Project Descriptions
Ms. Bindl’s Class:
Maya Barut, Marin Cohan, Marco Cox, Nongnah Her, Celia Puleo, Thi Truong; Ashlie Hewett, Chetan Mangar, Isabell Vang | AP English Literature and Composition Exam Free Response Question: Literary Argument Essay (Google Drive)
Dream of Ding Village Timed FRQ Composition
In this project, students used Dream of Ding Village to respond to a couple of AP Lit & Comp Exam timed essay prompts. Each student had 45 minutes to complete the task. The purpose of the project was to critically examine setting, character development, and the motif of guilt in Dream of Ding Village.
Eva Binkley | Painting (Google Drive)
Illness
While reading the book Dream of Ding Village, the theme that stuck out to me most was illness and how that affected the people in the village. In my project, the left side represents the health effects caused by pollution and the right side represents how AIDs affects the people. I choose this project because I feel it represents the connection between Dream of Ding Village and my community issue project, which was about the negative health effects caused by pollution. These two things connect because people have negative health effects from both AIDs and pollution. This connection is important because the main theme of the back is AIDs which is an illness that affects everyone in the village in one way or another just like pollution affects everyone and their health.
Whitman Bottari | Training and Awareness Plan (FlipGrid)
Sexual Assault and Harassment
My project was creating a new sexual assault and harassment response plan for the school. Along with my school’s Gender Equity Club and city’s Rape Crisis Center, I came up with a better plan to prevent and respond to sexual violence at East. Currently, teachers have one day of training. When we talked to them, many felt inadequately prepared to respond. Students reflected this by saying that, if a situation was responded to, it was often mishandled. This project is important because it will help to educate and protect students and staff in the future.
A school should be a safe space for everyone. In Dream of Ding Village, people were told that the school was the safest place to be, and that they would be protected and taken care of. Sick people moved into the school. They were a vulnerable population to manipulation and exploitation, just like children. There were no discussions on respect for others, and soon people were stealing things and cheating each other out of food. What was supposed to be a safe space wasn’t, and people who should have known the importance of supporting one another failed. The lesson here is that, no matter what the circumstance, there must be clear ground rules and a great deal of education about them to guard against these harmful behaviors. You shouldn’t wait until an issue arises, you need to be proactively working against it.
Sophia Boyd | PSA/Poster (Google Drive)
Better Materials for All
This project is a combination between a PSA and a Poster. I wanted it to be a mixture because I wanted to have words in the poster relaying a message like a PSA, but I also wanted pictures to describe my point like a poster. My project represents the lack of materials across the globe. Whether it is like in Ding Village where they are lacking medical supplies that could prevent the spread of AIDS, or in America where healthy options for school lunches are not being provided. If governments could provide access to better materials to all people, it could help prevent the spread of disease like in Ding Village and can help keep children healthier. I also thought it was important to compare medical supplies to healthy options because they are not the same. This means that there are so many other topics and places that are lacking in certain materials to help them succeed in life. This poster can connect the world to think of all the different areas where materials are lacking and could help bring attention to these issues and create change.
Béla Braddock | Acrylic Painting (Google Drive)
Tree of Death and Life: Dream of Ding Village and Environmental Racism in America
My project, Tree of Death and Life, is an acrylic painting that uses traditional color symbolism and vivid visual imagery to show the parallels between Dream of Ding Village’s commentary on the societal costs of progress in China and environmental racism, an issue that plagues the U.S. The dark blue band flowing through the sky represents depression and despair experienced by both the poor villagers in the book, who sold their blood and put themselves at elevated risk for contracting AIDS, and low-income people of color in the U.S. who disproportionately live next to toxic pollution sources and are therefore at elevated risk for developing pollution-related diseases. Green represents the greed of those in power who are willing to endanger vulnerable populations either to further progress, as the Chinese government did in the book when it pushed blood selling but did not enforce safety standards, or to maximize profits, as U.S. companies do when they locate next to residential areas but minimize pollution-prevention measures because of cost. Yellow represents physical illness experienced by both the people in Ding Village who were infected with AIDS when dirty needles were used to draw their blood, and minority populations in America who develop asthma or other pollution-related illnesses because they live near pollution sources. The flowing red line symbolizes the blood of Ding Village and the long-term suffering that resulted from China’s plasma economy. It also represents the intense emotions and long-term suffering generated among people of color in America when toxic industries are allowed to build in their communities. As for imagery, the barren tree reflects contamination of resources and morals. In Ding Village, blood is contaminated and villagers are driven to turn against each other and their environment in their selfish desire to get ahead before they die. Comparably, in the U.S. the environment is polluted and people in power benefit from decisions that negatively impact the health and well-being of historically disadvantaged people. Resulting loss of life from these immoral actions is symbolized by falling leaves. Finally, blazing in the upper right corner of the painting, the image of a blood-red sun represents the long-term impacts of taking advantage of vulnerable communities: generations of families impacted by an AIDS epidemic and climate change. Progress and success do not have to result in death and loss, however, and use of the tree which traditionally symbolizes life and growth also offers hope for the future should there be learning from mistakes of the past.
Kevin Breyne-Grace | Poem (Google Drive)
The Commodification of Life
My project, The Commodification of Life, is a poem analyzing the intersection of housing insecurity and Dream of Ding Village. This project was prompted by realizing connections between the commodification of one’s own blood and our housing crisis- stemming from the commodification of shelter, a necessity for life. My poem looks at the root of the issues in Ding Village, which are most notably poverty, a lack of opportunities, and capitalism. These factors combined to create the blood selling craze, and the unethical practices within it.
Abubacarr Darboe | Dream of Ding Village Collage (Canva)
In the Dream of Ding Village Collage, I included multiple images depicting connections between my topic, mass incarceration, and “Dream of Ding Village” by Yan Lianke. I felt that simple visuals can be very powerful and understood with little effort. For example, I included an image depicting the dangers of HIV/AIDS in minority groups. The village of Ding Village was destroyed by HIV/AIDS. Similarly, mass incarceration, with the African American community making up the majority, makes inmates more susceptible to diseases like HIV/AIDS. This then leads to villagers and the African American both dying due to the lack of proper treatment. To depict this, I included an image of a flame dying out, surrounded by darkness. Both groups are very hopeless with the options they have and are forced into those lives. Prison Slavery and blood selling are both morally wrong with the government having a huge part to play in it all. This is why I included a picture with text reading “No voice No choice”. The circumstances that Ding Villages and the African American population are in, have no say or choices in. They have to do what they can to make it with very unfavorable odds. My Dream of Ding Village college, tells a meaningful story with few images that all audiences can understand.
Gus Emerson | ‘Fake news’ poster (Google Drive)
Dream of Ding Village Fake News
I chose to do a fake news poster because just as people today deny the existence of coronavirus for their own profit I am sure many blood collectors would have done the same. Disinformation is often inspired by greed and malcontent, and ultimately that is the same thought process that ‘Dad’ and many other blood collectors demonstrated throughout the book. ‘Dad’ would often deceive and steal from the people he was collecting blood from purely out of greed. What I am trying to show in this artifact is a logical next step that they may have taken.
Nancy Entenmann | Picture Collage (Canva)
The Dark Side
For this project I decided to do a picture collage showing differences and similarities between the book Dream of Ding Village and my research topic. My research topic is social medias affect on teens and I mainly talk about the dangers involved with social media. On the left side of my collage I have pictures that represent different struggles teens often face on social media. This includes body dysmorphia, having trouble accepting your appearance, fake news and cyberbullying. On the right side of my collage are struggles directly connected to those in Dream of Ding Village. I included pictures representing stealing, cheating/affairs, and having limited amounts of food. The main connections are found in the middle of my collage. In the middle there is a picture of someone lying. Lying relates to social media because many things online are not truthful or accurate weather that is what someone looks like or fake news. There is also lying in Dream of Ding Village when the villagers are struggling and resort to stealing from one another. The government also lied to the towns people when discussing the severity of their problems. There is an empty plate because on social media many people develop body dysmorphia which can often lead to eating disorders. In the book there was not a lot of food to go around and people often went hungry. Finally there is a picture of a sad face because in both social media and the book there is a lot of sadness weather that is people dying or depression behind a screen. The overall connection I made with my topic and the book Dream of Ding Village is that there is a lot of sadness overall. I wanted to make this collage to show that while it may be in different forms there are overlaps.
Hannah Gillian-Daniel | Drawing (Google Drive)
A Barren Field of Virus
My project is a drawing of a barren field growing nothing but the Coronavirus, next to a lane of tree stumps. I chose to do this because my community issue project is about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected food insecurity, and in the Dreams of Ding Village their epidemic has put future concerns of food and lasting wildlife on hold. My drawing represents my bleak interpretation of the book, where the only thing being addressed is the illness, not the wellbeing of all others. A few times the author talked about barren fields, due to the fact that no one was leaving their houses because everyone was or was taking care of someone sick. Today during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are not able to leave their houses to work, though not normally in fields. This causes them to lose their income, which in turn makes it hard to get food. To represent the fact that no one was working I only drew my fields in brown, to show the neglect. I had the fields only growing the Coronavirus because while people were not focused on growing food, all of their thoughts were about the epidemic. The sickness also was the reason the villagers stopped farming, so the virus is keeping them from reaching their farms. I also lined the fields with tree stumps, because in the book the villagers cut down all the trees to make coffins, with no regard to the future of the village. The world today seems to have a similar feel. We are doing things today that are solely focused on the fact that there is a pandemic, regardless of its future impact. For example, at the store you can no longer bring your own bags, causing more waste due to the pandemic. My drawing represents the bleakness that these pandemics has had on the wellbeing of people, mainly from a lens of food insecurity.
