Session 1 - East Asian Geography and Early Thought

[Anonymous]

Good morning! I found it extremely interesting about how women have to choose between a home life and a work life. It is unfortunate that the culture still adheres to that mentality. In such a global and ever changing world, one would think that that would change as well. I hope that it will soon. I also really enjoyed the lecture. I too believe that because of the interconnection of the US and China that it is important for teachers to teach the students about Asia. Since we are in such a large and diverse area, the students need to understand other cultures to be more open minded and understanding of everyone.

[Anonymous]

This session was interesting and informative. I found it very eye-opening to realize the extent of the history and connection between the U.S. and East Asia- especially our considerable economic ties with Asia and how China carried the world economy when the U.S. economy declined. We are definitely connected to Asia in many ways and I believe that it is important for Americans to understand Asian history and culture to help build more tolerance in our society. The first step to incorporate Asia into a primary elementary level classroom is through exposure and awareness- that can later on be extended as they go into the upper grades.

[Anonymous]

Session 1 readings were truely facsinating to me. The week I read the readings on Japan's low fertility rates, I had heard about this news story on The Young Turks, an independent online news source, where they discussed the data and interpreted it by claiming long work hours leading to "sexless marriages" in Japan are a cause of the problem (check out the video here: It was interesting to read about the cultural lag and how that might be the cause of such low fertility rates. Comparing this phenomenon to the Industrial Revolution and the low fertility rates then was fascinating. Definitely allowed me to think of how I can bring this discussion point into my World History class when we are discussing effects of the Industrial Revolution. Discussing this point and comparing it to current day struggles of Japan would also be supported by the new History-Social Science Framework in which students should be learning history through the comparative approach, whether it be through locations or time periods and seeing the relevant threads.

The lecture on the first session was also full of information. While it was overwhelming at times due to my limited knowledge of the time period and the country, I was able to pick up a few things that I found relevant to my classroom. The thing that stuck out to me the most was that during the Zhou period, creation stories were being created. If I remember correctly. The manufactured Chinese creation story has a female creator in which the "mother of founder" is recognized. I could make this connection to my Latin American Studies class we look through creation stories such as the Popol-Vuh and the goddesses that are also seen as "founder". If I am to create a Ethnic Studies curriculum next year, the point made about us "all being Africans" can be a good starting point to use.

[Anonymous]

Why teach about East Asia?

One of my goal’s as an educator is to guide my students to be internationally minded. However, one of the realities I face in the classroom is that my students usually are not able to travel far outside of their communities or to interact with other groups of people. Nonetheless, I should be able to present my students with the articles for the first week as well as the points raised in lecture today. Even though the students cannot travel far outside of their community they can be exposed to East Asia, and be guided to conduct inquiry projects in which they are able to research more become internationally minded in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

This article explains how Japan has doubled down on its reliance on robots in order to adapt to a shrinking labor market. The Japanese lead the world in robotic technology—technology that has replaced human workers in many sectors of the economy. Robotic machines are replacing jobs and professions that range from sheepherder to chef, factory workers to pharmacists. There’s even a company, Narrative Science that has pioneered “natural language generation software” which can be used to turn raw data into newspaper or journal articles, replacing those who write for a living.
I think this is only a short-term solution for Japan, because it doesn’t address the real issues leading it to have a 1. 4 birth rate. As we learned in the Modern East Asian Seminar, the Japanese are not replacing themselves because there are too many barriers to upward social mobility—and as a result—marriage. Women are reluctant to get married and have children because there is a perception that there are not enough eligible, economically secure, men. Combine this with a xenophobic aversion to outsiders and you get a problem that compounds itself every year. Perhaps the Japanese could lighten up a little and follow the Korean example of embracing non-native marriage partners, or at least accept foreign immigrants into their labor market.

[Anonymous]

It is interesting how the surrounding East Asian countries are laying claim to the various surrounding bodies of water and how many times the U.S and China interactions have come close to creating a potential war. This usually does not receive a lot of coverage, but why not? I am especially interested in how I can include Asia when teaching my students about U.S history (still pondering this). Furthermore, we lived in a global economy that each decision made impact our neighbors and Americans. My students need to know that they are just one part in this globally changing world.
edited by ahuynh on 3/5/2017
edited by ahuynh on 3/5/2017

[Anonymous]

I found the article, "Europe shows how Asia's demographic crisis might correct itself" an interesting perspective on the upside-down family structure. While some South Korean men are going to mail-order marriages, this article states that given enough time, the "small imbalances in the marriage market build up to create enormous pressure for change," leading to more gender equitable households. I think this would be a very interesting article to give as a follow-up to my 9th grade class who have recently read an LA times article about the pressure single Chinese women feel to get married. In their writing, most students expressed how unfair it was that women felt societal pressure to get married. Most of them come from households where their mothers work, so having a female head of household is nothing new to them. It would be interesting to see what their opinions are when they read what the article states men have to do to compete in the marriage market. I think gender and gender equity is a really interesting topic for students to dive into and a great interest builder for introducing Asian culture. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke: #323333} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}

