History, Culture and Collective memory
As the sun begins to set on the main square in Cracow, the beauty of the city intoxicated me. I'm stunned by its spectacular scenery as well as the history and culture behind the country, Poland.
Professor Marta Shaw gave us a brief introduction of the intriguing history of Poland, which covered the important transitions during several periods of history. For example, in Jagiellonian dynasty, the hereditary system was replaced by election system. The power of the king had greatly shrunk compared to the prior time since the local nobles had the most privileges from the success of elections. Furthermore, the professor further explained how Catholic became the national identity of Poland and how the political parallelism was built with religion. Even more interestingly, some anecdotes mentioned in the morning panel showed its historical traces in the visit of the old town later in the afternoon. we heard the trumpet from the top of the church which served as reconnoitre discovering invaders in the legend.
In terms of culture, Poland is a country with typical Coconut culture, which means it's hard to know people and get in the social circle if you don't get introduced by someone from inside. It's totally opposite to the Peach culture of America, which is soft outside and hard inside. Also, because of the history that polish had endured, they prefer starting a small conversation with passive critics. The Polish culture varies greatly to the American culture in different aspects. But both of them show their complexity and distinctive beauty in culture.
Poland has a period of unforgettable collective memory, which is extremely painful during the second world war. In the panel given by professor Marek Kucia, it shows that most Jewish in Poland were killed in that time. Furthermore, It's surprising to know that in the dark social environment, Jewish were damagingly killed by Poles as well, not only by Nazi. Given a glimpse of the miserable history of this country, It seems much easier to understand how polish culture is made and what decides the country's communist history and economic transitions after the end of the war.
Poland has experienced extreme hardships and difficulties in the past. But its persistence and toughness lead the country stepping forward to a bright future. I'm looking forward to experiencing more in the terrific country during the rest of the week.
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