Noah Gillian-Daniel | Political cartoon drawing pencil on paper (Google Drive)
The destruction of big pharma
My project connects to Dream Of Ding Village through both lack of government action and the actions of the wealthy harming the poor. Within my project this is big pharma, represented as a wrecking ball, and in Dream of Ding Village it would be the blood collectors. The poor in both cases are the general citizens who are represented by the building being knocked down to get at the money inside. The government is represented by a toll booth because due to getting donations from the pharmacy companies many politicians turn a blind eye. Lastly the ways of harming the citizens are represented in the ball of the wrecking ball, for my issue they are rising drug prices and the opioid crisis and in Dream of Ding Village they would be the reusing of needles and spread of AIDs.
Kay Guild | Collage Comparison of Coronavirus in the U.S. and HIV in Eastern China (Google Drive)
Infection=Deception
This project is a collage comparison of Coronavirus in the United States and the HIV outbreak in Eastern China. This collage depicts the different realms of each community as you see the dark streets of an eastern Chinese village and a street in Wisconsin with a mask in its gutter. Both communities suffer, filled with despair, and surrounded by death and deception. Whether economic or misconstrued information, The HIV outbreak in China and the Coronavirus outbreak in the United States both create massive issues that revolve around selfish behavior and lying. We can see it in our own community: businesses are closing, families are struggling to make enough money, families worrying about how they are going to bury their loved ones, and dealing with the overwhelming fear of contracting a virus that we aren’t familiar with. The author of “Dream of Ding Village” shows us that the same struggles were occurring in Ding Village. Our communities became infected and that infection led to the deception of many, now we are trying to regain trust in our community one test at a time while Eastern China mourns those they have lost.
Benjamin Haber-Fawcett | An Anaphora (poem) (Google Drive)
People in Power Abuse Their Power
The idea behind my project was that I needed to find a link between police brutality and Dream of Ding Village, while the solution didn’t appear to me at first the second I thought of it I realized I would use it. That link was abusing power. The reason I chose poem as my medium to talk about it came from a variety of factors mostly being I can’t paint and the odds of me coming upon an abuse of power on a random day seemed low, couple that with enjoying writing poems and that’s what I decided to do. The way that abuse of power relates to Dream of Ding village is shown multiple times, one instance is when Grandpa tries to show the only power he thinks he has left to disallow them from taking the wooden things from the school out of a stubborn belief about school reopening. Ultimately though the main instances of abusing their power stem from the boy’s father, he abuses his power in multiple ways, firstly by shortcutting sanitation simply because people wanted to give blood in many ways exacerbating the aids epidemic in the first place in Ding village. The other main time is when he upcharges for the coffins in order to make money and move out, once again using the power given to him and abusing that power to benefit himself at the cost of those around him outside his family.
Nicole Hanser | Word Art (Google Drive)
Purchased Indifference
Purchased Indifference is a piece intended to demonstrate how the few with a lot of money have more influence with those in power than the majority of the people. The red wording is overtaken by the black wording, showing how the rich are able to have a stronger voice. The voice of the people is represented in red lettering because it is the people who have suffered and died by the dirty needles or gun violence. The wording representing the rich is in black because they experience a separation from that suffering; the only stake they have in the issue is with the profits. In Dream of Ding Village, the people’s worries become background noise to the blood lords, shown in the smaller red writing, which is hard to see unless close up. To an outsider, the issue doesn’t seem as complex, but as you move in closer, you can see the repeated worries of the people ignored in favor of profit, just as in the book. Similarly, the protesting and calls to action by gun control activists have been overlooked in favor of the opinion of those with substantial funding. Both parts of the piece are in the same style, showing how the issues, though different, are connected by the same driving force: greed.
Ellie Haupt | Collage (Google Drive)
Lacking government
This collage is a visual representation of the connection between Dream of Ding Village and my community issue project, and the obstacles they both have in common. In Ding Village the government did very little to help the villagers in the rural provinces that caught the HIV virus. Except for giving them a little food and coffins, they pushed the problem aside, after having made it worse by running unregulated blood banks. In my community issue project, the trouble of homelessness has long been an issue that the government has failed to handle properly and provide the right support for. In this art piece you see the colored dots, that represent the people, trapped on the outside of the building calling for help, while the government sits inside ignoring their cries. While the gold sheets on the table represent the fact that the government has all the materials and means to provide some aid to these people, yet chose to do otherwise.
Lukas Hendrickson | Song Compilation (Soundcloud)
Artifact
For my artifact, I decided it would be a fun challenge to make a song that contained no lyrics, with the exception of “oh’s” and “ah’s” in the choral sections. At first listen, this may sound like a bunch of random sounds that have nothing to do with one another but really, it was a bunch of sounds that I specifically crafted to tell the story of both the blood sale crisis in China and the rise of renewable energy sources. My artifact starts out with a cinematic choral section consisting of a male chamber choir at first and then a full chamber choir in the end. Along with the choirs, I also added some orchestral drums. You may not have even noticed but I created a gradual decrease in tempo during this section as well. I did this because I think the sound of the choir and drums slowing down symbolizes a loss of life which was oh so unfortunately abundant in China at this time. Then… nothing. The choir and drums go silent and the listener is left feeling unsure about where this odyssey is headed, or if it will continue at all. Then out of nowhere, a glimpse of hope appears. This hope is symbolized by a single harp playing a melody that I felt was both tragic and hopeful at the same time. Eventually after a couple repetitions of this melody, a second harp joins in and plays a different song, one that perfectly harmonizes with the melody while simply going down the minor scale. Then the two harps are joined by a third much deeper harp. However, something’s off. There’s a new electronic sound playing the original melody but it’s extremely distorted and rising in intensity. This sound symbolizes climate change and it serves as my transition into the renewable energy portion of my artifact. Eventually this distorted electronic sound reaches full intensity and then transforms into an angelic choral sectional singing one single chord. This represents the solution to climate change, renewable energy. Then we hear dream-like bells playing a playful tune. These bells represent a flourishing, cheerful society. But then yet another new sound begins to play, this time it’s a patternless pulsating synth that ends with an unresolved chord. This symbolizes how we as a society still have problems beyond climate change that we must take care of. Finally, we hear a gated ascending tone. This represents society revving back up to fight the next issue. So yeah… pretty wild. I didn’t want to give this some corny name so I simply titled it: Artifact.
Michel Hernandez Ruiz | Acrylic Painting (Google Drive)
Union
My artifact for Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke was an acrylic painting. I am no artist, but as soon as I thought about a connection between my research topic (homelessness) and Dream of Ding Village I knew I wanted to make a painting. I began by making connections and themes that I noticed while working on my research topic and reading the book. I noticed quite a few similarities which were the ones I included in my painting. My research topic and Dream of Ding Village were completely different topics, yet with so much in common when I realized that they both missed unity. I wrote the negative aspects of both topics on the sides, while I made the center two people hugging. This part represents the unity aspect. They are wearing masks to symbolize the COVID-19 pandemic which is a negative contribution to homelessness and the AIDS epidemic. My main getaway from this painting is through disasters unity is what is important, which was one of my interpretations when reading Dream of Ding Village. People were more focused on jealousy, and materialistic things rather than things like family, friendships, and values. In Dream of Ding Village, many similar aspects come up which relate to homelessness like shelters, poverty, corrupt government, and the lack of unity which resulted in the inspiration of this painting. Lastly, I added Henan province and Wisconsin to show those are the two communities I mainly focused on during this project.
Ben Hilgers | Violin Composition (FlipGrid)
Regretful past
For my project I did a song on the violin that was played in a minor key and was made to symbolize sadness, misery and regret. Throughout the song you will hear moments when things seem to be getting happier by ascending scales but then it will usually fall back down to display the emotions that many have had through the COVID19 pandemic and how many felt with the news they received during the AIDS pandemic in Ding village. In the Dream of Ding Village, the village is decimated by AIDS because of unregulated selling of blood. They were not able to prepare for the pandemic and lost all of their lives due to this. In the USA we downplayed the coronavirus and now many have died. This artifact is supposed to symbolize the lives lost in both circumstances and the pain and sadness felt by loved ones. It also symbolizes the disappointment in not preparing for either of the viruses.
Noah Hinkfuss | Poem (Google Drive)
Three stories
In The Dream of Ding Village, Ding Hui is the father of the narrator Ding Quiang. He takes advantage of the villagers when the blood boom begins to dry up by offering to buy their blood at a higher price, however he fails to make use of proper safety ordinances. He takes advantage of the poor and desperate, and they in turn pay the price. It is from wealth accumulated through this manipulation that he builds the tallest house in the village for himself, three stories high. This can be compared to the affordable housing shortage in Madison. Many large developers build market-rate apartments in desirable parts of the city, and those who are below the median income often can never and will never afford them. The developers advertise the housing as affordable, however it is often far from it. The three story house in The Dream of Ding Village represents the gap between the wealthy and poor within the village, as most other villagers live in one story mud huts. This is much the same in Madison, as wealthy homeowners live by the lake or in new developments that those with more modest incomes could never hope to afford. My poem attempts to capture how those that can not afford to live in Madison are at the end of their rope, while also speaking to the pain caused by Ding Hui and those like him to their communities.
