Unit 4, Lesson 1 Part One: Images of India and China

The first blog prompt for this lesson asks: If I were to ask you to conjure images of India and China, what comes to mind?

India? Well, the Ganesha to the left is one thing that comes to mind. This one is at the Ackland Museum at UNC in Chapel Hill. I have a soft spot in my heart for Ganesha. It is impossible for me to think of India without thinking about Hindu art and temples.

India is also the birthplace of Buddhism.

And food. I am crazy about Indian food.





I must confess that I also think of huge Bollywood spectaculars and the still to the right is from DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge), which is one of my guilty pleasures! Sometimes there's just no substitute for three hours of melodrama and music.

No, really. Sometimes there isn't.

When I think of China?


This lovely equestrienne is from the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.

I recently spent several months in Chicago and spent a lot of time looking at the Chinese collection. Most of what they have look as if it had been brought home as souvenirs and then donated by grandchildren who had radically different taste in interior decor from their grandparents. As such, the collection plays to western tastes. It is rather hard to get a sense of these objects within their own culture. Still, this little horse and rider are charming, by any assessment.

When I think of China, I think of the great terracotta army that guards its first emperor. I think of massive images of Chairman Mao. And I think of Lenovo. Mostly, I think about just how big China is!