Puyi The Last Emperor of China

The last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and thus the last emperor of China, Aisin-Gioro Puyi lived through the fall of his empire, the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, the Chinese Civil War, and the founding of the Peoples Republic of China.   Born to a life of unimaginable privilege, he died as a humble assistant gardener under the communist regime. When he passed away of lung kidney cancer in 1967, Puyi was under the protective custody of members of the Cultural Revolution, completing a life story thats truly stranger than fiction. Early Life of the Last Emperor Aisin-Gioro Puyi was born on February 7, 1906, in Beijing, China to Prince Chun (Zaifeng) of the Aisi-Gioro clan of the  Manchu royal family and Youlan of the Guwalgiya clan, a member of one of the most influential royal families in China. On both sides of his family, ties were tight with the de facto ruler of China, the Empress Dowager Cixi.   Little Puyi was only two years old when his uncle, the Guangxu Emperor, died of arsenic poisoning on November 14, 1908, and the Empress Dowager selected the little boy as the new emperor before she died the very next day. On December 2, 1908, Puyi was formally enthroned as the Xuantong Emperor, but the toddler did not like the ceremony and reportedly cried and struggled as he was named the Son of Heaven. He was officially adopted by the Dowager Empress Longyu. The child emperor spent the next four years in the Forbidden City, cut off from his birth family and surrounded by a host of eunuchs who had to obey his every childish whim. When the little boy discovered that he had that power, he would order the eunuchs caned if they displeased him in any way.  The only person who dared discipline the tiny tyrant was his wet-nurse and substitute mother-figure, Wen-Chao Wang. A Brief End to His Rule On February 12, 1912, Dowager Empress Longyu stamped the Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Emperor, formally ending Puyis rule. She reportedly got 1,700 pounds of silver from General Yuan Shikai for her cooperation — and the promise that she would not be beheaded. Yuan declared himself President of the Republic of China, ruling until December of 1915 when he bestowed the title of Hongxian Emperor on himself in 1916, attempting to start a new dynasty, but died three months later of renal failure before he ever took the throne. Meanwhile, Puyi remained in the Forbidden City, not even aware of the Xinhai Revolution that rocked his former empire. In July of 1917, another warlord named Zhang Xun restored Puyi to the throne for eleven days, but a rival warlord called Duan Qirui nixed the restoration. Finally, in 1924, yet another warlord, Feng Yuxian, expelled the 18-year-old former emperor from the Forbidden City. Puppet of the Japanese Puyi took up residence in the Japanese embassy in Beijing for one and a half years and in 1925 moved to the Japanese concession area of Tianjin, toward the northern end of Chinas coastline. Puyi and the Japanese had a common opponent in the ethnic Han Chinese who had ousted him from power.   The former emperor wrote a letter to the Japanese Minister of War in 1931 requesting help in recovering his throne. As luck would have it, the Japanese had just concocted an excuse to invade and occupy Manchuria, the homeland of Puyis ancestors, and in November of 1931, Japan installed Puyi as their puppet emperor of the new state of Manchukuo. Puyi was not pleased that he ruled only Manchuria, rather than the whole of China, and was further chafed under Japanese control where he was even forced to sign an affidavit that if he had a son, the child would be raised in Japan. Between 1935 and 1945, Puyi was under the observation and orders of a Kwantung Army officer who spied on the Emperor of Manchukuo and relayed orders to him from the Japanese government. His handlers gradually eliminated his original staff, replacing them with Japanese sympathizers. When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, Puyi boarded a flight for Japan, but he was captured by the Soviet Red Army and forced to testify at the war crimes trials in Tokyo in 1946 then remaining in Soviet custody in Siberia until 1949. When Mao Zedongs Red Army prevailed in the Chinese Civil War, the Soviets turned the now 43-year-old former emperor over to the new communist government of China. Puyis Life Under Maos Regime Chairman Mao ordered Puyi sent to the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, also called Liaodong No. 3 Prison, a so-called re-education camp for prisoners of war from the Kuomintang, Manchukuo, and Japan. Puyi would spend the next ten years interned in the prison, constantly bombarded with communist propaganda. By 1959, Puyi was ready to speak publicly in favor of the Chinese Communist Party, so he was released from the re-education camp and allowed to return to Beijing, where he got a job as an assistant gardener at the Beijing Botanical Gardens and in 1962 married a nurse named Li Shuxian. The former emperor even worked as an editor for the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference from 1964 on, and also authored an autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen, which was supported by top party officials Mao and Zhou Enlai. Targeted Again Until His Death When Mao sparked the Cultural Revolution in 1966, his Red Guards immediately targeted Puyi as the ultimate symbol of old China. As a result, Puyi was placed under protective custody and lost many of the simple luxuries he had been granted in the years since his release from prison. By this time, his health was failing as well. On October 17, 1967, at the age of just 61, Puyi, Chinas last emperor, died of kidney cancer. His strange and turbulent life ended in the city where it had begun, six decades and three political regimes earlier.

