Chris Chan Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 (edited) I took my first Chinese A Language and Literature exam last week, and it was awful. This is my second year in IB Diploma program. Instead of studying Chinese Literature like my fellow students did, I've chosen to study English Literature because it's cool. Knowing that there is no option for my second language, I recently made a compromise taking the Chinese exam. The article I was given in the test is the BIGGEST JOKE I've seen in my life. First, It's made up by an infamous communist apologist some twenty years ago. The setting of the story is China in the early 1960s whereas the communist party starved millions of farmers to death. Pretty depressing, right? However, the plot is worse off than most Disney story - a group of starving farmers overcomes the "nature disaster" by stealing food from mice, and hold some ridiculous funeral service for those mice after starving them to death. WTF is the point? Is it to praise animals' "sacrifice" to the greatest struggle in China's history? I was just wondering why didn't those farmers cook those mice for food - It's way more realistic and those poor creatures are going to die anyway. It has been impossible to identify the theme of the article, but the aim of the author was obvious. First, I was disgusted by how the author was intentionally referring the cause of the famine as "a heavy snow" and used a whole paragraph describing the snow as if it's the end of the world. Also, there are countless metaphors for the "absolutely correct" leadership of the communist party - "...Following the rising red sun...","...our prosperous future.." that resembles a North Korea propaganda, which makes me slightly sick. It doesn't take a whole lot of party's commands when some starving people were digging up a freaking mice hole for survival! Inappropriate usage of literature device like "mice were devasted by the fact that their food is stolen and they end up hanging themselves on a tree" "their bodies piled up on the trees like grapes" is throughout the text. In my analysis, I pulled up all the evidence in the article to support my points of view, like what I've been told in my English class. In addition, I described the narrator's homosexual relationship with his father as his writing style is absolutely......nasty. I also gave evidence supporting this FACT. Yesterday, it turns out that my Chinese teacher refused to give me any mark or comments on my report because my commentary on this radicalized article is "radicalized" and not being "politically correct". I also learned that this article is from a real IB exam, and I might be exposed to those propagandas on a daily basis if I chose to learn "Chinese Literature". Obviously, IB commission will not realize this problem and they will not give a damn as all the examiners are graduates of top universities in mainland China. To be enrolled in those top university, one must go through thousands of hundreds of those non-sense craps, study marxism and even become a member of the communist party. That would result in the worst violation of the fundamental IB principle "being open-minded". Opps, I forgot to mention that spreading rumor is a serious crime in mainland China, and everything that the communist party doesn't like is a rumor. That's why IB have taught us to be "principled" to avoid persecution. Thanks! I could have been abducted by the government and spending rest of my life in a labor camp. At any rate, I will not take my sons and daughters to a "real" IB school if they are forced to study anything related to the Chinese language. Edited January 26, 2016 by Chris Chan 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yugalarex Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Can you post a link or send me the article? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
usernamed Posted February 5, 2016 Report Share Posted February 5, 2016 He didn't want to give you a mark because your commentary was radicalized? What on earth? Can't he/she at least grade you? Even if it was a low(er) grade? Like I don't get it? A teacher can't bring in their own personal feelings on whether or not to grade a student's work. well I'm sure the ib examiners can't do that and will definitely have to grade your work. Also why don't you do English literature instead? I couldn't really understand why you went from English lit to Chinese lit? Can you clarify that? And if there is a way for you to switch back to English lit, that would probably be better for you. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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