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Mariko Tamanoi's presentation is attached.

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I've attached my presentation on China. We weren't able to cover all of it. Don't hesitate to ask any questions about it.

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I've attached a pdf version of my global overview presentation.

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The attached reading begins with despair, gets up to date with statistics, and looks at technological assistance for the elderly. Please share your thoughts on the situations and ideas raised in these readings.

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I've combined four news articles into a single document. The first two deal with pension tensions, especially in NE China. The magazine which published these was recently placed under a two month ban for pushing the envelop in its reporting. The ban means that its articles can't be syndicated for two months, which is a big loss of income. The BBC article raises the question of who will care for China's elderly. The final article is from a few months ago when a tornado had a particularly devastating impact on the "left behind elderly."

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Two documents are attached. The first is a bit old, but notes that even in 2007 folks were worried about how rapidly South Korea was aging. The second is a magazine article. As before, pull out sections that you find interesting. What makes South Korea's challenges particularly acute? Is South Korea coping in interesting ways?

An optional reading is here: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/03/25/south-koreas-demographic-dilemma/ It is short and expresses worry that South Korea's aging population represents a national security question.
edited by Clay Dube on 10/14/2016

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Two newspaper articles are attached about Japan's demographic challenges. Please read them and comment on the problems Japan is facing and how it is coping. Please suggest ways in which these issues might be brought into your classes.

Attachments:

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Hi Folks, I've attached the presentations in pdf format. You're free to use them with your students, but please do not otherwise post them or share them.
edited by Clay Dube on 10/6/2016

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Like Xi Jinping in China and ABE Shinzo in Japan, South Korea is lead by someone who isn't the first in her family to hold political power. Park Geun-hye 박근혜 is South Korea's first female leader. She is also the daughter of Park Chung-hee, who was South Korea's authoritarian leader from 1961-1979. The current President Park won election in democratic South Korea. Her father seized power in a military coup in 1961. He was assassinated in 1979. These articles focus on the current president, including the extent to which she and her nation have confronted South Korea's authoritarian past.

Please read the BBC profile and the Washington Post article. If you have time, please read about why President Park made a recent visit to the US and what she and Pres. Obama pledged.

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The fiftieth anniversary of China's cultural revolution was this past May. When I first lived in China, memories of it were fresh. In late 1980, the "Gang of Four" which included Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, were put on trial. Shortly thereafter the Communist Party's Central Committee ratified an official version of the Party's history, including the events of 1966-76. The articles contained in the pdf below are from that "resolution," the People's Daily's editorial marking the 50th anniversary, and a Financial Times piece on efforts to forget the cultural revolution.

Please read these materials. What makes it so hard for China's rulers to discuss the cultural revolution? Why did the anniversary largely go unremarked upon? Are those outside China too fixated on disasters such as the cultural revolution? What is the utility for outsiders and for the Chinese to talk about why the cultural revolution took place and to discuss what happened? Do you talk about controversial topics in your classes? How do you do so in order to facilitate open dialogue?

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Fascinating story about the breakup of a Japanese boy band. Fans don't want to let go, even though the youngest member of the band is 40. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/asia/japan-smap-breakup.html

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I think you'll find these internal migration stories and photos interesting. China's factory workers head home: http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-chinese-migrants/

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It's not been around so long, but there is a Taiwan Academy in Westwood: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-taiwan-academy-films-20141016-story.html

In El Monte, there's the Culture Center of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office in Los Angeles: http://www.ocac.gov.tw/OCAC/SubSites/Home.aspx?site=1756a8a3-884e-45eb-bd26-47cdb8b9d197

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Our National Consortium for Teaching about Asia colleagues have produced a podcast series introducing Japanese and other Asian customs and trends. Many are outstanding. This might be a good site for someone to review. William Tsutsui did most of the Japanese ones. There are more than 300 of these one minute pieces. Perhaps they could launch discussions?

https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/12861

And - a piece from NPR on how Japan came to love jazz: http://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2014/04/30/308275726/how-japan-came-to-love-jazz

There is a virtually impossible to find documentary that we featured years ago at our summer institute: Tokyo Blues. Craig McTurk made the film. It was narrated by KJazz super DJ the late Chuck Niles. There is one part focusing on a superstar kid harmonica player. He'll have you dancing. http://www.worldcat.org/title/tokyo-blues-jazz-blues-in-japan/oclc/797005891

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.jots.200023786/default.html

Craig now teaches in Singapore: http://www.np.edu.sg/fms/aboutus/staff/Pages/mcb.aspx

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Some may have been interested in Japanese fine-tuning of "American" products and processes. Check out this article:
Tom Downey, Smithsonian Magazine, April 2014
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-japan-copied-american-culture-and-made-it-better-180950189/?no-ist

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