Session II - 11/10/09

I, too, wish to thank Clay and Miranda for providing us with the wonderful dinner, especially welcome after a long day in the classroom. Tonight I was again reminded just how satisfying it is to sit on the 'other' side of the learning table. Bravo, Clay, for helping me to make more 'sense' of the Dynasties. I learned so much and many questions cleared up for me - for instance, the 'meanings' of the Dynasty names, Ming, etc.

I was struck by the description of the voyages of 'exploration' by the Chinese Eunoch. How different the Chinese purpose, from that of the 'Western' explorers, who often travelled with the 'cross' in hand.
I wonder whether that impulse is a 'Chinese' trait which might shed light on the mind-set of the present-day government and society?[Edit by="sbartosiak on Nov 11, 10:39:31 AM"][/Edit]

I am going to say it once again; Thanks for feeding us!!!

Last night we wasted no time. I am amazed of how much Clay knows about Chinas history, geography , culture, etc.

I like to take notes on my computer during the presentations, I am more focused and although I might miss some details, I like to have the ability to document and organize my notes right there while the topic is being presented. When I miss a little something and later own I either remember or there is a reference back to it, I like to be able to added anywhere in the document, and to copy paste as needed.

Reviewing the history and the emperors was very important last night. While Clay reviewed the dynasties, their most important events and dates they were in power, I remembered the scrolls I saw just a week ago at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana the Chinese exhibit.
They have several tapestry scrolls with the dates of the dynasties and important details about their warfare, art, and important issues.

Information becomes more familiar the more I see it in different scenes.

I have been reading from the resource book we received. Last night I was very moved by two of the accounts taken from the oral histories. Both men described peasant life in the early 20th century in the most abject terms. In many ways the narratives reminded me of the kind of history I had read about peasants in czarist Russia before the October Revolution. The personal stories were powerful and heartbreaking - If you're looking for something engaging and informative, choose these few pages. To me, these are the MOST interesting readings I have found thus far in the resource book. I most certainly will be using them with my students.[Edit by="sbartosiak on Nov 21, 12:21:39 PM"][/Edit]

I agree, thank you Miranda and Clayton for the wonderful food and all the great information that was shared last Tuesday!

I was very impressed with the presentation. I really find it interesting how non-ethnic Chinese ruled over the Chinese for large periods of time. The Qing dynasty has so many wonderful and interesting things happening. I didn't realize how penalizing the Treaty of Nanjing was to the Chinese! I know that the Europeans weren't nice in the slightest, but talk about unfair!

I have learned about footbinding in the past, but I really enjoyed how Clayton uses imagery to impress upon us the seriousness of the topic. I had forgotten what a bound foot looked like. Despite the fact that it is terribly unattractive without a shoe covering the broken and mutilated foot, I'm that I remembered (incorrectly) that it was a more common practice.

Another concept that I found fascinating is the extraterritoriality! I think it's awful how the Europeans gave their citizens a free pass on their actions in foreign countries. And to think, Russia was one of the first countries to give up the protect this concept has given to foreign citizens!

All I can say is that I'm SUPER excited for the seminar tomorrow! I can't wait to see what will be discussed tomorrow!

I want to thank Miranda Ko and Professor Dube for providing such a wonderful dinner.

Tonight's session was a review of some of the sessions from spring 2009 USC East Asia forum. Of particular interest to me was how technologically advanced China was - only to
regress due to internal political strife - perhaps now they want to take their "rightful place" as an international, technological giant.

In my classroom, I want to show my students the picture of the Chinese ships, compared with Columbus' ships - it was a very compelling picture.

A few historians and economists cite the rise of East Asia as a prelude to the decline of power in the West. The shift will be a long and arduous adjustment for Westerners - especially the US - who has enjoyed some 60 years of being a superpower.

