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clay dubeSome recommended video resources:
Watch One Child Nation on Amazon, then watch our discussion with Nanfu Wang.
Mei Fong, One Child short interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr6esw1vzW8
Mei Fong, talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399k0gtiVDc
clay dubeHere is the link I promised for the Coronavirus map and growth chart at the Johns Hopkins University website:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
By the way - are you following us on Facebook, please do:
Go to the institute page at: https://www.facebook.com/uschinainstitute and click "follow."
And please join the Teaching about Asia group that Catherine manages: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teachingaboutasia/?source_id=138810906479
If your colleagues are interested, please encourage them to join the group as well.
In the past couple of weeks, we've posted additional information about the virus outbreak and many other topics (do you know what innovation McDonalds has come up with in Japan? -- check it out).
clay dubeHi Folks -- Please take a moment to post the question you raised during our discussion. No introduction to it is needed, but let's keep a record of what interested you at the start of the class.
clay dubeHi Everyone - great to meet you via the net this evening. I look forward to interacting with you via the forum and in our weekly discussion sessions.
I have headed the USC US-China Institute since 2006. My own experiences in China started in 1982. I taught there 1982-85 and subsequently lived there to carry out research in 1989 and 1990-92. I have visited many times and its been my privilege to take teachers there as well. Catherine and I last led a tour to China and Taiwan in 2018.
I'm a historian, but have always been curious about contemporary China and devote most of my professional time to learning more about various aspects of China's society, politics, economy, and culture. My hobbies include travel and photography, though I do much too little of both.
clay dubeHi Folks,
I thought you might enjoy this YouTube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xRJN8z_sY
It's short and has a simple message about being a good parent.
clay dubeAngela and others are right about Christianity being more important in Korea than elsewhere in Asia (apart from the Philippines, where the colonial experience lasted centuries). It may be useful, however, to remember that most South Koreans are not Christian, though most South Korean immigrants to the US are. Christianity is expanding in South Korea. Here's an interesting set of demographic points from the Pew Research Center:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/12/6-facts-about-christianity-in-south-korea/
clay dubeIn years past, we've highlighted foreign-born candidates in Japan and Taiwan. Some have been elected to office. A few short articles are below, including one on the success of Japanese women in the last election.
clay dubeHi Folks -
This session takes us from 1839 to 1949. So we will also be looking at the civil war between the Communists (CCP) and the Nationalists (GMD/KMT) and the impact of the Japanese invasion (1931 in Manchuria, 1937 in the rest of China).
Required:
Sun Yatsen
Mao Zedong
Liu Shaoqi
Chiang Kaishek
Optional
Japan's 21 Demands
Anti-FDR cartoons
Xu Zhenrong on Americans
clay dubeHi Folks - I'm disappointed that no one has commented on the ideas or questions s/he plans to raise in our encounter tomorrow. We're hoping for an engaging discussion. The groups:
Self-strengtheners
Kathy
Dennis
Cynthia
Lizette
Iris
Sherry
Reformers
Sal
Sara
Matt
Angela
Andrew
Gail
Revolutionaries
Marcos
Haena
Robert
Richard
Kurt
clay dubeHi Folks,
Please take a moment to introduce yourself to your fellow seminar participants.
I'm Clay Dube, director of the USC U.S.-China Institute. It's my privilege to work with Catherine and to teach in the seminar. I'm a China historian by training and previously taught at both the secondary and college levels here in the US (my secondary school experience was a long time ago in San Diego, I've taught college students in China, Los Angeles, and Kentucky). I use "by training" in my self-description because, since coming to the US-China Institute, my focus has been on what's happening in China today and on US-China relations. This is my 14th year at USC, after 9 years at UCLA. I enjoy travel and reading and am looking forward to getting to know you over the next couple of months.
[email protected]
clay dubeHi Folks,
Yesterday, in another thread, I put in a links to the Mother of Mencius story (https://china.usc.edu/comment/175966#comment-175966). I have long used historical simulations. I've attached some of those that I created. One including Mencius's mother is "Good Morning China." For each character, it is possible to provide students with primary sources.
clay dubeHere's a link to the recent translation of this important text:
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/exemplary-women-of-early-china/9780231163095
A laudatory review: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/614647
clay dubeReady to binge? Criterion, the company that Kerim Yasar writes subtitles for, has a streaming channel. And they offer a 14 day free trial:
https://www.criterionchannel.com/
Criterion restores the films and updates the translations, etc.
Ozu films: https://www.criterionchannel.com/search?q=ozu
clay dubeA bit dated, but still useful is a book by a Japanese American anthropologist Matthews Hamabata, Crested Kimono. He discusses at length the power of Japanese women in leading business families.
clay dubeNanfu Wang's focus is very specific, starting with her own rural family. Since 80% of China was rural at the time of program's implementation and since rural families tended to be larger than urban ones, it was useful to illuminate some of this. China, though, is huge and diverse and no place is representative of all of China. And it very different today. 59% of people live in cities. It is especially worth noting:
- the policy was implemented more strictly in 1978-85 than it was later, officials adjusted the policy due to enforcement challenges, the main change being letting rural families have a second child if their first born was female, this change was made in 1984
- the greatest push back was in the countryside, in the city, where many people had secure jobs, health insurance and pensions, it was easier to get compliance
- again, this is not unique to China, urbanization, industrialization and greater education for girls has always resulted in lower birth rates
My criticism of the government is not that it created and implemented a draconian policy, but that as China changed, the policy did not change with it. Instead, continuing to implemente the policy consumed enormous energy and needlessly antagonized people. You can't fault China's leaders for not knowing that the economic changes would accelerate the decline in births, but you can fault them for maintaining the policy once it was clear that the birth rate was dropping as it had everywhere else.
Please compare China's fertility rates with those of Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Those places have lower fertility rates than China - and didn't require such an intrusive and costly program.
Kay Ann Johnson has written the best book on the topic: https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo22977673.html
Also recommended: A 2015 article by Marty Whyte, Wang Feng and Yong Cai (see below) and the work of Susan Greenhalgh, Just One Child on how the policy was made: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520253391/just-one-child
The family planning policy was added to China's constitution in 1982. That made critical discussion of, let alone opposition to, the policy difficult. https://china.usc.edu/constitution-peoples-republic-china-1982
"Article 25
The state promotes family planning so that population growth may fit the plans for economic and social development."
