pre-2011 web resources

[clay dube]

Some may have seen the documentary Migrant Workers of Shanghai on Link TV. Here is a link to the channel's website. It features a 5 minute clip from the film.

http://www.linktv.org/programs/migrantworkers

The film explores the lives, hopes, and fears of those who are building Shanghai and China's other great cities.

[clay dube]

Tens of millions of migrant workers who wanted to return home for Chinese new year were stranded at rail and bus stations, often in dangerous circumstances. Here is a video assembled with still photos of the tragic storm and energy shortage induced nightmare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2h-Myhdww

[clay dube]

Tudou.com is China's biggest video sharing site. The link below is to a music video created to celebrate the vital contribution made by migrant workers (in the video they are called nongmin gong 农民工 or farmer-workers). Click on the button at the lower right of the video controls to expand the video to full screen.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/yWsq-tdzu6A/

[Anonymous]

I am going to use this web source for my social sciences to demonstate the experiences of East Asia, Latin America, and Europe/Ireland in their travails and challenges. It is an excellent compare and contrast exercise with the immigrant experience framed in mind and spirit.

[Anonymous]

Migrant Workers of Shanghai is a good short video clip/documentary on the living conditions/plight of Chinese migrant workers.[Edit by="foster on Mar 5, 10:32:41 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Having seen many of these scenes on TV, I didn't really understand the desperation of the people trying to go home until learning so recently of the migrant workers' situations. Before last week's readings and Professor Fan's presentation, I just thought it was sad and unfortunate, similar to when thousands of people are stranded at airports when there are blizzards over the Christmas or Thanksgiving holidays here in the US. After learning of the difficult lives the migrant workers lead, how seldom they get to see their families, and the huge number of travelers, the images take on a much deeper meaning and I definitely sympathize with their situations on a more personal level.

[Anonymous]

Recently there have been some good web resources passed around on the AP World History listserv. Some of these may be repeats, but they're worth revisiting anyway.

Visualizing Cultures (MIT “Throwing Off Asia” Site) - this site has woodblock prints of the Sino-Japanese War and westernization during the Meiji period.
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027j/throwing_off_asia/index.html

Asia for Educators
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu

Asia for Kids
http://www.afk.com

Ask Asia
http://www.askasia.org/teachers

Smithsonian’s Freer & Sackler Galleries
http://www.asia.si.edu

- Cathy Atwell

[Anonymous]

What a fascinating piece of technology when it comes to the Abacus. It is an ingenious tool for investigation and I have used it in a language arts class. Who knows with a shortage of power plants and electricity, we may all be returning to this simple but effective piece of technology. And when it breaks down, I know how to repair the Abascus---- and get it up and running in no time. How many other twentieth century tools can you say that about?[Edit by="jcsmyth on Mar 9, 3:05:49 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I used to teach math and I think the abacus is a great tool for understanding our base 10 system. It also helps students to understand how to work in other base systems easily by removing or adding a peg. With only 9 pegs, then we move to a base 9 system. With only 2, we have a base 2 (or binary) system which we can easily relate to how computers think/talk to each other.

[Anonymous]

I came across the website primarysource.org <http://www.primarysource.org> and under the "resources" link accessed "China Source" which is part of Harvard University Asia Center. I signed up for a username and password for primary sources for China. The "China Sources" section is rich with information (including great slides) as well as a good source for primary sources for DBQ practice. It also has audio for pronunciation of words as well as interactive maps. Go to the trouble of getting access to this. You'll be impressed!

I copied the summary of content for the site:

Browse by Dynasty – This site is arranged chronologically by dynasty. Use the tabs on the top of each page to find information and resources specific to each Chinese dynasty. Each dynasty page includes: a Timeline, an HistoricalSummary and a Map, as well as:
Annotated Slide Shows, which present sets of images from the Harvard University Asia Center collection with narrative highlighting important aspects of each dynasty.
Lesson Plans, which link to lesson plans developed and tested by experienced teachers associated with Primary Source and its many programs.
Links, which connect you to additional resources on the web.
Browse by Theme – Broad topics that include more than one period in Chinese history are also included.
Annotated Slide Shows, Lesson Plans and Links on the Home page highlight broad topics in Chinese history and culture.
Find a Specific Topic – using the site search engine on the right.
Pronunciation Guide – Present material authentically using our pronunciation guide.

