Cultural Revolution Simulation Game

Synopsis: Students will understand (1) the progressing chaos of the Cultural Revolution (2) how the Cultural Revolution changed every day social interactions in China. Students are assigned an identity as bourgeois or proletariat; proletariats try to form groups of only other proletariat while the bourgeois try to infiltrate proletariat groups.

This game can be used to introduce students to the Cultural Revolution, but I find it most effective if students have a bit of background already. At a minimum, students need to understand terms like "bourgeois" and "proletariat." You can also teach them the insults used during the Cultural Revolution, like "Capitalist Roadster," "Class Enemy," "Intellectual," and "Capitalist Running Dog."

Each round of the game grows progressively more chaotic and more dangerous for both proletariat and bourgeois. In the first two rounds, the bourgeois escape lightly, but in subsequent rounds, students are "jailed" for a variety of reasons: if they are accused at all, if they falsely accuse someone, or if they shelter (knowingly or not) a member of the bourgeois. Finally, students can band together to make accusations against anyone in the class, mirroring how the Cultural Revolution became a way for people to punish one another for private vendettas.

Time allotment: I used about 60 minutes for this game, but students would have been happy to continue playing.

Supplies: enough small squares of paper for each student, about 3/4 marked "P" and 1/4 marked "B"

Procedures

The Game

1. Tell students that they will each receive a small square of paper. The majority of papers are marked P for Proletariat. Students who receive this papers should attempt to make a group consisting only of other proletariats, however, they may not show anyone their paper or ask to see anyone else's. The other papers are marked B for Bourgeois. Students who receive these papers should attempt to infiltrate the Proletariat groups, again without showing their own paper or seeing anyone else's.
2. Play round 1: give students 5 minutes to create their groups. Listen for who they are accusing of being a bourgeois. When the 5 minutes are over, check the papers of the accused. If they are bourgeois, tell them they are under arrest and congratulate the proletariat who identified them. If they are in fact proletariat, tell their accusers that they are now under suspicion because they have accused loyal Communists. At the end, have any remaining bourgeois identify themselves. Criticize the class for not catching all of them. Then have the class return their pieces of paper and sit down so they can draw again.
3. Play round 2 with the same rules as before, but tell students they must make groups of at least 3. Anyone left out of a group will automatically be labeled bourgeois because spending time alone is a bourgeois habit.
4. In round 3, have students draw strips of paper again. Tell them that this time, accusations will be more formal: each group of 3 or more students may accuse 1 person of being bourgeios. Play the game as before, but when groups make their accusations, take the accused directly to jail without checking their paper. Tell them they must be guilty if their classmates have accused them. Anyone in jail must remain there for the next round.
5. In round 4, warn students that if they accept a bourgeois group member, they will be jailed for sheltering spies. While students play, tell those in jail to consider whether they have a grudge against anyone -- for example, the people who falsely accused them of being bourgeois.
6. In round 5, let everyone out of jail. Do not distribute papers. Tell students that any group of 3 students may accuse any person, and if a person is accused, they are automatically found guilty.

Wrap-up Questions

1. How did people decide whom to accuse in the beginning of the game? What factors made people suspicious?
2. If you were bourgeois in the first round, how difficult was it for you to find a group who trusted you in the second round?
3. Who was accused in later rounds, particularly the last one? Was it because they did something suspicious or because of their behavior before? How could the Cultural Revolution become a tool for people to get revenge on one another?
4. Do you think the government created an official list of prohibited bourgeois behaviors or did people have to figure it out for themselves? What problems did this pose for innocent people? Why would Chairman Mao want to keep things vague?
5. How would living in this atmosphere change the way you interacted with people? List some social behaviors that are safe and normal now that would have been very dangerous during the Cultural Revolution.

Confucius & Crouching Tiger

Synopsis: Students develop an understanding of Confucius' 5 basic relationships by analyzing how characters in the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" break or fulfill the roles established by Confucius in The Analects. This lesson plan has basic information about the 5 basic relationships.

