Final Essay

The seminar helped me to learn about historical and modern Korean, Chinese, and Japanese gender and generation. While I was already familiar with many ideas about traditional gender and generational roles in China because I had lived there for some time, I wasn’t familiar with these elements in Korean and Japanese culture and history. It was a good opportunity for me to learn as a person and as a teacher.

The speakers brought in depth and specialized research on gender and generation in East Asia that helped me to push my understanding on the topics. Yan Yunxiang’s discussion on the development of individuals after the cultural revolution interested me. It puts words to what I witnessed when I lived in China. There were stark differences between generations and genders in terms of how individualism presented. I also liked how Professor Miyake displayed male and female writings alongside each other and had us look for clues about the gender of the author and discuss the implications. It’s an interesting way to learn about early writing in Heian and Kamajura periods and about the gendered roles of men and women. Films with enduring themes are a great way to bring historical information and concepts to students. In the clips from “Late Spring” that Kerim Yasar showed, we saw that family roles, gender roles, and change in Japan are ideas that students can relate to personally. Professor Wang argued that yinyang aren’t binary but each within the other, playfully developing and enhancing each other. That yinyang gender relationships are dynamic and fluid. Finally, since I personally love reading science fiction and dystopian literature like “Folding Beijing,” I found Brian Bernards’ lecture most interesting. Unlike most speakers, he identified text, which is important for me as a high school English teacher.

Learning about gender and generation in East Asia facilitates a greater appreciation of diverse histories and cultures. With this, I can include information about East Asia in instruction and also bring my students to a deeper respect for diversity.