TED Talk Reflection

Talking in front of the class and sharing our experience was fun. We grew a lot as people being able to grow from the experiences we learned from and were able to teach. The overall experience was worthwhile being able to grow as a person and learn from other people's stories. The generation gap culturally across the globe was interesting to learn about and teach. We hope that people are more aware of the situations that are happening at the same time in different parts of the world.

20 Time was a good experience because we were able to choose our passion and grow from it. With that, we were able to learn a lot of interesting themes from the lives of the people. The presentation itself was pretty simple because we just stated what we learned and everyone seemed to enjoy the concept. We didn't have too many setbacks throughout the process and we even expanded the project in the end. Though we don't have an actual physical product (like a book), this blog is a collection of our work and our interviews. We hope people who read this learned something just like we did, and discover their passion.

We had a fun time doing this project!

Work Interview #2

Rosa who was a nurse at the villa was a great person I had the opportunity to meet while working there. She was so gentle with every patient she was with and her patience for each of them was incredible. She talked to them as if they were her closet friend. She tried to teach me how they played volleyball with them so we could all interact. Her kindness brought many of the people to talk to me and it led to a great path to the questions about their lives I was able to receive. Rosa was doing a million things at once and I practically had to run to keep up with her. She helps give baths, arts an crafts, interacts, walks, feeds, and even helps the patients with whatever they need. I was able to help her through most of it and she taught me how to give a hand massage. Rosa's kindness was shown and everyone enjoyed her company when she would be on shift.
Her advice for the younger generations was to listen. To hear something isn't always enough but to understand what they mean and where they are coming from makes the words someone says more valuable. Her thoughts on why you can hear but not always understand makes her a valued worker who without working at the villa would be hard to replace. Rosa was a great person who I was able to meet during this experience and she like every one who works there wanted to help people. They all enjoy the work they do and every person they meet they enjoy getting to know them and be able to make their day better.

Work Interview #1

The main manager who works there is named Red. He is a kind man who works in all areas of the villa. He was the first person I met when I came to volunteer there and he helped me to interact with the elderly people. He showed me how to wheel their chairs and help them to go on the walks. His passion for working and helping is admirable.
His favorite part of working there was seeing the people get better and seeing them smile makes his day better. You can tell just by working with him that he genuinely cares about everyone he looks after and for the short time I was helping him he asked me questions about why I was involved with them and what I wanted out of it. Which just goes to show that the people there he wanted working with him to have the same passion.
His only advice for future generations is to help people, no matter who they are go out of your way and help people because in time those simple actions can help you far more than the individuals.

What We Discovered About Ourselves

Volunteering at Fatima Villa has been a great experience for us so far. Our project time in class is coming to an end but we hope to continue our journey of finding people's stories.

From simply filing papers to actually interacting with the people at Fatima Villa, we learned to appreciate all the work people do there. Even filing papers into binders was a difficult task. (Those huge binders were hard to open! And my hand hurt by the end of the day.) It shows us how caring the staff is to each and every patient.

For me personally, interviewing my grandpa really sparked my interest in my own family's history and it was super interesting to talk to a real primary source instead of reading history from a textbook. In addition, I usually only hear stories from my mother, and it was interesting to hear a story from a even earlier generation. Because I often watch Chinese movies with my parents, a lot of the story lines are now put in context for me.

We have discovered that hearing other people's stories has been very enjoyable. Even though we knew that the generations before us were very different, it was a great experience to actually hear specific details and anecdotes about a certain time period. Just learning about history only gives us a general perspective of the time period, and maybe a bias view that the U.S has if we're reading a textbook written by someone in the U.S, but actually hearing the stories from someone who was there brings the event to life.

Personally, for me, listening to all the stories of the people who were willing to share brought yourself to discovery why humanity is just an important aspect. We connect with the pain and joy of our lives and that is how we can inspire others, help them, and hopefully learn from it so we won't make the same mistakes again.

The main goal of this project was to connect with other perspectives about what they had gone through and although not everyone was willing to share we did learn a lot about why we are so similar and different about culture and as time progressed how we went about certain situations.
The stories we were able to listen to has formed a special bond within us and now we can be more accepting of people and perhaps if more people do this as well people won't judge as much as they too and instead they can focus on the good.

