KAILIN

                                            At first, I was honored to take pop culture class, which made me learn more about American culture. It was a good class to me when I just came to Chicago a few weeks at the beginning. As the class taught me, I was in the stage of culture shock. However, this class gave me a chance to learn about American culture, which won’t make me feel sick.       In this class, I have learned that culture is learned, not inherited. Culture is all around us that we get traditional culture from our older generation by learning from them and we get pop culture by learning from websites or other people. Then culture is spread because we share it with others. I have learned that anything in our life can be culture like language, music, movie, clothing, etc. I think culture is diversified that people are from different countri...

Shedd Aquarium         During this semester, I have ever visited Shedd Aquarium. These pictures were taken by me. I love going to aquarium. And the Shedd Aquarium is wonderful because there has many creatures I have not seen before. Besides, the coral was so beautiful. I love Nemon, so I took many photos of it. By the way, the world under the water is so amazing and beautiful.

          The name of this app is MIX . I always use it to fix picture. For example, resizing the picture, lightening the dark part, adjusting the color, etc. I think it works so well. I so love it.           The most amazing function is that you can change the color of sky. Sometimes we take photos on a cloudy day, it is not beautiful because there is no sun in the sky. But at this moment, if you use this app, your photo will be much better.          The function is called " magic sky ". Let me show your an example.                                         The Original                                Fixed 1                                 ...

The original text:  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/what-is-wechat-china-biggest-messaging-app.html My summary:         Wechat is the most popular app in China. The user of Wechat just behind Facebook's WhatsApp and Messager.         The main function of Wechat is convey information. You can add your friends by many ways, such as phone number, QR code, QQ number. And it has a social feature called “Monments”. You can share your photos and videos with your friends, and they can give you a like or comment.          Besides, its way to pay is so convenient. Now we hardly bring wallet with us. As soon as we hold a phone, we can pay for anything at any place. And Wechat can be used to satisfy your requirement of public services, such as paying water or electricity bill. Wechat is also described as “supper apps” because you can find many mini app here. We can use these services within Wechat and make ...

1. Variety                   https://variety.com/     It shows the best TV shows and movies of 2019. It has the latest news about recent movies. And it shares reviews of TV shows, music, films. 2. IMDb      https://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home     It not only shows the latest movies that is playing in the theater now, but also shows their box office. It can be used to search the top rate movies and TV shows in the list. And you can find the list of who won award or which movie won Oscars. 3. Events12      https://www.events12.com/     If you just came to Chicago not longer, and you do not know what pop events will hold on. You cannot miss this website! You can find something funny here. It shows the events of big cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco per month. And the details are complete.

Pop Culture in My Country by Karen L on Scribd

1.  V ariety show--- Who ’ s the Murderer 2.  V ariety show is a kind of entertaining TV program, which can bring joy to people. 3. The cultural significance of variety show is to   express something powerful and positive to us.  With the fast-speed life, e veryone has stress whatever he is a student, seller, manager, or boss. W e all want to find some ways to release our negative mood. Now not only TV series, movie, and music can make us feel comfortable, but  variety show  also  can make us laugh.  4.  The example I want to show is a program that stars work together to reason who is the murderer. The English name is Who ’ s the Murderer. I want to use PowerPoint and Youtube video to share. 5. I chose this topic because  this TV show is so popular in China that we have real games in our real life. And the younger is crazy about this kind of games. It has already developed a industry chain in our country, expecially some big cit...

Reflection of Learning Music From the text of Same Old Song, I have learned that in the beginning, pop music targeted at the youth, not for adults. Parents did not like pop music so much and limited their kids to listen. However, pop music became more violent and sexual and dominated the Billboard charts today. Different generations have their own pop music. The old one becomes a fad and the new one is created. From the text of Scientists Just Discovered Why All Pop Music Sounds Exactly the Same, I have learned that pop music is more and more similar now. Besides, the top songs also sound the same. The pop music styles are not various and the musicians sing with similar skills. From the text of Blues, I have learned that the blues is originated from American traditional music, African Americans ’  work songs, and spirituals. It was created and widely spread by African Americans. The forms of the blues have country blues, classic blues, urban blues, and rhythm and blues. Besides,...

                     Blues was created by African Americans in South of the United States in the late 1800s. During the slave trade, millions of Africans had to leave their homeland. They were only allowed to continue their traditions in the few places where they worked and the churches. In order to communicate with each other, enslaved Africans created work songs because they were not allowed to talk while working.           After slavery was abolished, more musical instruments were available to African American. However, there was no set form for the Blues. They still sang work songs and created a folk ballad style. Later, African Americans got more freedom to create songs that began to focus on all aspects of life, which Blues was born.           The earliest form of Blues is Country Blues, whose singers were mostly men. And anothe...

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              The song of Wherever I Go by Miley Cyrus touched me a lot. This song left such a strong impression on me because   I was so impressed with the American TV series named Hannah Montana w hen I was young .  So I watched it again during my university. This time I watched it from the first episode to the ending, including the movie. I so love Hannah Montana and Miley’s songs. I knew the whole story about Hannah Montana. So when I heard Wherever I Go in the last part of the TV series, I was touched by the story and the song. I think the lyrics moved me, which is about friendship. Hannah needs to leave her best friend Lily because of her personal reason. And she cannot attend to the university with Lily, but together go to the same university is their dream. So this song expresses that Hannah cannot go with Lily, but they still stay along like before wherever Hannah goes. A short departure is for a better reunion. Every time I h...

