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Warren Cohen is a scholar whose interests range wide. He's best known for his work on China's international relations, but he's also written on art history and other topics. His East Asia at the Center is an amazing work that many teachers will find useful. Here's the complete citation:

Cohen, Warren I. East Asia At The Center: Four Thousand Years of Engagement with the World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Paperback, 2001. The paperback retails for $25, but it can be found for less.

Amazon features a selection from the opening chapter:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0231101090/ref=sib_fs_top/103-5714689-0631010?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00M&checkSum=qhaV5C6IzLSwSh0B2cPLK2rSFcq697aW2tuhFb3nzgM%3D#reader-link

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I've attached a copy of two Xinhua (the official Chinese news agency) stories on the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyages to Africa and throughout the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Links to the articles are also available in the Asia in My Classroom forum.

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Frank mentions the tensions between China and Taiwan --
There is enormous trade between the two, Taiwanese companies have invested billions in China, and there's now quite a significant population flow as well. Further, many Taiwanese businessmen now have Chinese wives and families. This is all merely the recent recreation of long-standing ties. The overwhelming majority of people in Taiwan have now distant or aged relatives on the mainland. Two generations of people in Taiwan, though, were raised without the ability to easily travel to the mainland and their immediate familial and cultural connections are limited. As a result, it's easy for many to imagine a formalizing of the status quo: two states, linked by language, business, and custom, but independent.

On the mainland, however, the political doctrine has been consistent. The state has decreed that there's only one China and Taiwan is a part of that China. It just happens to be, thanks to the Japanese war and American meddling, temporarily not under the direct control of Beijing.

Both sides have large militaries, but at present China lacks the naval capacity to invade and occupy Taiwan. It could, however, rain missiles on every significant population center. The Bush Administration has offered to sell Taiwan billions more in armaments, but for a couple of years now the Taiwanese parliament (dominated by those who don't want a formal declaration of independence) hasn't been willing to allow Taiwan's president (a pro-independence warrior until he was elected, now more of a status quo guy) to acquire tools they fear might encourage him to behave more forcefully (in their eyes dangerously belligerently) toward the mainland.

Finally, Frank slipped in mentioning Thailand. In fact, Thailand's current PM is an authoritarian American-educated billionaire telecom chief (and former police officer) who rather appreciates strong centralized rule. He gets along well with the Chinese, who similarly love the way he describes his own rule: an iron fist in a velvet glove.

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I imagine that teachers are always Confucians and Legalists --
We seek to cultivate the young, but we're prone to using Legalist-prescribed rewards and punishments to foster that growth.

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A copy of the seminar assignment is attached. In addition to attendance at and active participation in every session, you are expected to complete three tasks.

1. Exchanging ideas via the discussion forum. Substantative posts are the norm. In evaluating websites, provide details on who created the resource, what are its particular strengths and weaknesses, and how might it be used by teachers. In reviewing films, summarize the story and focus on how teachers could use it to teach about Asia. What issues does it explore? Is it an accurate representation of a particular time and place? In discussing seminar readings or presentations, feel free to raise questions, offer interpretations, and brainstorm on classroom applications for the materials or concepts. For example, how can these primary sources be used to develop student skills?

Remember to post website evaluations and film reviews to the Asia in My Classroom forum. Put seminar-specific posts in this forum. Please put AsiaMedia (http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu) and Asia Pacific Arts (http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu) posts in the appropriate public forum. General discussion of Asia Institute articles or things you see in the newspaper should go in the Asia On My Mind forum.

2. Create a website for use either with your students or your fellow teachers. You may combine this assignment with the curriculum development task. Your website should have a minimum of three different pages. Be sure to check your spelling and grammar and to properly credit your sources of information and images. You may post your website to our web server (your URL will be http://international.ucla.edu/asia/lessons/yourfirstinitialyourlastname -- be sure to name your homepage "index.html") or elsewhere (your school site, your ISP, or on a free website host such as GeoCities). Please include your email address on the website so that interested colleagues may contact you.

3. Develop a set of lesson plans covering two - three days. These lessons should be appropriate for the students you have in class everyday. These plans should be fully developed with discussion questions, handouts, vocabulary lists, and so forth. Alternatively, you may write an essay discussing how you will bring ideas and resources from the seminar into your classes and to your colleagues.

Download and print out a copy of the assignment. Try to meet the discussion forum requirement by the end of the year. Start working on your webpages right away (while the techniques are fresh in your mind). And begin thinking about your curriculum project right now. Everything must be satisfactorily completed and submitted by June 30, 2005

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Here's a second photo of kids learning a Chinese song that involves a running tiger.

