30 things about myself

1. I was born in a relatively large city called Gwangju. I was born a bit earlier than I was supposed to, so I was born small. (2.6kg)

2. by the time I became 100 years old, I gained a lot of weight, especially on my cheeks. From then on, I have excessive fats on cheeks.

3. I started playing the piano since I was 4 ( or 3 in American age). I was quite good at it, and I even had a concert when I was about 7.

4. I loved to read when I was young. Because of that, my eyesight began to drop dramatically. I started wearing glasses ever since I was 6, and the doctor declared that I was amblyopic. I was temporarily banned to do anything that incorporated the use of eyes.

5. I have an older brother who is 4 years older than me. He influenced me greatly in many ways.

6. I moved to Seoul when I was 8, because my brother wanted to go to Seoul Science High school.

7. I had my toenail off when I was 5. Fortunately, it grew back :D

8. I begged my parents that I wanted to go to study abroad. My brother strongly supported me, and I eventually went to Canada and stayed with a homestay family.

9. I had a fire in my room (in Halloween day) when I was in Canada.

10. I am Catholic, but not a firm believer. But I really want to strengthen my belief, so I’m planning to go to church regularly after graduation.

11. I can’t stand lying down doing nothing. I love to move around. That’s why I don’t enjoy waching TV.

12. I did sports climbing since I was 11.

13. I never imagined myself in KMLA. Until a day before I decided to enroll in KMLA, I thought I’d go to a science high school.

14. I learned horse-back riding for a couple of months. I learned up until cantoring.

15. I once wanted to be a pilot. But I had to give that dream up because of my eyesight.

16. I smile a lot. Some people say that I look kind of stupid because I smile so much.

17. I love to travel. I want to travel A LOT of places after graduation.

18. I love things related to food. I love eating exotic food, and I love to cook. I’m planning to get a cook license after graduation.

19. I’m extremely sensitive on caffeine. So I can’t really drink coffee or black tea.

20. I have a white dolphin doll that I bring to almost everywhere I go.

21. I can eat pretty much anything except for some really weird Chinese food. (e.g monkey brain ewwwwwwwwwww.)

22. I used to love cheese( especially exotic cheese), but didn’t like milk at all. Now, I like milk as well.

23. I can’t multi-task. I can never study while listening to music.

24. When I first went to Canada, I was so shy that I barely spoke a word to my homestay family. However, we became to family-like later on that my homestay mother cried when I left.

25. I love all kinds of mammals, especially dogs.

26. My parents are extremely lenient. They let me do whatever I want to do. I always support my decision.

27. I can’t eat fats. I can eat a bit of fat now, but when I was young, eating 삼겹살 was one of the hardest thing for me to do.

28. I am extremely forgetful. However, I’m good at remembering small, unimportant, trivial things.

29. I fell in love with gymnastics when I was in Canada.

30. I want to learn more about NASA and UFOs and aliens. The universe seems intriguing.

Education synthesis essay- revised!

Education synthesis essay

   VS

Finland vs. South Korea- top two scorers in international tests, yet two completely different approaches to education

           The Bell rings. Students busily move around and eventually settle in their seats. Teachers constantly come and go, injecting knowledge into the students’ brains. This is how I spent my middle school years in Korea – a country both lauded and criticized for its strict educational regime. The best way to achieve educational success has been a topic of hot debate, especially after President Obama’s recent decision that “American schools should look more like schools in South Korea.” According to Alan Singer, a social studies educator at Hofstra University, “[Obama] wants longer school days and a longer school year to ensure extra time to prepare children for standardized tests.”¹ However, Obama’s praise for Korea’s rigorous academic education faced strong opposition from some of the nation’s educators; many of them questioning whether intensive and harsh academic courses are the best ways to achieve educational success. It is true that Korea’s relative success in international standardized testing seems to support the efficacy of rigorous academic regime. Nevertheless, when we take Finland’s educational success and Korean students’ – those who actually receive the kind of education that the president Obama regards “ideal” – satisfaction towards their own education into account, such educational value does not seem to be the “most ideal” education model for the United States to follow.

           Finland is definitely a nation which has achieved laudable academic success; its apparent superiority shown in various standardized tests, which include the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), the OECD’s exam for 15 year-olds. This has garnered world-wide attention, for Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world in PISA.”² Nonetheless, the spotlight that Finland receives does not come solely from its gaining high scores in the PISA test. What is more interesting is the educational system that Finland pursues, which is far different from the “long school hours, long school days” education that President Obama has exalted.