Sitara Ihlenfeld Paulson | Drawing (Google Drive)
The Pecunious vs. the Poor
For my artifact, I decided to draw a picture titled “The Pecunious vs.the Poor.” I chose to draw a picture because I thought it would be the best way to show the connection that the book and the topic of homeless had. In my picture I decided to do a juxtaposition between the wealthy and the poor. I drew mansions with things such as expensive cars and a tennis court. Across the road from the houses are homeless people. The people across the street from the mansions are very poor and do not appear to have much. I also drew bags of money in the yards of the mansions in order to emphasize how wealthy the people living in the mansions are. I also decided to make the bags of money the only colored thing in the picture in order to bring more attention to them. My drawing connects to the topic of homelessness because it shows how many people have little to nothing while there are people who have very luxurious lives and never give. This drawing also connects to the book “Dream of Ding Village.” It connects to the book because in the book, a lot of the people in the village were very poor and they were the ones giving their blood and then getting sick. They are represented by the people across the street from the mansions. The people who ran the blood banks were the ones who got wealthy and were able to get nice houses. They took people’s blood, got them sick, and got rich off doing it. They did not distribute their wealth, they kept it for themselves. The people who got rich from taking other people’s blood are represented as the people who live in the mansions. The rich were profiting off of the poor and this happens in society today in many ways.
Lilyian Jenkins | Soapbox Speech (Google Drive)
The Steps
This piece not only ties in my original project on food insecurity, but also connects with “The Dream of Ding Village”, a story about the AIDS epidemic in a rural Chinese village. In parts of the story, you hear the characters talk about having to steal food from people because they don’t have enough money to be able to buy any food. This, with the passionate truth of the speech on world hunger, has created a beautiful web of realization and will help the readers understand that I am very passionate about the subject.
Holly Johnson | Drawing (Google Drive)
We Perish as You Profit
My drawing, We Perish as You Profit, illustrates the connection between the human greed that takes place in Dream of Ding Village as well as within the U.S. economy in relation to Great Lakes plastic pollution. In Dream of Ding Village, Yan Lianke writes based on his own experiences observing the issue of disease spread via blood-selling in China. HIV/AIDS spread rapidly throughout Ding Village as the narrator’s father profited off of his unregulated blood-collecting practices. Despite being responsible for the deaths of many in his own town, his father continued to take advantage of the community’s vulnerability. In a similar fashion, large corporations currently continue to produce single-use plastic despite understanding the negative impact it has on the environment. Single-use plastic serves as a cheap and efficient way for these corporations to maximize profits, but this practice has, over time, made a detrimental effect on the planet’s lakes and oceans. One would think many lessons were learned in the aftermath of China’s deadly outbreak, but today corporations continue to make similar devastating mistakes.
Amir Lee | Drawing (Google Drive)
In the book Dream of ding village there were so many real word community issues portryaed within the book. For example, HIV/AIDS epidemic, food shortages, drought, and so much more. The book Dream of ding village revolves around the spark of the AIDS crisis in china. The book is narrated in the perspective of a 12 year old boy who in fact was not killed by the disease but was murdered. The book Dream of ding village establishes that the reasoning of the spark of the disease was due to not enough knowledge of drawing blood. Sanitation issues were also a big factor of the epidemic. To me the biggest issue represented in the book was the lack of resources and the understanding that there were only 2 parts to the scale, you were either considered poor with no resources and sad, or you were considered wealthy with resources and that makes you happy, hince the beginning of my community issue project. First and foremost I created a mod podge project. I started by brainstorming what I wanted to represent and how I could represent symbolism. In my project there is a huge line down the center of the poster which represents the division within our communities and how we are seen based upon our economic standpoints and what you put out in the world . On the left of the poster you see a man who is clearly struggling. There is a tree that is dead and all the leaves are falling off and there is a big thunder cloud, so it seems that everything in his favor appears to be going wrong. And on the right side there is a person who is watering the plants and there is a tree with big flowers on them and a huge ray of sunlight and everything seems to be working in his favor. This helps us understand that on the left side there is no value of life, and on the right side there is. My project represents the impending value of human life. Understanding that one life appears to be working better because he is putting in the effort and watering the plants and trying to make the most out of every situation, versus someone who wants everything to be handed to him without trying to make a difference. This also helps the viewers understand that in a way you get what you put out. The smallest efforts can make a difference. In the book, there were many reasons that there were lack of resources, 1 being the government ignored what was happening and made funding a bare minimum only if you donated blood, and your current situation, a lot of the people in the book lost their jobs and shops due to the epidemic. Similar to what happens in our communities where some people are more fortunate to better resources and seem to prevail and others who are less fortunate to the resources struggle. Which supports my overview of the impending value of human life and economic placement and or perceivement.
Freya R Lee | Ceramics & Photography (Google Drive)
Symbolic representation of Unpaid Labor
This photograph uses an empty ceramic bowl to symbolize unpaid domestic labor that is traditionally female. This work is not always recognized because of cultural assumptions about the role of women, yet without it the community would go unfed.
I’m doing a photography project using a bowl that I made in ceramics class. The bowl contains no food, which is symbolic of the unpaid labor that is traditionally feminine, such as cooking. Women are often placed in roles where they are responsible for the majority of family tasks, and are not rewarded or valued for this work. In the novel “The Dream of Ding Village”, the character Zhao Xiuqin is a woman who does the majority of domestic labor in the school house, while the men handle infrequent repair tasks. The novel sheds light on the issue of unpaid female labor when Zhao explains that working all day for no money feels unfair, this causes the other residents to recognize her value and give her extra rice as compensation.
Victoria Lenius | Painting (Google Drive)
Isolation Painting
My project is a painting connecting the book Dream of Ding Village to my community issues project on the topic of homelessness in Madison, WI during a pandemic. My painting consists of a central spot, shaped like a keyhole. This represents an isolated area, which is gloomy. It has tents in the center to represent a homeless encampment, which we have around Madison. Having an isolated, gloomier area with tents as shelter surrounded by a city of tall, modern buildings represents the uncaring actions of the Madison people, overall. Many homeless remain isolated in encampments while the city continues without helping them and they are struggling more than ever with the dangers of a pandemic. I connect this to the Ding Village because they have a community of sick people at a school in their village, more or less completely isolated from the rest of their community and the world. They are doing the best they can in a situation that is not ideal, just as the homeless are in Madison. Additionally, many in Madison are hesitant to allow homeless to seek shelter near their homes, either in hotels or temporary housing. The hesitance comes from the stereotypes that homeless people may steal or bring drugs into the area, a very inconsiderate way of viewing people. This is similar to how the people in Ding Village all want to stay away from those sick, they are worried about what the sick might bring into their homes or families.
Emile Leplae | Community issue project (Google Drive)
My topic for the community project was the mental health of students during Covid-19. I decided to create a visual series showcasing the differences and contrast between learning before Covid-19 and during it. Then using the same concept I showed the 1990s AIDs outbreak in rural China by showing photos either after or before the outbreak and then showing photos during it to show the contrast. This was what Dream of Ding Village was based on and I thought it would be fitting to show what it was really like during that time for the villagers. These photos and comparisons were meant to show how in both instances people experience great change quite rapidly changing the course of their lives. What can be learned from both events is that we as human beings can experience great hardship yet persevere.
Benno Loeb | Video Compilation (YouTube)
Effects of Health Crisis
My Project name is “Effects of Health Crisis,” referring to Madison with the Coronavirus and China with AIDS. This project is a video compilation of pictures showing and comparing the effects of the respective health crisis on Madison and China. I did my project on showing pictures of both Madison and China and the effects of the illnesses to highlight the similarities between our two worlds occurring at the moment. The major focus on the book Dream of Ding Village is about how AIDS has changed everything in their community. AIDS has made the strongest in their village weak, has separated families, and even has made people more worried about getting caskets for their loved ones then tending their farms, like usual. My community issues project was on virtual education, which is a direct result of the Coronavirus. Virtual education is just one of the many effects of Covid on our world. This year, the entire world has been hit with the Coronavirus, which has affected everywhere in the world, just like Madison, greatly. The pictures I used in my video show just how much Madison has changed due to the Coronavirus, just like how Ding Village had to change everything they used to know after being struck with AIDS. Although these are two separate illnesses in two different parts of the world, the video shows that the impact on a community is very similar.
Lilly Mager | Drawing (Google Drive)
The Things We Do for Food
I decided to connect my Community Issues Topic, food insecurity, with the novel Dream of Ding Village, by constructing a raw pencil sketched image representing how the food disparity between the villages in the book influenced the selling of blood. I did this by first sketching the figure of a person in the middle of my page, I then split my page down the middle with a faint line. My goal was to have one side of the paper represent Ding Village before they started to sell blood, and to have the other side represent the cities that were already selling blood, similar to the one the main character’s father and grandfather went to visit. However, I also wanted the two sides of my drawing to represent the torment the Chinese people were putting their bodies through in order to obtain the benefits that came with selling blood, one of which being regularly provided food from the government. I did this by splitting my page in half again, now having created four quadrants on my paper, so that I could have the top quadrant on each side represent the differences in wealth and resources between Ding Village and blood selling cities, and the bottom quadrant on each side represent the differences in the health and strain the people of each place were putting their bodies through. In the end, I believe that my drawing strongly interprets the struggle for food security in Dream of Ding Village because it shows that many Chinese people were so desperate for reliable and affordable food, one of life’s most important sustaining resources, that they were willing to deplete themselves completely of, and suffer the consequences of selling, another one of life’s most important sustaining resources, blood.
