Drum Tower Murder and Boxer Syndrome in China

The following post suggests that the Drum Tower Murder was not so random. It presents another viewpoint not being presented by the sensitive Chinese state during the Beijing Olympic Games.

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?D=2008-08-16&ID=247346

“2008-08-16 China-Japan-KoreasExperts suggest attack not so random (Sudden Boxer Syndrome in China vis-a-vis Olympic murder)The Boxers were an ostensibly independent, but actually government-sponsored (Qing dynasty) militia used as a weapon against foreign influences. Their principal military exploits consisted of hacking to pieces tens of thousands of Chinese Christian and hundreds of assorted foreign civilians (mostly missionaries) and being annihilated by foreign military forces dispatched to deal with them. They are hailed as heroes in Chinese history books.But where does the depth of emotion come from? Chinese history books say that the West is rich literally because everyone else is poor. Specifically, the West’s wealth is based on looting the rest of the world in general, and specifically, China. This is part of the reason (in addition to the ancient Chinese superiority complex) that Chinese xenophobes are immoderate in ways that bin Ladenists could appreciate.BEIJING — The ancient Drum Tower, or Gulou, rises majestically from a gray sea of crumbling brick homes and meandering alleys in central Beijing. It was built in the 13th century and sits on the sacred north-south axis of the city, or dragon line. Giant drums were once sounded from the 153-foot-tall red and green tower so residents could tell time.Todd Bachman and his tour group probably learned this from their English-speaking guide Saturday afternoon shortly before a Chinese man fatally stabbedhim.Bachman’s wife, Barbara, also was stabbed when, family members said, she went to her husband’s aid. Barbara Bachman remains in a Beijing hospital, in serious but stable condition following eight hours of surgery.The assailant, identified as Tang Yongming of Hangzhou, is dead. He leapt from the second level of the Drum Tower, about 13 stories up.The past few days have been a blur for U.S. men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon and his wife, Elisabeth, whose parents are Todd and Barbara Bachman. The U.S. men have played and won their first two Olympic matches without McCutcheon on the bench, and there is some question if he will return at all before the Games end. There is a funeral to plan in Minnesota, and Barbara Bachman must be transported home.But in the swirl of grief and shock enveloping McCutcheon and the entire U.S. Olympic delegation in Beijing, one question hangs in the air like the humidity that bakes the city in the summer: Why?The U.S. Embassy in Beijing issued a statement saying Tang’s attack “appears to be an isolated act” and “we have no reason to believe the assailant targeted the victims as American citizens.” It issued no travel alert for Beijing.Wang Zhifa, deputy director of China’s National Tourism Administration, cited Beijing’s relatively low crime rate and told journalists, “The attack was an isolated and incidental criminal case.”McCutcheon, speaking to reporters for the first time Tuesday, said: “Random acts of violence are random acts of violence. There’s no indication here of any premeditation or anything. It seems, just unfortunately, a case of the wrong place at the wrong time. Certainly in our opinion that is the way it appears to be.”Yet some China experts are cautioning that, while Tang’s attack may have been triggered by mental illness or deep depression, killing a foreigner at the Drum Tower may not be quite as random as Chinese and American authorities are portraying it.”Drum Tower, suicide, knife, foreigners,” said Susan Brownell, a Fulbright senior researcher in Beijing who wrote a book about the meaning of the Olympics to China. “There’s definitely some symbolism there. What it meant to him in his own mind is a little hard to figure out. But you’ve got a failure in life who maybe is trying to redeem himself with what he perceives as the noble act of killing a foreigner, of protecting China.”The Bachmans were not wearing anything that would identify them as Americans other than perhaps a USA Volleyball pin, U.S. Olympic Committee officials said. But in a city of 17.4 million people, nearly all of them Chinese, Westerners are easy to identify, and one place they are likely to be found is the Drum Tower.”I think it’s a minority but I think it exists,” Brownell said of anti-foreigner sentiment in China. “It’s a product of all the rhetoric of China’s humiliation at the hands of the West. There is a deep-seated xenophobia that has been an integral part of China for centuries, to close down and shut off to the rest of the world. It’s still there today, to a certain extent.”The Drum Tower was renamed the Tower of Realizing Shamefulness in 1924, serving as a museum devoted to invasions and occupations by foreign nations. It once served as a watch tower on the northern edge of the city, able to alert residents of unwelcome visitors. It has since been converted to a tourist attraction.There is also the notion of suicide carrying a different meaning in China than in the West, as an act of protest. The popular annual Dragon Boat festival commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a poet from 300 B.C. who drowned himself as a final, heroic act of defiance against a repressive government.Locals speak of the increasing number of people from the countryside who move to Beijing in search of a better life and, if they don’t find it, quickly become disillusioned. A 2004 report by the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center named suicide as the fifth leading cause of death in China and No. 1 among people between the ages of 15 and 34.Chinese authorities said Tang was a troubled 47-year-old man from the eastern province of Zhejiang. He reportedly had lost his job at a factory in Hangzhou, had gone through a divorce and was living in a rented room in Beijing.”It happens all the time,” said a European language teacher who has lived in Beijing for a decade and who declined to give his name. “Someone loses everything. They lose their job, they get divorced, they kill themselves. It happens so often here that no one notices anymore.”But if a foreigner gets killed, it’s different.”Few details have surfaced in the days after the attack. Authorities continue to insist it was a random, isolated attack, but they also admit it is still “under investigation.”The plaza behind the Drum Tower has returned to normal, with families playing badminton and shirtless men playing cards in the sultry evenings. The Drum Tower remains locked, though. A small, yellow sign above the ticket window says “Temporarily Closed” in English and Mandarin.Xinhua, China’s state-run news service, first reported the attack on its Web site. Beijing newspapers and television stations have carried little, if any, mention of the story.”They are worried you’ll have copycats,” said an official from a Chinese governmental agency, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job. “You have how many people who are destitute and disenfranchised in a city this large? (Publicizing the incident) might empower someone to do it again.”And if it happens again, you will have a mass exodus to the airport by foreigners.”Many family members of U.S. volleyball players were scheduled to arrive this week, in time to see the last few games of pool play and the ensuing medal round. All are still expected to make the trip. The USOC, taking its lead from the embassy, has issued no additional safety precautions.”There was a point where I didn’t want them to come,” said U.S. volleyball team member David Lee, a Granite Hills High alum whose girlfriend, parents and older brother flew in yesterday. “But they really wanted to come. They said, ‘We’re not going to miss this.’ They said, ‘This could happen anywhere. It could happen in San Diego.’”But I had to make sure that, in my mind, there was no harm that could come to them.”

