session 2 w/Dr. Clayton Dube

Hi everyone! I, too, know very little about East Asia; yet, the information in class has been amazing. In our brief discussion about the Joint Communique, although we primarily focused on the relationship between China and Taiwan, someone did bring up China's relationship with Tibet. This morning and I believe yesterday as well NPR has been following the protest in Tibet against celebrating the Chinese New Year. I was surprised to learn that the monks have been very much involved in the protest. Here is a link to today's article: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/22/147256506/on-tibetan-plateau-a-sense-of-constant-surveillance

From our discussion about Nixon’s trip to China, I was reminded of a trip I took recently, out of curiosity, to Nixon’s Library in Yorba Linda. Of course, his trip to China is presented there. With the aid of the museum’s website, I recall some of the cultural aspects of US-China exchange: ping pong and pandas. The U.S. ping pong team had met China’s players in Japan, and were the first to be invited to China. Secondly, in the same year, 1971, Kissinger paid a visit to China, to pave the way for Nixon. There is a photo on the website of Kissinger playing ping pong in China. Then in 1972, Nixon’s visit occurred, which included a photo op at the Great Wall, with Pat Nixon in a beautiful bright red coat. An exchange of gifts occurred. The U.S. presented a pair of musk ox, and China gave the U.S. the spectacularly popular pair of pandas. In the spring of 1972, China’s ping pong team visited the U.S.
edited by egoebel on 2/23/2012

I had a few ideas for some lessons while sitting in class during Dr. Dube’s lecture. I would like to have my students in my World History class compare the Mandate of Heaven to the Divine Right of Kings by illustrating each concept with a flowchart. I will also like to my have students compare pottery from different cultures and have them draw conclusions based on the patterns and drawings on ancient pottery that they will analyze (i.e. Chinese, Greek, Persian, Egyptian and Native American).

Each week I watch CNN Student News with my Geography students and was excited that by watching this program with my students, I had background knowledge about the Chinese diplomat that was visiting the United States and L.A.

I like the debate topics ideas as well. It would be a really great activity for students to research the different types of governments and their effects on citizens that we study and conduct a debate after the CST's in May. I would really like the opportunity to involve current event topics on the different styles of governments. It's difficult for my students to believe that sometimes oppression still exists in other parts of the world.

Given the landmark anniversary of the Joint Communique, I was very grateful to receive a copy of Assignment: China, The Week that Changed the World at our Saturday seminar a couple of weeks ago. The insight and perspective presented in the documentary provides a fantastic appendix to this subject and it is something that I plan to show (at least selected clips) when I cover China in depth after the CSTs.