Hello, Steemit.

Hello, Steemit.

I am Ying Chen. Obviously, it’s a Chinese girl’s name. It is such a long story to tell why I am here, at the Steemit, as though it is hard to fly the remote distance across the Pacific Ocean to be in Philly.

Now I major in Liberal Arts in Temple University. And I love history and photography. Usually, my classes are going to read some novels and talk about their plots. Not like history, in which historians use objects or materials to do research, we focus on articles and virtual life. Neither like photography, which uses different aspects to document the world, we create other worlds to illustrate our real life. But history and photography are so attractive to me that help me notice the past and those stories of my surroundings. Anyway, I'm happy to be a member of steemit.

Maritime folklife
Last semester, I focused on material culture along the Delaware River and worked on the tools to unveil the hunting history in Philadelphia. The methodologies to observe and document objects are totally different from the ways that I used to analyze articles. Even though the terminology is very hard for a starter, new ideas often come with sparkling discussion. History encourages me to get in touch with new objects and gain deep knowledge of them. Through learning the tools, I knew that objects sometimes act as complex actants in the meditation of their network, folding of time and space, reflecting people’s performance in a long-ranging historical process. In addition, it helps me notice my bias and let me try to avoid them. Sometimes, it is easy for me to reach a dead end when I was addicted into my mind, but history taught me to use several different methods to blaze a new trail.

(It was very impressive to see the duck decoy machine at the Havre De Grace Marine Museum. Man-made and factory-made decoys represented different stages of hunting history.)

(The head of duck decoys )

Public Art
Further, I worked on the Mural Art Program in Philadelphia. Philly has a large number of murals, which present the city’s diverse cultures and multiple art styles. Some of them illustrate how mural arts could convey community’s identity and bridge the gap between immigrations and American citizenship. Through analyzing the painting technique that American artist applied to murals, we could know the way how murals try to communicate with people and preserve the heritage of Philadelphia. People usually pay attention to interpret the images in the artwork, but ignore space expression, like the relationship between the images and the environment. Public arts are so obsessive for me to dig into. It’s quite a wonderful journey when you do some research about them.

(The Panorama of Colors of Light. Photo by Jack Ramsdale)

And regarding to our focus on 1918, I would like to say that it is a little bit beyond my recognition, after all it is 100 years ago. But how the past became history is the interesting point to go into. It is the anniversary of the World I and also the race riots. This dynamic year witnessed the change of world pattern and the development of human democracy. It is a special year that we need to remember and learn from it.

^{100% of the SBD rewards from this #explore1918 post will support the Philadelphia History Initiative @phillyhistory. This crypto-experiment is part of a graduate course at Temple University's Center for Public History and is exploring history and empowering education to endow meaning. To learn more [click here.](https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@phillyhistory/announcing-the-first-steem-powered-university-course-mining-theyear- 1918-at-temple-university)}