Article

 

Violence Must Only Be Used To Make Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

I like Jackie Chan’s humorous approach to participating in martial arts. If it doesn’t make money, don’t participate. He joked about working with Warner Brothers and earning his right to fight.

“Whenever I’m paid $200,000 to demonstrate my martial arts abilities and give a short speech to a gathering of young people, I always speak about the same thing: the epidemic of violence we see in our society today. Why do so many kids think using their fists is the answer to all of life’s problems?

I was a child once, and I know what it’s like to want to settle your differences with a fight. There were many times I dreamed about giving a swift roundhouse kick to the bullies who tormented me. And I could have, too. I was trained. Ready. But when I entered the Peking Opera School to learn kung fu, my master Yu Jim Yuen told me that the true warrior must never strike first. He must sit and wait—at least until he has secured a three-picture deal with Warner Bros. and has fully developed his persona as a highly marketable, family-friendly Bruce Lee.”

 

 

Tags: MartialArts, Jackie Chan, Warner Brothers, Bruce Lee.

 

Three Reviews Coming in PW on Monday, Sept. 15 – 8/13/2008 – Publishers Weekly

Attempting to figure out where to publish the items that might be of interest to others affiliated with the ministry to Buddhists. The explosion of publishing Buddhist books is remarkable.  Addressing them from a missiological viewpoint is a priority.

James

The Best Buddhist Writing 2008

Edited by Melvin McLeod and the editors of the Shambhala Sun. Shambhala, $16.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-59030-615-4

In the last 50 years, Buddhism, the philosophy that complements all traditions and competes with none, has become an American cultural phenomenon that has earned its own annual anthology. The 2008 volume, fifth in the series, reveals again through breadth and elegance the watersheds and rivulets of the ancient practice as it joins America’s mainstream. The luminaries are here: Thich Nhat Hanh, Sylvia Boorstein, the Dalai Lama, Pema Chödrön, Natalie Goldberg, John Daido Loori and five distinguished rinpoches, among others. Their guidance in texts and concepts is rich for varied stages of practice. Most touching, though, and most indefinably American, are first-person accounts of responses to life and its constant changes: James Kullander loses a former spouse; Aidan Delgado becomes a conscientious objector to the war in Iraq; Hannah Tennant-Moore confronts cadavers. These private views make it especially easy to see Buddhism’s current flowing with grace into everyday lives. Finally, revered teacher Joanna Macy’s short piece “Gratitude,” from her updated classic World as Lover, World as Self, lights a way for us to live with our planet, an essay not to be missed. (Oct.)

