Comments for Cai's Blog

Comment on English - Creative Writing - The Stream of consciousness by caimartlew

caimartlew — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:57:57 +0000

Hello and thanks for you kind words! It really brightened my day. I’m sorry I haven’t posted for a while but I’ve had exams and driving tests and University interviews etc… but I will be posting again very soon

Comment on English - Creative Writing - The Stream of consciousness by Anon (cliche)

Anon (cliche) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:14:04 +0000

I think your piece of writing is quite good.
You write about a world which most people dare not stray.
I like what you write and for someone who is ‘untalented’ as a writer, you certainly exhibit a lot of potential or what I would refer to as talent.

Advise from a fellow writer, when you’re writing try not to think and analyse your writing. You’ll be suprised what you can write when you take a step back from reality.
Don’t write with your head, write with your heart.

Also, there is no such thing as an untalented writer. There are bad writers (which you are not,) whom are good at what they write but it’s not accepted by society. Unfortunately, we exist in a world where everyone follows a critics advise word for word. If you’re not in the top 10, you’re out.

Btw - everything you post on here is brilliant. Consider yourself as having a fan!

Comment on I met a little boy by caimartlew

caimartlew — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:35:00 +0000

I’d say that your experience is definitely comparable just not the same. If you were actually at the grave of someone who shared your name I guess the experience would be different again.

I’d wanted to go for a while to pay my dues but we just happened to be in the area when we went. So not much time to prepare for it and to be honest I really don’t understand why I had that reaction. It just doesn’t make sense.

The saddest thing about which I’ve just realized is that I only half went there to show respect for the lost child. The other half is that I went there because he shared my name. I guess I’m just conceited…

Hmmm I’m still glad I went.

Comment on I met a little boy by Ray

Ray — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:06:01 +0000

I can’t really imagine how you feel.
The only comparable thing I cna think of is a few years ago I typed in my name ” Craig Owen Lewis” into google iamges, and on the 2nd page, a picture of a grave stone for that exact name came up, whose date of birth was 1989 (same as mine) but died in 1997. That kinda freaked me out. The pictures not there though anymore….bunt I think I might have it on my computer somewhere…

The other thing was a story recently on the welsh news. Me and my parents were listening to it in the background.

“Hundreds of mourners dressed in Wales rugby shirts gathered today to pay their last respects to teenager Craig Owen who died when a sand tunnel collapsed on him.

Craig, 16, from Brymbo, Wrexham, died on August 3 while playing on holiday at Cefn Sidan beach in Carmarthenshire.

His parents, Ron and Jayne, invited those attending the funeral at Pentrebychan crematorium to wear rugby shirts.

The Welsh national anthem was played as his coffin, draped in a Welsh flag, was carried inside.

The Rev James Aylward paid tribute to Craig, who was known as ‘Smiler,’ on behalf of his parents, saying: “Craig could never be described as shy, he was always game for a laugh.

“Thinking of the happy times eases our pain.

“He was very bright and never big headed - we never had to chase him to revise. He set his own targets and never failed to achieve them.”

Craig had been expecting top grades in his GCSEs which he had just taken before going on holiday.

Made me feel awful. Although this guy was no relation to me, I’d never met him, never known him…just because he shared 2 of my names with me, was welsh, a keen studier, up for a laugh, and died just digging a tunnel at a beach…something small…kinda sent a shiver down my spine. It was horrible.

I can’t really compare that to your experience though. Were you expecting that visit…or? Because I know it’s been a while since you’ve known about it.

Ray x

Comment on The Development of Ancient China Versus the Development of Britain ( Mandate of Heaven ) by Ray

Ray — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:53:46 +0000

Its not that she wanted a name that long, its just that the longer you live as Empress, the more titles you gain. By the time of ehr death she’d been an incredibly important person for so long that she’d gathered a silly amount of honorory titles. It’s just a Chinese thing XD

And yea, I’m going to be doing Chinese Studies at Lampeter, funilly enough ^^

Comment on The Development of Ancient China Versus the Development of Britain ( Mandate of Heaven ) by caimartlew

caimartlew — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:58:08 +0000

Haha

You know a lot about China.

