Iron and Silk post #1

"The four of us had a difficult time in Canton the day before. A China Travel Representative had approached us as we got off the train from Hong Kong and insisted that we would require his services if we expected to reach our destinations in China. China Travel Service, China's only travel service, specializes in imposing services on foreigners and failing to carry them out properly, thus creating a need for more services." (Pages 5 and 6) This made me laugh, and realize that scamming has been around forever, but also made me curious. China is notable for being very hospital to its guests, but as soon as you get there you find there to be only one travel service in the country and soon find that they are scamming you. There's nothing to do about it though, you are in a massive country you have never been to before, and only a few people speak English, and even fewer are willing to help. So you have to continue your trip knowing that you are being overcharged for their services but can't complain. That doesn't seem very hospitable to me. I also did some research on China travel service and found that they are still around today, so whatever they have been doing all these years must have been working. But I'm sure their prices are more reasonable due to the increased amount of travel services available.   

Aria's Third Blod Post

BLOG POST NUMBER 3

The beauty of this book is really in how Mark was able to show an appreciation for Chinese culture while simultaneously using it as the punch line of his jokes. The tone is didactic but inquisitive. It is impartial yet satiric. Early in the book Mark says, "I'd been interested in China since I was thirteen. I had seen the television movie "Kung Fu" and decided right away that peace of mind and a shaved head were what I had always wanted” (17). He is unquestionably captivated by the beautiful chinese culture. That is why his retellings of different experiences are so fascinating. If he didn’t have the kind of respect towards the culture that he does, the tone would not work. Comedians tend to make fun of themselves in their comedy acts because we actually absorb many messages through humor. The same is true for Iron and Silk. The lighthearted tone allows the reader to be more open to new ideas and experiences. Humor also lets us relate to these experiences.

Review/Favorite Part:

Something that I admire in Mark was how he made his passion his biggest priority and moved to China to live a life where he could practice his art form, teach his classes and explore the cultural diversities that life has to offer. Mark’s biggest passion in life is martial arts and he also likes calligraphy and language. After first studying it in the United States for years he is able to be taught by the best in China. He develops his internal strengths, “qi” and “gong fu.” But in addition to  following his passions, he learns about some inspiring beliefs that the Chinese have. They are dedicated and respectful people who are loyal to their friends and family. They are not arrogant and they punish any kind of disrespect. Also Mark meets people who change some of his views on life like when he met the fisherman who promises to by Mark his own fishing boat just because he is so honored that mark is his friend. This book just goes to show that every one of us has a story to tell. It starts with our ancestors and stops right now. Sometimes moving to a new place helps us appreciate the cultural diversity. That is why this book inspires me to travel and meet beautiful people like the people Mark met when he went to China. 

Frantic and Fantastic

The tone of the last third of the book seemed a little frantic. Over all the book had a very relaxed feel to it, truthful but not in as a rushed confessional way, more like he was telling you his story with a glass of wine listening to classical music. For the first two thirds it was all about Mark, and how he settled into China making it his home and experiencing the culture it has to offer. However, the last third of the book seemed to be about him tying up loose ends. There were multiple relationships that came to an end. He finished his taiji lessons with teacher Liang, and his wushu lessons with Pan drew to a close. "We don't have much time. Just a few months... What is the one thing you want to learn before you leave? Choose it, and I'll give it to you."(pg 185) Mark had two years in China and the last third of the book really concentrated on the different events that would leave an imprint on him. I think they were mainly the relationships that he had. At one point he talks about this professor that he meets who has a heart and liver condition. He practices his calligraphy with him  and the professor helps him perfect his brush strokes. Two weeks later however the professor goes into a coma. There were a lot of moments like this that were mentioned in the last third. The way that Mark told his story kept the reader relaxed while event after event piled onto of each other as the book drew to a close."My last month in China was a busy one, as I had to complete my teaching duties, prepare my belongings for the move back to the States, attend farewell meetings and banquets and begin saying goodbye to my friends, students, colleagues, and teacher."(pg.210) What Mark didn't realize was that he began saying good bye long before the final month or chapter of his story. He was desperate to experience the nation in it's true form and he did. The book had varied syntax which defiantly kept the reader interested and it was extremely funny so that the reader was never board during the journey, The syntax also added to making the reader feel more anxious as the end of Mark's story came to a close. there were more factual shorter sentences which added to the more frantic tone of the third half. The fact that it was frantic made the story unique. It made you want to keep turning the page and experiencing the next awkward encounter for yourself. It compelled you to ward the final word.

