Hung Liu: The Chinese-American Artist Essay

â€Å"The mind changes, the word changes, time doesn’t stay still, history is a verb, it is ongoing, there is no past tense, future tense, history is constant† Hung Liu told interviewer Rachelle Riechart (Riechart). Hung Liu is a Chinese woman who was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She was born during the age which we call the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which heavily impacted her life. She lived in China for 36 years and then left for the United States. She now resides in Oakland, CA, where she teaches art at Mills College (â€Å"A World of Art†). A lot of her artwork is based on photographs and memories she has from China and photographs she’s taken in the United States. She takes photographs of pictures, repaints them, usually oil paint on canvas, and slightly alters them by leaving washes and drips to show how history can’t be remembered fully from a picture. She also does artwork for American history such as a piece she did in South Carolina for Chinese people who owned laundry mats (Riechart). I find most of Hung Liu’s artwork to be very historical and personal, because most of her artwork comes from her own photographs. I’d like to focus on how she addresses the struggles of being an immigrant throughout the country, how Hung Liu maintains her cultural traditions in almost all of her artwork, and how she defines the word â€Å"history†. Hung Liu came to the United States during the 1980s, which was a rough time to be Asian in the United States. During this time we were having a recession and many auto industries were going out of business due to Japanese imports. Aside from that, it was not too long after the Vietnam War had ended. Many factors contributed to the racism targeted against Asian-Americans. Although it was the Japanese making the cars and the Vietnamese during the war, ignorant Americans would rationalize by saying they all look the same and would blame Chinese, Filipinos or any Asian people. There was a man named Vincent Chin in 1983, one year before Hung Liu immigrated to the United States, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a white man named Ebens, because Ebens believed Vincent Chin and his people were at fault for the fall of American auto industry. â€Å"One dancer heard Ebens say explicitly ’It’s because of you motherfu*kers that we’re out of work’† was the accusation he made. Vincent was a young man who was about to get married in a few weeks before he was murdered. His father was a Chinese immigrant who worked hard and owned laundry mats, and later served in the military for his citizenship and was later able to bring his wife and adopted son, Vincent, to the free land (Yung). Hung Liu worked hard with extensive research to find that her fellow Chinese people who had been living in America before her had owned many laundry mats and were very involved in the laundry business. When asked by a college in South Carolina to create a piece for them, she designed clothing and had her family create them and this piece later turned into a memorial for the laundry businesses in the South (Riechart). Figure 1: â€Å"Forbidden City† Figure 1: â€Å"Forbidden City† Another struggle that Hung Liu addressed that might have affected her life in California was that in the 1800s, Chinese women were shipped in and used as prostitutes around San Francisco for miners (Tedford). In 1991 Hung Liu painted the â€Å"Forbidden City†, shown in figure 1, which shows exposed women in the Forbidden City of China. I feel like this painting is called Forbidden for multiple reasons, one being the Palace in China was known as the Forbidden City, and also the painting seems â€Å"Forbidden† because of the naked women on the picture. Also I think that because San Francisco is known as â€Å"The City†, the Forbidden City could refer to San Francisco as well. This piece addresses her understanding of the difficulty of being a Chinese-American woman at the time. Hung Liu is very proud of her ethnical background and is not afraid to show it. Almost all of her work has Chinese culture in it, from the scenery such as buildings or flowers to something smaller like calligraphy. A good example is the Forbidden City piece that I previously mentioned. It addresses an issue that originated in California, but it shows the scenery of a Chinese Palace. She could have done this because the issue probably affects some people in China. She also does some installation art called â€Å"Resident Alien†, show in figure 2. This piece has Chinese people doing Tai Chi, and has Chinese pillars with calligraphy on them. Also it has two piles of fortune cookies. It is believed that the fortune cookie represents a â€Å"sexual slang for Chinese women† (Tedford). Overall, these two pieces really incorporate the Chinese culture in Hung Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Liu’s art and show that she loves to express her culture. Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Figure 3 : â€Å"Refugee: Woman and Children† Figure 3 : â€Å"Refugee: Woman and Children† The most distinctive characteristic Hung Liu has is the way she defines the word history. The way she sees it is that although you can have a memory from a picture, you can’t remember every detail from that picture, such as the words you spoke that second or what happened exactly 20 seconds before that picture was taken, or even 20 seconds after. There are always missing puzzle pieces with history. She also believes history is a verb, because it is always happening and always going. History never ends and is always being made. The way she depicts her attitude towards history in her artwork is by leaving washes and drips of paint when she repaints a photograph. These washes and drips indicate the incompleteness of the photograph. The drips are the fuzziness of memory (Riechart). Hung Liu uses this technique in the majority of her artwork and is very famous for it. The painting I chose to show her historical artwork is titled, â€Å"Refugee: Woman and Children†, shown in figure 3. I chose this painting because it shows what was probably common for Chinese women who were refugees during times of war and were forced to leave China. You can also see all the drips she made on the painting, which she uses to show the unknowing of what was going on during that photograph. Hung Liu is a great artist. She’s well aware of the struggles of being a Chinese Immigrant in America where violent actions were taken on all Asians. Regardless of the risk it takes to be an Asian-American, she still proudly represents her Chinese culture in her art pieces, and she teaches the Chinese history through her art. She’s created her own style and uses a drip technique to show how she defines history, and to show from her point of view how she sees the world and she uses photographs to show things that actually happened and were caught on camera. Overall, she is a very influential woman to other Asian-Americans and aspiring artists.