Unlike many other countries that emphasize the quantity of hard work to receive higher standardized scores, Finland’s success is built on the idea that less can be more – with a lighter workload and a more relaxed learning environment.² The Success of Finland’s education, written by Fukuda Sage, states that Finnish students study about seven hours a week outside of their regular school studying hours. Considering that Korean students devote at least 20 hours, the amount of studying for Finnish students is apparently a lot less than that of other academically successful countries.³ Yet, the results that this country has produced with such seemingly loose academic schedule clearly exemplify the point that a rigorous academic regime is not a shortcut to a successful education.

           Some may argue that other countries’ academic success, such as that of South Korea, Japan, and China, proves the potential effect of an intensive education system with long schools hours and days. In fact, Korea ranked second in PISA, right after Finland. Nonetheless, we must not focus solely on the superficial results. Although the students in these countries achieve some of the highest scores in international standardized testings, the students themselves are not satisfied with, or are even severely critical of, the education that they receive.

Mitch Albom, a famous columnist, mentions in his article about Korean education that “What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancún. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts.”⁴ Students don’t enjoy their schools. Rather, they consider schools as a “duty” that they have to serve, or some kind of a “burden” that is imposed upon them. Numerous user created video clips that mock the Korean education system are made by Korean students themselves, and these attest the claim that “harsh and tightly-packed education” cannot achieve true success. How can education be a success, when the actual recipients consider it as a “failure”?

           As the aforementioned examples show, rigorous education regime itself cannot serve its role as a key to educational success. What is more important than holding students inside the classroom for longer hours is enabling students to find their own talents. A student may not be overachieving exceptionally in academics. Nevertheless, this student may be especially talented in music, art, or even observing nature. According to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, there are eight basic types of intelligence, which include spacial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligence.⁵ A child who excels in one of these areas does not necessarily excel in other areas: each child has his own strengths and weaknesses. Making a child who has extraordinary talent in art sit inside the classroom solving math problems certainly isn’t the most ideal education. Thus, the real key to achieve true education success is to provide students with loose studying regime with more free time, while also helping them find their own hidden talents.

           Almost every president of every nation makes a promise for better education, which clearly indicates how much influence the word “education” imposes upon us. Ironically, the meaning of the phrase “good education” still remains vague despite its universal use. Some nations’ leaders believe that the quantity of studying mainly determines the quality of education. Nonetheless, Finland’s success in education, and Korea’s criticism on its own education, seems to imply something different than what these leaders claim. Maybe, making those who receive the education happy, and letting the students find out their own paths are more meaningful than increasing the absolute amount of time students devote in studying.

1. Dongkyung’s blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/obama-korea-and american _b_365885.html

2. My (Seewan) blog!/ seewanaplang.blogspot.com

3. http://aimarjb.wo.tc/110095278656

4. Dongkyung’s blog : Mitch Albom/ http://www.freep.com/article/20100912/COL01/9120480/Korea-s-kids-just-like-ours-100-years-ago

5. Dongkyung’s blog: Multiple intelligence/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

Education Synthesis essay

Education synthesis essay

Is rigorous academic education regime the best way to achieve educational success?

           The Bell rings. Students busily move around and eventually settle in their seats. Teachers constantly come and go, injecting knowledge into the students’ brains. This is how I spent my middle school years in Korea – a country both lauded and criticized for its strict educational regime. The best way to achieve educational success has been a topic of hot debate, especially after President Obama’s recent decision that “American schools should look more like schools in South Korea.” According to Alan Singer, a social studies educator at Hofstra University, “[Obama] wants longer school days and a longer school year to ensure extra time to prepare children for standardized tests.”¹ However, Obama’s such praise for Korea’s rigorous academic education faced strong oppositions from some of the nation’s educators. Among many of these educators question whether intensive and harsh academic courses are the best ways to achieve educational success. Although Korea’s relative success in international standardized testing seems to support the efficacy of rigorous academic regime, when we take Finland’s educational success into account, and consider Korean students’ – those who actually receive the kind of education that the president Obama regards “ideal” – satisfaction towards their own education, such educational value does not seem to be the “most ideal” education model for the United States to follow.