Third Life Story

My grandmother's name is Lindsay Jackson she is currently 68. Her maiden name is Campbell and she was married four times and finally settled on Jackson when her late husband and her separated. She lived in Beverly Hills most of her life and has one younger sister named Candie. She is still in contact with her sister but they live far away now so they connect by long phone calls weekly. My grandmother left home when she was 16 because of family troubles and lived on her own or with friends; she then began working and putting herself through college and then became a real estate agent. She loved her work and became very well known in Southern California, Beverly Hills and Brent wood where she ended up living. My grandma eventually became apart of AA; which is alcoholic anonymous a safe place where you learn to detox and become sober once more. She is now 33 years sober and is a sponsor for many people helping them to gain a better perspective on life besides drowning your sorrows. She met her first husband before AA and had two lovely children and then after her husband gambling the money away and leaving she decided to become sober. This led to her meeting years down the line the husband which she has now before they recently separated last year due to family tensions.
When my grandmother was young she loved to play volleyball and went to the beach almost every day to play. Later on she rode horses, did bare back, and even performed with them in shows. She became a great performer and loved the experience until she felt she got too old to continue.
My grandmother today loves to go shopping and spend time with her many grandchildren. She is full of life and her message to the younger generations out there is don't be afraid to be different. To try out and do things that you want to do and life your youth to the fullest. Don't worry about what your hair looks like or how many friends you have just try to be happy because that is the only thing no one can take away from you.

The Future

The next steps for this project will be to create a way where we can share the information we learned and share it with our class. It will be a wonderful way to expand ourselves as we now understand different generations. The problems we have encountered will lead us to a different direction than before. Our original idea to make a novella based upon the details of the lives we have learned from the project but we now will just end up creating a short talk about what we have learned; since we don't have enough information to create a short novel from the experiences from all the patients. The main issue for this project will be we needed additional stories from nurses to get to a better understanding of what they thought of being around these people who have experienced so much yet the emails we sent out we heard back no response.
So the new result will be a lesson of what we learned and some interesting facts about the project we had. The overall project itself will be an interesting story about the compelling lives we have had the privileged of knowing and the ones we don't have we will still be able to come to a conclusion point for this 20 time project. The 20 time Ted-Talk presentation will be dedicated to expressing our ties to how this affected us and will in turn hopefully change the perspective of those around us to influence the people at our school and beyond. The story of how we did it, why and then finish it off with the overall theme or message about the lives we aren't connected with but now the realization of how much they are like us will change how we see people. We can bring people together and show them that we all go through trails and tribulations but the ultimate result is that we are all human. By being simply that our mistakes and highlights in our life will be able to express how other people can be influenced by knowing someone else has been through tough situations too.

The 2nd Life Story

Over the break, I was able to ask my grandpa about his life story in order to compare different cultures with the life stories we were hearing at Fatima Villa.

My grandpa was born in 1936 according to the lunar calendar, but due to a discrepancy between converting his birthday on the lunar calendar to the calendar we use now, no one really knows his real birthday. He lived in a small village with his entire family; including his parents, siblings, grandparents, and cousins, it added up to about 50 people total. Though they lived in a small village, my grandpa's family was comparatively rich because his ancestors were all famous doctors, and still owned a small medicine store when my grandpa was a child. As the oldest son in the family, he would receive inheritance of the store, and therefore often worked alongside his parents. As a result, he learned a lot about medicine as a child, and wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. 

During this time, the Chinese Civil War between the nationalists and communists were going on, and my grandpa vaguely remembers these memories for he was barely 10 years old. He explained that many of the Chinese favored the communists not always because of their political campaign, but more of because the soldiers fighting for that side were nicer to the citizens. He remembers stories of about the nationalist army stealing food from citizens when they were hungry, and as a result the communists gained more and more support. 1949 marked the year of Chinese Independence, and everyone was happy because the nicer soldiers won the war. (I'm sure some people did also favor the communists for their political party, but this was the perspective of a 10 year old.) 

Eventually my grandpa moved to the suburbs for middle school and high school, where he developed a passion for history. However, he was bad at literature, and ultimately decided humanities would not be a good career path. He decided he was better at math and science anyway. In high school, my grandpa joined the basketball team, which was apparently one of the best in their area. Later, my grandpa met my grandma because of the teacher's assigned seating, and my grandma was better at literature than he was. She also knew of him from watching basketball games, so they became friends quickly. When it came time to choose majors and colleges, my grandma wanted to do architecture whereas my grandpa wanted to pursue his dream of going to medical school. However, because he wanted to stay closer to my grandma, he switched majors to study mechanics instead. 

My grandparents' colleges were close for the first two years, until my grandma's entire department was relocated to another province. As a result, my grandparents were separated.

*note: Starting from here I will be retelling many details of Chinese history because it greatly affected my grandpa's lifestyle. This is already a concise version. Story time lasted approx. 2 hours because there was so many horrific details. 

Starting from 1957, the entire country entered a state of turmoil, chaos, and fear. The communist party was led by a man named Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-Tung depending on which spelling). He wanted the citizens to give the government feedback on what improvements they should make, and the citizens obliged, excitedly sending in requests and suggestions. These suggestions became too overwhelming to a point where Mao decided to arrest anyone who wrote a criticism towards the government, calling them unpatriotic and traitors. Luckily, my grandpa stayed out of this trouble, but the fear began to build up. (to the right is Chairman Mao)

In 1958, Mao came up with yet another brilliant idea to improve China's economy, claiming that if everyone knew how to make steel, the economy would be better. My grandpa was kicked out of school for a period of time to learn how to make steel. The government started taking any type of metal they could find, including the farmers' shovels, rakes, and even pots in the kitchen. Eventually not enough people were working in agriculture, and the country began to enter a stage of starvation. What made situations worse was when the farmers started lying about the amount of grains they produced to seem superior to one another. As a result, the government thought the farmers were in perfectly fine condition and didn't help the farmers at all.