You should consider doing Chinese studies at University or something

What I find strange about things like Empress Xiao Qin Xian is that I can’t think why anyone would want a name that long. I don’t know If you’d know lol

Comment on The Development of Ancient China Versus the Development of Britain ( Mandate of Heaven ) by Ray

Ray — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:53:09 +0000

oh and one other thing that I found amusing. I tried to think of a bit of it earlier but it was too long to remember. After Cixi died she was given her honorific names, 2 characters each, 16 of them in total. (Im extracting this from wikipedia for reference). So by the time she died her full name and titles were:

(Chinese: 孝欽慈禧端佑康頤昭豫莊誠壽恭欽獻崇熙配天興聖顯皇太后),
which reads: Empress Xiao-Qin Ci-Xi Duan-You Kang-Yi Zhao-Yu Zhuang-Cheng Shou-Gong Qin-Xian Chong-Xi Pei-Tian Xing-Sheng Xian. This long name is still the one that can be seen on Cixi’s tomb today. The short form of her posthumous name is: Empress Xiao Qin Xian

Mouthfull or what!?

Comment on The Development of Ancient China Versus the Development of Britain ( Mandate of Heaven ) by Ray

Ray — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:41:57 +0000

I see what you mean. ALthough I was just trying to show how even the last emperor/empress (the last emperor was merely a toddler, really the last real emperor was dowager cixi) was determined to stomp out the foreigners from China; relating to their want of isolationism. To be honest, after the British, and others, ransacked the foribdden city, stole great treasures, etc I can understand why she wanted us out. The British has already defeated them in the Opium Wars which forced China to tolerate the trade of opium (amongst many other things). You were close about the Shanghai, we did have a hugie influence there, but it was Hong Kong that was given to Britain, which was to be ruled for 150 years, and was only given back as recently as 1997. (at least we were true to our word with that one). This made other countries see the opporunity to ‘grab their piece’ of China. Many Chinese felt humiliated by these terms and endless treaties which were being signed, which can be seen as contributing factor towards later disputes such as the Boxer Rebellion.
You could even go as far as to say that Cixi was to balme for the country losing the wars in the first place. By this time, China’s military strategies on land, sea and in terms of weaponry were greatly outdated. She was partially to blame for this, as she was known to accumulate vast amounts of wealth that were taken from the treasuries to spend on luxuries for herself. She even had a room piled high with gold and silver that could have been spent more wisely. However, Cixi would make a decision for the first time in Imperial Chinese history, China would learn from Western powers and import their knowledge and technology.

Anyway, the point I was making was that by this time China had realised that they weren’t so far ahead anymore. After hundreds of years of an attitude of “we are superior, we know all there is to know, anything that we do not know isn’t worth knowing” it had come to an end. Besides, even this was almost a good thing. It allowed China to develop all over again and arguably helped it to become the superpower it is today. For if there’s one thing the Chinese are great at doing its learning. If you show them some new technology which is strange to them, they will soon adapt to it and make it better then it ever was in the first place.

Again, sorry its so unstructured, I write one point and then think of another half wya through, but like you said, its not a uni thesis, so whatever XD I just like writing it down for myself more then anything haha