Alessandro Malterer | Digital PSA/Poster (Canva)
Strength of Diversity
I designed this project around my topic on diversity in athletic boards and the benefits it has on student athletes. Last year urban school districts such as Madison weren’t allowed to play sports and this was, in part, due to the lack of representation for the Madison schools on these athletic boards. This is similar to Dream of Ding Village when one of the sons, Ding Hui, reaches the top of the market for selling blood, because he is able to succeed while others in his same town are struggling. Granted, in Dream of Ding Village it is a little extreme, but the purpose is the same, just like the book, nearby counties and schools were able to participate and have sports seasons, while schools in the same state, even miles away, weren’t. This could potentially have been life changing for some students, even having opportunities to go to college for their sports, but they didn’t get the chance. Also similar to the book, the citizens of Ding Village prosper in the short run, like the neighboring schools that are able to participate in sports, yet the long term side effects can be much greater. For Ding Village it was a massive loss of life, but for the sake of high school sports in Wisconsin it could lead to lack of diversity and competition in sports and a regression in participation from students.
Sinead McCarthy | Marker Drawing (Google Drive)
The cycle of greed and need.
“The cycle of greed and need.” interprets what I identified as a common thread between “Dream of Ding Village” and the issue of homelessness in my community and the US at large; greed. In “Dream of Ding Village”, desire for money to get out of poverty is what causes the blood-sellers or “bloodheads” to begin collecting and selling blood. After this causes an outbreak of AIDS, the people of the village, fearing for their lives, become divided, with some continuing to exploit the horrors for their own gain. It is greed that leads to the downfall of the village, not the virus. found that it also stems from a cycle of greed, with people who already have enough money desiring more and choosing not to help the homeless out of poverty. My drawing shows a hand grabbing a syringe filled with blood to represent selfishness and greed, but the hand itself is also bleeding, to represent where the greed stems from; need.
Beck McDowell | Musical Work of Art (Spotify)
Shared Themes
For my artifact I have decided to create a playlist of four songs processing themes heavily relating to the text, Dream of Ding Village. I chose to take this approach because I have a deep and passionate interest in studying music and the poetry weaved into Yan Lianke’s writing parallels so much musical content made to portray trauma and bad tidings through a medium of art and beauty. On top of musicology I also have recently been infatuated with music journalism and writing this summary will be good practice to see if I could make journalism a career path. The first song in my playlist is titled ‘Movin Backwards,’ and is written by Busta Rhymes and Anderson .paak. Throughout Busta Rhymes first verse, he encompasses his experience coming from a place of great hardship and partaking in activities to get ahead that ended up setting him further back in the long run. The main purpose of this song can be described by the first two lines of the hook, “Moving backwards never, that was never the plan, Pushing s**t along, render stillness in the quicksand.” With all of his efforts to move on with his life, the Emc finds himself stuck in quicksand, quicksand being a metaphor for the negative effects of his actions. This is very reminiscent of the 10 year period of prosperity in Ding Village following Ding Hui’s presence and the development of blood banks. Much like Busta Rhymes’ life experience, the consequences of these actions much outway this drawn out moment of prosperity. The next song in the playlist is ‘Lockdown,’ by Anderson .paak. Much like Movin Backwards, this song is largely about the hardships minorities experience in the United States, however in this instance it is oriented towards systematic oppression as well as governmenting profit off the struggle of the average citizen. This can be seen in the discussed text through the actions of Ding Hui and his continued desire to profit off of the misfortune of the citizens of Ding Village. The most important shared theme here is the emphasis on the government/power positions refusal to apologize for their actions and attempt to right their wrongs. Instead of apologizing, Ding Hui turns around and starts selling government provided food and coffins to continue profiting. The third song in my playlist, ‘Bad Bad News,’ by Leon Bridges, tells the tale of a man with very little finding solace in his less than ideal situation through love and an appreciation for certain small things in life. In the first stanza of this song, Bridges remarks, “Ain’t got no riches, ain’t got no money that runs long, But I got a heart that’s strong, And a love that’s tall, Ain’t got no name, ain’t got no fancy education, But I can see right through, A powdered face on a painted fool.” In this case of Dream to Ding Village, the townsfolk find joy in community through things otherwise deemed grim in the face of death. Examples of this include the communal and warm tones in the funerals and the union of the two dead children. Overall, when hope for the future is taken away from the villagers, new appreciation for the present is developed and this message is well discussed by Leon Bridges. For the fourth song, I chose to include a spoken word poem called ‘Another Day,’ by Chicago poet J. Ivy. Though both this poem and the book share themes of being in difficult situations, I chose to include this piece of art because of its tone. Throughout the poem, Ivy discusses dark topics such as abuse and depression, which is significant enough on its own, but what fascinates me about his work is the hopeful and liberating tone he maintains both vocally and instrumentally. In Dream of Ding Village, this strongly reminds me of the works of poetry incorporated by Lianke. In both instances it’s almost as if the authors want the negatives of life to be appreciated and experienced to the same extent of the positives. The ability to use poetry to outline difficult topics in beautiful ways is a skill shared by Lianke and Ivy, and is something I greatly appreciate. For my artifact project, I chose to outline themes and tones used by Yan Lianke in his book, “Dream of Ding Village,” using the artistic choices of musicians I favor by constructing a playlist.
Galen McGlynn | Infographic (Canva)
Comparing Food options in Different Communities
The project I chose to do was to create an infographic that demonstrated how Food Insecurity affects the city of Madison, WI. This infographic provides images of various food stores in Madison, and how different communities are affected by each of them. I compared stores in wealthy communities with healthy food options to stores in poorer communities with unhealthy food options like candy, chips, and soda. Dream of Ding Village is about the AIDS epidemic that spread throughout China. The critical interpretation made in this project was how food insecurity causes suffering to many families all over the world, similar to how the AIDS epidemic affected those living in China. Yan Lainke shows in the book how it was the Chinese government that needed to do more to prevent the spread of the disease. He also shows how it was the government that didn’t do nearly enough to help provide assistance to those who were suffering. In my second essay of the CIP assignment, I talked about the rhetorical analysis of Chef José Andés’s article about food insecurity. Towards the end of the article, he talked about how during the COVID-19 in 2020, the U.S. government provided the airlines with $25 Billion so they could keep their transportation system going. However the U.S. department of Agriculture only received $16 Billion. The U.S. government prioritized transportation over the health of the American people. This incompetence is no different then how the Chinese government reacted to the outbreak of AIDS.
Eliana Monat | Digital Collage (Google Drive)
Farmers’ Survival Efforts and Sufferings
Since the beginning of time, farms and farmers have been the backbone of local and global economies. Similar to how a farm needs farmers to maintain it, farmers oftentimes need the farm just as desperately to bring in income. The trend of farmers making changes and sacrifices for the sake of the success of their farms and then being met with bad consequences can be seen in both Ding Village and in the struggle of small Wisconsin dairy farmers. In Ding Village the money flow was minimal and many of the farmers did not have enough money to buy products needed to cultivate their crops such as fertilizer or tools. To make extra money to be able to afford these things, the farmers of Ding Village sold blood. Of course, their sacrifice of selling blood to maintain their farms came with a price- their health. Many of the farmers and people in the town who sold their blood got AIDS as a result of local blood harvesters reusing needles which is the suffering the farmers are made to endure as a result in this situation. This trend can also be observed in small, multigenerational dairy farms’ struggle to stay in business while industrial farms dominate the dairy industry in Wisconsin. Factory farms in the state produce majority of its dairy products and sell them at lower prices that keep their products in high demand. This puts many small dairy farms out of business. To avoid being run out of business and to keep their farms, local Wisconsin farmers overproduce milk and other dairy products which leads to surpluses and causes many to go bankrupt. My digital collage provides a visual representation, in the form of internet pictures, of this trend of sacrificing and suffering that Ding Village and Wisconsin farmers share in. Included are images of agricultural landscapes of China (similar to Ding Village) and Wisconsin placed next to photos of the decisions/sacrifices and consequences of those actions.
Eamonn Mulhern | Poem (Google Drive)
This poem was used to compare a scene in Dream of Ding Village to my project’s topic. In specific, it relates to the part of the book when the character had AIDS and was very close to dying but wanted to play the violin one last time for the village. This is an example of trying to distract yourself from something much worse. This attempt at distraction can be seen as similar to how many people might watch baseball or just sports in general to take their mind off of something going on in their life that they don’t want to think about. Distraction can be good and bad but in this context, it is needed in order to get past various bad things.
Francisco Nava |Poster/PSA (Google Drive)
Virus PSA
This project was created to inform and compare the Coronavirus and the AIDS epidemic(mentioned in Dream of Ding Village’). This project was brought to life with the help of information based off of the book Dream of Ding Village and data from the Coronavirus pandemic. With the information I had I combined both viruses and created a PSA to alert people of the dangers between both viruses. Although these viruses are not the same, they have left people sick and even dead. Different details and styles in the poster all line up to what is happening today.
