What is going to happen when Trump's and Xi's worlds collide?

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are set to meet tomorrow, thursday April 4th, 2017. Xi Jinping will be flying tomorrow to Florida to stay at Donald Trump’s resort, Mar-a-Lago. Many predictions have been circling around in the media as to which way this meeting might go and how it will affect future relations between the United States and China. Even Donald Trump has gone to social media much to people’s surprise to give his take on how he expects things to go. Not even Donald Trump himself is confident that things will end well for he tweeted, “The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits”.

Many experts claim that it is very crucial that the United States continues to keep a good relationship when it comes to trading with China. However, that relationship may be strained with Donald Trump’s recent executive orders. Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang responded to Donald Trump’s executive orders stating “China will continue to work with the United States to think creatively and keep pushing for greater balance in China-U.S. trade”. China is clearly trying to keep the peace but with Donald J. Trump as our President that may not be possible. But we will simply have to wait and see how these two very different people from two very different worlds negotiate.

There are two sides to every story

In 2009 Participant Media released a documentary called The Cove which followed former dolphin trainer Ric O' Barry in his journey to defend the dolphins of Taijii, Japan. In the documentary it touches upon the inhumane slaughtering of dolphins that take place every year at the cove. The documentary includes graphic footage that makes it impossible to describe the killing of the dolphins as anything else but inhumane. This hunt at the cove is a tradition that has been taking place in Taijii, Japan for over four hundred years. The documentary touches upon several social issues which include but are not limited to: the inhumane way that the dolphins are killed, the financial incentive that is used for dolphins brought alive to aquariums, and the distribution of dolphin meat in public schools that contain mercury. In the documentary, the fishermen are portrayed as antagonists and it has overall led to bad press for the people of Taijii, Japan. However, in 2015 director Keiko Yagi released his own documentary in response to The Cove called Behind the Cove. The documentary defends the slaughtering of dolphins and whales but does not touch upon the argument as to whether or not dolphins should be kept locked up for people's amusement. It touches on other issues as well such as cultural racism, rude treatment towards the people of Taijii from animal rights activists, and issues brought up through interviews with hunters as well as experts. Behind the Cove was not the only documentary that was made in response to The Cove, Megumi Sasaki took a crack at unveiling the truth behind the cove in her very own documentary titled A Whale of a Tale. Her documentary is made in a more neutral perspective where it helps to give dolphin and whale hunters more of a voice. The documentary has experts defending the argument that the hunters lack of presence in social media has led to huge support of the stance taken by the creators of The Cove. Sasaki's film helps to defend the hunters in showing that they only hunt what they need and use every bit of the animal. It also goes on to point out that whaling will soon end completely due to it not having any benefit economically. One of the points in which the documentary tries to point out is that the hunting only continues in an effort for Japanese government to assert their dominance globally in that they will not stand for outside pressure. The documentary does mention a debate that took place where hunters agreed to change their ways in which they would kill the animals as they agreed modern technology has developed more humane options. It did go on to mention that Ric O'Barry did not attend and each party agreed in that they each felt nothing got done along with no progress being achieved towards resolving their issues. It was also shown that may organizations are refusing to buy live dolphins from hunters due to the backlash.  Each documentary has their stances and facts, but it is simply up to the viewer as to whether or not to take one of the documentary's stances or create one all their own.

Source : http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/22/national/media-national/taijis-dolphin-hunters-new-voice/#.WMnUeEbyvcs

The Real Mulan

Source: http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/ballad-hua-mulan-legendary-warrior-woman-who-brought-hope-china-005084

Everyone has seen the Disney movie Mulan, but not many people know where it actually originates from. The story of Mulan actually originates from a ballad. There is no actual evidence that Mulan really did exist. The ballad first appeared in the North Wei Dynasty, but there is no actual written evidence of it. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the playwright Xu Wei turned Mulan into a play. The finishing touches of Mulan’s story was written into a historical novel by Chu Renhuo. There are a variety of versions to the story of Mulan, but the plot remains the same which is that Mulan joins the army to save her father.

Shang Dynasty

The Shang Dynasty in my opinion is the most important dynasty to have ever existed in China because it was the first civilization to leave written records. Many historians cannot agree upon when the Dynasty came to be. Some argue that it came to be in the mid-eighteenth century while others argue that it was the mid-sixteenth century. One of the most affluent times during the Shang Dynasty was the Bronze Age. The metal became a symbol of royalty and making the metal became quite common as a job in everyday society. Bronze artifacts were even used in tombs of dead rulers. Priests from the Shang Dynasty would use a variety of deceased animals' skeletal remains in order to tell the future. Within the skeletal remains that have been able to be preserved, one may find writings that were once recorded by these ancient priests. Farming is what mostly helped to provide food for the people of the Shang dynasty. However, that does not mean they did not hunt. As for religious beliefs, the people of the Shang dynasty believed in folk religion and ancestor worship. The folk religion in which they believed in was very polytheistic. The Shang dynasty is not only important because of the historical evidence it has left behind but due to the fact that it helped influence many dynasties to come.

Sources: http://www.ushistory.org/civ/9b.asp