reaction/discussion -- tuesday am

[Anonymous]

On another note, I agree with the prediction on the unbalanced male-female ratio in China. With the more common infanticide of the female babies and the favoritism of the males, many Chinese male will face the difficulty of finding a wife or the increase of homosexuality. I remember right after I found out I was pregnant with a girl, my parents-in-law in China called me to "comfort" me, telling me not to be sad because I would have a girl. They expressed how happy they were to finally having a girl after having only boys for three generations. I am happy to see that the scarcity of girls may lead to their higher "value" in future China.

[Anonymous]

To rstough: The origin of the One child policy is the debate between Mao Zedong and Ma Yinchu, Ma is the first person who advocated government control of fertility, but he suffered two round of attacks and dismissed from the public in 1957, till 20 years later, people began to realize erroneously criticized one person, population mistakenly increased 3,000,000,000. Then the policy was implemented in 1979.

[Anonymous]

As a government/economics teacher to high school seniors, I thought it will be a good idea to introduce the emergence of Japanese democracy and young democracies of South Korea and Taiwan during the first few weeks of the course. A teacher can also use these democracies as examples when comparing a Presidential government with a Parliamentary Government; South Korea and Taiwan being Presidential while Japanese adopting a parliamentary government.

In dealing with economics, the population increase and decrease in the countries of China, Japan, and South Korea can be examined. I also thought the low percentage of consumer expenditure and higher savings rate in China compared to the U.S. was interesting. In macroeconomics, neo-mercantilist aspects of East Asian countries can be discussed and why these countries allowed more government intervention in their economies.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the fenjia lecture and further discussion about land distribution and rise in population. Certainly the lessening of infant mortality rates in post 1950s also added to the bump in numbers. I'm wondering if things have systematically been parceled out in such a way for such a long time, then how does one accumulate wealth? Professor Dube included an example of the vast disparities in modern Chinese society (Lamborghini?). So the 1% in China are top Party members? Have inherited the wealth? Curious about this.

[Anonymous]

I would like to further comment on China's one-child policy. I was born in 1978 and the policy was implemented in 1979. My dad has always wanted a big family, not to mention that I am a girl and he wants a son to continue the family name. Thus, we moved to Macau (a Portugal colony at that time) where my parents are not restricted by the one-child policy. My parents are blessed with three daughters and one son :>

[Anonymous]

I know for an economics course you can have a good discussion on the effect of savings to a country for an individual versus the entire country saving. I remember from my econ courses that this is somewhat counter-intuitive for some but some graphs and historical references can make it clear why it is not so good. At any rate, for me this can bring up good points in math when we talk about graphs and the slope of a line. If we were to look at some of the data represented as graphs, why is one line steeper than the other? If you are talking about a target or goal for a country in terms of growth rate, who would reach that goal first or when would one country pass the other? These are all simple algebra 1 concepts that can be embedded with all of this great information and when you compare multiple countries and multiple lines (graphically), you can hit a lot of areas that students struggle with in their math class (systems of equations) and maybe help bring context to some of these math concepts.

[Anonymous]

Regarding Lvalladares on the census activity: That sounds like a great activity and it helps the students learn data analysis and collection. I think one thing I might add is to ask students what can happen in the case of outliers? Do we count them? Are they relevant? Why would someone want to manipulate the numbers or fabricate information? Good point.
edited by antonionunez on 7/30/2014

[Anonymous]

I was having some trouble following the land inheritance model. It seems to me that since inheritances are more and more diminished every generation at some point it must be sold in large numbers. In class, I was also confused to hear that to survive they simple work harder and start in new fields because that would eventually level off for future generations.

[Anonymous]

There was a lot of information presented in this lecture. In my classroom I plan to introduce China and it's people through the use of maps. First graders, being curious about everything, love maps. To them, China might as well be on the moon. Using maps of China and the U.S. side by side to identify neighbors, rivers and other key geographical features, and population density will help lay the foundation for deeper study and bring China closer to their realm of experience. I found this website http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/CN really helps with the US-China map comparison. It gives other useful comparisons between the two countries, as well. And you can compare other countries in EA, too. For older students, this would be a great resource for research or for building background knowledge quickly. Students can also graph the information they read about and do a comparative analysis.

[Anonymous]

After learning a bit about the transportation infrastructure of East Asian countries, I have several ideas for lessons. One might be for students to analyze the effects of mass transportation in Japan, specifically the development of the 'bullet train'. Students can use their findings as well as research the positive and negative effects of developing high speed rail in California. Students can then participate in a debate and eventually come to a conclusion on whether California should continue with their plan to develop a bullet train.

[clay dube]

Key point on longer life expectancy -- initially it comes simply by reducing infant mortality. (Click here to read Judith Bannister's discussion of how demographers have reconstructed past population patterns.) Infant mortality was likely 11-14% in the mid-1950s. It had been perhaps 16-30% in the 1930s-40s. This is a dramatic drop and radically affects life expectancy at birth calculations.

What this meant was that more children survived in the 1950s than had been the case in the past. This is what helped push the population to double by the early 1980s, despite the famine of 1959-62. The impact of education and women working outside the home wasn't really felt until the late 1960s, when the population growth rate dropped.

[Anonymous]

Skimming the explanation of how demographers have compiled these statistics put me to mind of how China "closed its doors" to outside contact in the 17th century. I know we discussed many of the ins and outs of China's foreign relations during the seminar, but I do wonder how much information we lost during the period in which the Chinese understandably chose to reject most potential contact with their neighbors near and far. We see a similar pattern in Japan at various times, again for understandable reasons (though there are surely volumes written about how and why Japan resumed trade and diplomatic relations with the US and others after World War 2). It seems we've found reasonable data on infant mortality and other population ebbs and flows despite this obstacle, but Bannister's hedging of her bets with these numbers makes me curious about how much other information we might lack.

[Anonymous]

I was a little confused about that too because why would it be concentrated disproportionately in that time span?

Arno Madathian

[clay dube]

In this session we looked at Chinese geography and demography and took a bullet train ride through Japan's modern history. Obviously entire courses are devoted to such topics, so our coverage was necessarily suggestive rather than exhaustive. Please take up topics we touched upon and why they interest you and how you might involve your students in discussions of them.

For example, we looked at some key geographic features of China and we talked of how inheritance patterns can influence a society's structure and economic development. For Japan, we noted how a commitment to defending the territorial integrity of Japan meant that leaders were prepared to institute far-reaching social, political, and economic change. And we saw that as they succeeded in strengthening Japan they became expansionist.

Here's an interesting theory to consider. A grad student from the University of Virginia has attracted attention by arguing for geography and socio-cultural differences between Northern and Southern China. I'm far from convinced. But here's a summary:
https://news.virginia.edu/content/rice-theory-explains-north-south-china-cultural-differences-study-shows

And here's a podcast by friends of mine of an interview they did with Thomas Talhelm, the author.
http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/rice-wheat-and-air-filters I like his air filters, though, which are held in high regard.

For a good book which details the pain involved in building modern Japan, get a copy of Mikiso Hane, Peasants, Rebels, Women and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan, 1982. Nice long quotations which could be used as discussion fodder for students. A good film about the last years of the shogunate is Twilight Samurai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l-NlkGBWPc

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