Rowan Nowicki | Poem (Google Drive)
One thing that struck me deeply about Dream of Ding Village is the morbid subject of death, and in a book narrated by a ghost, I was surprised at the way in which it was portrayed. I got the sense that death was almost a relief for the villagers, because of the truly abhorrent and hellish things that filled their lives. The book never felt too nihilistic, however, and I am glad about that also, because I get tired of that point of view in literature fairly quickly. If I read too long of a piece of writing that is nihilistic in nature, I paradoxically find myself feeling as if I wasted my time. Even if the writing itself is very good. But Dream of Ding Village wasn’t like that at all for me, it gave a more complicated view of death, attempting to reach for and to understand it in its entirety, something which is truly impossible, but I still admire and enjoy authors who try, and who do it well. There is nuance there. I remember reading a quote from a 96 year old man about how he was not afraid of death. He said that he no longer had the ability to do the things he truly wanted to do, and that he had outlived all his friends. He still said he enjoyed life, and that he found enjoyment in simply sitting in the park. He also mentioned that he had been lucky to share his life with his wife, but despite, or perhaps because of all that, he was very ready to go. The quote ended with a phrase I will never forget: “I want my soul to go where the souls go.” To me, Dream of Ding Village explores that same concept and feeling in a different way. In this book, no one really has that idealistic, pleasant life. Many of the characters have not lived long enough to even truly say they have had a long, full life like the 96 year old man. But even so, compared to the suffering around them, death as a concept was portrayed, in my mind, similarly to how it was portrayed in that old man’s words. It is almost as if, because the suffering on Earth was greater, death, while still obviously not portrayed positively, was in some cases not the worst that befalls characters in this book. The truly unlucky ones stay and live. And the similarities there reminded me of my community project, which is public education funding, and specifically, unequal public education funding. The main reason I almost cried at part of the book was because the characters who were dead or dying deserved to have the life that old man in the park had. They deserved to grow old and share their life with someone. I remember hearing somewhere, I totally forgot where, that death is an equalizer, but I disagree. The death of an old man, ready and willing to discover where the souls go, is less tragic in some ways than the death of a person who had no opportunity to live that long, and experience all that life has to offer. I know it is much more complex in the book, but that is one simple concept I felt in the book connected to the inequality of our current education systems, which drastically underfund some school districts compared to others. All students deserve the fullest educational experience possible. Just like all people deserve the fullest life experience possible.
Sylvie Panofsky | Sculptural representation (Google Drive)
The most striking connection between Dream of Ding Village and insulin pricing is greed. In both situations, motivation for profit leads to people dying. The artifact, a bag full of cash, represents profiteering and greed. In both the book and the project, greediness of those in power prevails over feelings of guilt or empathy. In Dream of Ding Village, the blood merchant, Ding Hui, buys and sells peoples’ blood to the Chinese Government. Although initially Ding Hui didn’t know that he was passing AIDS to people, once he learned, he showed no remorse. Ding Hui’s father begged him to ask forgiveness from all of the villagers for giving them AIDS, but Ding Hui felt no blame for the disease that he had spread and made no such apology. As in the book, greed is also a motivating factor for the insulin manufacturers who hike the price of the lifesaving drug so that many diabetics cannot afford it. This causes diabetics to ration insulin which often leads to serious health complications or death. Additionally, there are no restrictions for how high these prices can get so manufacturers can continue unchecked. In both cases there is no concern for people’s suffering and welfare, profit and money making is placed above that.
Eden Patterson | Painting (Google Drive)
Words that Hurt us
A common thread in my Community Issue Project and the book Dream of Ding Village was how misinformation spread through rumors and deception can be devastating to a community. The residents of Ding Village were duped into sacrificing their lives by people hungry for money and power. My community issue project was about the negative effects that cancel culture can have when it propagates fear and hate. I reflected on the enormous amount of pain and suffering the people of Ding Village endured. The image that came to me was one of a person overcome with the messages they were receiving from supposedly respected and trustworthy people in authority. My painting is a representation of the turmoil and anguish people experience when they are bombarded with false claims and the emotions that those words and ideas evoke. It also offers two words of hope, which are love and compassion. The people of Ding Village discovered a community of compassion when they banded together and turned the school into a community that supported the sick and dying.
Faith Phelan | Dream of Ding Village connection project (Google Drive)
Ding Village compared to Plastic problems
One the left side of this project is the environmental problems and the US Government’s response of just pushing the problem off since it’s profitable. The environmental problems are shown in the ways of CO2 emissions, plastic on land, plastic in the water, and some of the effects that they have on wildlife. On the right side of the project is the book Dream of Ding Village which goes over the AIDS crisis in Henan province and the people who caused its response of not caring since they made money. This is shown by having a bag of blood, needle and sick people. The connection between the two is that they both caused it without knowing what the results would be but since people made profit off the problems it doesn’t matter the people or things that got harmed in the process.
Pearl Pincus | Collage (Google Drive)
Blood Flow
“Blood Flow” is a visual representation of how greed and exploitation creates inequity and a wealth gap both in Dream of Ding’s village and today’s society. I specifically set out to explore the connection between housing inequity today and in the book and realized that the connection about housing insecurity is a microcosm for inequality everywhere is society. In Dream of Ding Village, Ding Hui, a blood merchant, made money from collecting and selling blood of his fellow villagers. With the wealth he accumulated from this, his family became the richest in the village and so they lived in a three-story house with modern appliances such as a washing machine and porcelain toilet. The height of his house and moderness of appliances gave the Ding Family heightened social and monetary status and gave him power over the rest of the villagers. Ding Hui was only able to accumulate that wealth because he was greedy, re-using needles and cotton swabs that spread AIDS and eventually led to the death of many villagers. He took advantage of the fact that other local blood banks were not sure where to sell the blood so Ding Hui had them sell it to him and he would re-sell that blood for a higher price to the blood collection trucks. While researching the lack of affordable housing in Madison, it became clear that greed and exploitation here too is a major factor of who lives in large modern houses and who is left struggling to afford rent for small apartments. In Madison, a major reason why housing is unaffordable are high rent prices are due to landlords deciding to profit off of a low vacancy rate. Housing development companies who build apartment buildings they label “affordable” won’t sell the apartments to those who make 30% of County Median Income because it’s not profitable for the companies. Blood Flow shows how the wealthy exploit the poor to get wealth, power, and therefore expensive houses both in Dream of Ding Villages and today in the United States. Blood and money flow from pipes that connect to the smaller houses to the bigger buildings on the right of the collage. The rich people and businesses rely on the exploitation of poorer people to accumulate their wealth and power.
Owen Reinders | Drawing (Google Drive)
Madison’s Many Faces
My drawing is an abstract depiction of the unseen struggles the homeless community faces in Madison. The central lines make up the shape of the Isthmus, while the other lines around it serve to break up the space into different faces and scenes. For example, one scene shows tents pitched in a field, representing the many homeless people who are camping outside every night. Just below this scene, there are figures holding up the line above them. This represents the parts of the Madison community that come together to support those in need. In the novel Dream of Ding Village, the community also comes together in times of need. This value is shared by people all around the world, and is present in my project. The page is broken up into separate panels. I tried to have different scenes to make it clear that the city in question is Madison. I did this by including tall buildings to represent downtown, I have a road coming across the isthmus, and I have powerlines and trees shown throughout. In the center of the piece, I have a scene in which an officer from the Madison Police Department is forcing unseen homeless individuals to leave. There is text further down, asking where they are supposed to go. While Madison has been doing much better combating homelessness in the past few years, around 5 years ago there was a lot of unjust treatment, and my drawing represents that.
Elijah Rickenbach |NEWSCAST (Google Drive)
The project is me talking for about a minute about Dream of Ding Village and Cancel Culture and it is me playing as a News Anchor. The connection between these topics draws parallels between the concerns of censorship.
Rachael Roberts | Drawing
The Cost of Personal Events
I’ll admit before anything, that this project was more or less rushed. I wanted to create an illustration for this segment, but I don’t always do as well with creating art for school. I intentionally made the background softer and the characters more crisp. As for the illustration itself, I depicted 3 figures: two youths and an adult, with one of the youths alone, and the other being forced away. When I was reading Dream Of Ding Village, I saw an immediate connection between the reactions of families to both people who obtained AIDS, and those in transphobic families. This direct connection was the act of a family kicking out a single person for the events they could not control. In the book, it was because the victim had caught the fever; for my project, the victim was kicked out for being trans. I made this obvious as I pictured the solo figure wrapped in a trans flag. I also decided to depict some callbacks to the book, as I drew the young woman wearing a red coat. This is a symbol for the underlying cause of AIDS in the story; but also a reference to the red silk coat that was stolen. The hidden meaning behind this simple artwork is that people cannot control dangerous events, or the reactions of others. In Ding Village, there were numerous situations involving sudden negative reactions and confrontations between characters. The Ding family drama is one instance, with the people of the village exiling Uncle and Lingling for cheating and later getting married. Those in control should not use their power to oppress: a clear instance of irony in the book. The only difference between both instances of exaltation is the destination. The people of Ding Village were lucky to have transformed the school into a living space; giving those who were sick a place to stay. In our real world, for lgbt youth in particular, this sanctuary often doesn’t exist. The fade from yellow to green in the midground is a representation of the visual differences between the two worlds pictured. In the village, the community focused on crops and farming, often being populated by shades of golden wheat (as Grandpa saw in his dreams). The grass is then often seen in a normal “American” neighborhood. Though there are many, many more connections and details, what I have described is what I felt was the most prominent in terms of my topic for the entire CIP project.
Colson Rupert | Multimedia sculpture that is constructed out of forged metal, a fabricated metal bracket, string, wood, and ribbon.