           Finland is definitely a nation which has achieved laudable academic success; its apparent superiority shown in various standardized testings including PISA, the OECD’s exam for 15 year-olds, has received many other countries’ attention. According to Tom Burridge, “Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world in PISA.”²  Nonetheless, the spotlights that Finland receives do not come solely from its gaining high score in the PISA test. What is more interesting is the educational system that Finland pursues, which is far different from “long school hours, long school days” education that President Obama has exalted. Unlike many other countries that emphasize the quantity of hard work to receive higher standardized scores, Finland’s success is built on the ideas of less can be more.² Finland does not emphasize high work load in its classes. Rather, there is an emphasis on relaxed schools. The Success of Finland’s education, written by Fukuda Sage, states that Finnish students study about seven hours a week besides their regular school studying hours. Considering that Korean students devote at least 20 hours in studying outside their schools, the amount of studying for Finnish students is apparently a lot less than that of other academically successful countries.³ Yet, the result that this country has brought up with such seemingly loose academic schedule clearly exemplifies the point that rigorous academic regime is not a shortcut to a successful education.

           Some may argue that other countries’ academic success, such as that of South Korea, Japan, and China proves the potential effect of intensive education system with long schools hours and days. In fact, Korea ranked the second in PISA, right after Finland. Nonetheless, such people seem to focus solely on the superficial results that these countries bring up with their educational systems. Although the students in these countries achieve some of the highest scores in international standardized testings, the students themselves are not satisfied with, or even severely critical of, the education that they receive. Mitch Albom, a famous columnist, mentions in his article about Korean education that “What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancún. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts.”⁴ Students don’t enjoy their schools. Rather, they consider schools as a “duty” that they have to serve, or some kind of a “burden” that is imposed upon them. Numerous video clips that mock Korean education system made by Korean students themselves alone stand for the claim that “harsh and tightly-packed education” cannot achieve true success. How can education be a success, when the actual recipients consider it as a “failure”?

           As aforementioned examples show, rigorous education regime itself cannot serve its role as a key to educational success. What is more important than holding students inside the classroom for longer hours is enabling students to find their own talents. A student may not be exceptionally overachieving in academics. Nevertheless, this student may be especially talented in music, art, or even observing nature. According to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, there are eight basic types of intelligence, which includes spacial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligence.⁵ A child who excels in one of these areas does not necessarily excel in other areas: each child has his own strengths and weaknesses. Making a child who has extraordinary talent in art sit inside the classroom solving math problems certainly isn’t the most ideal education. Thus, the real key to achieve true education success is to provide students with loose studying regime with more free time, but at the same time, to help the students find their own hidden talents.

           Almost every president make a promise for better education, which clearly indicates how much influence the word “education” imposes upon us. Ironically, the meaning of the phrase “good education” still remains vague despite its universal use. Some of the nations’ leaders believe that the quantity of studying mainly determines the quality of education. Nonetheless, the Finland’s success in education, and Korea’s criticism on its own education seem to imply something different than what these leaders claim. There is certainly something more meaningful than the amount we study in the denotation of the word “education.”