Gary Kelly Essay

For this paper, and from the options provided, I have selected Gary Kelly, of Southwest Airlines. He is the current CEO at Southwest, and during his 23 year long venture at southwest he has been able to do many great things for the company, making it a place where people wanted to come to work, even on their days off. He started out as a controller in 1984 and then moving on to become Southwest’s CFO in 1989, but it wasn’t until 2004 that Gary Kelley was made the CEO. During his many years at with the company he has worked very close with the co-founder Herbert Kelleher, during that time you could say that Herbert was Gary’s mentor, and as it turns out both of them have a few things in common. Both of these men were born on May 12th, both came from middle class families, and both were pretty good athletes when they attended school. Gary has some great ways he treats his employees and runs his company, and he seems to care very much for his employees I’d say to the point in which he would view them as family, and he takes care of his family. Throughout the past couple weeks in class we have used southwest as a discussion topic, and in doing this we have seen just how great these southwest employees seem to have it. days where employees are more than happy to come in even if they are off that day, and give their fellow employees a break, hiding out and surprising the crews of planes, and offering them snacks and a break while they in turn clean their plane. In one of the videos we watched a video in which Gary Kelly was at a picnic and the employees just came up to him to take pictures with him and just give him a hug, it seems that he has truly made this company a family. Gary Kelley was even named ‘Texas Public School’s Friend of the Year’, for his strong commitment to public education, and his ability to â€Å"†¦clearly see beyond the sensational headlines, and often negative politics, and understand that the success of Texas public education is everyone’s business. †(Pediatrics Week 2008). He has had a commitment to the public schools in Texas, supporting both educational organizations and employee volunteer programs. But lets not get away from the great business man he is, one article I read had this to say about him, â€Å"†¦Kelly has been as aggressive as Kelleher was in his youth – and perhaps even more confrontational, combining the instinct of a cockpit killer with the disarming, â€Å"aw-shucks† demeanor of the nice guy next door. † (Fitzpatrick, 2005) His quick thinking and out bidding his competitors, he was able to secure Chicago’s Midway Airport for around 117 million dollar bid for the assets and gates of the bankrupt ATA airlines company. As well as taking steps to open up flights to both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, in an effort to show that he’s more than happy to take on Pennsylvania’s main airline US Airways. One of the things I really like about Gary Kelly is his level of respect, in this article from Fitzpatrick, it says, â€Å"Kelly also was not willing to take credit for the airline’s recent moves, saying it is â€Å"foolish† to think that â€Å"one person deserves credit for everything. † (Fitzpatrick 2005) But my favorite part of this article was the final sentences in which Mr. Kelly says, â€Å"I’d much rather talk about Herb than me. He’s a legend and he’s earned that. I’ve been in the job for eight or nine months. I haven’t earned anything. I’m just another Southwest employee, who just happens to be the CEO. â€Å"(Fitzpat rick 2005) Through all of this that I have read about Mr. Gary Kelly, I have learned that he truly cares for those who work for him, and while he could use his position as the CEO to try and instill fear into his employees, he would rather treat them all with respect and kindness, kind of reminds me of an old saying my grandmother use to say, you can get more flies with a few drops of honey than a whole cup of vinegar, basically she just said to be kind and that will get you farther than had you behaved in a disrespectful way. So far it has worked for Mr. Kelly; I am truly impressed with Southwest Airlines and all they have done to ensure the happiness of their customers and employees, he truly is a great man.