I really enjoyed Iron and Silk. It was a light read. I mean that in the way that it was easy to turn to the next page. It was funny and written in a really relaxed style that made it seem like he wanted you to experience what he was feeling, and Salzman did just that. The series of events that he chose to talk about were light and each event always had a moral of it's own. They mad you look on topics or ideas with a different perspective. For example there is an incident with a rat and Mark goes to collect a reward for killing it. However the rat collection office could not give it to him due to the fact that he was a foreigner and they couldn't let the world know that China has rats."I couldn't resist asking the student if he didn't think it was a bit silly. 'Of, of course it is very silly. But the comrades in the office, like anyone else, would rather do something silly that something stupid.'" Salzman did a wonderful job really hitting the morals or the knowledge that he gained from each experience home. I also loved the imagery that He used it really helped bring you into the story. There were many examples of this through out the book but one of my favorite moments was at the very end when he finally is dueling Pan with the sword."At that moment, everything was magnificent- the night, the heat the sword, Pan and I- we were all magnificent. I flew through the routine, and when it was done, I thought i had never known such exhilaration before."(pg. 211) The author did a wonderful job of including just the right amount of imagery with his factual encounters that it really made the story seem realistic and not just the memoir of some guy. Iron and Silk was filled with laughter and the joy of experiencing a different culture, making it light, relaxed, and an inspiration to those that want to go far in life.

Overview of Iron & Silk: Impartial and Empathetic

The blunt and almost impartial voice of the book made it easier and more comically interesting with its good amount of irony and naivete to balance out the history and cultural references. While having the class perform skits in English, their first time performing with members of the opposite sex, some of the students slip up because they are nervous and are learning a language they aren't too familiar with:
    "Duncan: Excuse me, girls. May I enjoy you?
     Me: Duncan, you mean 'join you.'
Duncan, embarrassed that he had made a mistake, turned purple.
     Me: Keep going.
The two girls put their imaginary paddles down angrily.
     Heidi: No! Go play with yourself!
     Me: You should say 'play by yourself'.'  You play with others, and play by yourself (192)."
The blunt and impartial way Mark narrates this scene makes it all the more funnier. Throughout the book, he tries to include sections that show naivete of others, which add to the comic relief. This section is funny because the characters don't understand (are naive to the fact) that what they are saying is actually an unintended sexual reference in which the narrator doesn't poke fun at, but just smoothly glides over and ignores. Overall, the constant naive humor strewn throughout the book through a practically impartial and blunt voice made this book enjoyable and definitely worth reading.

One of my favorite things about this book was the narrator's interactions with others and their empathy. One of the best examples of this is when Mark is on the train with two men released from corrective labor, and one of them tells him he is excited to see his mother again, "The big fellow struck him hard in the chest with the back of his forearm, knocking him out of his reverie and nearly out of breath.
     'What did you do that for?' the smaller man screamed, his face now crimson.
     His partner looked down at the floor between his legs and said quietly, 'Don't talk like that, about seeing your mom.'
     'Why not?'
     He pointed at me without raising his eyes. 'Because he's from far away. He can't see his mom at all. He doesn't need to know how happy you are. (178-179)'
     This hits me hard, because taking into consideration how someone else might feel is the definition of empathy and is exactly what the "big fellow" did. He didn't like his friend bragging about his excitement to see his mother because he knew Mark wouldn't be able to, and might feel sad, nostalgic, or jealous because he can't do the same thing. This perfect example of empathy, compassion, and humility  adds so much more depth to the book and is why this section is my favorite part.

Haste and Sorrow; The Tone of the End of the Book

Owen Hamilton

March 20, 2014

Brio/ Heart Rattle

Tone

Towards the end of the book, Mark is soon to leave China, so there is a sorrowful atmosphere in his last months.  He hastefully strives to fulfill everything he came to achieve.  Learning wushu from the world's greatest warrior is coming to an end, but he wants to make it count.  One day Pan tells him seriously, "We don't have much time.  Just a few months.  I don't have time for English anymore--there's only wushu now.  What is the one thing you want to learn before you leave?  Choose it, and I'll give it to you" (pg. 185).  As a parting gift, Pan gives Mark the choice of any teaching he would like. The time to leave had come too soon, and Mark must end his time with Pan with one last teaching. During his last months in China, Mark meets many people such as an African studying medicine in China, a beautiful woman who wants to learn more English, and an old calligrapher.  This old calligrapher hears of Mark, and hastily asks him if he will come to his house before he goes back to the United States, "I heard recently that a young American at Hunan Medical College was interested in calligraphy, and had even gone to the trouble to learn it himself to understand it further.  When I heard this I was deeply moved, and hoped I could meet you before you returned to your country" (pg. 193). Mark spends much time meeting new interesting people in his last months to learn new things in China. He has many interesting experiences, but he sadly knows that he will be leaving them behind soon.

Favorite Part of the Book

My favorite part of the book was within the first twenty pages.  Mark has just started teaching an English class, and they want to give him some feedback on his teaching.  "At the end of the first week of classes the Class Monitor read aloud the results of their 'Suggestions for Better Study' meeting: 'Dear Teacher Mark.  You are an active boy!  Your lessons are very humorous and very wonderful.  To improve our class, may we suggest that in the future we (1) spend more time reading, (2) spend more time listening, (3) spend more time writing and (4) spend more time speaking.  Also, some students feel you are moving too quickly through the book.  However, some students request that you speed up a little, because the material is too elementary.  We hope we can struggle together to overcome these contradictions!  Thank you, our dear teacher'" (pg. 18).  First of all, it is hilarious how they wrote this so enthusiastically!  "You are an active boy" is such a funny line.  It is also hilarious how they compiled the different suggestions for better study, and came up with contradicting things.  It seems that the students all want different things.  If every student got what they wanted, Mark would have to teach more of everything! (Reading, listening, writing, and speaking).  It is also funny how they leave him with a terrible problem, and don't give any suggestions on how to solve it.  Why would they make a class with almost fluent speakers and beginners together?  

