Week 3 – Monday

It hit me today during lecture, this colonial and universality Americans or the West project onto others and my co-opted world-view therein: the movie Anna and the King is about a woman who lives in China and advises the King, teaches his children the English education of her own heritage. It flies in the face of how the Chinese did education. Further, the civilization that she influences there over the two generations (change in their justice system, politics, social status, etc.) under her care was of great celebration not only to me, but those of us living “normal” and “genteel” ways. That’s not to say that there weren’t faults and sins in the life of the Chinese policies and society, but the whole thing is couched, written, viewed, and heartfelt by the colonizers.

~ by Brian Shope on October 8, 2007.