1. Dongkyung’s blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/obama-korea-and american _b_365885.html

2. My (Seewan) blog!

3. http://aimarjb.wo.tc/110095278656

4. Dongkyung’s blog : Mitch Albom

5. Dongkyung’s blog: Multiple intelligence

AP synthesis essay

     Advertisements are omnipresent in our current society. Everywhere we see, whether it be magazines, newspapers, or even the internet, has some kind of advertisements. Because they are so closely tied to our lives, the influence that advertisements have on people is huge. Although advertisements do have some benefits, such as providing the public useful information and advices, their negative effects – alluring people to buy unhealthy products and manipulating the costumers – easily overweigh their benefits.
     Advertisements frequently make people buy unhealthy or even harmful products by giving the public positive images of such products. In particular, the widespread advertisements played a huge role in the success of cigarette during the 20th century. “From the birth of the cigarette industry, advertising was instrumental in creating a mass market and apportioning shares among brands.” (Shaw) Furthermore, even after people became increasingly aware of the potential harm that smoking cigarettes can bring, advertisements still enlarged the market for cigarettes by implementing carefully devised consumer research. The companies’ constant advertisement moreover promoted “the continued social acceptability of smoking and encouraged the incorrect belief that the majority of people smoke.”(Shaw) The public, because it was constantly exposed to cigarette commercials, came to consider cigarette as “household items” that is to be consumed in our daily lives and thus took smoking as “socially acceptable”. As such, advertisements promote the public’s consummation of harmful products by making people falsely believe that those products “universal”.
     Commercials can also be blamed for “manipulating” the consumers, for these commercials play a crucial role in forming an individual’s life-long shopping habits. Such influence of advertisements is especially big on teenagers who tend to get easily swayed by their environment. These teenagers, once they start buying the advertised brand of clothing or coffee, will continue to buy the same brand for their remaining lives. According to the studies conducted for Seventeen, “about 29 percent of adult women buy the brand of coffee they preferred as teenagers, and about 41 percent buy the same brand of mascara.”(Day) This statistics clearly show how advertisements are prone to manipulate the teenagers into buying specific products for their entire lives. Even those who claim to be uninfluenced by the advertisements are in fact vulnerable to ad’s attack, for the effects of advertisements work under human consciousness with “psychological hooks.”(Schrank) Thus, advertisements must be criticized for their “propaganda” in making people buy certain products by using unrecognizable persuasive techniques.
Despite such apparent disadvantages that ads bring, some people still promote the advertisements, saying that they give some valuable information to the public or promote altruistic behavior, such as donating blood after countering the Red Cross advertisement that encourages people to do so. (Red Cross) Some even claim that advertisements educate the public by informing them about “candidates running for office, and important issues such as the benefit of seatbelt use.” (Day) Nonetheless, how many percentages do such public campaign ads take up in this massive advertisement pool? Furthermore, a click on the Internet soon gives out the public all the information it needs – obviously including the candidates’ name and the importance of using seat belts. In fact, what we really need know not need to be informed using advertisements (Sesana), because we will look it up beforehand from other sources if it is that important. People’s claim that advertisement is necessary because it provides information is clearly invalid for these reasons.
     Nowadays, people are so immerged in the ocean of advertisements that they often fail to recognize the schemes that these advertisements play. Although some advertisements clearly have positive values, such as delivering people essential information and persuading people to do altruistic acts, the majority of the advertisements floating in our society focuses in manipulating the public to buy certain products by persuading people under the conscious level. Thus, advertisement is more of a mere propaganda than something that fosters prosperity.

Education: Finland vs. Korea

This is a video clip on Finland's education system. When it comes to international Standarized testings, Finland scores one of the highest - along with South Korea. However, these two countries' educational systems differ greatly.

There is also an article posted on BBC that talks about Finland's education success.

By Tom Burridge BBC World News America, Helsinki

Last year more than 100 foreign delegations and governments visited Helsinki, hoping to learn the secret of their schools' success.
In 2006, Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world. In the OECD's exams for 15 year-olds, known as PISA, they also came second in maths, beaten only by teenagers in South Korea.

Education in South Korea In South Korea, the school day is long and pupils have a much stricter study regime. Watch John Sudworth's report on the drive to succeed in Seoul

This isn't a one-off: in previous PISA tests Finland also came out top.
The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind.
A tactic used in virtually every lesson is the provision of an additional teacher who helps those who struggle in a particular subject. But the pupils are all kept in the same classroom, regardless of their ability in that particular subject.
Finland's Education Minister, Henna Virkkunen is proud of her country's record but her next goal is to target the brightest pupils.
''The Finnish system supports very much those pupils who have learning difficulties but we have to pay more attention also to those pupils who are very talented. Now we have started a pilot project about how to support those pupils who are very gifted in certain areas.''

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The BBC's Tom Burridge talks to Henna Virkkunen, the Minister of Education and Science in Finland.

Late learners
According to the OECD, Finnish children spend the fewest number of hours in the classroom in the developed world.
This reflects another important theme of Finnish education.

Children walk around in their socks at Torpparinmäki Comprehensive

Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don't have to change schools at age 13. They avoid a potentially disruptive transition from one school to another.
Teacher Marjaana Arovaara-Heikkinen believes keeping the same pupils in her classroom for several years also makes her job a lot easier.
''I'm like growing up with my children, I see the problems they have when they are small. And now after five years, I still see and know what has happened in their youth, what are the best things they can do. I tell them I'm like their school mother.''
Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. The idea is that before then they learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning.
Less is more

Education in the United States "If education is expensive, try ignorance" The US education secretary discusses the challenges facing the Obama administration

Finnish parents obviously claim some credit for the impressive school results. There is a culture of reading with the kids at home and families have regular contact with their children's teachers.
Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued and teaching standards are high.
The educational system's success in Finland seems to be part cultural. Pupils study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
Finland also has low levels of immigration. So when pupils start school the majority have Finnish as their native language, eliminating an obstacle that other societies often face.
The system's success is built on the idea of less can be more. There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions. This combination, they believe, means that no child is left behind.

