Chinese history and culture analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Chinese history and culture analysis - Essay Example However, watching the movie, it is difficult to say if this fact destroyed him or helped him survive. The trouble is that in the conditions of so-called â€Å"cultural revolution† it was really impossible â€Å"to live†. It is essential to overview the historical facts in order to understand the plot of the movie. The Great Proletarian Cultural revolution in China represented a series of ideological and political campaigns of 1966—1976, which were organized and supervised by the chairman Mao Zedong. The main goal of Chairman Mao was to discredit and abolish political opposition and set up the regime of his own absolute power under the pretext of the possible â€Å"restoration of capitalism† in the Republic of China and â€Å"the struggle with internal and foreign revisionism†. According to the Chinese historians, the main reasons of â€Å"cultural revolution† were the following: 1) absolutization of the role of class struggle by Mao Zedong; 2 ) the cult of Mao Zedong’s personality that reached its peak in 1966—1976; 3) the struggle for the leadership in the party, active use of the mistaken views of Mao, the cult of his personality and his style by the heads of the Party in order to strengthen their power. â€Å"Cultural revolution† led to the wide-ranging repressions against intelligentsia, the destruction of Communist Party, social organizations, as well as to the great damage of culture and education, destruction of cultural monuments under the pretext of the struggle with the feudal principles and traditions, the changes in foreign policy, rapid expansion of the anti-Soviet ideology in the country. The system of state control was actually abolished. The law-enforcement and judicial system were inactive, thus hongweibing and zaofan, the groups or rather bands which were actually implementing the Cultural Revolution, were free to act in their own way. Certainly, this led to chaos. At the beginning hongweibing acted under the control of Mao and his people. There were many careerists among them and they managed to make a fast career. They were going ahead without remorse accusing their teachers in â€Å"counter-revolutionary revisionism† and their â€Å"comrade-in-arms† in the insufficient revolutionary character. Many of them grew up in unhappy families. Uneducated and cruel, they became the perfect tools in the hands of Mao. However, at the same time, among the strugglers there were many intellectuals. Later the Hongweibing were divided into two groups according to their origin. The first group included those who grew up in the families of intellectuals and the members of the Party and the second included the descendants of working class. There was an uncompromising struggle between the two groups. They followed the same rules, but interpreted them differently. After the confrontation of the two bands a murderer could say that it was â€Å"mutual assistanceâ₠¬ , a thief, who stolen bricks from the plant justified himself stating that â€Å"revolutionary class should reach its goals†. Mao’s control over the executors of Cultural Revolution was becoming weaker, but the main directions of the chaos development remained under his control. Mao had to interfere in the struggle when hongweibing became too cruel. Even in the small villages there was a war between â€Å"the North and the South of the village†

Degradation of Green Tea Catechins in Tea Drinks Assignment

Degradation of Green Tea Catechins in Tea Drinks - Assignment Example This study is significant because it studies the effect of processing conditions on GTC content. It is important to conserve the GTC content of tea during processing to retain its beneficial effects. Results of the study reveal that the GTC content of processed tea is significantly low compared to traditionally prepared tea. While a cup of traditionally brewed tea contains 400-500 mg of GTC, processed tea contains only 3-60 mg GTC. GTC is stable at room temperature. About 10-15%, GTC is lost when tea is heated up to 98 ?C for 15-30 minutes, with additional 5% loss on prolonged heating. Autoclaving at 120 ?C for 20 minutes, which is yet another step during processing, leads to a loss of 23% GTC. This loss is directly proportional to the pH of the medium. Furthermore, about 80% of the GTC content is degraded in a buffer medium of pH 6. The stability and shelf life of GTC is also found to be dependent on pH content in the absence of other ingredients. Half of the GTC content is lost wit hin 3 months at a pH below 4.5. Sucrose has no effect on the stability of GTC while citric acid leads to a faster degradation. Ascorbic acid has a protective effect in the first month after which it accelerates the degradation. In addition, the results also reveal that at high temperatures, EGCG undergoes epimerization to form GCG. This explains the contrasting GCG content between traditionally prepared tea and processed tea, wherein, the GCG content is higher by 45% in processed tea. Overall, it can be concluded that GTC degrades easily at high temperature and pH, and that the stability of GTC depends on the presence of other ingredients. Further studies that focus on the effect of each ingredient present in processed tea on the stability and speed of degradation of GTC are required. II. Coffee and Green Tea as a Large Source of Antioxidant Polyphenols in the Japanese Population (Fukushima et al 1253-1259) The objective of this study was to evaluate the total consumption of polyphe nols by Japanese people. Polyphenols are well known for their antioxidant activity and beverages are a major source of polyphenols in Japan. The findings of this study suggest that an individual per day consumes an average of 853 mg of polyphenols. The largest source of polyphenols in the Japanese population is coffee, which provides 200 ml of polyphenols in every 100 mL. The average polyphenol consumption through coffee is found to be 426 mg/day. The second largest source of polyphenol is Green tea, which contributes up to 292 mg polyphenols/day. Thus, coffee and green teas constitute up to 70% of the total beverage consumption and are the largest sources of polyphenols. Among fruits and vegetables, satsuma oranges and onions are the most consumed and provided 9 and 4 mg of polyphenols, respectively, per day. Cacao mass (chocolate) and black pepper contribute about 0.8 g and 0.2 g polyphenols per day. Measurement of the antioxidant activities correlates well with the total polyphen ol content of all the tested consumables, suggesting that the in vitro antioxidant activities are proportional to the total polyphenol quantities. Future studies will have to examine whether in vivo antioxidant properties of these polyphenols correlate well with those observed in vitro. III. Content of Potentially Anticarcinogenic Flavonoids of Tea Infusions, Wines, and Fruit Juices (Hertog, Hollman, and Putte 1242-1246) This study attempted to evaluate the concentrations of various anti-carcinogenic flavonoids in beverages such as tea, wines and fruit juices. The study found