Weight
Death and trauma is the topic of discussion throughout the entirety of the book, Dream of Ding Village, by Yan Lianke, and in a similar fashion it relates to BIPOC’s history. The market of selling blood inflicted trauma, grief, and fear among the people in Ding Village when HIV/AIDS broke out because the “fever” eventually killed those who had been infected years prior. Although, death by HIV/AIDS wasn’t the only cause of death. Suicice was prevalent as well. Weight resembles the connection between the two issues by depicting death. BIPOC, but specifically Black people would be taken into the woods and lynched, which is now one aspect for their fear and underrepresentation in the outdoors. I titled this piece Weight because on multiple levels, those who reside in Ding Village and BIPOC carry a form of weight. I intentionally forged the limbs with a taper to resemble the weight both communities walk with and the weight they carry. Another reason for the title is that weight is required for this form of death. Draped around the figure is a red ribbon to represent HIV/AIDS, in the noose is a ribbon to represent that last life lost, and on the floor there are several more to represent those who’ve been lost previously. My goal with this piece was to depict the similar issue of death between two vastly different communities, and I believe I accomplished what I set out to do.
Catie Scateni | Building Blueprint (Canva)
There are many connections to my community issue topic within Yan Lianke’s novel, Dream of Ding Village. One connection that stood out the most to me was the section of the book that discussed the process of sick community members being sent to an old schoolhouse. As described in the book, this was an unsafe and unsanitary living environment for people, especially for those who were already sick. To me, this is very similar to certain aspects of my topic, homelessness in Madison, WI with a focus on insufficient housing and anti-homeless architecture. Homeless shelters also struggle to ensure clean and safe environments for those in need and they lack many essential resources such as health clinics and social service offices. Many of the connections I observed in both the book and my research topic largely link back to neglect from government administrations. Because of these similarities, I decided to create a building blueprint for a newly improved, and affordable, housing environment that could be placed in Madison, WI. A safe living environment such as the presented blueprint would be beneficial to the homeless population today and also could have made a substantial difference during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in China. You can visit my presentation, including the blueprints, on the website I have created above. Thank you for reading.
Pravin Schmidley | Drawing (Google Drive)
Preservation
The preservation of the Yahara Watershed is my main project. These two drawings are my artifact. Both drawings are an analogy for the purpose of connecting the Yahara Watershed and Ding Village. The first drawing is a depiction of a Chinese village surrounding a blood river (the blue coloring is the sky, not water). I drew a subtle arrow explanation of the blood-selling process. The second picture is portraying a beautiful river; What the Yahara might look like. The main focus of this artifact is to compare and contrast the blood-selling process of Ding Village to the Yahara. One of my first thoughts was to create a “blood vessel” river, but a literal blood river surrounded by a village seemed more fitting.
Jeremiah Schoene | Digital Presentation (Prezi)
Necessities Of Life
I conducted a survey asking two questions; What are your necessities in life? And how would you feel if those necessities were stripped from you?I conducted my survey on 5 volunteers. I decided to make a survey asking these questions because I obviously understood my necessities in life, but I wanted a list of other people’s necessities. The purpose of my second question, however, was intended to confuse, and shock my volunteers. The reasoning behind this was to put into perspective how disparate people’s living conditions are. My project reflects a critical interpretation of Dream of Ding Village because I took inspiration from the awful conditions faced in Dream Of Ding Village to formulate my questions. This artifact connects to my CIP because I wanted people to try to be more considerate of other life’s conditions. Making conscious efforts to improve your surroundings, whether it be the environment, or any form of life, is a necessity.
Isaac Seip | Drawing (Google Drive)
Broken Scale of Waste and Need
For my artifact, I needed to connect my community issue project of food waste to an aspect from Dream of Ding Village. I chose to connect the part of the book where the villagers with aids started living in the school and were forced to ration and contribute food so there would be enough to go around. I decided to make a scale that compared the issue of food being wasted, and not having enough food. On the left side of the scale there are trash cans, half-eaten food, and landfills which all represent my community issue project of food being wasted. On the right side of the scale, there is the school, and empty plates and bowls which represent the villagers who moved into the school not having enough food. Finally, I decided to make the scale broken because I believe both of the issues represented in my artifact are very important and are extremely damaging to any society.
Ana Shriver | Pastel Drawing (Google Drive)
Exploitation: School To Prison Pipeline and Dream of Ding Village
The people in “Dream of Ding Village” were living in poverty and were given one way out; by selling their blood. The sanitization of blood drawing materials was too expensive, so the health of the villagers became unimportant. Instead of lifting Ding village out of poverty like promised, the government drew resources from it instead. While Ding village experienced a slight increase in wealth, disease and poverty followed. In my art, the drawing of blood from an arm shows the action that ended in Ding village’s demise. The blood contains the life, progress, and wealth the villagers yearned for. The bag that holds the blood is what was truly happening: exploitation and disease. The blood funnels out of the bag and turns into money that feeds into the Chinese economy. My art is to showcase the success of wealthy China at the expense of the village people. I decided to have a pipeline carry the blood and money because it visually tied in my community issues project: the school to prison pipeline. Like the people from Ding village, BIPOC students are also suffering from systems and situations they are placed in. Corporate America thrives off of making money by imprisoning BIPOC students while they are in school. In my art, I displayed this by showing the drawing of blood from a black student’s arm. Their blood contains their wishes and wants to grow, learn, have fun, be a kid, and be loved. The bag represented what happens to them: criminalization, punishment, and imprisonment. Their blood turns into money for private prisons. I created my art piece to show that in both Dream of Ding Village and my community issues project, people’s physical bodies and resources are used for the advancement of others.
Aidan Simkin | Speech (Vocaroo)
A Union Speech for Ding Village
This is a representation of how a union might have attempted to recruit new members during the blood giving before the book starts. It poses the Union member as someone from another town that had already created the union, and wants to spread the union to Ding Village partially for the benefit of the villages but also for their own benefit. The speech interprets a way that the Aids epidemic could have gone differently. It provides a look into why a country such as America had such different results from blood gathering. It attempts to frame Ding Village as a preventable tragedy, one that would not have happened with enough foresight. It also highlights the ludicrousness of a union occurring in these villages.
Madeline Sowers | Drawing (Google Drive)
What we see VS the reality
For my artifact, I decided to make a drawing with 4 sections. 2 of the sections were a “what we see,” one of the Earth and one of Ding Village, and the other 2 sections were a “the reality,” one of the Earth and one of Ding Village. This drawing shows a happy, healthy image of both the Earth and Ding Village and compares it to the sad reality of each. It shows how just because something may look okay on the outside, that does not mean that it is okay on the inside. In Dream of Ding Village, the village may seem alright, but in reality, it was struck with disaster, and AIDS breakout. This can be compared to how some people see the Earth as being just fine, but in actuality, we are destroying it with pollution. Overall, this drawing shows how not everything is as good as it may seem on the surface.
Maria Swenson | Drawing (Google Drive)
Cross
This drawing, done with colored pencils and charcoal, titled “Cross” is a connection piece by Maria Swenson from Madison East High School’s AP Language and Composition class taught by Ms. Bindl. It demonstrates the difference between the book Dream of Ding Village and the blood ban against men who date men in the United States. By using the descriptions of the blood stations given by Dream of Ding Village, “… blood stations were located at the village crossroads, each looked just like a hospital with a red cross insignia over the enter…” (Yan, Lianke, Dream of Ding Village, 2011), a drawing of a building resembling these features were created. They were also colored with a green coloring and a money sign over the building to indicate what the donors were getting in return in Dream of Ding Village. In addition, a drawing of the red cross with the LGBTQIA+ pride flag on top of it was also drawn on top of this building to indicate the people who were being harmed by the blood ban. In the center of these two buildings, there is a “black hole” in the middle of them to show that they were connected down to the point of bare buildings. In Ding Village, people are leaving blood banks with “the fever [AIDS]”, while in the United States, people are not allowed to donate blood for the fear of AIDS. However, this art piece is able to show that the power of money is the same as the discrimination of people who are LGBTQIA+. For instance, in Dream of Ding Village, even with the fear of AIDS, money was more powerful than this fear of AIDS and even with that fear by making money, AIDS did not seem to be a prominent issue. In a similar way, the United States has a blood ban on people who are LGBTQIA+ in the fear of AIDS. But, with the panic of AIDS subsiding in the United States, it leaves to question what the motive is behind the FDA continuing to have the blood ban. Is it still fear motivated by AIDS, or is it blatant discrimination? Later in the book people, like Ding Shuiyang began to fear Ding Hui because of the AIDS epidemic and his connection to it, in the same way that people may fear men who date men because of their connection to the AIDS epidemic. Overall, “Cross” is able to represent the connection between Dream of Ding Village and the United States blood ban against men who date other men, down to the fears that they create.
Lindsay Trimbell | Watercolor Painting (Google Drive)
Ding Village and Madison
For my artifact and connection between Dream of Ding Village and the community action project, I created a painting that showed both Ding Village and Madison during the hard times that the communities have faced. On the left is Ding Village and the houses in the village centre that belonged to those who sold their blood. Each house has the funeral scrolls that have been put up ever since the fever devastated the village in honor of those who were lost. This side of the painting shows the empty streets of Ding Village in the middle of their battle with the AIDS epidemic. On the right is Madison, shown in the middle of their battle with the COVID-19 pandemic. The painting shows the boarded-up shops and buildings of downtown Madison and no one out on the streets. With the pandemic, everyone is staying in their houses and trying to make it through these hard times. In both Ding Village and Madison, the communities are facing a new disease that has started to take many of their people, and every day they hear of new deaths that have occurred. The people stay in their homes, only venturing out when they have to, leaving the streets of both communities deserted and empty as shown in the side-by-side comparison of my painting.
