hollywood and
their pilgrimage through the
MTV. American film
gargantuan convention center
makers are increasingly
to attend countless screenings,
Cosplaying as anime characters is usually
incorporating anime styles
panels, and workshops. Most of restricted to conventions and cosplay events.
into action films such as
my friends disappeared to the
Gothic Lolitas, however, are prevalent in
Kill Bill. Additionally,
concert hall-sized video game the Harajuku district in Tokyo all year round.
US releases such as The
room about twenty minutes
It’s considered an underground cultural
Ring (2002) and The
after we arrived.
movement.
Grudge (2005) were
For an event all about
taken à-la-carte from
things Japanese, there were Anime comes in as many genres as you can
their Japanese original
surprisingly few Japanese, or
think of. Sci-fi, romance, sports, and even
counterparts, and remade
even Asian members, among
adult anime are all popular among fans.
for an American audience.
the 23,000 people who attended.
In music, recording artist
In fact the demographic makeGwen Stefani praises
Did you know......
13
Monsoon8.indd 18-19
Japanese street fashion in ‘Harajuku Girls’, a song
that is the centerpiece of her new album. Needless to
say, the growing presence of Japanese influences in
the American entertainment industry has made many
people more curious about Japan. There are dozens of
anime conventions across America, such as the annual
Anime Boston event. Anime is also popular in Europe,
although far fewer Japanese cartoons are incorporated
into European children’s programs.
Costumes are mostly hand-made.
Cosplayers put a great amount of effort to
preserve all the details from the anime.
As I walked to my gym class earlier this evening, I
realized that although Japan’s economy is going through
a slump, Japanese culture is still being disseminated
overseas on an ever-larger scale. Today, Japanese names
are not only seen on electronics or video game covers
- they are making their way into all aspects of our daily
lives. My ponderings quickly dissipated when my Italian
karate sensei demanded 25 pushups. I winced and
reprimanded myself - why didn’t I register for Dance
Dance Revolution class instead?
Yunyan Jennifer Wang (’05) is a fourth year
student at Brandeis University majoring in
Neuroscience and minoring in German
Language and Literature.
T
he Market for Fair Skin in
India
- by Janice HUSSAIN
Whether watching a Bollywood film, flipping
through Indian magazines, watching Miss India pageants,
or reading matrimonial ads, there is one common feature
in all of them: the women have fair skin.
The Indian fascination with fairness of skin is
not confined to a mindset. Every year, millions of Indian
women go out and purchase fairness creams, soaps,
and lotions. One brand alone, Fair & Lovely, had an
estimated consumer base of sixty million throughout
India in 2002. Skin fairness products account for 60
percent of the country’s skincare sales - bringing in over
$140 million to GDP. The skin fairness business is one
of the largest industries in India.
Indian women use fairness creams that act to
temporarily lighten skin color through chemical agents
that reduce melanin production. Melanin is a pigment
responsible for the darkening skin and is produced in
the skin by melanocytes, which are melanin-producing
cells. Exposure to the sun stimulates melanin production.
Fairness products block melanocytes and prevents
tanning.
The Indian fascination with fair skin isn’t a
recent phenomenon. Rather, it is thought to originate
during the days of British rule. Some say that the fairness
fixation is a remnant from colonial days, when Indians
had lower social status than the British. The fairer one’s
skin was, the closer one resembled the white ruling
class, and therefore light skin was considered a desirable
quality. Indian murals and artwork from the period
would depict dark-skinned people as manual laborers,
while the royalty, landowners, and priests were drawn as
fair-skinned.
Furthermore, it has long remained a phenomenon
that fair-skinned brides became sought after for their
beauty and brought the brides’ family dowry benefits.
Today, Indian matrimonial websites, such as Shaadi.
com, reveal how skin color determines a young woman’s
“marketability” in obtaining desirable marriage partners.
Along with caste, religion, and family background, skin
tone is one of the most noted characteristics when it
comes to describing women to potential male suitors.
On Indian TV, Bollywood actresses are almost
always fair-skinned. Whenever the “fair” look is not
achieved naturally, makeup is applied to lighten skin
tone. There are only a handful of actresses who have a
dark complexion, such as Bapasha Basu. However, the
occurrence of a dark skinned Bollywood actress is so
rare that Basu has been called the “dusky beauty”.
In addition to TV shows and movies, magazines,
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
J
apanese Culture in America – A Unique View from Otakon 2005
14
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Acknowledgements
President Jehuda Reinharz
Vice President Jean Eddy
Dean Elaine Wong and the Brandeis Pluralism Alliance
Want to
advertise
with us?
Many of India's actresses are light-skinned.
Source: www.planetbollywood.com
It is apparent that Indian women have been sold on the
skincare industry’s message that fairer is better. The
market for fairness creams has been increasing at 25%
per year, compared to the overall cosmetic market growth
of 15% per year. This statistic does not include the many
women who go to beauty parlors and clinics, paying
even hefty sums to lighten their complexions. India’s
most prized women, such as Aishwarya Rai and Miss
World 1994, generally have fair skin, light-colored eyes,
and hair. India is an extremely large and diverse country,
and its citizens encompass a wide range of ethnicities,
physical characteristics, and skin tones. However,
fashion advertisements continually aim to promote a
characteristic held by a tiny minority of Indian women.
Janice HUSSAIN (’08) is a second year
student at Brandeis University majoring in
IGS and minoring in French.
15
Monsoon8.indd 20-21
For our editorial calendar and
other relevant information, please
email our General Managers
Ruodan Lan at rlan@brandeis.
edu or Diana Kwok at kwokster@
brandeis.edu
Dean Alwina Bennett
Professor Harleen Singh
Jenny Feinberg, Student Union President
Brandeis University Student Union
ESSAY CONTRIBUTIONS
• We welcome articles from all members of the Brandeis community and beyond
• Please e-mail your articles to jiang@brandeis.edu and mbz@
brandeis.edu
• Articles from students should include the writer’s full name,
college, school year and choice of concentration.
• Articles from non-student contributors should include the
writer’s full name and occupation
• The editors reserve the right to edit the articles
Vol III, Issue 3, October 2005
Monsoon
and television ads are also flooded with fair-skinned
beauties promoting fairness products. One such ad
portrayed a young, dark-skinned girl’s retired father
dissatisfied that he had no son-in-law to provide for
him, and that the daughter’s part-time work provided
insufficient salaries. Implied is the fact that the daughter
can neither get a good job nor get married because of
her dark skin. The girl then uses the cream, becomes
fairer, and gets a better-paid job as an airhostess. She
can then support his father, instead of being a burden on
him. Another ad shows two young women conversing in
a bedroom. The lighter-skinned woman has a boyfriend
and, consequently, is happy. The darker-skinned woman,
lacking a boyfriend, is not. Her friend advises her to use
soap to wash away the dark skin that chases men away.
Yet another commercial involves a dark-complexioned
girl who is engaged to a much older man. The situation
is a depressing one until she uses a fairness cream and a
handsome young man is attracted to her and becomes her
husband.
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