TOK essay final draft
Why should we care about acquiring knowledge?
Word count: 373
Object 1: screenshot of YouTube video “Voice from Shanghai Lockdown”
This is a screenshot of video“四月之声;Voice from Shanghai Lockdown” I took from
YouTube. It’s a six-minute video that records Shanghai citizen’s daily life during lockdown,
exposes the unknown dark side of “lockdown policy” to the public. It was originally produced by
“永远的草莓园 Strawberry Field Forever” (screen name) and posted on WeChat platform.
However, to protect the reputation of the Chinese government, the video was censored, and its
author was warned by police, so I could only find it on foreign platforms and took a screenshot
from YouTube.
This object shows the importance of acquiring knowledge because when power refrains us from
approaching to the objective truth, we should actively acquire knowledge through sense, use our
sense to perceive the indigenous knowledge. The government choose to cover the truth of
Shanghai Lockdown. However, as the author says, “somethings should not happen, but when
they happened, should not be forgotten.” He as a film maker, believe that he has the
responsibility to record and spread the truth. So, he acquires objective knowledge with his drone,
such as (examples of shanghai lockdown), filmed objective evidence of this period of lockdown.
Because of his endeavor, more people have the chance to know about the truth behind. Thus, we
should care about acquiring knowledge, since only when we know the full picture of an event,
we know what’s the right thing to do, and use our memory to remember what should not be
erased.
In general, we should care about acquiring knowledge because only when we start to search for
news from multiple perspective, only when we stop relying and believing on one “authority”, we
can perceive and evaluate the truth behind. Then, we may do whatever we can do to protest
what’s wrong. Additionally, we acquiring such objective knowledge through visual elements
usch as this video also give us the ability to spread knowledge. Knowledge that uncovers the
truth should be spread wide. This video for example, spread on the internet like a wild fire.
Despite the government’s effort, people have downloaded this video on their own device then
posted on foreign websites. People are also sharing person to person among friends and families.
Thus, if we don’t acquire knowledge, we will lose the power to spread, so we need to care about
acquiring knowledge.
Word count: 308
Object 2: A piece of calligraphy “God is Love”
This object is a piece of calligraphy written by me. The content is “God is Love”, and it was a
present for a Mexican Catholic priest who was leaving China. The work was written in
traditional Chinese instead of simplified Chinese like most of the calligraphy works. However,
the content is unusual, since words from Confucius or other famous Chinese ancestors will
normally be written, such western style content is rare. Some even considered this “Blending of
culture” as disrespect to Chinese tradition.
This object shows that acquiring knowledge enables us to spread history and indigenous
knowledge. As international students, we are very familiar with both western and traditional
Chinese culture, thus, we have the responsibility and the ability to spread Chinese culture.
Blending of culture mutually beneficial, both cultures can benefit and learn. However, the
blending of culture in this work is criticized by some of my relatives. They think I’m being
disrespectful to the tradition. This shows the importance of acquiring a wide range knowledge
from different cultures. My relatives grew up in China and never left China for their whole life,
the way they perceive foreign culture is stereotypic and critical. Because I grew up in a multiculture environment, I know the value of blending culture. The essence of both cultures won’t
disappear but will be amplified through blending with others. And I believe this is what me as a
knower of both cultures have the responsibility to do.
Therefore, acquiring knowledge help us perceive the world with an open mind. When facing a
new opinion, instead of rejecting it right away, we are able to think on both sides and discover
potential benefits. In this example, because I know both cultures, I can spot the benefit of
blending the two cultures and how this piece of unusual calligraphy isn’t disrespectful to
traditional Chinese culture.