This is how BBC portrayed Korean education system

Pink Plastic Flamingo

           In her essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, Jennifer Price carefully examines the beginning and influence of “plastic pink flamingo phenomenon.” Furthermore, she also delineates the bright nature of real flamingos. However, Price’s main purpose is not to introduce the readers of either real or artificial flamingos. In fact, Jennifer Price tries to reveals her view of United States culture by talking about these plastic flamingos. In doing so, Price incorporates certain rhetorical devices, such as strong diction, anecdotes, and listing to reinforce her arguments about the United States culture.

           Jennifer Price’s use of strong diction clearly reveals how the “plastic pink flamingo phenomenon” reflects popular cultures of America in the 1950s. She uses the word “boldness” very frequently to describe this pink flamingo’s “splash” into the market. She also argues that the flamingo stands out “strikingly” in a desert. Her use of such emphatic words let readers imagine  strong, or rather bold nature of American culture in the 1950s; these words give the readers a chance to feel how suddenly the pink plastic flamingo appeared in American culture and how impressive its effects were. Thus, such use of strong diction helped emphasizing Price’s opinion that this new wave of American culture in the 1950s was rather abrupt and forceful.

           Furthermore, Price incorporates an anecdote in her essay to fortify her point. In the second paragraph, she narrates a story of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and how he could successfully conjure the riches with flamingo hotels. This story tells us that flamingos in the middle of the desert were very conspicuous, and that this “conspicuousness” attracted the riches to come to this hotel. By accommodating this anecdote, Price implicitly claims that American culture was obsessed at things that really stood out, and that it even liked things that were so striking as to be considered absurd in some ways. With an anecdote, Jennifer Price points out the fact that Americans by then wished to show off and distinguish themselves from all others.

           In addition to italicizing the word “pink” in the third paragraph, Jennifer Price also uses listing to underline how American culture was obsessed with celebrating its new affluence. In the last sentence of the third paragraph, Price relates “Washing machines, cars, and kitchen counters proliferated in passion pink, sunset pink, and Bermuda pink.” Her listing of many different kinds of “pink” color successfully emphasizes her argument that Americans blindly sought after flashy colors – especially pink colors - to declare others that they have risen up from the Great Depression, and that they were now ready to take this new era with ardor.

           1950s was definitely a time of change for many Americans. These people had overcome a great hardship, and were ready for a new start. Jennifer Price relates in her essay that American culture was very strong and powerful at the time, and that it really wished to stand out and show off its wealth. Price’s incorporation of rhetorical devices – including powerful diction, an anecdote, and listings – certainly does a job in delivering her opinions to the readers in a much clearer way.

"China Blue"

How “China Blue” Represents Current Chinese Society

             During the last couple of decades, China has developed at an almost unprecedented speed. After the [1] Reforming and Opening-up Policy led by Deng Xiaoping, almost every economic sector of China made significant developments. The economic growth rate has mostly exceeded 10% per year after the late 1970’s. Furthermore, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the total amount of US trade with China is $231.5 billion, making China one of the biggest exporting countries in the world.[2] In addition, China holds by far the most foreign-exchange reserves, which are worth more than $ 2.3 trillion in total. Therefore, with such rapid growth of its economy, China ranked as the second largest economy in the world, pushing Japan aside for the first time since the ranking started. How could China achieve such rapid development? One may attribute the cause to the massive investment that the Chinese government put in. Others may say that lowering the tariff and activating free trade was the main cause. Nonetheless, many people seem to overlook the fact that the cheap labor that China could offer was the key factor in its industrial development. In order to maintain the lowest possible price, many factory owners abused cheap laboring population such as children or women. The documentary “China Blue” carefully illustrates the reality of poor working conditions and maltreatments inflicted upon the child labor force in China.

              “China Blue” carefully observes the life of Jasmine, a Chinese 17 year old girl. She  moved from Sichuan province to Shaxi, Guangdong, a big industrial city in China to work in a blue jean factory called “Lifeng Clothes Factory.” At first, Jasmine is excited to earn money and give her family some financial aid. However, the reality that waits in front of her is much harsher than what she imagined. In order to remain as a worker of the factory, Jasmine has to deal with massive amount of work, frequently staying all night up in order to finish them all. Furthermore, despite such harsh works, Jasmine’s monthly pay is neither high enough nor consistently given. Presenting a poignant story of a young girl in China, “China Blue” evokes  a rational responses from the viewers by introducing a real situation that is currently happening.