Lisanna Van Ness | Collage (Google Drive)
Price of climbing collage
I wanted to show why there is a lack of diversity in climbing along with something that happens in the book Dream of Ding Village. Climbing gear is very expensive and for that people may have to go out of their way to buy stuff. One thing people did to get money in the book was donating blood which is how aids was spread. I did the math on how much certain climbing gear cost along with how many times a person would have to donate blood in order to buy that one piece of gear. There were much more important ways people needed money in the book but connecting the two climbing and maybe rent for the month shows how expensive climbing can be. For reference people now get about $30 each time they donate blood.
Nicky Walters |Powtoon (Powtoon)
In my project, I talk about road salt, and how it’s affecting the environment. But the main connection is about how bad it was for DDV, and how it could have been preventable (or at least done way less damage). For the road salt, we are on that line. Because as soon as we cross it there is no way we can reverse the damage. The damage could affect entire ecosystems, even human ones where humans hunt for fish in lakes or rivers. What happened in DDV was preventable to a certain degree and this is too.
Alma Williams | Drawing and Painting (Google Drive)
Capitalism Kills
In the book Dream of Ding Village a man gets wealthy off the profit of unregulated blood banks that caused the population of Ding Village to contract HIV/AIDS. The purpose of my painting is to show how capitalism, and the greed that is created by capitalism, are the cause of the deaths and suffering in Ding Village. The black strike going through the center of the page is to emphasize the juxtaposition of the grief of the families who lost loved ones to AIDS, with the greedy capital owners who seek profit despite inhumane tragedy. In the top half of the picture I drew the image of the Monopoly man, the face of a popular board game that is capitalist propaganda. He is depicted running from the death and sadness he created and towards the wealth promised by capitalism, leaving a trail of blood of those who he exploited behind him. The bottom half of the picture visualises the sadness and loss of the villagers in Ding village who lost their loved ones at the hands of capitalism.
Sarah Yandell |Painting (Google Drive)
Blood Contaminating the Water
My project is a painting depicting blood slowly contaminating a body of water. I wanted to show how issues may start off unnoticeable but can grow quickly to become unmanageable. In Ding Village blood selling was very popular as a way to make money but in the end it was the downfall of the village because the shared needles spread AIDS. In Madison the deteriorating quality of the lakes started as a slow process and grew exponentially over time. With these two things in mind I thought of combining them and making the blood the reason the water was polluted. Also I put the red in the corner and had it grow outwards to show the exponential growth of both the increase in blood selling and the acceleration of water pollution.
Kayeng Yang | Poem (Flipgrid)
Our Forsaken Deals
For the “Dream of Ding Village” and Community Issue Project, I chose to write a poem because I wanted to write something that would make my audience feel a sense of abandonment and betrayal. These themes are continuously present in both the “Dream of Ding Village” and my community issue which is the persecution of Hmong people in Laos. For example, both communities were fine before they got involved with people in power who wanted to use them for their own agenda and leave them behind once things start to fall apart. For the Ding Village, it was the government officials pressuring them to sell blood to have a better “plasma economy” and a “stronger and prosperous China”. While in the Community Issue Project, Hmong people were pulled into the war by the U.S government who feared the spread in communism even though Laos was going to remain neutral in the Vietnam War. Through the usage of pressuring and deceiving with money, freedom, and justice, the Ding Village and the Hmong people had to suffer an Aids pandemic and genocide. When both communities asked for help from the governments, they received a simple “there’s no cure” or nothing at all which is why I named my poem forsaken deals. Overall I wanted to express the feelings of helplessness of the villagers of the Ding Village and Hmong people due to empty promises and lies from people in power.
Ms. Bergum’s Class:
Gordon Allen | Digital pamphlet (Canva)
Dream of Ding Village Awareness Pamphlet
To best reflect my interpretation of Yan Lianke’s novel, “Dream of Ding Village,” I created an awareness pamphlet via Canva. I created the pamphlet to be shared on social media platforms in hopes of attracting viewers to not only informing themselves about the story behind the Chinese AIDS crisis but also to hook them into reading the novel for themselves. The awareness pamphlet reflects a critical interpretation of the novel because it thoroughly explains the purpose of it, the plot, and common themes associated with it, respectively. For instance, in the awareness pamphlet, viewers will first encounter that Lianke’s purpose in writing the novel was to inform the world about how the AIDS outbreak in the rural Henan province began and how it quickly spread to an epidemic in Mainland China. Such given information requires an in-depth understanding of the connection between Ding Village and the true place of origin, the Henan province. Regarding the plot, the pamphlet provides a concise summary of the novel with an addition of an outside accredited source. The summarization of the plot in the pamphlet highlights my interpretation of Dream of Ding Village by showing how well I understand the interactions between the main characters and groups, and how I was willing to further my interpretation by researching for an outside edition of the plot. Lastly, my definition of the common themes speaks most to my interpretation of the novel because, in order to create and link the themes, I had to understand the reason behind the villagers in selling their blood, the true motive behind the bloodheads, and how it all equates to the oppression of an already marginalized community. In the end, my awareness pamphlet details my interpretation of “Dream of Ding Village” thoroughly and creatively.
Jada Boyton | Poster (Google Drive)
Holding Burdens
My name is Jada Boyton, and the title of my project is,”Holding Burdens” . I made this piece of work to show how any race that isn’t white is born with burdens and problems in their life.In my community issues project I focused on racism in madison schools and how it affected the Madison community education system with people of color. Which relates to the book Dream of Ding Village as one family struggled with completely different things because of one son being in a higher party pile and the other son having health problems, and later on issues not getting what the other son received and being infected leading to his death.In the book Dream of Ding Village and madison schools people are affected due to others having more power,authority, and money changing their entire life my project represents what that can do to a person in their life.
Samuel Cann | Haiku (Google Drive)
Privilege: A Haiku
The poem demonstrates the connection between the privileges of rich people in the book, “Dream of Ding Village”, and the privileges of white people in my community issues project essay. The use of phrases like “they watch us suffer” in the haiku really emphasize how the privileges you gain from being rich or being white, are used to oppress and are direct factors of suffering for people of color, or in the case of the book, people who aren’t wealthy. The use of the word “us” comes directly from my experiences as a black male. I’ve witnessed first hand how being black can keep you from so many opportunities that would otherwise be offered in a case where I was white. This is also highlighted in “Dream of Ding Village” when civilians who are rich continue to profit from the poor after destroying their communities and general wellbeing. This example can be directly compared to slavery in America and how white people continued to profit from the destruction and oppression of Black people. During such times those who were poor, (in the case of the book) and those who weren’t white, suffered as their counterparts prospered.
Sophia Dustrud | Embroidery (Google Drive)
The line of connection between my personal issue and the book “Dream of Ding Village” is the negligence of authority. The government officials in Dream of Ding Village, despite endorsing the selling of blood in the first place, do not take responsibility for the outbreaks of AIDS and do not take any steps to confront the issue even though they are very powerful. Instead they choose to profit from the deaths. My personal issue, targeted internet harassment, is similarly ignored by moderators. In both cases, each respective government refuses to take action although being entirely capable of doing so.
My art project depicts a spilled blood syringe in order to represent the irresponsibility of the members of authority—in this case, the narrator’s father, Ding Hui, and the Chinese government. Ding Hui, the village’s first blood seller, often cuts costs and reuses needles, taking more blood than he promised. I added a biohazard bin in the back of the room to illustrate the importance of medical hygiene. My intended message is that those who have influence need to see past greed and time-saving in order to protect their communities.
Ava Ehrlinger | Multimedia and Video (Google Drive)
The connection I made between Dream of Ding Village and my community issue project is the fact that lives were completely turned upside down and changed by illness and death. In the case of Dream of Ding Village unregulated blood banks caused a huge outbreak of AIDS which completely wiped the village at times with death. This relates to my project because a normal community was struck by death and loneliness due to COVID-19. There are many similarities in what people from each community felt after the outbreaks.
Juliette Hayes | Digital art project (Google Drive)
Half of Each Other
The piece I made was hard for me because my community issue was colorism which I thought for the longest the book “Dream Of Ding Village ” the things in it wouldn’t have anything to do with each other but I then took the health aspect of both. Darker women and men in the medical are not given the same treatment they are not cared for well enough. They are left to sit and go though pain just like the people in ding village. Because of the constant reuse of needles the village rained with death and despair because of the doctors and nurses not always being taught how to look and find certain things on darker skin such as chicken pox or a bug bite.the government in both of those scenarios played a part in not doing more or enough. The topics seem different but are close in comparison, a simple teaching could have been given to both groups of people that you can’t reuse the needles when someone is giving blood just like chicken box on darker skin may not be bright red as it is on lighter skin.