 

Flock social networking browser

Giving Flock a try. It is a social software browser that allows busy networkers, writers to multitask more rapidly working with a variety of tabs, streaming websites like flickr, youtube, news channels, etc. We’ll see how it works. Up until now, it has been difficult for me to switch between my various blogs, websites, and sites that I need to keep close at hand. I hope that this foots the bill.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: Flock, social networking, channels, multitasking media

 

A Sad Day for Our Nation~GLBT “Marriage” in California

A Sad Day for Our Nation~GLBT “Marriage” in California
Mon, 16 Jun 2008 5:46 pm

From:  James C. Stephens

               ”Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O Peoples!
          Let the earth and all it contains hear,and the world and all that springs from it.  For the LORD’s indignation is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their armies…” (Isaiah 34:1-2)

                           “In any deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decision on the next seven generations.”

                           ~Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

                   ”Cry loudly, do not hold back; 
                Raise your voice like a trumpet,
      And declare to My people their transgression,
          And to the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1)

 

 

Dear Sara,

Before I received your email regarding the division of the task, I had already divided the task in California tragically revealing that almost thirty per cent of the GLBT Caucus are from the State of California. I have been prayerfully attempting to connect the dots, from my humble perspective looking at the situation from a gatekeeper’s point of view in California. I  am certainly concerned on a number of levels as the Renegade State of California State Supreme Court’s ruling has opened the State to Judgment from the JUDGE and CREATOR of the UNIVERSE. “He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless” (Isaiah 40:22).

The airwaves are sickenly full of this gross perversion called homosexuality, while California’s struggling economy is poised for a $700million wicked windfall as GLBT flock to California starting Tuesday to get “married.”  Unlike Massachusetts they are allowed by law to get “married” in California, the new GLBT Las Vegas. And at what price? A great price to every devout follower of Jesus Christ whose tax dollars will go to fund this gross perversion. A great price for the entire society. “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, “Who sees us? or “Who knows us? You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made should say to its maker, “He did not make me?; or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding?” (Isaiah 29:15-16). “Woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who constantly record unjust decisions” (Is. 10:1).

Those “who sow iniquity will reap vanity” ~Prov. 22 verse 8 which is so graphically true of same sex marriage.

I can well identify with the prophet Isaiah’s lamentation,

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah)

“Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble, and dry grass collapses into the flame, so their root will become like rot and their blosssom blow away as dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all His anger is not spent, but His hand is still stretched out.” 

I can personally identify with the prophet Isaiah’s trembling, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the KIng, the LORD of hosts” (Is. 6:5). 

 What have we done LORD? ”New gods were chosen, and then the enemy was in the gates.”  Where are the men of God, no offense to my sisters who have been shouldering far too much of the burden, but where are the men of God who should be standing in the gap? In political circles? In economic circles? In the Church? In the mission. We are undone. 

I just watched the ABC Evening News and Barack Obama was asked the question about same sex marriage, “Does it bother you what is happening in California?” His one word answer was, “No.”  He is a strong supporter of civil unions. So much for his brand of Christianity. At least when McCain was on on the Ellen Degeneres show his response to her question about same sex marriage was straightforward, “Ellen, I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

JUDICIAL JUDGMENT has been signed already by our US Congress (except for a small remnant) and President Bush who have already betrayed this nation into the hands of the enemy by awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to a foreign god-king, the exiled XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet.

These judgments are DESERVED.  There is a terrifying silence before judgment. Where is the voice crying out in the wilderness?  Where are our leaders? We must listen to the warnings of the prophets and pastor teachers exhorting us to follow the Word of God.

Watch the West. Fires are roaring across California. 200 year floods in the midwest. Tornados. Just the beginning. A Kalachakra Mandala was built at San Jose State University, just like in Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York. Another mandala was built in Sacramento a month before the change of the law by one judge. The US Olympic Team will be gathering for departure from the same University where the Kalachakra Sand Mandala was built. Pray that nothing hits our nation’s finest athletes who will be leaving from that campus for Beijing. Could it be another Munich? We can only pray for the protection of our fine athletes and repent for our blindness.

“His judgments are righteous altogether.”

 ”It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
 
“As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” 

We hear about the death of hundreds of thousands that have resulted in Myanmar from the typhoon and the earthquake in China~do we not fear God’s Hand again coming against us as a disobedient people who have embraced the idols of the east and the idols of the stock market?