             The film accurately delineates the poor working conditions in China with objectivity. One of the most unique characteristics of this documentary is that the film maker or the narrator is not inside the film itself. Rather, the film simply shows the audiences daily life of a girl named Jasmine working in a blue jean factory. Thus, the maker’s opinion is not directly shown in the documentary, making the presentation much more restrained and fair minded. With no extra narration, the film shows Jasmine’s room that she has to share with 12 other girls, which is barely large enough to sleep in and has no water or bathroom facility. In addition, she has to work from 8 a.m to 2 a.m. every single day without any proper break time. More than these, when the deadline for shipping the jeans comes close, she even has to work all night, pinching her eyelids with laundry clippers to keep herself awake. After all the toil, the amount of money she gets paid is not even enough to support her own life. Although she gets 48 cents per hour, which is much lower than what is expected, in the fear of getting fired, there is no way for Jasmine to protest. Surprisingly, Jasmine’s case is rather a lucky one, since many other workers get even lower payment since the minimum wage itself is extremely low in China compared to that of other countries. The minimum wage in China is [3] 31 cents per hour while it is [4] $4 per hour in South Korea and [5] $7.25 in the United States. With such low minimum wages, there’s not much for the workers to say about their wages to their bosses, resulting in such despairing working conditions.

             Throughout “China Blue”, there is a stark contrast that catches the viewer’s sight between the workers and the owner of the factory. While the workers of the Lifeng Clothes Factory have to suffer in harsh conditions and environments, working days and nights inside the factory, Mr. Lam, who used to be a police officer and is currently the owner of the factory, enjoys a luxurious lifestyle. He enjoys various hobbies, including calligraphy, to appeal himself more to the western buyers. The documentary clearly tells the viewers that there is only one thing that Mr. Lam cares about: the profit. To get more orders from western countries and earn more money, Mr. Lam has to agree to lower prices, and therefore this exacerbates the worker’s conditions. In addition to the factual representations of the lives of the two completely different classes, this contrast also evokes sympathy from the viewers. The wealthy and comfortable lives of high-class Chinese people emphasize the sufferings of low-class workers, and evoke stronger emotional responses. The representation of how the company solely pursues profits and nothing else is also shown in another film, “The Corporation.” According to ‘The Corporation’, the only goal for a corporation is to meet the maximum profit, regardless of the process used to achieve this goal. Using both logic and emotion, “China Blue” tells us that one of the reasons for such poor working conditions in China is solely due to the greediness of the owners.

            Besides its concern for the working conditions in general, “China Blue” also focuses on a more specific issue, “The reality of child labor in China.” In the documentary, it is easy to notice that most of the girls working in the factory are teenagers, who are supposed to go to schools rather than to work in a clothing factory. Although there is a law in China that bans the factory owners from employing children under 16 years old, this law apparently is not working very well. According to the Hong Kong Economics Newspaper, Child labor in China is currently on the increase. What is more shocking is that not only Chinese corporations such as Lifeng Clothing Factory, but also globalized western companies exploit cheap child labor. [6] In particular, Apple, a world famous computer corporation has recently admitted its use of child labor with unjustly low salaries in some of its Chinese factories. [7] Such problems have risen to the surface when, in 2009, 13 children were killed or severely injured as a result of a factory explosion in Guangxi, all of them in between the ages of 7 to 15. The documentary’s objective representation of the child labor problem in China induces the viewers to think once again about the problems in a logical manner.

             Overall, the documentary objectively explores how severe the problems of child labor are in China, and how these workers have to toil themselves in a terrible working conditions to earn the money that is not sufficient enough to support one’s life. The main feature and the strongest point of “China Blue” was that it did not solely resort to emotional responses. By excluding the narrator from the story, the film achieved much stronger logic and evoked much more reasonable responses. However, it did not neglect the need of emotion; the film evoked sympathy from the viewers not by using emotional and strong language, but by presenting a clear contrast between the lives of the poor and the rich.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_economic_reform

[2] http://www.economist.com/node/17257777

[3] http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chinablue/humanrights.html

[4] http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/06/113_47717.html

[5] http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/minimumwage.htm

[6]http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/02/27/apple-child-labor-china-history-sketchy-manufacturing/ 

[7]http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=104&oid=001&aid0002977860