However, this uneasy shift of global dominance will present challenges to East Asian countries as well. For instance, in Japan, some people are imagining a more culturally mixed society with non-Asians and Southeastern Asians, while Japanese conservatives simply want to populate Japan with Japanese families. Conservatives see this strong Japan as one in which those of Japanese decent immigrate to Japan. ("Don't Bring me your Huddled Masses" The Economist 12/30/08.)

South Korea has to contend with a declining birth rate (Choi, Seon-jeong, "Korea's Planned Parenthood Promoting Births? Why?", MercatorNet.com 7/4/09) and the possibility of a united Korea where low skilled North Koreans may have to be absorbed into a highly technologically advanced society in the South. South Korea middle income society with a thread of a social safety net, could not accomplish the same feat as West Germany who slowly integrated both East and West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989. ("The Odd Couple" The Economist, 9/25/08.)

And, in the mother of all economic powerhouses, China may be subtly sabotaging its own future. As one commentator on MSN.com (10/27/09) stated (I am paraphasing), "China's development in the next 15 years will equal that of the US which took 200 years to attain."
Declining rainfall, due to climate change (according to scientists), is drying up wells and reservoirs along with water-intensive crops such as winter wheat. The water table continues to fall since the 1970s which dries out wetlands and rivers. China has a smaller water supply than the US with five times as many people (1.3 billion as of 2009).

As a solution, Mao's vision of borrowing water from the Yangtze for the north was too simple for scientists and engineers who debated about it for decades before it was approved in 2002.

Today, the demand for water is far greater in the North and water pollution is rampant in the south. Forty-one percent of China's wastewater is dumped in the Yangtze. Mr. Yang compared China's pollution problems with that of the US in the 1920s and 1930s. Thus, for all of China's exponential development, its problems have increased just as quickly.
(Jim Yardley, "Beneath Booming Cities, China's Future is Drying Up," New York Times, 9/28/07.)

Overall, China should not be viewed as a threat to the US since their challenges
(in some ways) have mirrored ours - albeit in a shorter time period. For whatever adaptations the US has to make for the shifting of power to the East, they must meet us part of the way since our global economy requires transnational interdependence.

Cheryl Watson

I also want to thank Clay and Miranda for the food and an interesting first session. Although I was familiar with the opium wars I was not informed about the "Century of Humilation" Clay's lecture gave me insight into the Chinese psyche and how the previous century had impacted the nation's consciousness today. This is especially relevant concerning the issues between China and Tibet, western biases in the media, and Hollywood's infactuation with the Dali Lama (whom I greatly respect). Reflecting on this, I must remind myself that as an educator, I must stress to my students that there is never one single truth to the past. History always reveals its secrets in many ways, bringing to mind the words of Aristotle: "Poetry is finer and more philosphical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Well, this was my first session and boy I came in with the offerings of a great dinner. Thank you sooo much for the dinner as others have expressed. I love sushi, so it was perfect. Wow it was the first time I heard Professor Clay. I was impressed and really enjoyed the visuals and the insight. Wow (again) I felt as though I was in college (but we never got food for attending class...). I wrote so many notes I'm not sure where to begin. I agree with Meredith and Thomas about the foot binding. Yes I had heard of it. But to see the pictures and get all that detail was exceptional! I still cant believe it was an act of love. But "Western" society has done worse. The whole idea of a corset, etc.
I enjoyed learning about the all the dynasties (I knew them once, when I taught 6th and 7th grade many moons ago, but have since forgotten. And unlike the Chinese who dont forget, I forgot about the Century of Shame. I was facinated by the Opium dilemma (as others have pointed out in their explainations). I teach about the Wars, but its very brief and superfisical. I now have a much more detailed account to produce a powerpt (or even perhaps a whole lesson). finally the Boxer Rebellion, like the Opium wars, I teach, but on a very superfiscal level. The details about the battle itself and how once again the Chinese were humiliated and gave into europeans hands really needs to be empahasized on my behave. It was a great lesson..I wasnt even tired after we were done!