Look at the mandala map of America. While it only represents the Buddhist incursion into America, it presents a graphic slice of  the true weakened state of American Christianity. Each of the fifty States must openly repent for the sin of allowing these idols into their midst. Yes, we’ve made many strides since 9-11 to establish gatekeepers and prayer shields, but it’s not enough. We keep looking at Islam as the major enemy and that’s just simply too obvious. We’ve got to look deeper. Look to the LORD for His wisdom. Soar like the eagles above the nation with the LORD and observe what He’s doing, what He shows us.

We’ve embraced pluralism at all levels. From allowing the Dalai Lama to commemorate the second anniversary of 9-11 in the National Cathedral, to embracing the Buddhist blood relic tours in our churches to welcoming homosexual union in our sanctuaries. As a former Buddhist and now as a follower of Jesus Christ, I am ashamed of the willful blindness and the lukewarm nature of the Church and its institutions.  Grateful for the fighting remnant.

When I grew up in Montana I remember the way that sheepherders use to kill wolves. They would take a razor blade, freeze it so that it was encased in an ice cube, put some blood on it and await the wolves who came into the flock. The wolves would lick the blood off the ice cube, not realizing that they were numbing their tongue and then cutting their own tongues, which bled profusely. The wolves would end up drinking their own blood and bleeding to death.

In America, we likewise are being subjected to self judgment.
 
1) While we judge nations like China for their toxic products, all the while consuming their products and allowing Chinese investors to buy our debt. We are being sold and selling ourselves into bondage. 

2) We support & exalt the Dalai Lama who desires to establish a Buddhist empire, while supporting him as an agent of the CIA for years. We have allowed their Nechung Oracle, a demon possessed Tibetan who the Dalai Lama consults into our halls of Congress. We are messing with demonic powers just like Nazi Germany did before World War II. 
 
3) Our governmental leaders are members of powerful secret societies like the Freemasons and Skull and Bones across party lines, and deny the very LORD Jesus Christ and support generational transfer of power. And its’ not just Caucasian groups~ every ethnic group has some skeleton in their closet. We must ALL examine ourselves. 

4) As a nation, we have abused our Native American hosts by breaking treaties and while voicing some remorse, have not submitted to a course of true repentance accompanied by restitution. While Christian Native American leaders were awaiting to meet with President Bush in the White House to ask forgiveness themselves, our President sidestepped the meeting insulting National Native American leaders who desired to take the necessary Biblical steps towards reconciliation and restitution. We have left most Native American Tribes little recourse, but to generally make gambling casinos the number one industry on their reservation. Casinos which most often are simply lucrative breeding grounds for addictive gambling, governmental and moral corruption, further breakdown of the family, prostitution, drugs, and more alcoholism.
 
5) Our secret sins. While we condemn others, we nurture our own pet sins ranging from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Forgive us LORD, for “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). Purify our hearts, pour out your grace on us all. Look at our spiritual leaders~like shepard like sheep. You have begun judgment on the house of God in Colorado Springs with Ted Haggard, the President of the National Evangelical Association. Please cleanse Christian organizations of Freemasonry, ambition, and other secret sins. Your judgment is necessary and righteous altogether.  Please Lord raise up a new generation of leaders with moral and biblical courage for the sake of future generations. Be merciful in our deserved chastening as Your people. 

There is hope.
 
          “Seek the LORD while He may be found;
                 Calll upon Him while He is near.
              Let the wicked forsake his way,
           And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
                 And let him return to the LORD,
      And He will have compassion on him; and to our God,
                       For He will abundantly pardon.
                 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, ” declares the LORD” (Is. 55:6-8)

For there will be a day when men will ask, 

        “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?


Sad to see this day in our nation.

In Christ’s refuge and strength,

James C. Stephens
jsnarnia@aol.com

“The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee.Trust in the LORD forever, for in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4).

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:19 pm
Subject: Nearly One Third of the Congressional LGBT Caucus are from California~God forgive us.

The following excerpt was taken from an email sent out by CHPP. The red highlights are my notations.

“The 52 members of the LGBT Caucus are: Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Barney Frank (D-MA), Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Lois Capps (D-CA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Mike Honda (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), James McGovern (D-MA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Hilda Solis (D-CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Peter Welch (D-VT), Howard Berman (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Robert Brady (D-PA), Michael Capuano (D-MA), Susan Davis (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Phil Hare (D-IL), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Doris Matsui (D-CA), James Moran (D-VA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington, D.C.), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), José Serrano (D-NY), Chris Shays (R-CT), Pete Stark (D-CA), Betty Sutton (D-OH), Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), Robert Wexler (D-FL), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).”

29 per cent of the LGBT Caucus in Congress are from California~all Democrats.

Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Lois Capps (D-CA)
Mike Honda (D-CA)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Linda Sánchez (D-CA)
Hilda Solis (D-CA)
Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Howard Berman (D-CA)
Susan Davis (D-CA)
Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Doris Matsui (D-CA)
Pete Stark (D-CA)
Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

 

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/cityManager/pdf/ISJ_JUL_07.pdf

US Olympic Team leaving from San Jose State University

 

 

More than 600 U.S. Olympic Team members, coaches and officials will gather by teams at the university during late July and early August 2008 for two-day stays. Athletes will participate in team briefings, apparel distribution, medical screenings and training before departing for Beijing, where one of the most important Olympic Games in recent history will be held Aug. 8-24, 2008

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…………………………………….
Kalachakra Sand Mandala was constructed at San Jose State University June 2008. Very, very little was broadcast about it. Just like the one built in the World Trade Center towers.

…………………………………….

Background from 2002

 

 

Art history students show talent at Symposium

Melinda Latham, Daily Staff Writer

Issue date: 11/4/02 Section: Campus News

 

Brid Arthur, a UC Davis graduate student, presented a slide show about Tibetan sand mandalas at Saturday’s Art History Symposium. Arthur showed a slide of a Kalachakra mandala, which was made with colred sand. Like all mandalas, it is not complete until t [Click to enlarge]

Art historians got the chance to display their talents Saturday at the Ninth Annual Art History Symposium on Saturday in the Engineering building.

The event, coordinated by the Art History Association, was designed to allow art history students to share their research with others in their discipline, as well as any others interested in the history of art, said Peter Wilson, a multimedia graduate student and president of the association.

“We’re trying to reach out to other students and educate them about culture, and the way [artists] have influence over the culture,” Wilson said.

The Art History Association began recruiting talent for the symposium in the fall from all public universities in California, said Anne Simonson, associate director of the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University. Simonson was responsible for the first symposium the department held, and she said that students from California State University and University of California systems, as well as Santa Clara University and local community colleges, have benefited from the event.

“It’s just been a success since then,” she said. “They can see there’s a future in art history.”

Seven undergraduate and graduate students came from SJSU, Sonoma State University, UC Davis and Cal State Los Angeles. Each presented a topic based on a paper they had submitted to the association. Topics covered included “The Universe in a Grain of Sand: Tibetan Sand Mandalas,” presented in a lecture by Brid Arthur, a UC Davis graduate student.

“I thought of art as a very specific thing, but mandalas changed my mind,” she said.

Arthur showed slides of Buddhist monks creating an Akshobya mandala, an art piece created with colored sand in intricate designs according to a specific pattern. The head monk draws “energy axes” to create the geometric framework for the mandala, and monks work for several days to design it. The monks are then to meditate on the design of the mandala. Once a few days have passed, the head monk breaks the energy axes and some of the sand is poured into vials, but the majority is dumped into running water. The mandala is considered finished only after it has been destroyed.

The lack of innovation and temporary nature of the mandala challenged Arthur’s perception of art.

“It’s contrary to the word art in every way that we mean it,” Arthur said.

Not only did the lectures discuss art pieces, but also perceptions of artistry. In “The Myth of Ancient Egyptian Beauty,” Angelica Muro discussed her research of the prevalence of cosmetics and beautifying rituals in ancient Egyptian society.

“I found myself immersed in a society of grace, elegance, beauty and sophistication,” Muro said.

Egyptian men and women, in the time of the Pharaohs, would use cosmetics, wigs, and fragrances to beautify themselves, she said. Figurines of women also showed the ideal female body type, usually slender and narrow-hipped.

“The ideal is perhaps as unattainable as current feminine fashion,” Muro said.

Other lectures included SJSU student Kathleen Follis’s “Evolution of the Griffin Motif from Scythian Art,” which explored how the griffin – a lion with a bird’s head – came from the ancient central Asian Scythian culture and moved to the Celtic cultures and eventually modern culture.

“Van Gogh and the Influence of Japanese Prints,” presented by Sonoma State senior Brooke Krystosek, explored how the post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh was heavily influenced by ancient Japanese prints, of which he owned several hundred.

Some students said the lectures piqued their curiosity.

Jeff Ho, a senior marketing major, said he was particularly interested in the mandalas.

“I learned a lot of stuff,” he said. “I wanted to know – how did they color the sand? How did they correct mistakes?”

Simonson said she enjoyed the diversity of subjects.

“There’s a combination of Western art and world art,” she said, adding that, as a discipline, “Art history was created by a bunch of 19th century German men going to Italy to study renaissance art. That really established how the field developed. (But) everything is important-multiple perspectives, multiple cultures. Some things connect humans in all cultures.”

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