Iron and Silk Review

Iron and Silk is written very subtly - it seems as though Mark Salzman is writing it the way you fill in a diary; very factually and as you experienced it. I think this bluntness can add to the humor sometimes and other times make the story seem more realistic and more touching, it all depends on how it is written, what's happening in the story. That means that his tone changes a lot through the book, depending on what was going on.

He doesn't use a lot of adjectives. It's very honest, to-the-point writing; he's not using any flourishes, not making the writing too flowery. I actually found it quite refreshing, because I'm reading Ginsberg right now and even though he's fantastic, his writing is pretty much all adjectives. Mr. Salzman is very plot oriented.

The book was in fact very funny, like in this passage,

"When everyone had eaten they took turns dropping their trousers, leaning off the sides of the boats and using the river as a toilet. At the same time, Old Ding insisted it was time to wash up. He dipped an iron cup into the filthy water and began splashing it on his face and neck, inviting me to do the same. I declined, to everyone's surprise... everyone agreed that it was an odd thing that Americans who supposedly live in a fantastical future world understand so little about personal hygiene." (128)  

but there were parts that moved me to tears, and parts that seemed sort of wistful, like he was regretting things that could not be. I found this form of writing really satisfying because it seemed realistic. Life doesn't just have one tone; it's fickle and changing and some parts are funny and some parts make you want to move to China and study wushu for the rest of your life. You just never know.

I loved reading Iron and Silk. I felt a very personal connection with the book, because I practice karate and a couple other martial arts and I guess even though I don't have that cherry-blossoms-and-kimonos thing going with my dojo, I think that gong fu comes in all different types. So maybe even though my karate isn't gong fu in the years-of-tradition-and-history sense, it does have gong fu in that I have devoted most of my life to it. I also think that Mark Salzman is a fantastic writer and must be so interesting to talk to. He's devoted his life to the two things most important things in mine.

Humorous and Insightful

The entire book of Iron and Silk is humorous and insightful. One example of when it is humorous is in the first chapter ("Leaving") where he has to preform a martial arts demonstration to prove that he was a legitimate martial arts student, and not someone trying to smuggle swords out of China.

"Somewhere in mid-air my pants split wide open, from the bast of the zipper to the belt line in back. A crowd of giggling old ladies rushed forward with needles and thread ready, followed by an equal number of old men with incurable illnesses who believed that I must have learned traditional medicine as part of my martial arts training..." (4).

 This sentence was inserted early on in the book to introduce humor into the book so that the reader would continue to read. To keep the reader engaged, there are many more examples of this humor in other places in the book and example of this is:

"'Binglang is like wine,' he said, 'it makes you feel a little drunk. We thought you were used to it, and that was why you chewed so many. Just one or two of them makes us feel dizzy!" The jolt of adrenaline I had just experienced must have quickened the effect of the drug, which is known as betel nut in the West, for my legs began to feel long and rubbery, a buzzing filled my ears, and the bus ride, which only lasted for fifteen minutes or so, seemed to go on for over an hour" (111).

This quote took place when Mark, one of his martial art's teachers, and some of his other students went to go visit his teacher's friend. Mark had no idea what he was eating, and so he ate many of the nut. It is also interesting to see that all of the Chinese who went with him thought that Mark would know about the nut already, but he has no idea, showing the cultural gap between the West and China. This is an insightful way to show the gap because it was also humorous. Another time when this book was both insightful and humorous was when Mark and some of his students spoke about retirement in China:

"Many doctors in China are not allowed to retire, and some of them have never even had a vacation. This woman announced that she had a retirement plan: she would pretend to die, have herself nailed in a coffin and driven to her home village, then climb out during the funeral and declare herself a ghost. 'Then I could have a garden and take care of my grandchildren'" (145).

This book has some very interesting insights into the Chinese world., technically China is very strict, but there are also many time where they sound just like us, and our dreams. This book was able to change what I thought about China, and when I read it, I thought that it was funny but also very interesting.

My favorite part of this book was when Mark went to the house of the poor peasant fishermen and slept there. It really was interesting to see what the people who had never seen a Caucasian thought of velvet, and what they thought of Western music. I enjoyed Mark's confusion when the talked over him playing the cello and when Mark showed them the photos of his family, and they said that the woman dressed too colorfully. My favorite of this scene was when the author described the grandmother of the family: 

"The grandmother had brilliant white hair, carefully combed and tied back, and sparkling eyes that looked at me without blinking. She wore thick cotton trousers and a padded cotton jacket, all black, and though worn threadbare, her clothes were spotless. She sat only a few inches away from me, absorbed in pure wonder. She had a great dignity nonetheless, occasionally turning her head as if to show me her profile in the candlelight" (121).