readings - east asia geography/demography (mon am)

[Anonymous]

lguthrie, regarding declining birth rate in Japan--well said! How do we begin this discussion without closely examining the role of women, and East Asian society's view of them? Japanese getting the right to vote because of US created Constitution? And what about gender inequity in Chinese, women being coerced into abortion, etc...Intermarrying, big issue when it comes to national "purity" and tracing blood lines...Several of my Korean girlfriends have been disowned by their families for marrying non-Korean...

[Anonymous]

When I read the article about some young Korea white collars reluctantly work as manual labors due to the economic downturn, I am surprised by their reaction towards this change--" Some also say they feel guilty working such rough jobs after years of expensive cram schools and college." I thought only Chinese culture has the tradition to look down upon manual labor work. But things have changed quite a bit in today's China. In fact, Chinese young generation is facing the similar problem. Nowadays, a big portion of Chinese college undergraduates/or graduates cannot find white collar jobs after they step out of the college campus. Many of them have to go back to the countryside or small cities to work as manual or semi-manual labors, such as butchers, chefs, salesman, etc. But interestingly, they seem not to feel that shameful about this experience. I watched quite a few Chinese job finding shows recently and observed that young people put their manual labor experience into resumes. They frankly talk about it in the TV shows in front of the audience and bosses.

[Anonymous]

As a native Chinese, it is painful to read this article " China's Future Is Drying Up", but it is true! Last summer, I returned to China to visit my parents. Every morning when I went out to exercise, the fog was so thick that I couldn't even see people from five meters away. This article can be used to teach students to be aware of the dilemma of rapid economic growth and environment protection. Furthermore, students can do research about more topics related to this, such as " Beside China, who will copay for this pollution bill?" "How does Chinese environmental pollution issue affect America?" "What can we do at home to reduce pollution?"

[Anonymous]

When teaching U.S. Industrialization during the late 1800s and early 1900s in U.S. History, a teacher can bring in a rapid industrialization/economic development that took place in South Korea and China in recent decades and how they are dealing with similar problems today.

[clay dube]

The attached readings cover issues present in contemporary Japan, South Korea, and China. What other issues have you heard about in the news?

What are the key population trends? What are the key resource issues? What, if any, progress has been made in battling environmental degradation?

How might such discussions be incorporated into the courses you teach?
edited by Clay Dube on 7/26/2014

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[Anonymous]

Would love to explore the cultural reasons why Japan is so restrictive towards immigration and compare them to US attitudes in the past and present. It seems to me to come down to a definition of what and who you are as a nation. What would Japan's attitude be like if they had held onto Korea and or Manchuria for longer? How different we're the images that Japan projected in 1939 to the ones the US would have used after the Mexican Cession... Or in Hawaii... Or in the Phillipines?

[Author]

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