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"Vaulting the Sea" and The Story of the Reformation of China's Elite Sports Schools

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Above: 14 year old Chinese athlete Quan Hongchan holding up her gold medal earned from the Women's 10m platform final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics      As I was reading "Vaulting the Sea" by Xuan Juliana Wang, I was reminded of a documentary I watched long ago about China's Elite Sports Schools, where they take kids who place consistently low academically, but have a lot of athletic potential and put them in special schools where physical training and athletic performance is prioritized over academic performance. The main goal of these school is essentially to create the next generation of Chinese athletes who compete at the international and Olympic level. As I did some more research regarding this topic, I found out that this system has undergone change over time and is becoming less intense after China received criticism for manipulating children and forcing them to undergo grueling training regimes.     In the story, Taoyu and Hai participate in the 2008 ...
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STACKING CAKE in Sandra Cisneros' ELEVEN

    Context: The red sweater is being forced upon Rachel by Sylvia Saldivar who believes the sweater belongs it Rachel because it is "raggedy and old". Mrs. Price trusts Sylvia and places the sweater on Rachel's desk, despite not receiving confirmation from Rachel to prove if it is indeed hers. The following sentence is Rachel's reaction to this scene:      "I don't know why but all of a sudden I'm feeling sick inside, like the part of me that's three wants to come out of my eyes, only I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember today I am eleven, eleven." (Cisneros 8)     I think an identifiable theme in Sandra Cisneros' Eleven is the idea of how aging does not completely reset and instill the societal norms of someone's new age into them; people are extremely different when it comes to past experiences and future aspirations. The idea of aging is like adding layers to something: New things are ...
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Visual Book Cover for "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying"

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      The short story "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying" portrays three friends who are very different but all share the same circumstances. Ronnie, Caroline, and Mini are all Korean adoptees who meet at a gathering for Korean adoptees. Ronnie is not very talkative and can get angry quickly, Caroline always feels like she has to be the first to do everything and prove herself, and Ronnie is more focused on living life to the fullest. I chose these three main characters to be the main subject of my illustration because they are the subject of the story. They are driving in their car in the dead of night, while the menacing figure of "mom" composes most of the background.     The three girls are driving in Mini's car, which is the main setting of the story. While it may seem like an unimportant object, Mini's car actually plays an important role in the story. It is here where they perform the dark magic that begins their troubl...
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The connection between "Speech Sounds" and sexism

     I think "Speech Sounds" has a connection to the modern problem of sexism: more specifically, on the idea that males are above females. "Speech Sounds" presents the idea of a world where the main character who is a woman, can speak, but the men around her cannot. This being enabled by a disease spreading around the world. This goes against the modern idea that male voices are drowning out female voices, creating a world led by men and where men have more advantage than women.      While characteristics of the two genders are not left out, such as the male role of the aggressor and the female role of reliance on men for protection, the author subverts their roles of how they contribute to the world. In Speech Sounds, while Obsidian can read and Rye cannot, Rye can speak and Obsidian cannot, so Rye's voice is projected above that of Obsidian. This enables Rye to lead and puts Obsidian at the mercy of Rye's will. I found it interesting to see this in the s...
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