Gender and Generation in My Classroom

I came to this seminar hoping to gain some insights to answer my students’ questions about gender and generation in East Asian culture in this age where gender roles and even gender as a concept are rapidly changing. As a teacher of Mandarin, and especially as a non-native speaker who did not grow up in China, it is crucial that I continue to learn about traditional and changing values and customs in China and other parts of East Asia. Because of the prominent LGBTQ population in my school, these questions have been at the front of their minds, and I have not been immersed in Chinese culture enough recently enough to feel up to date about my answers. While the seminar focused on gender and generation in East Asia as a whole and did not specifically aim to address my students’ pressing questions, I definitely gained some insights that have helped me think through issues that members of the LGBTQ community face and the traditional values and perspectives that impact them. I have come away with some better understanding of the traditional values that still prevent gay marriage from being possible, for example. I have seen a difference between biological males presenting as feminine in US culture and soft masculinity in Asian culture. While I feel more equipped to help students think through these questions as a result of this seminar, I have also walked away with so much more than I sought upon registering. 

Incorporating information and literature about gender and generation in East Asia throughout history into my Chinese language lessons on family, home living, festivals, occupations, etc. will help students to build a foundation of exposure to centuries old perspectives that continue to impact values and actions in the present day. I plan to introduce stories of Mencius’s mother in my beginning classes when we learn about family members, and to reintroduce it in Chinese in a higher level when we learn about housing. I plan to introduce Ban Zhao’s lessons to women during a unit on marriage and children, and to weave instruction on China’s familism and neo-familism throughout all levels of Mandarin. I am still exploring all of the texts and resources presented at the Gender and Generation in East Asia seminar and hope to find ways to incorporate some of the modern pieces in the original Chinese into my upper level classes. This seminar has provided me with a wealth of materials and resources to help me enrich my teaching about China and East Asian culture. It is overwhelming to process how I can use it all, but I am excited to start weaving what I have gained into my lessons immediately!