            Reggae is a general term for a variety of Jamaican dance music. It incorporates some of the musical elements of Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, and Mento. It is noted for its tradition of social criticism and religion in its lyrics. Reggae started in 1960s in Jamaica and popularized in 1970s and 1980s. The dominant singer is Bob Marley , who led the popularity of Reggae.

Reflection of Learning Movies    From the text of Tyler Perry’s Money Machine, I have learned that the themes of Perry’s movies are about love, fidelity, family, and religious. The main actors or actresses, directors, writers of Tyler Perry are African American, which is completely different from Hollywood. Besides, from the text of Why We Crave Horror Movies, I have known that Stephen King who is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, and fantasy novels, has been described as the “King of Horror” through making researches. I have learned that people like horror films because they are mentally ill. And if we watch horror movies, we will dare the nightmare. We are not afraid of watching horror movies just like that we can ride the roller coasters. We like horror movies because we can get fun. Moreover, through studying genre, I have learned that the eight main categories of film are action, comedy, crime, horror, melodramas, musicals, romance...

                Film noir is a kind of movie that is low-tone, low-angle night scene.  It usually has a beautiful and sexy female leading role whose ending is often tragedy and they will become victims.  The character is always obscured by lots of shadows, forming a despairing atmosphere.       The famous movie is Kiss ME Deadly. It was born in 1955. It is considered to be one of the most important and influential black films in history.  The director is Robert Siodmak, who is famous for making a series of fashionable, simple Hollywood black films in the 1940s. 

Review of Out of Tune   Out of Tune is a comedy and tragedy movie with music. It is a Danish movie, which was produced by Frederikke Aspöck. The story is about a successful businessman named Markus who is in prison. He is so popular among people in the prison. In the beginning, he doesn’t adapt to stay here. He was beaten. After listening to a security’s suggestion, he joins in a choir, where has a experienced leader named Niel. When Markus joins in, Niel asks him to sing their song, using their skill. However, Markus has his own idea and he wants to change the song and style. He even wants to be the leader. Due to Markus’s desire to control the choir, he takes advantage of people in prison to help him replace Niel. Markus becomes the new leader, however, his ambition is found by others and they advocate Niel again. In the end, Markus is released from prison and writes a book about his life in prison. And he becomes famous again.   I think the special moment i...

             A TV reporter named Paul was demoted and nearly lost his job. His fiancee left him. And he has won the lottery but forgot to exchange money...... There is a constant string of bad things happen to him. Then, he complains that God is doing a poor job as a God---at which point God appeared to him and offered him all his powers to see if he can do a better job. He got a second chance to move on. Along the way, he learns lessons that changed his life. And he knows this is life, sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad.

From the text of what is pop culture, I have learned that pop culture is that collection of objects, people, events, and places that serves to mirror society and its members and to reflect their values and preferences. If we break down the term into its two components: popular and culture, popular means “of the people”, the common people or the population at large, not the elite or chosen few. Culture refers to the body of beliefs, behaviors, values and thoughts that influence us every day. It is a different definition from that we learned from unit one. There are four components of pop culture: object, people, places and events. At the same time, pop culture not only reflects our tastes and preferences but plays a a role in determining future fads and trends. In this unit, we have finished two presentations about popular culture. Because of this, I researched information and learned more about Stephen Hawking. He lived more than 50 years from getting illness to death, which broke doc...

Pop Culture---2000s by Karen L on Scribd

Stephen William Hawking by Karen L on Scribd

Telephone Booth Stuffing It was actually started in South Africa where 25 students packed themselves into a booth until no one else could fit inside and claimed they had set a world record.    Soon, many colleges around the world were trying to beat each other's records. Finally, the fad died out in 1959 .

From the text of an introduction to culture, I have learned that culture is all around us and is second nature to us. Culture is learned, not inherited. There are four major characteristics of culture. First, it is passed from one generation to the next through the process of inculturation. Second, culture is shared. Third, culture is symbolically expressed and transmitted. Fourth, culture is adaptive. I searched the meaning of some words, artifact, haphazard and idiosyncracy. For example, haphazard is happening or done in a way that is not planned or organized. From the videos, I have learned that culture is the collective programming of the mind. Language, traditions, clothing, music and food are visible culture. And I have learned that what is culture shock and every stages of it. In class, we discussed the meaning of mainstream, folk culture, subculture, high culture and counter culture in our group. But we all didn ’ t have any ideas about them. My Aha moment was when teacher w...

  Hello everyone. I will explain some details about my cultural identity poster. There are five parts in my poster. Mid-Autumn Festival, public square dancing, Jackie Chan, international trade centre building and Chinese knotting. Now I will show you one by one. Part One: Mid-Autumn Festival Worshipping Gods A Family Reuion Dinner The Moon Cakes The Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early Dynasty and prevailed in the Song Dynasty. By the time of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it had become a traditional Chinese festival as famous as the Spring Festival.  Worshipping the moon, guessing the lantern riddles, eating moon cakes are our special features. And one of the widely known story is Chang ’ s flight to the moon (with elixir of the life, chased by her famous archer-husband). The moon is more round, people are more reunited. Part Two: Public Square Dancing   The square dancing is more and more popular among people especially women now. It ...

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