The Political Propaganda with Tibetan Beauty Pageants

The article about how China twists a Tibetan beauty pageant into a political ordeal is very interesting. The fact that the Chinese government wanted to call the pageant the "Miss Fashion Parade Evaluation" is even more interesting. The most beautiful women in work units were required to participate in this pageant. There were more judges than participants. The first place prize, a trip to Hong Kong, was vetoed by the CCP. Was this because the CCP were afraid that the first prize winner was going to flee China if she went to Hong Kong? Or possibly it could have been because Hong Kong is also a sovereign territory and the CCP didn't want the winner to get any ideas from visiting the city.

The occupation of Tibet by the Chinese began in the 1950s and has forced Tibet to become Chinese in many ways. Many Tibetans have been killed or imprisoned for protesting against the CCP. Many others fled to Nepal only to be sent back by the government.Certain aspects of minority culture seems to be fine with the government but other aspects are viewed as a threat. Journalists were even only allowed to take certain pictures at the pageant which was promptly ignored when a power failure occurred.  The pageant that took place was not one of Tibetan values but of Chinese and Western values forced unto the Tibetans. The pageant was a political struggle between how the Chinese and the Westerns felt Tibet should be viewed.

((I can't help but add that the author writes out the whole name of an article she quoted from. This would have annoyed my professor. Also starting that last sentence with "this" would have annoyed him as well))

The number of beauty pageants increased dramatically during the 90s in China. Every pageant had apolitical names yet were run by the government. Yet the westerns were able to push away the name "Miss Fashion Parade Evaluation" for "Miss Tibet". The cultures of minorities in China are seen as primitive to the Han. Only the women, who are seen as beautiful and "liberal". are admired. In this, the cultures are turned into visual representations of themselves. Allowing the pageant to be called "Miss Tibet" could suggest that Tibet is, in fact, a sovereign state.

The conclusion of the article states that the Chinese government tried to change the pageant from a political show to a cultural show. In order to keep the Tibetans from protesting against the CCP. Yet this whole situation was very political. Through the pageant "Miss Tibet" Chinese and Western ideas of Tibet are being forced on the Tibetans. They are being told what their identities are by outside sources.

McGanahan, Carole
          Miss Tibet or Tibet Misrepresented

Dance Lest We All Fall Down Review

Dance lest we all fall down is a very intriguing story about a woman's change from an ethnographer and anthropology teacher to the co-founder of a ngo. This book is not an ethnography or a memoir. Possibly an auto-biography of sorts but the point of this book is not to tell a section of this woman's life. Instead it is unraveling the structure of an ngo and showing that the ngo is based on cooperation and lots of patience. This is not a story of the noble American going into a shanty town and giving the community something the American thinks they need.

I was intrigued by this book. It read like a story and was very colorful. The conversations were insightful and thought provoking. While some did not like this book because it is very unlikely that the author could remember her conversations in such detail, I read the conversations as a way she was talking out an idea in her head. Sometimes talking out an idea in conversation form can help one come to conclusions one would not normally come to; even if these conversations are in one's head. Yet I do believe she had most of the conversations that are in the book.

There were many situations in the book that forced me to think about things I never would have thought about. Like the concept of foreigner. Or how Americans and Brazilians view inequality in different concepts: Americans through the idea of race and Brazilians through the idea of class.

There were also many great quotes I loved in this book.

• “The city and companies invest a great deal in all these Christmas lights and decorations. They think then we poor people won’t notice the rotted walls they cloak, the decaying infrastructure. Personally, I think the money might be better spent on education and feeding people.”
• Constantly they urged me to buy, something. I refused and grew increasingly uncomfortable acutely aware that my ability to buy these goods underscored and reinforced the economic, class, and racial differences between them and me.
• In a society where he had control of nothing else, capoeira angola gave him the possibility of internal control and self-respect.
• the dance of Carnival held more meaning than that. It also embodied poverty, death, and annihilation.
• Time and time again, I was reminded how credibility has less to do with knowledge or information given, but instead with the class and power of the person making the statement.

Overall I think this is a book worth reading especially if you are going through an anthropology program. 

Thoughts on the Ideal Gender "Norms"

This is something I've never thought of outside of women's health care rights and gay rights. And it's probably because I grew up with these expectations of what is considered normal in the United States. But today's Gender/Race/Class in Complex Societies class has me thinking what is considered normal for a woman to do with her life.

When I first signed up for the Navy, long ago in 2002, I came across this norm and thought it was weird but never really gave it a second thought. When picking the job I wanted in the military, the petty officer assumed   I wanted to be a corpsman aka a nurse. Nope, not me. I can't stand the coughing, sneezing, runny noses...... if it comes out of your mouth or nose, I'm going to gag. I don't know what it is but spit and mucus really grosses me out. But on top of that, even just the mention of injuries can make me feel like I'm going to pass out. So no, being a nurse is the worst thing for me.

The only thing I cared about was if my job gave me a sign on bonus. aka they give you lots of money just for picking that job. And the job? Aviation Ordinance Man. Ha! This job would have had me loading bombs onto jets. Thinking back I'm glad I never ended up doing this job. I finally got a great job in the military: Cryptologic Technician Interpretive. Or for layman's terms - a translator. I was a Chinese interpreter for 4 years. And I hated it. But that's another story.

I always found it weird that the man would assume that I wanted a nurse type job. Did he assume that every female that joined wanted this job? Did he ask every woman that entered the navy if they wanted to be a corpsman? I'm not sure.  I am sure he didn't make that same assumption with the men that joined the Navy. "I know what you want to be. A Navy Seals!" Yeah, maybe he did. Why not?

It was odd to think that I would want a nurturing type of job only because I am a woman. He was even surprised when I told him that was the last job I'd want to be in. I was "the first girl to ever tell him that". Is it really that common for women to become nurses in the Navy? Though afterwards I still ended up in a female dominated field. Even though the military is around 80% male, my job was about 50-50 or slightly higher female percentage. So maybe I did still end up in a job that was seen as "socially normal" for a woman.

This was a photo from my 5th year anniversary. Looking through my photos I realized I took very little photos of myself in my uniform. 

The day I graduated from boot camp. With my dad who came all the way to Chicago from Atlanta to see me. I'm look extremely tired because the day before I had run battle stations which is when you run around the base all night and perform tasks you might need to do on the ship in an emergency. At this point I had been up over 24 hours.