Unwilling Chinese Astronauts
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010On Tuesday, Mr. Chung showed a 2 minute video on the Chinese space program. In the video, a Chinese government official proudly mentioned that China sent a man into space, fully conscious and without shackles. The news clip goes on to discuss how China was using political prisoners for their space program. One reporter said, “China’s first manned mission occurred when political prisoner Yang Li-Wei was knocked unconscious in his cell and awoke to find himself in orbit.”
After a heated class discussion on the pros and cons of this space policy and whether the United States should themselves adopt this strategy, Mr. Chung dropped a bombshell. He mentioned that the news report was a parody and it was not true.
What were you thinking when Mr. Chung was showing the video and giving the lesson? Did you think it was a good thing that the Chinese government was doing with their prisoners?
How did you feel when you found out the news story was fake?
Why do you think Mr. Chung gave this fake lesson? What did you learn from this?