What Kind Of Cultural Curriculum Should Be Taught - 997 Words

The opposing positions in Chapter 11 talk about what kind of cultural curriculum should be taught is schools today. One side feels multiculturalism is important to teach students tolerance and compassion. The other side feels we are losing out on the American culture and worry about dividing our society. I will cover in the following paragraphs their views as each side tries to persuade the reader to see their side of this issue. This is a persuasive article by a credible author, with each side using examples and creditable sources to support their views. Position 1 stresses the importance of the multicultural education because of the drastic increase of immigrants in our schools in order to persuade you to see its point of view. According to the authors Nelson, Palonsky and McCarthy (2013) when they say â€Å"the population of the United States is expected to rise from 390 million in 2010 to 438 million by 2050, and most of the increase will come from new immigrants and their decedents† (pg.260). Figure 11.11 on page 263, shows how the population in America is changing. According to the authors Nelson, Palonsky and McCarthy (2013) â€Å"the chart shows that by the year 2050 the percentage of racial and ethnic groups will be made up of only 47% white population, with percentage to represent how many Hispanics, Black and Asian will make up the United States, pretty astounding statics for this positions argument†(pg.263). 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Guernica, Picasso 1937 Essay Example For Students

Guernica, Picasso 1937 Essay Guernica, Picasso 1937 The Spanish painter Picasso was a cubist and his worldwide famous Queering is a mural-sized flat oil painting on canvas (3. 5 meters tall and 7. 8 meters wide). It is all grey, blacks and whites and was painted in 1937. Picasso started the painting when he heard that the Germans had Just bombed the quiet and traditional Basque town of Queering on 26 April 1937 in support of the Spanish Nationalist forces of the Fascist General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. The broken sword near the bottom of the painting symbolizes the defeat of the people at the hand of their tormentors. The shape and posture of the bodies express protest, Picasso uses black, white, and grey paint to set a dark, sober mood and express pain and chaos, buildings in flames and crumbling walls not only express the destruction of Queering, but reflect the destructive power of civil war. The newspaper print used in the painting reflects how Picasso learned of the massacre and the light bulb in the painting represents the sun. Picasso monumental work showed the effect on both people and animals. The distorted forms and the monochromatic palette clearly show the grief of the people for example, he shows a fighter and a mother and child tit displaced features and ghost like forms along with a woman on fire running from a burning building. The fine patterns in the centre of the painting resembles words on torn pieces of newspaper, suggesting that art is as powerful as the mass media in communicating a message. Chaos and despair are amplified by sharp, angular shapes, particularly the bold triangular form at the centre of the painting and vivid contrasts of light and shade. On May 11 1937, he made the first sketch for the mural. By the tenth of May, he had already begun work on the canvas. And in early June, the mural was completed. There are about 100 recorded sketches relating to the mural, some made before Picasso started working on the canvas, and others done simultaneously with the painting. In some of the sketches, Picasso experimented with color. Even when the mural was almost completed, the artist stuck pieces of patterned wallpaper onto the canvas to determine the effect of color of the composition. Charcoal and oil paint were the main materials Picasso had used on his painting. Picasso had to use a ladder and a long-handled brush to reach the retest part of his artwork. An enormous size of the stretched canvas, measuring 3. 5 x 7. meters and so had to be tilted to fit under the rafters of the ceiling, and dim lighting from bay windows on one side of the studio, failed to interfere with action or progress. The painting was completed in twenty-four mad and wild days. Streams of ideas, emotions, traditions, myths, obsessions and symbols of his roots deeply surrounded in Hispanic and Mediterranean culture spilled onto the canvas. These were fuelled by anger and a need to express his pain. Queering, Picasso 1937 By cherrys