Not until 1959 did the government finally realize the farmers were starving. There was a series of natural disasters that destroyed the fields including droughts and floods. My grandpa was one of the luckier people in the city to receive food rations for grains only. There was a shortage of meat, anything with oil, and fruits/vegetables. These would only be provided maybe once a month, and many starved to death. Because my grandpa was considered a good student in college, and his department of mechanics was valued by the country, he was able to attend graduate school (after getting kicked out to make steel) and continue his education. This time, he went to Beijing, the current capital of China. The group of students invited back to school were supposed to be training for aerospace, as China attempted to join the Space Race against the Russians as well.

Eventually, my grandpa was offered a job as a professor at Peking University, and he believed being a professor would provide him with a more stable income and job than an engineer at aerospace. He began teaching mechanics as well as experimenting in the lab. Because of his position, he was also able to bring my grandma into Beijing after negotiations with different departments. (My mom explained that at the time, no one was allowed to switch jobs randomly and my grandpa had to go through a lot of negotiations in order for my grandma's company to let her switch jobs.) After, they got married and my mother was born. My grandpa stayed at the lab often, though, and was rarely home.

(to the right is a picture of the doorway at Peking University) 

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution began, and every single person was given a new identity based on their wealth. Because the government was still communist, all rich people were deemed evil, and Mao favored the poor. Technically, my grandpa was born in a rich family, but because his ancestors were all doctors, the government decided doctors were not evil, and gave my grandpa the title of "middle class." It got so ridiculous to the point that even restaurants would ask for a person's identity before serving food, and if a person was identified as "wealthy," he/she would be kicked out.

Later, the Chinese were required to memorize the Little Red Book full of Mao's quotes, and they would recite a passage out of it every day before the work day began and after the work day ended. They treated Mao as a god, except there was no freedom of religion. If a person didn't know certain passages from the book, businesses would refuse service (similar to being classified as "wealthy.")

Not only did this strike fears into every citizen's hearts, the country began to divide into sub-campaigns who all believed they were the most loyal to Mao. Every citizen was forced to choose a side, and their choice would be indicated with a red arm band. This arm band allowed them to participate in parades and social activities. In addition, the country developed a dress code. No one was allowed to wear anything except dark blue, army green, and white. The pants had to be loose (no skinny jeans... or jeans for that matter). Girls were required to have short hair, and guys were required to shave. Those who didn't follow the rules would be considered "anti-revolution" or a traitor, and they could be arrest for potentially nothing major.

The Cultural Revolution not only enforced stricter rules on the citizens, but there was no school (AGAIN). Everyone was out on the streets parading, and high school students were sent to rural villages in order to experience the life of a farmer. (Farmers were valued highly during this era because they were in charge of the food.) In 1969, the Chinese became fearful that the Soviets would attack, and everyone related to the army, including my grandpa's department of mechanics, was moved into the mountains to be protected. As a result, my grandparents and my mom all moved into a valley in Shan Xi, and eventually my grandpa was transferred to Si Chuan where he stayed for 8 years. The food conditions were bad, but my grandpa was able to build a tiny house before he left for Si Chuan to raise chickens. He visited Shan Xi at least once a year, and always made something new before he left, whether it was furniture or newer fences. He always had a passion for woodshop that he did on the side. His normal job at this time, however, was to calculate and experiment with the structure of tall buildings, and how wind at higher altitudes affected the stability of the building.

In 1976, Mao died and the Cultural Revolution died with him. Life finally became, at least by our standards, normal. My grandpa reunited with the family in 1978, and they moved back to Beijing where he resumed his job as a professor. He became the head of the mechanics department for several years until he was relocated to Japan for half a year. He became famous among his friends for cooking while in Japan because all his Chinese friends would go to his house when they missed eating Chinese food. (I can confirm that his cooking is really good.) This normal life continued until he retired in 1998, when he was able to come to America and take care of me.

The grandpa I came to know was one that was exceptional at cooking, great with crash course history lessons about China (like this extensive one), and a person I could go to whenever I broke something (he also made a horse figure out of straw... it was pretty impressive). It's hard to imagine that he grew up living in a state of chaos considering how calm he is now. He always loves going to buffets, which now I can imagine must be because of all the times he starved as a child. Over his life time he saw the transition between no food to too much food. Life is so different now, and from what I know my grandpa is thoroughly enjoying himself. The times I did visit China, there was almost no trace of the events that my grandpa told me, and I'm glad the conditions have gotten so much better.

Pictures of my grandpa when he visited for Christmas in 2013.

...and also a picture of grandparents together.