Hong Kong Protests

[Matthew Hurwitz]

The Economist Article on the protests in Hong Kong made me think about how I can more fully integrate news from different parts of the world into my classroom. I make my AP Government students listen to "The Daily" podcast and discuss how the politics they're listening to connect to what we're studying in class every Friday. Since a number of the recent episodes have been on Hong Kong, students have been making interesting connections in their group discussions about what we're studying in our unit (The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, the Enlightenment Thinkers) with the current political unrest in Hong Kong. I'm thrilled that my students are making these connections, but I've felt a little frustrated with my lack of deep knowledge of the politics in Hong Kong, and how those politics interact with mainland China and the countries around them, since I feel like I haven't been able to scaffold those particular discussions or connections as well as ones that connect to American politics. One of the things I'm hoping to learn more about in the coming weeks is the modern political dynamics between the various countries of East Asia, not just the historic political dynamics between Asia and "the West", which was the only lens through which I learned about modern China at all in school (and even that "modern" only went up to the end of the Cold War). As we learn more about the region, I'm hoping it'll allow me to structure discussions involving Government and Asia more effectively for my classes.