Message from cowen

[Anonymous]

My first thought for this afternoon's session is I liked the way Professor Jung-Kim used the theme of globalization to present the history of Korea. In the past, as I've taught many of the regions of the world, I have had the tendency to teach them more as case studies: a small window focusing just on one nation at a time. Or I introduce the Atlantic World and triangle trade, but then never mention the same type of experience in Asia. This year I want to show the greater relationships between countries and people (not just the conflicts).

I also find it useful that this session on Korea has happened after our discussions of China and Japan. There is so much overlap and opportunities to compare and contrast the three nations. Again, I hope I can use this as a model in my own classroom because I have found it very effective for my own understanding.

One question: What has this global history done to ethnicity in East Asia? Has there been a lot of intermarriage among people of China, Korea, and Japan? I would imagine (I'm thinking about the Comfort Women here) that there would be a good number of children born as a result of interracial "unions." Is there a stigma against this or against these children? Is it getting any better?