Cameron Auto Parts Case Study

Cameron Auto Parts was founded in 1965 after the signing of the U. S. and Canada Auto Pact. The main consumers were the Big Three automotive manufacturers and the company prospered in this new business environment. In 2000, problems started to occur in the company. First, a consequent drop of the sales of more than 50% happened. Second, the Japanese were great competitors and took advantage of the market opportunities in Canada. Alex took the control in 2001 in order to implement a process of modernization of the company. His â€Å"operation survival† consists of cutting the production costs by being more focused on the workforce (mainly lay-offs). Although is it difficult to manage a financial problem, Cameron faced serious â€Å"gaps† in this function. In 2003, the situation of Alex familial company is stabilized, even if there is a need to invest in another plant. As Cameron was not financially ready to make such a progress, the first option was, on one end, to wait and generate more profits leading to more financial stability through exports. On the other end, the company can choose to license the production of the flexible coupling with McTaggart. In this case, Cameron is the licensor and McTaggart, the licensee. The licensor shares patents, copyrights or trademarks and gets royalty fees in return. In 2004, Alex signed a five years licensing agreement with McTaggart. Following this agreement, McTaggart had to pay $100,000 fee in advance in order to help Cameron to recover and a royalty of 3% on the first $1 million of sales and 2% on the second. In case McTaggart reached a higher level of technology, it would also have the obligation to share at least one of them with Cameron. Alex realized that the plant cannot afford both systems because the costs of expanding the activity were too high and required too many of the companys resources. Moreover, the companys financial situation could not permit Cameron to implement a plant expansion. The potential in the European market is a great way to expand a business although the culture is different. It is difficult to adapt a North American business system to a European system. Exporting to the European market means that the average European customer will have to pay the international fees (about 20 per cent more than North Americans because of taxes). By granting McTaggart a license, Alex ensures a quick and minimize the risks while penetrating the U. K and European markets. Although there are many advantages when licensing, there are other consequences such as sharing not only profits, but also knowledge, and so Cameron’s intellectual property. The advantages of licensing McTaggart are numerous. The low investment costs, reduced financial risks, and economies of scope are very interesting when implementing an activity’s expansion. Cameron is concerned about its financial situation and licensing provides them a higher security. It is a quick market entry with a minimized risk of poor performance from the licensee, McTaggart, which is already and directly running operations in the U. K. On the contrary, the risk of image loss, the distance between both countries leading to communication losses, the lack of revenue, and the shared profits are some disadvantages to take into account when implementing a license strategy. Exporting also has its advantages and disadvantages. First, it provides independence, a higher control over the quality of final products, economies of scale, and a higher, non-shared profit. In this case, disadvantages are numerous. The lack of capacity of Cameron limits its ability to expand its business through exports. Plus, the different currency represents a risk as currencies’ value varies greatly on the short term. There are also high investment costs, a limited knowledge of the U. K. and European market, the costs of transportation and the trade barriers. Considering the companys financial situation, the costs and risks of penetrating a new market, we think that Alex should license McTaggart. It is clear that McTaggart is the perfect business partner. This company owns all the tools necessary to concretely produce and sell the flexible couplings. They are able to sell the product very fast and build a strong and sustainable relationship with Cameron. McTaggart is experienced in this business and Cameron can benefit from it to increase production capacities. They have a solid reputation and a great financial situation. The sales persons are very involved concerning the marketing and selling of the products. They have high manufacturing capacities and are willing to invest and develop the manufacturing capability to efficiently produce the flexible couplings. Additionally, their client base is essential. Licensing McTaggart is the best choice Cameron can do to improve its situation.

