Below is a portal. Where does the portal lead? Well apparently, the director of a small museum has decided to do a tour event about Wu Zetian. Her name is Athena, she’ll probably explain when you get there. Now, ride that magical (not really) portal to the lovely land of YouTube.
Post questions, comments, or anything really below!
I loved how you used Youtube videos to make the museum gallery and I can tell you put lots of work into making the videos. The text plus the talking made it very easy to follow along and retain more information from the videos. as well as keeping it engaging. I learned a lot about someone who I didn’t know about before, thanks. It may have been something I missed but I was wondering why Wu Zetian executed Empress Wang and Consult Xiao?
Thank you! Technically, Empress Wang wanted Zetian back from the nunnery to distract Gaozong from Consort Xiao. So Xiao and Zetian never liked each other. Then, Gaozong liked Zetian SOOO much, he wanted to get rid of Empress Wang. So then they all just hated each other and since Zetian replaced Empress Wang, she wanted them dead because they were trying to get Gaozong to get rid of her. So partly because of survival and partly because it was a three-way hate triangle.
Hi Athena,
The format you used for your learning centre was very interactive. Your learning centre definitely showed that you had a good understanding of your eminent person. One thing that I was wondering was what do you think are some of the most inspiring traits that your eminent person has?
Thank you for the compliments! One would be that she didn’t acknowledge the criticism and hatred she got and didn’t let it hinder her. She would instead do things like look at their writing skills and use their failures as a way to boost her own position. Another would be that she used kindness and understanding to gain the trust of the common people which helped her become empress and emperor.
Your way of presenting your learning centre was super creative and interesting. The way you organized your facts into separate rooms but still managed to tie them all together showed that you truly understood the information you gathered and how it all fit together.
You mentioned how some scholars tried to villainize Wu Zetian. Do you think that that’s a fair way to see her? Or do you think that it was all necessary for her eminence?
Thanks Sarah! While I don’t think that was a fair way to see her seeing that there are many male emperors that did a lot worse than her, I do think it increases her eminence. Some scholars were already villanizing her during the second half of her life but she just laughed them off and acted scary on purpose sometimes.
Hi Athena. Your learning center was really informative. Why did you choose Wu Zetian as your eminent person?
It is really awesome that Wu Zetian found it important to look after the common folk. I believe that it would be really great if people in power in this day and age could take some advice from her and look after people from all walks of life.
Hi Caroline, thanks for your comment! I chose Wu Zetian for a few reasons. 1, because I wanted to do an Asian woman as I am also an Asian woman. 2, because I admire the fact that she is and was heavily criticized but paid it no heed. And 3, because she supported the idea of females doing jobs that they chose over jobs men chose for them.
Hi,
Why do you think there has never been another female emperor? Have females have similar levels of power in modern time?
Mrs. Chambers
Hello Mrs. Chambers. I believe that there has never been another female emperor because the tradition and belief system ancient china went off stating that women in power will bring disgrace to the land. Wu Zetian was able to bend the rules by establishing new beliefs into the minds of people temporarily and winning their trust and admiration through selfless acts. I will say, that other women have come close in both ancient china (empress dowager) and in present-day (politicians and influencers), but most don’t have people beg them to become the most influential person in their countries history.
Wow, Athena!! This was such a creative and engaging way to present your Learning Centre. I really enjoyed the drawings, the interactive components, and the video game-style approach. You also did some great voice-overs 🙂
I’m wondering if you know why Wu Zetian initially refused the request to take the throne as emperor?
Aw, thanks Ms. Lee! The act was a gesture of humbleness. She didn’t want to seem power-hungry and eager, especially when she wasn’t exactly favoured by many of the people who had the ability to attack her. It also made more people have to accept her as emperor, so no one can deny her right to rule.
What a detailed and unique collection of Wu Zetian’s life, challenges, and accomplishments! What a unique eminent person to be interested in. You mentioned that Zetian frequently provided suggestions for the improvements of the common folk’s and women’s lives. What modern day suggestions would you make today if you were in the power of an Empress?
Thank you for the kind comment! Personally, the modern world is so much better in terms of equal rights than ancient China. But I would make suggestions about how to educate people about different races, cultures, genders etc. and the amount of emphasis some of these need to get, as they played significant parts in building our world but are commonly over looked (just like how commonfolk were overlooked sometimes by the aristocrats)
Great job with the videos! I like how you voiced over the text as well as use music in order to set the mood for different parts of your learning centre. What part of Wu Zetian’s early life do you think contributed best to her knowledge of politics and style of ruling?
Thanks for the comments! I’d say it was a mix that she read a lot about politics as a child and enjoyed it, she was scared of leaving the palace so she would do things to keep her place, and that she wanted the commonfolk to live good lives so she acted graciously.
Amazing job, Athena! So well done! I love the layout and the art and voiceovers. It was all an engaging way to show your learning. There are some great questions in the comments above. I was wondering if you had thought about Wu Zeitan’s villanization in comparison to other powerful women in history? Do you see any parallels or similar examples? Do you think some of that negativity has to do with her specific politics or her gender? Her race? Her willingness to talk to common folk? I’m just curious because there aren’t that many women like her and it is interesting to see how history has treated her.
Thank you for the comment Ms. Wasstrom! I’d say like other villainizations of powerful females in history, her crimes weren’t always made up, just emphasized or written poorly/with the wrong context. There was definitely some negativity regarding how women specifically should act in China. Almost all of the negativity came from how she supported females and poor people since she was a very good politician. Scholars were normally treated well by aristocrats since they are the ones writing down history, so they were technically raised on the idea that women like Wu Zetian are bad, similar to other cultures that see women as baby-makers and baby-makers only, and that poor people aren’t favoured by deities and should be paid no attention.
Engaging learning centre. It highlights your strengths and insight as a learner. I wonder what it would take to change the way China thinks and feels about female emperors? Would this ever happen?
Thank you for the comment Ms. Mulder! Technically, Wu Zetian was able to temporarily change the way China thinks and felt about female emperors and females doing masculine jobs in general. For her, it took changing the religion, showing many displays of intelligence and good ruling behind a man, and showing acts of kindness many male emperors never showed the commonfolk and lower-ranking families. So technically, it can happen and it did, but it didn’t last long because, after her death, many men were even more intent on oppressing women, and many women saw how hard Wu Zetian’s life was and were not sure if they’d be able to make the decisions and pull off the acts she did.