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clay dubeThe podcast recommended by Prof. Wills is Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History. I'm a Gladwell fan as well. Episodes 4-7 of season 5 focus on the development of US fire bombing capacity. http://revisionisthistory.com/seasons?selected=season-5
clay dubeHi Folks,
Here are pdfs of the two presentations for this session. As before, I needed to compress them so I could attach them. As before, feel free to use these with your own students, but please do not post them to the web or otherwise share them. Thanks - Clay
clay dubeGreat points about Fukuzawa - his autobiography and his Theory of Civilization are available in English translation. Good condition used copies should be available of the autobiography as it is widely used in college courses. Several of the stories in it would work well with students, including his encounter with a farmer, his visit to the US (and asking about Washington's descendants), and so on.
clay dubeThis reading selected by Prof. Pitelka raises and responds to an interesting question:
How did the political leaders and other participants in public discussions manage to "harmonize" new with ancient and foreign with Japanese? How did they turn a movement that looked backward to an era when emperors ruled and which called for the rejection of barbarians and their ideas wind up creating a modern state that welcomed outsiders and emulated some foreign things?
clay dubeHi Everyone -- we know this is an especially heavy week for everyone in the seminar. In addition to our Wednesday discussion (which includes a roleplaying activity, we're asking that you watch videos about Japanese history to get ready for an extended discussion session on Saturday. We really appreciate your effort to do this.
On the videos, please pay particular attention to Prof. Takeda's 2nd video on the road to World War II. It's his field of expertise and should be a great follow-up to the videos from Prof. Pitelka and Wills. We should have a very lively discussion Saturday. If you have any friends or colleagues who are particularly interested in how Japan went from being threatened by outside forces to being a world power, in less than a century, let them know about the opportunity. For the two Japan Saturday workshops, we can let in teachers who are not part of the core seminar. They cannot receive course credit, but can learn a lot from these terrific specialists. Please send them to: https://china.usc.edu/seminars/free-workshop-making-japan-modern-japan%E2%80%99s-rise-and-pacific-war
clay dubeThomas - it's great that you and others are able to concretely link some of these questions to various learning standards. That will be a big help as you start to think about possible lesson plans.
All of us need to think creatively about ways to bring these topics into our lessons. For some it's a neat fit, but others might need to reach a bit. Art teachers might have students look at Chinese posters promoting family planning and have students analyze what is included and what isn't. Thinking about population, including newcomers, as a valuable asset might be another topic for discussion.
clay dubeThanks to all who have already posted. You've really thought about some of these issues and offered excellent ideas about how students might respond to the questions and the materials. It's great to have so many share their ideas. We hope to that you enjoy reading what others suggest might or might not work with students.
Again, thanks for the great work. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday. Please also get started watching the videos in advance of our discussion session on Saturday morning.
clay dubePlease be sure to read the "To Save China" handout (an attachment to the first post for this session). Then plunge into the readings on the self-strengtheners, reformers and revolutionaries. You are not expected to read everything, but at least read one of the selections for your group and take a look at the others. Be prepared to offer an assessment, from the point of view of your group, of what the problem is, where China needs to be, and how to get there. Please feel free to use the discussion forum to toss your thoughts out.
Self-strengtheners
Katherine C.
Tara C.
Chad E.
Donna L.
Thomas P.
Brigid S.
Serece T.
Julie W.
Reformers
Maria C.
Jennifer C.
Cynthia J.
Zoey M.
Nayeli R.
Stacey S.
Betsy T.
Paige W.
Rebels
Verisha C.
Jennifer D.
Joe K.
Lupe M.
Khrstle S.
Susie S.
Lizbeth V.
Ester Y.
clay dubeDelighted to have this chance to get to know everyone. I'm the director of the USC US-China Institute and have the privilege of working with our leader Catherine Gao. Before moving to colleges and universities, I taught middle and high school English and social studies in San Diego for a couple of years. I lived in China for several years in the 1980s and 1990s and, before covid-19, visited a lot. I'm a historian, but am interested in many subjects. I love to travel and I look forward to hearing your ideas about how to bring Asia alive for your students.
clay dubeHere's a work that has crossed many boundaries: Farewell My Concubine. It was a well-known Beijing Opera work. Chen Kaige created a movie in 1993 that was tied to the opera and its performers. The film was widely viewed and well received in the West. Then Chinese artists created a Western-style opera based on it. In 2008, it was performed in Los Angeles. Chelsea Mason, then a USC student, wrote about it: http://uschina.usc.edu/article@usct-chinese_opera_touring_america_11197.aspx.html
clay dubeJonathan, issues of dress and diet are fascinating, especially on a tight budget. Supposedly, China had such a limited pool of foreign currency that even Deng Xiaoping's entourage had to scramble when he came to speak at the UN in 1974.
clay dubeMany of those who visited the US in the 19th century were quite struck by changing gender roles and habits. You can see this in the writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi (ca. 1860 Japanese in the US and Europe) among others.
clay dubeAs these countries become richer and college degrees become more common place, the value of vocational educaton may increase. In Taiwan, we have had great visits to vocational schools where tuition is the same as for universities. For some entrepreneurial types, there is great appeal.
Here is a US center looking at these trends:
https://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/taiwan-overview/taiwan-career-and-tech/
clay dubeGreat point about the 1928 election reading, with students who may be able to read in languages other than English, it can be interesting to have them bring in views from abroad. most of the time, the focus is naturally on what candidates say about country X. But perceptions of the spectacle of the election are quite interesting. Now it is easy to get English language articles from East Asia on American politics (all these places have one or more English language publications, TV broadcasts and ordinary people on social media).
clay dubeNone of these are required, but you may be interested in learning more about ties between China, Japan and Latin America.
USC's Pacific Asia Museum looked at the influence of Mexican mural art in China.
https://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/2018/01/04/61026/how-artists-from-mexico-influenced-a-closed-off-ch/
catalog: https://issuu.com/uscpam/docs/8804_pam_catalog_pdf_proof
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/883794.shtml
Diego Rivera show in Beijing: http://video.chinadaily.com.cn/2014/1029/4314.shtml
2019 issue of Americas Quarterly focuses on Latin America and China, including on Mexicans studying in China and on Mexico City's 17th century Chinatown. https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/china-and-latin-america-2-0-what-the-next-phase-will-look-like/
China's CGTN video on chamoy and its Chinese connection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFQFZhJt0CE
Here's a video from Chinese state television about a series of murals in Mexicali. One includes the story of Chinese migrants.
https://america.cgtn.com/2019/04/04/murals-celebrate-chinese-influence-in-mexican-border-town
Article about contemporary migration and investment in Mexicali:
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1O_Hme0ks7EJ:https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2015/02/21/brooke-binkowski-chinese-influence-growing-in-mexico
Chinese woman becomes mariachi singer in Mexico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_tzPcCOJuI
Madeline Hsu on how Chinese pretended to be Mexican to enter the US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpOwLexTvy8&feature=emb_rel_end
A review of Grace Pena Delgado's Making the Chinese Mexicans:
https://escholarship.org/content/qt2nc3b4pn/qt2nc3b4pn.pdf?t=oa5wz3
Japanese in Peru (Peru was the first Latin American country to recognize Japan)
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/02/27/satsuma-fields-encounters-with-the-diaspora-provoke-reflections-on-what-it-means-to-be-japanese/
Japanese influences in Peruvian cuisine
https://www.foodandwine.com/chefs/nikkei-peruvian-japanese-food