Comment on The Development of Ancient China Versus the Development of Britain ( Mandate of Heaven ) by caimartlew

caimartlew — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:10:16 +0000

You make a very good point Ray!
Of course it wouldn’t be possible for me to address all the reasons for China’s superiority in a mere 300 words. That is more a university thesis sort of things.
About the ‘Fall behind’ of China, I think you’re mistaken. It seems apparent, to me at least, that it was the loss of this isolationist attitude which undid China. If you look at China pre-1931 there were huge problems with rampant opium addiction. (The opium wars) Unfortunately it was the British which caused this, they smuggled opium in from India and supplied it at a relatively cheap price. A successful Chinese official could afford an opium habit. However The average Chinese worker would spend roughly two thirds of his wages on his addiction, which lead to family units breaking down etc. Heavy opium smokers also had a life expectancy of five years. This meant that on a large scale this meant that China as a country ceased to function adequately. Due to this sort of economic collapse China ended up in debt with us. This being the empirical land grabbing days the British asked them to give them Shanghai (correct me if I’m wrong) which the British ran for a while. (A very long while in fact.) The important thing about this however is that for a good while the British East India Company sucked the Chinese economy dry by supplying them opium, on which they had a monopoly. The opium wars as were an underlying factor in things like the boxer rebellion, which you mentioned. The implications from this last right up until roughly 1931 ,when World War Two started for China. Nationalist China decides to have all the addicts killed. (I’m not sure if this is true)
Continuing on, China suffered greatly in World War Two with large losses in both resources and population. After world War Two it still wasn’t pretty because China ended up being a Pariah nation because of Maoist Communism.
Really China has only just had the chance to catch up thinking about it.
If you want a list of sources, I’ll happily provide them

Comment on The Development of Ancient China Versus the Development of Britain ( Mandate of Heaven ) by Ray

Ray — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:04:46 +0000

To be honest, I’ve never thought too much into why it was China was so superior to the rest of the world in terms of societal organisation, technology, astronomy, mathematics, medicine etc. I guess the reasons you just stated are a good factor towards this. One other I can think of is that the Chinese for ‘China’ is Zhong Guo which literally translates as ‘Middle Kingdom’. For a very long time throughout Chinese history, they were convinced that they were the centre of the world, directly under heaven and that anything outside their kingdom lacked the ability and given wisdom to be as superior as they were. This often meant that under many rulers they had little interest for exploring the lands outside their kingdoms. This meant that they remained isolated for hundreds of years, apart from trading with countires as far west as Italy via the Silk Road. These journeys would also have allowed them to bring back new technology and knowledge whilst never giving away what made their products so special. FOr example, the secrets of how silk was made lasted hundreds of years. All this isolation must have led them to be able to concentrate solely on their home interests.
Another reason I can think of is that before China was as we know it today, it was loads of states of different tribes, each one with their own ruler. Indeed, each tribe was similar but also distinct in terms of art, language and even appearance. (The modern Chinese population is actually a mixture of many different ‘breeds’ of Chinese, all of whom have varying physical appearances). These tribes would also have developed their own system of writing. Under Qin Shi Huang Di

(the First Emperor of China, and where China gets its name [Qin = Chin] Also the man who was paranoid of death and buried himself with a huge Terracotta Army in the afterlife to bring with him…he obviously had a bad conscience as he had killed thousands of his own people during his reign and was scared of meeting them in the afterlife. He was also responsible for the start of the Great Wall which would take another couple of hundred years to complete.)

China would become ‘united’ under this man. He saw it essential to unite the different cultures, created one system of writing, a unified measurement of weight, height, distance etc which massively inproved internal affairs within the country. This all happened way before anything of the kind has happened in Europe. If we look at modern history, up until as recently as the end of the 1800’s, many European countries were only just becoming reformed and unified into what resembles the modern map of Europe.

To be honest, I think theres a huge amount of reasons to China’s superiority. I don’t know all of them, and the ones I do know of I dont even know if they are valid or well structured (I tend to ramble)

The irony is that it was this determination for lack of contact with the outsiide world that it eventually fell behind the rest of the world; their secrets of silk and porcelain had long been revealed and by the time of the Boxer Rebellions in the 1800’s, thousands of years of the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ would come to and end…less then 100 years later, Mao’s on the scene…In comes a new chapter to China.

Anyway

Off to work ^^