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Palos Verdes Penninsula USD has developed a relatively low cost means to bring Chinese language instruction to students in K-3 grades at Lunada Bay Elementary. Funded in part by a federal Foreign Language Assistance Program grant (for more info go to:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/flap/index.html)

The program uses "Total Physical Response" principles in using Chinese in physical education instruction. A single pe teacher (in this case a credentialed bilingual teacher working on a part time hourly basis) is delivering the instruction. Students are really excited about the program and push their regular teachers to let them practice the Chinese vocabulary they are acquiring.

I was much impressed. PVPUSD is receiving assistance from CSULB professor Peng Liu in designing the curriculum and from UCLA's Asia Institute and Language Resource Center in expanding the program and evaluating it. The district plans to begin offering Chinese language instruction at Palos Verdes High in the fall. At present, the district's Penninsula High offers Japanese language instruction.

I've attached a photograph of the program in action. [Edit by="Clay Dube on Mar 20, 8:02:07 AM"][/Edit]

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HIV/AIDS is an enormous challenge and it's not just health care professionals who are concerned about the ramifications of the epidemic. The link below will take you to a National Intelligence Council/CIA report from 2002 on what the epidemic in China, India, and three other countries means for them and for us.

http://www.cia.gov/nic/special_nextwaveHIV.html

Excerpts:
"It will be difficult for any of the five countries to check their epidemics by 2010 without dramatic shifts in priorities. The disease has built up significant momentum, health services are inadequate, and the cost of education and treatment programs will be overwhelming. Government leaders will have trouble maintaining a priority on HIV/AIDS—which has been key to stemming the disease in Uganda, Thailand, and Brazil—because of other pressing issues and the lack of AIDS advocacy groups...

"The rise of HIV/AIDS in the next-wave countries is likely to have significant economic, social, political, and military implications. The impact will vary substantially among the five countries, however, because of differences among them in the development of the disease, likely government responses, available resources, and demographic profiles....

" HIV/AIDS will drive up social and healthcare costs in India and China, but the broader economic and political impact is likely to be readily absorbed by the huge populations of these countries. We do not believe the disease will pose a fundamental threat through 2010 to their status as major regional players, but it will add to the complex problems faced by their leaders. The more HIV/AIDS spreads among young, educated, urban populations, the greater the economic cost of the disease will be for these countries, given the impact on, and the need for, skilled labor."

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Having just observed Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and noting the passing of Zhao Ziyang, deposed leader of the Chinese Communist Party and a fellow who sympathized with Tiananmen protesters in 1989, I thought it appropriate to see what I might find about King on Chinese websites. There's quite a lot -- attached is a copy of MLK's most famous speech ("I have a dream", 1963) in Chinese. Those with students able to read Chinese might challenge them to find other such materials (e.g., the Gettysburg Address...). Students who can't read Chinese might be surprised at how much more young Chinese are likely to know about the US than we are about China.

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The American Institute of Philanthropy has created a list of organizations accepting tsunami relief funds. Beside the link to each one is the Institute's efficiency "grade" (the share going to relief projects).

http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/tsunami_asia.html[Edit by="Clay Dube on Jan 17, 8:59:43 AM"][/Edit]

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Our tsunami website includes a list of reputable aid agencies. It will soon also feature a list of Asian NGOs which are even more likely to address locally-felt needs. The site also includes original coverage from AsiaMedia contributors in the region.

http://international.ucla.edu/tsunami

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Paul earlier posted a NY Times article on this subject. Attached is an LA Times article on what farmers are doing to preserve their villages, holdings, and livelihoods. It was published with the title "A Watershed Role for Farmers: Residents of China's Yunnan province, faced with the possible loss of land to a dam, are becoming activists."

How are members of the environment group doing on their curriculum/multimedia projects?

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In Dec. 2004, the CIA published "Mapping the Global Future," the National Intelligence Council's assessment of which nations are rising, which are falling, and which might challenge the US. The report is available on the web and can be downloaded as a single .pdf file.

http://cia.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020.html

Page 48 has a section entitled "Rising Asia" which discusses India and China:

http://cia.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020_s2.html#rise

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The push for Mandarin is not new, but is being pursued with renewed vigor. Partly it's for national unity and partly from a nationalistic nervousness about anyone putting forward a real suggestion of cultural distinction. Partly it's a response to Taiwanese claims of uniqueness and partly it's resentment of the popularity of foreign cartoon fare. Another example of the preoccupation with language came a few years ago when Beijing decreed that shops in the city had to stop using foreign words in their names and signs (except for foreign-owned franchises such as McDonalds). And there have been similar pronouncements against using traditional characters instead of gov't sanctioned simplified ones. The others (which many consider more beautiful can be readily found in parks, temples, and the like), but people are not supposed to use them in store signs.

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The CIA recently declassified 70 estimates of China's military strength and policies. You can see the original documents at:

http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp?pageNumber=1&freqReqRecord=nic_china.txt

Students may be especially interested in the 1976 document, p. 10 which summarizes what the CIA considers China's main defense considerations.

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