[Anonymous]

seedmagazine.com

Seed Magazine is a science magazine that features a "Chinese Science" column in every issue. The articles are fantastic -- very interesting, well-written and informative. I recommend the articles for teachers to read and share the info with their students (would make for great discussions).

This month's article (March '08), for example is titled:
Eastern Union
"What will happen when the two most populous nations on Earth join scientific forces?

Seed Magazine[Edit by="mkuhn on Mar 19, 5:08:06 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I'm an art teacher and am thinking about doing two different lessons based on the Chinese Zodiac and/or Astrology I'll post my ideas in another post. Below are links I've discovered.

This first set is from Wikipedia. The links provided are uncontested entries, though links to a few animals are contested (especially the Dog it seems). I would greatly appreciate new links to accurate information on any subjects in this vein, but especially on the contested data! I would especially be interested in some translated primary source material.

Chinese Astrology/Chinese Zodiac link. Tons of great info on origins plus much more, including charts to map out 3 of the 4 Animal influences for the 4 pillars of Destiny (Year, Month, and hour, no day) and links to info on each animal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac

Earthly Branches - Chinese System of reconing time by orbit of Jupiter. Useful since it gives names of Constelations/Zodiac animals in 4 languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthly_Branches

Wu Xing - The Five Elements
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_elements_%28Chinese_philosophy%29

OTHER LINKS

This link has a good one page explainer on the 4 pillars. More concise than Wikipedia since it is focused on that particular tradition. Gives more info on the four pillars and their influences on the individuals life. Also provides a link to their 4 Pillars Calculator, whichs plots the info for you with no explainers for the results.
http://traditionalfengshui.co.za/traditional%20feng%20shui%20four%20pillars.htm

Link to a Feng Shui online school with another good explainer, 4 pillars calculator, and celebrity 4 pillars ebook amongst the freebies.
http://www.astro-fengshui.com/astrology/four_pillars.html

Link to a cheezy looking site that actually provides a decent calculator with "cute" little pictures of your animals. Interesting in that it assigns color values to the animals based upon the element associated with the given date and time.
http://chineseastrologyonline.com/TDB/leChart.asp

LINKS TO LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE search engines- some 4 pillars calculators provide the option of giving the longetude and latitude of to provide more accurate information regarding the astrological influences at the time of birth. It does seem to make a difference in the outcomes and seems a worthwhile thing to check out.

This is a SLOW US govt website with great search functionality
http://geonames.usgs.gov/redirect.html

This is another astrology website, but one that inculdes a longetude latitude seach integrated. Its got my gps birth info but you can change it.
http://www.astro.com/cgi/ade.cgi?cid=atgfileDo6dRz-u1202707643&spli=Sacramento%2CCA%20%28US%29%2C121w30%2C38n35%2Cf%2C33%2C-27200%2C4067&snam=now&fromaq=aq&sprev0=%2C%2C

[Anonymous]

I found a great website that has webquests for the Beijing olympics. It is all about making predictions for the various events so I can see it being especially great for math classes...... the website is https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/nhartz2/www/EPSY556/OlympicWebQuest.html

[Anonymous]

I found a great website that has a webquest about China's history. It has links the students use to go to vaious websites in order to learn about certain aspects of China's history. It asks interesting questions such as "Do you think China deserves to have the Olympics?" The website is http://www.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/faculty/hjelmgren/china/webquestpostmao.htm
It is especially applicable to history classes!

[Anonymous]

In view of the fact that the topic of our next class (4/22) is Japanese Literature, I was hunting around for some information on The Tale of Genji. Almost the first site that I found was: http://www.taleofgenji.org

The site is extremely informative and easy to use. It provides both a general summary of the story and more specific chapter summaries as well as photographs of the various sites mentioned in the novel—never having been to Japan, I found that particularly helpful and I think my students would enjoy it as well. Also, the website includes information on various types of pilgrimages—including information specific to pilgrimages popular in the Heian Era. The site has a bibliography of works related to Genji as well as information on Buddhism, opera and Mozart. (I’m not sure how the last two are connected, but it was interesting nonetheless.) Finally, there is a Related Links page containing (among other things) links to downloadable full-text versions with woodblock illustrations.

[Author]

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