Arabic spring - syria crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Arabic spring - syria crisis - Essay Example The Syrian crisis started right at the beginning of the year 2001 on January 26th as a show of public demonstrations. Soon there was a nationwide spread of this mere show of demonstrations and it developed into violent protests against the government. The protesters demanded the president of Syria Bashar ul Asad to resign but, in response, the president deployed the army to counter these protests and the resulting in a civil war against the government in many cities of the country. Many local and internationally sponsored revolutionary parties and military forces emerged as a result of this military operation the president against the protestors. To name a few, Syrian National Council (SNC) sponsored mainly by Turkey, Free Syrian Army which consisted mainly of Ex Army and National Coordination Committee were the main rebellious forces. These forces rejected the proposals of dialogue with the president and their main demand was the president to step down. Due to extreme violation of h uman rights by the pro government forces and heavy losses of lives in many cities of Syria UN decided to intervene in the procedures. The result was a ceasefire agreement signed by both the parties. The deadline of the ceasefire was 12th of April but, Asad did not stick to the deadline and more than 1000 civilians were killed in the first week of April. Even though the international community did participate a lot in the crisis of Lebanon for the protection of its citizens but they were a bit hesitant in interfering in the Syria. Syrian crisis has suffered a heavy loss of human lives. Human rights have been broken in the country and the world has seen the slaughter of the people of Syria. The international community has waited for so long and now attempts have been made to put this ting to an end with the Arab League, Russia and the United nations interfering to solve the issue of Syria and to bring both the parties

Flood Prevention and Lessons Learned (Cedar Rapids Iowa Flood of 2008) Essay

Flood Prevention and Lessons Learned (Cedar Rapids Iowa Flood of 2008) - Essay Example The floods which were experienced in 2008 in the city of Iowa caused massive damage, farmlands were destroyed businesses were demolished all major social amenities were almost taken to ground and thousands of people who were living in Iowa were left homeless. Millions of dollars’ worth of property was destroyed and lead to the lives being lost and livelihoods being shattered. Floods were later to be categorized as the Fifth major disaster that has ever occurred in the United States and the first in the city of Iowa (Nazoom, 58). When it comes to comparison and categorizing, it takes one back to the flood stories. While giving a comparison between the two floods stories namely the Old Testament and Gilgamesh epic, one gets a great an impression that there are similar occurrences. For some scholars, the similar elements between the two flood stories become perplexing. There are possible things with the two accounts shown by Alexander Heidel. These possibilities are that the Hebr ew story came first then the Babylonian story followed thus copied from the previous. The Hebrew story could therefore have borrowed the ideas from the Babylonians and both stories descended from the common original story of Noah. Since many people are conversant with the original story in the Old Testament, they forget to research on how the genesis story resembles the flood story of Gilgamesh (Sanders, 2003). The two stories are so alike with the main theme of forgiveness being the domineering similarity between the two. The two stories however differ in the events that took place during the floods, which for many seem to be the small details. In the two flood stories, the numbers of event days differ regardless of the basic events taking place in very different ages. Focusing on the flood stories for a minute, It is before 2000 B.C that Gilgamesh flood story got the first publishing while the Old Testament story was in 400 B.C, which came much later than the Gilgamesh flood (Sand ers, 2003). In both stories, God or gods gets annoyed and the Old Testament clearly shows how those who did not follow the correct ways he wanted them to follow annoyed God. The other difference is that there are worshiped gods or God as well as heroes like Noah during this period. When the Gilgamesh story takes place, gods allow existence of half-god and half-human on earth. The other similarity is the number of people saved and the reasons behind the saving after the floods. Having looked at both stories carefully, there is a good man like Noah in the Old Testament and Utnapishtim from Gilgamesh, saved and chosen by either God or gods (Nazoomi, 2005). In the two stories, both men choose to send birds to find the dry land. Both Noah and Utnapishtim are rewarded because they show proper reverence to their gods. Years after the floods in Cedar Rapids took place, the people and the leadership of that area is still trying to recover from the damage that the floods caused their sufferin g. Different policies have been developed since of which some have been accepted and others criticized or rejected. The United States Government offered the City of Cedar Rapids 2 million Dollars to help them after the devastations, but what was actually incurred by the floods was 5Million dollars worth of damages. What it actually meant was that the remaining amount in which the Government did not provide, the people of

