In short, in the days leading to the Collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the German band (Scorpions) members went to the Soviet Union to share their music and to meet their nation's former- and formal enemies face-to-face. Only, in this way, could Germans begin to show themselves to be only moving Eastward in Peace. Only such a peaceful approach could salve the memories of WWII (and eventually the Cold War), i.e. finally laying to rest the past for new generations.
EAST ASIAN COMPARISONS
Interestingly, in the lifetimes of the parents of my very own junior high students here on Taiwan's Matsu Islands--located just off the coast of mainland China--a wind of change occurred at roughly the same time, i.e. in the 1980s and 1990s. There was political reforms called for and fought for, especially in Taiwan during this period.
Simultaneously, the Taiwan army here in Matsu and the Chinese armed forces slowly began to stand down from confrontation here. At one time at the height of the Cold War, there were nearly 60,000 Taiwanese troops on these tiny islands--only kilometers from mainland China. (Several attempted invasions from both sides ended with comparatively few casualties in the 1950s and 1960s. Thank God.) Now, there are less than a 1000 troops and most of them are just short-term conscripts--simply out fulfilling their national obligations, i.e. not typical hard-fighting marine-types.
On the other hand, knowing-full-well that my junior high students had not personally faced that Cold War nightmare in Matsu, I chose to look at and reflect on another East Asian land to explain what had happened in Europe in the late 1980s. I asked them to look at the Korean Peninsula and asked them to imagine the walls and fences on both sides of the borders with a no-man's land and/or DMZ in between. Next, I explained that "winds of change" was an older western metaphor about political and social situations changing abruptly. "Winds of Change" are seen as a precursor to people standing up for what is right and getting ready to march for their freedom. It is also a call to new national or international consciousness.
Finally, I shared personally that in January 1989, I, too (like the Scorpions), had traveled from West Germany to Moscow to meet Soviet citizens face-to-face. Soon winds of change were sweeping across the continent. Later, in December of that very same year, I climbed over the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate--then walked unscathed down the famous Unter-den-Linden Street into East Berlin.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Only a year and half earlier I had gone to the Berlin Wall (approximately 50 meters from that exact same location where I climbed over on December 31, 1989 at the Brandenburg Gate), an East German guard had shouted at me from a watch tower to move away from that very fence. (The tower had been located between the River Spree, the German Reichstag, and the Brandenburg Gate). Nearby were two crosses to mark where on two different occasions East German had died trying to cross over that same fenced in area.
In summary, in my own classroom experience, the song "Wind of Change" contains a metaphor and a tale that even fairly young East Asians can identify with 22 years after the events which inspired them. I know this because my students took notes on the lecture (& handed the notes in for my checking) and because they enjoyed singing, humming, and whistling along with the music of "Wind of Change" as we did a cloze listening activity. Furthermore, they could see and comprehend in the continuing divisions in East Asia (e.g. the Korea example) that people needed to consider listening to the winds of change--and eventually taking appropriate action to remove walls and build down tensions.
Part 3 of this article will be on the introduction of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and my attempts to connect once again "the winds of change" metaphor, while sharing a bit more about Western culture and music.
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