Time Allotment: We used about 130 minutes of class time to view the film with breaks for discussion, plus 1 lesson to write questions and 1 lesson for a final wrap-up discussion.

Teacher notes: Although the film is rated PG-13, the one sexual scene seemed a bit racy for that rating. Consider fast forwarding. The plot of this film is complex, so it's important to break in between chapters to review the action and discuss how the Confucian relationships are playing out. Without these breaks, I found that students got lost and then tuned out.

Procedures:

1. Show film with breaks for discussion as described above. Highlight areas where Confucian relationships come into conflict with one another or when characters break their Confucian obligations.
2. After the film is over, tell students they will have a student-led discussion for which they will write the questions. Divide students into groups of 3-4 and instruct each group to write 3 questions: one about the Confucian relationships in the film, one about the themes of the film and one free choice. Remind them that good discussion questions often start with "how" or "why."
3. Divide the board into 3 columns, one for each category listed above. Ask each group to write their questions on the board under the appropriate category. Add 3 of your own if you'd like.
4. Give groups time to read the questions. Tell each group to place a star by the 3 questions they would most like to discuss. The questions with the most stars will be used in your final discussion tomorrow.
5. Rank the questions in order of difficulty and put them on a powerpoint to keep students on track.
6. On the day of discussion, give each student 2 pennies. Each time they speak, they must surrender 1 penny. When all their pennies are gone, they may not speak again until each person has used up all their pennies. This ensures that everyone participates and no one dominates the discussion.

Extension Option: Director Ang Lee said "Crouching Tiger" is based on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Have students compare the two.

Discussion questions:

These are the questions my students generated. Although I was skeptical of a few of them, we had a fabulous discussion. I think students appreciated writing and selecting their own questions.

• How does Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien’s friend-friend relationship change throughout the movie?
• Given that it was normal to marry your brother’s fiance if he died, why didn’t Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien immediately marry?
• How does Shu Lien escape from Confucius’ expectations for women? What are the consequences?
• Would Confucius approve of any of the characters’ relationships?
• Was it okay for Jin to go against her parents’ wishes by running away? How would her decision affect her parents?
• Why didn’t Shu Lien kill Jin when she had the chance? How could Confucian responsibilities to students and younger siblings shape her decision?
• Was Jin true to any of those superior to her?
• Which characters best fit the theme?
• How would the film have differed if these rigid social molds didn’t exist?
• Do you think the ending was happy or sad? Why? Did it provide enough closure?
• What did the Green Destiny symbolize to each of the characters? How did it bring them together?
• Is it better to have too many rules or none at all?

Lesson Plan: Understanding Confucian Relationships

Synopsis: Students learn about Confucius' 5 Basic Relationships and compare them to relationshiops in American society. I use this as the beginning of a unit on Chinese literature, but this lesson plan could also be used in a history or social studies class. This lesson plan is adapted from Kirsten Larson's first lesson plan at http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/confucian.html. Background information about Confucius and his 5 relationships are available by following the link.

Time Allotment: a 45-50 minute class period

Supplies: none

Procedures:

• Briefly explain who Confucius was. Write his 5 relationships on the board in this order: ruler-subject, father-son, elder brother-younger brother, husband-wife, friend-friend.
• Point out that the only available role for women was wife.
• Explain that the relationships are listed in order of their importance. Ruler-Subject and Father-Son are nearly equal and modeled after each other. If two relationships came into conflict, the first relationship on the list is most important. (For example, if your older brother asked you to do something your father disapproved of, your father's opinion would be most important.)
• Ask the students to rank the relationships in order of importance to them. In small groups or a class, students discuss the reasons for their responses. (This made a fabulous class discussion which provoked an interesting argument about whether spouses or parents should be the most important relationship in our society.)
• Next, read students some excerpts from Confucius' writings about each relationship (You can find this by clicking on Lesson 1 at the link above.) Students discuss what the quote reveals about each relationship during Confucius' time.
• Finally, divide the class into groups of 3-4. Each group should be assigned 1 relationship. They must write their own version of The Analects, writing 5 "commandments" for how modern-day American people should behave in their assigned relationship. (Sample response: Husbands must respect that their wives are their emotional and intellectual equals and should ask their advice in making decisions.) Students share and discuss their commandments.