Motivation. What Is The Best Way To Motivate Employees Research Paper

Motivation. What Is The Best Way To Motivate Employees - Research Paper Example Motivation is considered a key factor in increasing efficiency in business. As a result, motivated employees will exert their dynamism to accomplish their purposes and goals. According to Sultan, Sarwat he said,†for an employee to be motivated, he or she perceived that their wants are being met. Thus, the satisfaction of the employee represents an indispensable dimension of the motivational process (Sarwat, 2013); a satisfied individual would certainly contribute positively to the realization of organizational goals and objectives. A dissatisfied employee may not only contribute but can even act in such a way that the realization of such goals and objectives could be completely destroyed, this underlines the importance of employees’ satisfaction to the organization† (Anka, 1988). Lack of motivation will cause numerous problems such as; reducing the annual income, exit of the organization if given the opportunity, produce low quality work, and unsatisfying results o f any productions. This causes work to become a stressful place, and it may transform into a nightmare. For instance, according to Rebecca Maxon (1999), â€Å"Three out of every four American workers describe their work as stressful and the problem is not limited to these shores, in fact, occupational stress has been defined as a global epidemic by the United Nations' International Labor Organization, while the physical effects of this epidemic are often emphasized; the economic consequences also are alarming. Workplace stress costs U.S. employers an estimated $200 billion per year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses, considering this, stress management may be business's most important challenge of the 21st century†. Therefore, the environment of any workplace does matter for increasing production and limiting its costs, managers are the tools to help improve their employees’ per formance. Although, a lot of business analysts disagree with each other on determining the best method to motivate employees, from offering promotions to working less hours, I firmly believe that if managers provide a clean and safe environment for their employees within the consideration of welfare, thoughts, and appreciations of their hard work, and offer high wages they will create a productive, functional, successful workplace for each other.   To emphasis how clean and safe environments are relevant in motivating employees at their workplace, a lot of companies have started to renew their policies. These policies focused on what exactly they can develop to build a sociable, truthful, creative, and friendly atmosphere for their workers. Also, the courtesy of spending more money on their facilities to be more presentable and eligible enough to remain a satisfying place for their workers could be beneficial. Therefore, employees are seeking these modifications badly so they can be more inspired and enthusiastic about their jobs, consequently, managers and supervisors are responsible for building a clean and safe environment for their workers. The consequences of ignoring this key factor will lead employees to be unwilling to produce more for the business, which will create critical problems between them and their managers. This leads to an unsatisfied workplace environment that could exaggerate employees’ attitudes about leaving their jobs. According to Kori Rodley’s (2010) article about how important the work environment is to employee turn-over, she said â€Å"When employees expect a certain type of environment and get something very different, problems can result, those

Market prices, Valuation Principle, Net present Value, interest rates, Essay

Market prices, Valuation Principle, Net present Value, interest rates, and bonds - Essay Example Through the market price, the financial managers can easily know the current price of the products and services of the company and also can estimate the future price of the products and services. The managers can also be aware of the price of the raw materials and other necessary things that are required for the smooth functioning of the business. Another essential thing that is important and can be known through the current market price is the requirement of working capital of a business. Moreover, through these the future working capital requirement can also be met. Understanding the current price of the debentures and shares is also of high value for the finance manager. The price of the share and debenture are of great importance to the financial manager because through these prices the total share capital and the value of the business can be calculated. Furthermore, on the basis of these values and financial structure, the firm can expect higher investment from the public. Hence , on the basis of the above analysis it can be said that the market price is highly useful to the financial manager (Investopedia, n.d.) Question 2: Discuss How the Valuation Principle Helps a Financial Manager Make Decisions Valuation is the method of judging the potential market value of the assets and liabilities of a firm. Valuation is essential and is required in the business for the future prospects. The work of valuation generally arises from mergers, acquisition, valuation of assets and liabilities. The valuation principle is of great importance to the finance manager in order to make the decisions regarding the future possibilities of the firm. Risk is associated with every aspects of the business. Through different valuation techniques, the finance manager can estimate the future risk associated with the business or any other projects. After considering the level of risk the finance manager can estimate the profits associated with the businesses and projects. The valuation principle helps the finance manager to estimate the outlook of the assets and liabilities of the business and can also make an assessment for the future requirements by the business house. Tax assessment is one of the important aspects of the business for the finance manager. Hence, with the various tools of the valuation principles, the finance manager can easily estimate the tax structure of the future. For assessing the financial feasibility and viability of the future, the principles of valuation play a significant role in the job profile of the finance manager. Moreover, in case of mergers and acquisitions, the valuation principles are needed for the business with the available in-depth financial information of the company. Hence, it can be concluded that the valuation principles are of high importance to the financial manager in order to make decisions (Blackburn, 2001). Question 3: Describe How the Net Present Value Is Related To Cost-Benefit Analysis The distinction between the present value of cash inflows and cash outflows is known as the Net Present V