Accordion to 12AP

One life lesson has been taught to me by my parents, teachers and past experiences, and that is to also put yourself in the other person's shoes. As I read through Roselily in class today, I started wondering what was the husband thinking at the time. Did he actually love Roselily? What does he feel about this marriage? Does it bring him more burden or more freedom? How does he feel about his future wife having a different religion than him? At the end of the story, he "does not look back" when Roselily decided to end her conflicting thoughts and settle with her new life. That is because he also has to think about all of those questions and more. The women he is about to marry are doing it not for love, but because her children and herself are running out of money. He cannot ensure that this marriage is long-lasting or filled with love like an actual marriage, especially when during the marriage the couple is not even staring at each other.  This two-sided view can really...

Growing up in two completely different cultures have exposed to many different ideals that people have in both cultures. The Chinese culture emphasize qualities like honor and loyalty, while the American culture emphasize the importance of change and equality. However, one quality is emphasized both here and back in China: the importance of being early. Both cultures have a saying that basically translates to "the early bird catches the worm". After 17 years of experience, I have came to the conclusion that most of the time that saying holds true, but during some instances, I have wondered, was I too early? In the past, both cultures have pounded the importance of being early into my mind, from examples in TV shows, speeches, daily lives, etc. I developed a habit of doing everything as early as I can (mostly influenced by my parents). My parents signed me up for Kumon Math at a really young age (around 1st grade) so I can have a head start on the rigorous math curriculum in C...

Throughout history, many historical figures have pursued ideals that are almost unrealistic. People, like Stalin or Lenin, had an extremely perfect vision of a world, but when they tried to implement it, the results were violence and dictatorship. In George Orwell's Animal Farm, idealism also fails in the end when the pigs basically became humans and broke all the promises that were once promised by Old Major. Obviously, idealism is bad for these leaders who tried to use it in their own "world", but after reading these stories, I realize that I use idealism on a day to day basis and it also causes me a lot of trouble.  Every week, I make a full schedule for what I will do this week. I have been doing this for a long time and I now have a habit of tightly following every schedule I make. Now this might sound like a good trait to have and I agree. But the thing is the schedules I have made are usually pretty unrealistic. My schedules are based on an ideal world where distra...

 As I was scrolling through some TV channels on a boring evening, I saw the name America's got Talent. I stopped mindlessly trying to find something interesting to watch and hoped that America's got Talent is actually a good show now. However, despite all of my hope, I was first presented with some weird comedian guy, then some kids doing normal talent show stuff, and then the classic: that one person that's going through a tough time and a judge hits the golden buzzer. Wow, totally did not see that coming. I was just about to click off this channel but finally a person holding an actual musical instrument walked in. As a mostly classical musician, I was so relieved to see that maybe finally I can cleanse my eyes and ears of those cringe "performances". The musician starts playing and I realize that he is actually pretty good. He played everything in tune and on time. He has a lot of dynamics and looks pretty professional. But as the camera switched to the judges ...

 In 11 AP, we learned a bit about the different lenses that readers can analyze the characters and/or themes that are in literature. Here is the link: https://chineseaccordionboi.blogspot.com/2019/11/after-learning-about-different-lenses.html. It honestly feels great to learn more about things that I have interacted with in the past like the different literary theories. I think a lot of these different literary theories can be used in almost every book to explore new ideas or themes that may or may not have been intended by the author. Oedipus Rex is a great example of a story that can be viewed under many lenses. The most prominent and famous one is through the psychoanalytic lens. The term "Oedipus Complex" refers to the " unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and hatred for the same-sex parent." This is a theory by Sigmund Freud that allows readers to understand the story of Oedipus through a new lens. The readers can directly relate the prophecy ...

                    Everyone is afraid of something. It might be a fear of spiders, heights, water, social interaction, or even failure, but one common reaction that results from the fear of something is to stay as far away as possible from that horrifying “thing”. This ensures that we cannot be harmed by that “thing” we deemed dangerous. However, in the case of Oedipus Rex and The Trial by Franz Kafka, that natural response to fear led the protagonists to the thing that they are most afraid of: Guilt. As we debate the influence of fate on Oedipus’s tragic end, one question was always bugging me. Why did Oedipus choose to keep looking for the truth despite all the warnings and confirmations that people he used to trust gave him? Was it because he is arrogant and considers himself better than others? Maybe. But I think the better answer here is that his fear of being guilty caused him to go on this endless hunt for the truth. Si...

Reading Saving Sourdi was really an emotional ride; the plot was full of twists and encourages the readers to think deeply about the characters' actions and thoughts.  While the story focuses on the complex characteristics of the main characters, another major theme is the treatment of women in some Asian communities. Sourdi's poor treatments by men from the same culture as her throughout the story were accepted by herself and others. For example, at the beginning of the story, Sourdi was sexually harassed by men at the restaurant, instead of having a reaction herself, she just allowed it to happen. Similarly, when Sourdi was engaged to an older and wealthier man, even though she was still (maybe) dating Duke, her mother tried to force Duke out of Sourdi's life and force Mr. Chhay into Sourdi's life. This type of marriage is definitely rare in modern communities, but in communities that are more rural and traditional, this type of marriage is rather common. As a person ...