Mantas Kudzin | Painting (Google Drive)
Politics
My painting is called “Politics”, and it represents how governments are so detached from their people and the struggles they face. In addition, it represents the destruction caused by governments turning their backs on their people. In Dream of Ding Village, there was an HIV/AIDS epidemic that was a direct result of unregulated blood selling. The government could have stepped in and stopped things from becoming as gruesome as they did, but they chose to let blood sellers continue to profit and spread the disease. During my own research, I learned that our government today makes a similar decision every time they choose to deny free mental healthcare. In both situations, innocent people suffer and many lose their lives. In Dream of Ding Village, dying from HIV/AIDS is slow, painful, and deadly, sort of like how people with untreated depression can be pushed to the point where they commit suicide. Governments all over the world consistently choose profit over the wellbeing of those who they should be looking out for.
Ashley Ocampo Reyes | Colored Pencil Drawing (Google Drive)
The Whispering Wing
The Whispering Wind is a drawing I drew with my long-time colored pencils. It is a forest because it is nature, and whenever you go outside, it is a disconnection with the society of humanity. In this setting, you are alone, and it is very much quiet. It is just you and the outside world. I named it The Whispering Wind because the wind has been here since the beginning and has seen and heard everything of the earth’s history. They’ve been through the most historical times and to the most deadliest events. One of these events was China’s AIDS epidemic in Dream of Ding Village. Many people in China were suffering, and greed for money became too powerful. It became editable that money and power were valued more than people’s lives. Because of this, China decided to censor Dream of Ding Village and hide their humanity crimes. Many people in the world are unaware of the event, and there are many untold stories by victims that will be unlikely to reveal. Additionally in my community issue project, Latinos are also silenced and are taught to be strong and independent. As a result, not many people seek mental health assistance and suffer in silence. The wind, on the other hand, knows everything and has heard what people went through. So next time when you take the time and have a walk outside, listen to what the wind is trying to tell you, they might be telling you a story of an untold voice.
Favor Olubi | Recruiting Poster (Google Drive)
Two Sides of the Same Story
My project was a poster like the ones organizations use to recruit volunteers for a job or program. The theme I focused on was greed and money. One side was the poster as it would be shown to the public. It tells them to come and donate their blood, it’s perfectly safe, they would be making money, and nothing can go wrong. The other side of the poster is what would be their true intentions. The people who run the blood drive are making money off of those who donate blood. They claim that it’s safe but they don’t really take any precautions to keep that promise. They feed lies to the people of the village.
Tenzin Woesel |PSA (Google Drive)
Two Sides of the Same Story
Dream of Ding Village and the American Dream, which is the topic for my Community project for AAPI, have similar conflicts. The Ding Villagers dream of surviving from AIDS, just like how Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders dream of surviving from the virus of hate. One big conflict here is money, for example, the villagers are once again fooled by the government official for money, in exchange to get their blood, but in order for the villagers to survive, they need money, similar to Asian American situation, our ancestors and family moved to American for better life, to make money and send it back to our family back home, they picked up any type of work just to make a living. In my PSA, I drew coffins for AIDS and wrote Virus for hate because they both equal the same thing, which is death. One huge connection they book and AAPI have is, ‘Dream’. The villagers used to dream of waking up to the beautiful cherry blossom which represents living life but now they dream of surviving and dream of living, in fear of the Virus from being killed. Similar to Asian American, we once believed this was the “free country” and to live happily, working hard to make this country beautiful with our unique cultures and food but now our ancestors and parents live in fear of their identity, they dream to go for a walk without experiencing hate crime and to survive from the virus, the hate virus.
Iris Cullen | Digital Collage (Google Drive)
Sex Education and Public Health
For this project I made a collage called Sex Education and Public Health.My community issue project was about how and why there needs to be better sex education in schools.This ties in perfectly to some of the themes and topics that are in Dream Of Ding Villiage.In my essay and Dream Of Ding Village a big theme is health specifficaly public health.A big thing that intersects in both the book and my essay is the problem of AIDS and HIV.In my collage I used pictures that represented comprehensive sex education and on one side and pictures that represented Dream Of Ding Village on the other.Then in the middle I put pictures that tie them both together like a picture saying “Say no to AIDS”.I also used an excerpt from my essay that says we need netter sex education in schools it also says that many problems can be avoid with proper education.If the people in Dream of Ding Village would have been better educated on AIDS and HIV they would have known better the to sell blood and they would have been able to know how the disease is spreed.
Elena Fisher | Haiku (Google Drive)
Two Towns
The name of my project is “Two towns”. It is a haiku about the connection of my community project to Dream of Ding village. My community essay was about air pollution in America. Dream of Ding Village is about HIV in a small town in China. They can be easily connected because they are both about a health crisis caused by greed. In Ding village, the greed is from the people that only care about the money they make from selling people’s blood, and not about the health of those people. In America, the greed is from the major companies that only care about the money they make off of fossil fuels, and not about the people that breathe in that pollution. In both places, “wealth is put over health”, like I said in my poem.
Suchart Her | Poem (Google Drive)
Ignorance Is The Problem
This poem on ignorance is an important piece that I wrote about how ignorance is the reason why problems in communities arise. In my poem, I mention how a problem starts and how people like the government or just officials do not care about what is happening. I also mention why they aren’t doing anything if they know they have the power to do something. In the book of Dream of Ding Village, many of the people start to have AIDS and a lot of the officials aren’t really doing anything. As a result, many people suffer from AIDS and eventually died from it. This is how selfish people can be when they only worry about themselves, instead of the communities which leads to corruption in the communities. This poem also relates to my CMI Project as well since Sexism in the Hmong community is a big problem still. Not a lot of Hmong elders care about this topic because it’s been going on for decades and they only worry about the culture and not this problem. They believe since this problem has been going on for decades there’s no need to change it. This is why ignorance is the problem. Things like this are still happening and someday can lead to the fall of a single community.
Anjali Hewitt-Sloane | Digital Painting Portrait (Google Drive)
The Weight of Our World
This painting was made in the relevancy of what is going on in today’s world. I wrote my school essay on the violence that the Asian community has been facing recently and how it is historically relevant. Anti-Asian hate has been going on for centuries, and it is something that almost every Asian individual will face in their lifetime. The trauma and the confusion and frustration are all things we will carry with us, as does every minority. When the villagers heard of this prosperous and seemingly inconsequential thing in Ding Village, they did not educate themselves. Instead, they followed the masses into what would later be their demise. Educating oneself can be the greatest weapon, and in a world where there is misleading information around every corner, it is essential.
William Huttleston | Spoken word poem Link to Content, Link to Performance
Four Simple Steps
My piece ‘Four simple steps’ was written and performed (Will Huttleston) by myself for Ms. Bergums AP Language and Compositions class at east highschool. This is a spoken word piece depicting primarily the best way to improve your community and the world, social activism. The tying in of social activism to Ding village comes from its lack during the AIDS epidemic. Ding village did not have anyone to stand up for their rights when they were gradually taken away by the government, the bloodheads, Ding Hui (and other corrupt citizens). My piece, a spoken poem, begins with 4 steps towards social activism, identification, research, planning, execution. The poem uses metaphor, simile, alliteration, and rhyme to create rhythm during the spoken piece. While the poem uses broad strokes to summarize the book, it has a powerful message; Stand up, act up, act out, create “good trouble”(-John Lewis) and make the change your community needs. This is my message, and the message of Ding village to the world: Activism and accountability (of those in power) are necessary for a healthy community.
Liliana Kuse | Stuff Cloth Figure Link to Content, Link to Content
Apathy
I made my project based around apathy. I intentionally made this figure very deteriorated to represent passiveness in the government when it comes to issues such as sickness or environmental problems. The chinese government created the issue of HIV when they started asking people to sell blood and then ignored the people when they were asking for help. Similar to my project because there aren’t enough regulations in place to keep people safe and the government isn’t doing a lot to prevent blue algae from getting worse. I made this creature but due to my apathy and ignorance it’s now in a bad state because of me. Luckily my intentional mistake has not affected anyone but the same can not be said for the people of ding village or the people who have gotten sick from blue-green algae.
Katelin Loch | Digital Infographic (Google Drive)
Dream of Ding Village vs. Asian Hate
The project I created is an infographic describing a similarity between the novel Dream of Ding Village and the recent events of hate crimes directed to the Asian community. I specifically focused on the aspect of competition in both situations. In my artifact I highlighted the differences in the two topics while giving a brief background information on each subject. Then, I wrote a small paragraph to describe its similarities in the aspect. I chose an infographic because I needed something that would present my information in an appealing way. In my artifact, I made sure to include images that would reflect the book Dream of Ding Village in some way. For example, I included pictures of something that would represent blood because blood is a big factor in the book. In Dream of Ding Village, the way that AIDs were contracted was through the sharing of needles while getting blood drawn. Getting blood drawn is what started the string of deaths in the village. When people saw the profit of selling blood, villagers lined up to get their blood drawn. However, some people didn’t pay particular attention to the sanitary factor. Therefore, many people contracted AIDs. As a result, death became a common thing in the village. In terms of competition, I focused on how Ding Hui wanted to get the most money out of everyone, he wanted to be the richest in the village. His greed led him to be the main factor in the contraction of AIDs in the village. Therefore, I specifically focused on him in my artifact. The ways I interpreted the book was a village of death that could’ve been easily avoided. With that idea, I applied that to the hate crimes towards Asians. The Asian community is in attack but people are mostly focusing on the competition between minority groups. Instead of focusing on the victims, people are arguing. The spike in violence against Asians could’ve been somewhat avoided if things were treated differently in the beginning. In my artifact, I focused on how competition affected each situation. Specifically, I wrote mostly about the negative effects of competition on the two subjects.