[Anonymous]

Session One's emphasis on the interconnectedness of the United States with China resonated strongly with me, as I witness the obvious connections each day in my classroom. I am starting to realize, however, that the efforts to connect that I see come almost exclusively from my Chinese students, who are struggling to learn and use English, who are often separated from their families, and who are continuing to adapt to the many layers of culture (our school's, our city's, California's, and western culture in general) while honoring their own simultaneously. The US-China Institute is among the few efforts I have seen on the part of Americans to deliberately and positively connect with China and its culture. Perhaps I need to watch more television and news, but I seem to detect a negative tone towards China in some of the news stories I hear. I understand that ethnocentricity runs deep in most, if not all, cultures, but I appreciate even more the program's existence and its efforts to educate and promote understanding. Asia does matter to America, and programs such as this one will hopefully help us to become more aware of that fact.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the first session, I wish we got more into the schools of thought. Some of my favorite takeaway was how Western Zhou developed somewhat of a propaganda story about how they overthrew the immoral and lavish Shang. I was intrigued about how the Zhou talked mostly about the idea of Tian (Heaven), which wanted them to win control over China. They had the Mandate of Heaven. The idea that Heaven chose their victory and they didn't in fact "Seize Power." It was all very interesting. I'm looking into modern parallels for my classroom

[Anonymous]

I found the part of the lecture where we learned about the artifacts created during early Chinese people fascinating. I very much enjoy learning about mesoamerican history. Although we only discussed early Chinese people briefly, I was able to see several parallels between the two peoples. Both groups created elaborate artifacts that were ahead of their time. The artifacts made me think of the massive Olmec heads that were created maybe 3000 years ago. Those heads were on display at the LACMA about 8 years ago. They were amazing. When we learned about the creation myth I immediately remembered the Popol Vuh, the Mayan "bible" that includes their own creation myth. I had lots of fun this first session!

[Anonymous]

The Readings for this week were an interesting introduction to some of the various societal issues in the south eastern asian countries we're looking at. There are a lot of pressures, especially for marriage it seems. I thought the most interesting aspect of this was the fact that the men here feel almost as pressured as the women. I was speaking with another person and the perception was that these women were sold as, essentially, slaves to older men. The idea that there is pressure on all sides, and that some of the women are looking forward to the opportunities it might provide was new.

The lecture about the ancient history of China was really interesting. I traveled to china about a year ago, maybe two, and was able to visit Xian and see the warriors, as well as Shanghai and Beijing, so it was great to connect my experiences to what we were talking about. I liked hearing about the pre-history of China as well. The idea of religious upheaval is typical of growing societies, but we rarely hear about it from these countries. That they've had such an individualized history for so long, especially in China, was curious to think about; how to apply my same expectations of history to this new budding culture.

[Anonymous]

I found the first class to be very interesting and I couldn't believe how much I didn't know besides what I have seen on TV or read in magazines. The pre-history of China really intrigued me, especially the artifacts such as the mask, sculptures, and tools used for hunting. What was also interesting is how religion played a huge part in the way they treated each other and conducted business. How the way we think and act changes depending who is in power. I am feeling a little uneasy about Monday's debate because I haven't been part of one and I don't know what to expect.

[Anonymous]

The symbol of Aztec duality, Ometeotl, reminded me of yin-yang

edited by cgarcia on 3/6/2017

[Anonymous]

I knew that there was great economic importance by maintaining and sustaining a strong relationship between the U.S. and China. However, I did not realize that there were so many different moments in history where those relations were nearly eliminated and the implications and consequences that they would have brought. War has been avoided many times, and taking a Mohist approach, war is not the answer. Looking at the trade routes and seeing how China wants to control these areas, shows that they are more interested in wealth and power as other countries such as Japan rely on this oil as they do not have any of their own. Thinking about how a Mohist would respond to China controlling these trade routes, it would make more sense to allow other countries access. Mohists would argue that China controlling these routes is equivalent to keeping away food and necessities away from the elderly, or their loved ones, which should not happen.

[Anonymous]

Shades of R.U.R., I Robot and Tobor the Great. I grew up with these images of robots and what they would mean in the future, but I don't recall any specific examples of robotic processing as introduced by industry today. I think that as with many other elements of the future that now faces us, we have to adapt to our climate, our society and our future selves, not with fear, but with the determination of learning how to take advantages of the opportunity robotic technology currently demonstrates. I wonder how long it will take these machines to unionize and demand civil rights?
edited by jhayden on 3/6/2017

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