Lesson Plan: Chinese Poetry Scrolls

Synopsis: Students develop an appreciation for Chinese art and world poetry by selecting a poem, an image to compliment the poem, and creating a name stamp for themselves. These will be used to create a Chinese-style poetry scroll. Students will circle the room, discussing and writing comments for the selected poem.

Time Allotment: 1-5 class periods, depending on how much you have students do in class or as homework.

Materials (for poetry scrolls): 1 piece of chart paper per student, glue sticks, scissors, crayons or colored pencils. Students need 1 copy of their poem, 1 copy of their image, and copies of their name stamps.

Procedures:

1. Show students Chinese hanging scrolls like Blossoming Plum by Wang Mian or Night Shining White by Han Gan. Ask them to speculate on what the stamps and writing might mean.
2. Explain that poems were often written next to paintings to create a unified work of art. Artists, owners and their friends then stamped their name and wrote poems or comments on the completed products.
   
3. Discuss: If you owned a valuable painting, would you write your name on it or invite your friends to do the same? What might be the value of this tradition in China?
4. Focus students on this black name stamp and ask them to speculate on the meaning of the color. (As explained on the website, it is black because the owner is in mourning.)
5. Tell students they will create scrolls like the ones they have just seen. As a first step, they will design a "name stamp" of their own. The stamp must have a border in a color that symbolizes them somehow. Additionally, whatever they draw inside the border must symbolize them as well. The illustration should be simple to draw as they will be signing one another's scrolls with them later. As an assessment, have students draw you a larger copy of their stamp and write 1/2 page explaining how these symbols are appropriate for them. (Teachers note: this turned out to be an excellent way to warm my students up to the challenging concept of symbolism, and I learned a lot about them in the process.)

This usually gets me through one 50-minute class period. Some students finished by the end of class and others completed it as homework. Depending on your class schedule, you can take students to the library to find poems for their scrolls or assign this as homework. I preferred to help them find poems during class time because many students needed help choosing between several poems while others needed guidance for choosing appropriate poems. Many had to be steered away from excessively short haikus or children's poetry. Students browsed the top 500 poems at PoemHunter.com as well as library books to find their poems.

I also devoted 1 class day to helping students analyze their poems before choosing an image. We worked toward identifying themes in their poems and writing lists of emotions the poem evoked. Students used the list of feelings and themes to help them select an image to match their poem. We did this in the library in one class period. Students were instructed to bring money for 1 color copy of their chosen image.

Part II - Assembling the Poetry Scrolls
1 100-minute block class period

1. Distribute chart paper, glue sticks and scissors to each student. Chart papers should be long. Ask students to affix a clean copy of their poem and image to the chart paper. Then they should write an introductory comment about why they have chosen these poem and image.
   
2. When students have finished creating their scrolls, have them circle the room, writing comments about each other's poems and images. Comments should be signed with a copy of the symbol students created earlier. Tell them that any comments are acceptable. They can comment about what they liked (or disliked) about the image or poem, or what meaning they found in them. You may choose to assess students based on the quality of their comments.
   
3. Divide students into small groups of 3-4. Members should discuss the comments found on their scrolls -- were they surprised? Did they agree or disagree with the comments? Did they see any other students' poems they particularly enjoyed.
4. Groups share results of discussion.
5. Assign assessment: Tell students to imagine they are art dealers who hope to sell their scroll for the highest possible price. They must write a 3-page letter justifying the merits of both the poem and image on their scroll, including interpretations of specific lines of poetry or aspects of the image. Variation: As a pre-writing exercise or alternative assessment, have students divide a sheet of paper into 2 columns. Labe one column "text" and the other column "meaning of text." Students write specific lines from the poem (or describe parts of the image) in the "text" column. Next to it, in the other column, they write an interpretation of those lines of poetry. I find this really helps them focus on analyzing key words and phrases from the poem, or key features of the image.