conclusion

We have finished the last presentation, which gave us a lot of fun. I think the last presentation is the most difficult one in the whole semester, but I really enjoyed the process of preparing the presentation, I think everybody is the same. From the last the last presentation, we can see that everyone's English skills improve a lot, like talking, posture, eye-sight, etc. I remember that in the first presentation, I was so nervous that I didn't realize what I was saying. However, as time goes on, I find that I have more confident to speak English and talk to the classmates. I am very glad I can study in this class because I really feel comfortable, and many classmates have very good English skills, which I can study a lot from them.
Each presentation has different topics and groups, my favourite is the second one. One reason is that the topic is interesting, which talked about art. I like this topic because I think art is a "thing" that contains different meanings according to different people, it feels like a mystery to me. On the other hand, my partner is my best friend, she helped me a lot in this semester. Furthermore, I can't finish this presentation which I am the most satisfied without her.
We have two more days in this semester. After that, I will take undergraduate course in UMASS. I want say that I have a good time in this program, and many teachers are there to help us. Furthermore, I hope we can still meet in UMASS. Good luck to my classmates!

DRESS-UP

Dressing up as the opposite gender, it is really a brave and respectable behavior because the person who works as the opposite gender, he/she doesn't only dress up as the different sex, but he/she also needs to perform the way of the opposite sex. Hence, I think it is a really tough job. I didn't dress up as a woman, but I worked together with James, Duhwan, who did dress up as a woman, so I can learn something from them. First, they were really brave to dress up, no matter how they played, they had the courage to try, it is really honorable. Second, from the point of social values, I think playing the opposite gender, it's a part of art. I mean in China, there had an old form of performance, which was a man played as a woman, it was very famous at that time. Furthermore, Lanfang Mei, who was the master of that performance, attracted many people in China, and he also had an incredible performance in America. Therefore, I think dressing up the opposite gender is not ashamed, it's an art, and it's a respectable acting.
From our presentation, although it looks like a hard work to do, it can give us more experience, and we had much cooperation after class, I think we have a good presentation.

A Streetcar Named Desire

We watched movie " A Streetcar Named Desire" on the class, the movie's plot mainly talked about the issue of Blanche, Stella and Stanley, which happened in New Orleans in the 1950s. I think the most impressive scene gave me was that Stanley was so mad that he hit Stella under unclear mind; however, after a little while, he regretted, he went outside to find her, while he was yelling, in order to she can forgive him. Why did this scene give me a big impression? I think that Stanley changed his attitude so soon, because he always gives people a rude feeling, but this time it reflected a side of a man's frangibility. Although this is an old movie, it gave me fresh, surprised feelings, so that's why I like it.
I think the most sympathetic character is Blanche, even though sometimes she was vain and a little conceit, she just had one relative-Stella to rely on. Then, she was expecting to marry to Mitch; because of Stanley's clag, Mitch was angry with her,so they didn't get married. Last, she was raped by Stanley, and getting insane. She had a really bad fate, so I think that she needs to be sympathetic. On the contrary, Stanley must be the least sympathetic character. He gave me first vision was that he was a really good guy, but he was not. He did a lot of bad things, he lied, he raped, he fought, he swore, etc. Therefore, I was a little shocked about the end, but I like it.
At last, I want to talk a little about our presentation. We finished our second presentation last week, which was very successful and creative. Each group did a good job, and some of them made a lot of creative imitations. I am glad that I could be with Marcela as a group, she is so smart, she did a lot of job when we were preparing our presentation. Anyway, we really did a nice job. We will have one more presentation, I hope we can have a perfect presentation as conclusion.

movies

Are movies an art-form, or a form of entertainment? I think both could be, because movies have many categories, like comedy, Dracula movies, action movies, etc. Nowadays, most of films are commercial films, they have grand scenes, famous artists, famous directors, so they can attract more people's attention. There is no denying that some of them are pretty good; however, a few of movies just want to earn more money. Therefore, I think most of commercial movies are a form of entertainment. There also have some films named "literary movies," this kind of movies are "better." I mean that movies just don't use too much cost to complete the whole film, they also can give people aesthetic feelings, some inspiration. In my opinion, this kind of films are an art-form.

I have many favourite movies, for instance, "Harry Potter" "X-Men" "Spider man" "The Pursuit of Happiness" "Forrest Gump." Although "Harry Potter" X-Men" or "Spider man" belong to commercial films, I think that their story lines are really interesting for me, so I like them. On the contrary,"Forrest Gump" or "The Pursuit of Happiness" are not commercial films, they have very good stories, which moved me very much, and also tell me the keys to success. Thus, when I define a "good" movie, no matter who is the actors, who is the director, how much they cost, as long as the movie's story can attract me; besides, it should give audiences some feelings or inspiration.

Mann and censorship

I am not sure whether i really like Mann's photography of her children, it's hard to say, but I think that her photos shouldn't have been subjected to controversy, because her photos look like so beautiful, and they are different from a lot of photos as Mann used very old camera, so the photos are all monochrome. From her photos, I can find a little sexualized and sensual, but I think that's not a big deal, I just enjoy those pictures.
Some artists often deliberately try to provoke us in a myriad of ways, but I don't think Mann is trying to. From her interview, I think she just does what she wants. Although some of her photograpy seem a little weird, maybe it reflects an artist's personality.
I don't think Mann should be censored, she's just an artist, also including artists in general, as long as they don't do anything involved laws. I think art is a medium showing diffrent points in our life, so we should see them in different sides and enjoy.

first presentation

We have finished our first presentation, i think everyone performed very well, maybe somebody felt a little nervous, like me, but it's our first presentation, that's fine. Next time it will be ok. According to the presentation, we can enjoy the music, learn the history, open up our ideas to create our imitation.... It's a good experience.
The most difficult part of presentation is performing to everybody, because it's different between in front of the class and at home, that's the different situation and feelings; however, I don't think there's an easiest part, because everything should do a hard work. Although we should do a lot of things, it's enjoyable, we can learn something useful from the process of preparing the presentation.
Each group's imitation is creative, like the last group talking about pursing the dream, and our group's "missing Chilumbia". These are so interesting.
Now we have a new unit about art, so I am looking forward to the next presentation.

Mandonna

Mandonna was very famous in America in the 1980s, her song was power and dynamic, like "Material Girl" "Like A Prayer" "Vogue" "Ray Of Light" crowed the top on music list. Besides on the stage, she is also famous, because she always did something surprised in the life. She has kissed women, dated Latino and African-American men,and features sex and sexuality prominently in her videos and books. She did these things, i suggested she simply wanted to gain money, honor and fame. "I am tough, i am ambitious, and i know exactly what i want. If that makes a bad woman, okay." She said before. Her varied tastes are for show and publicity. It can be attracted people's attention, She can appear on the television, on the internet, on the each person's discussion.

I like her songs, they are very different, they can give people another feeling, but these songs, nothing.