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Excellent points about how advanced Chinese agriculture was and is, but how much more dependent on imports than it once was. Most of what Meyer writes about agriculture comes from a former teacher of mine, Francesca Bray. Bray is British and taught in California for a number of years. She probably knows more than any non-farmer can know about rice cultivation in particular and agriculture in general.

Her The Rice Economies (https://books.google.com/books?id=9nxkQQCxjlgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false ) discusses the farming manual Meyer refers to and includes several specific discussions of agriculture in 20th century NE China. Bray gave a lecture at a University of Oregon museum in 2013 on rice in China:

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Nagamine's story is a fascinating one. Some links:

UC Santa Cruz project built around his life:
http://news.ucsc.edu/2011/10/review-fall-2011-nagamine.html a video that is part of that project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7AC593-F6o We see him returning to a village in China where he lived.

Santa Cruz newspaper article about him:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/general-news/20110307/santa-cruz-county-stories-akira-nagamine-nurserymans-story-one-of-survival-perseverance

This paper notes that while most guest workers were from Mexico, some came from Japan and the Philippines. By 1960, in California (mostly in Ventura County), there were 1,730 Japanese and 28 Filipinos.
https://www.utexas.edu/lbj/uscir/binpapers/v3a-3martin.pdf

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Meyer never mentions any other current writers on Manchuria in the body of the text (btw - what do you think of this habit?), but names folks in his notes and bibliography. The Kindle version of the book makes accessing this stuff time consuming, but you folks with the hard cover, should take a look. For Ch. 13, Meyer notes American historian Sheldon Harris's book on Japan's biological experimentations/warfare (Review of Factories of Death from H-net: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8907)
but decades before (1978, English version) Saburo Ienaga wrote about Unit 731 and other atrocities in The Pacific War (Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pacific-War-1931-1945-Pantheon/dp/0394734963). When I taught Japanese history, I used this excellent work. Read about Ienaga's struggle to tell students a fuller picture of Japan's road to war and conduct of war:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/obituaries/08IENA.html

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/03/guardianobituaries.japan

Part of the book is online at: https://books.google.com/books?id=49bWRrBQP74C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Gracie,
Thanks for your summary. Others may wish to watch the video conference:
https://hievent.hinet.net/2015oop/index_e.html

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Clever thinking, Luis! But since virtually everything made anywhere in China and sold anywhere in the US comes through the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports, let's look for other, more direct links between Northeastern China's three provinces (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang) and California. Perhaps it will be a fake connection? That is, the name of some place that is part of a sales pitch? Or can anyone find NE cuisine restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley? Be sure to share the addresses!!!!

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Changchun is part of China's rust belt. My guess is that the VW/Toyota joint ventures produce only for the Chinese market (the world's largest auto market). Please check to see if they actually export cars. The only Chinese company likely to be selling cars in the US is Volvo, because Geeley purchased it and Volvo's had already cleared safety and emissions hurdles. There are a few electric BYDs on LA streets thanks to a waiver from the Department of Transportation. They are used by the LA Housing Authority. But Chinese cars are coming, make no mistake about that. They are already in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere. For the moment, though, the joint venture automakers are living large off of Chinese sales.

To learn more about the Chinese auto industry, check out the talk Greg Anderson gave at USC a year or two ago. Look for it at our YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/uschinainstitute). (tip - click on the magnifying glass to search)

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A clip from Google Maps, showing the location of Huangdi, or Wasteland.

Here's the link to find it yourself (zooming in or out): https://www.google.com/maps/place/Huang+Di,+Shulan+Shi,+Jilin+Shi,+Jilin+Sheng,+China/@44.0454965,124.3242824,6z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x5e47cefa6216babf:0x462688767fe617ca

Attachments:

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[clay dube]

One of the districts we've worked with over the years is Palos Verdes Unified. We've taken Palos Verdes teachers to China twice and they've taken students to China a couple of times. In 2011, a trip included time in Changchun. Here's the student blog for the trip:
http://chinaproject2011.tumblr.com/ The blog has 7 pages (starting here). Their time in Changchun includes a visit to their teachers' home. The trip was a long one lasting from late June to early August. The trip was discussed at the district's board meetings (here - approved the trip/course, for 20 students) and there was a report by some participants to the board (here). It's not related to NE China, but 8 students from the group also visited the US Consulate and made a presentation to 90 people in Chengdu (here for a story). What did the students do and learn? For your post, you should tell us, but here I'm going to encourage you to read and discover.

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This is just a list of Taiwan/California sister cities. You can still find and share information about actual visits/links between the cities.

Taipei / San Francisco (1970)
Taipei / Los Angeles (1979) - by the way, check out this discussion of LA/Taiwan/China: http://china.usc.edu/talking-points-november-24-december-5-2014
Taichung / San Diego (1983)
Taichung / Contra Costa County (1983)
Tainan / Monterey (1965)
Tainan / San Jose (1977)

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The history of baseball in Taiwan is a fascinating one. It was introduced there by the Japanese during the colonial period. It has remained popular. While Little League aficionados have known this for years (many teams from Taiwan have won championships, though not without some controversy), it took a bit longer for the US major leagues to discover it. Andrew Morris of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is an expert on baseball in Taiwan. He noted (http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=hist_fac) that in 1999-2000, seven Taiwanese players signed contracts with US or Japanese teams. The LA Dodgers brought in outfielder Chen Chin-feng who made it to the majors in 2002 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chin-Feng_Chen). He started out in the US, playing for the San Bernardino team and won the MVP award. He played for the Dodgers 2002-2005.

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Many know that Jews migrated from Russia to Manchuria to California. Few know that German Mennonites also left Russia for California via the same route. The German Mennonite Encyclopedia has information about some of them (http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Harbin_%28Heilongjiang,_China%29_Refugees).

By 1928, German Mennonites in Siberia were looking to get out. The Friesen/Klassen family was among them. They made their way to Harbin in Heilongjiang province and were among the first Russian/Germans to settle there. The families later made contact with Canadian and other diplomats and made their way to North America. US Pres. Herbert Hoover had sympathy for the group, but given the depression, the US wanted to bring families in relatively slowly - 15 a month. Mennonites in the San Joaquin Valley, California agreed to provide support for the families as they made their way to California. The first families came to the US via Angel Island on September 13, 1929. The Chinese delegate to the League of Nations brought up Mennonite refugees in 1931. Reedley, California was an important destination. Here's a link to the First Mennonite Church of Reedley (http://www.fmcreedley.org/). And to the Reedley Mennonite Brethern Church (http://www.reedleymbc.org/). Reedley Mennonites began saving for missions to Russia, China, and India in 1913 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwOhBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281&dq=mennonites+in+reedley&source=bl&ots=JYGcDyfJKs&sig=6L9J1uyCfcAHqiZKcT2K2Vy_dgI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=E_VqVd3kBcy0ogTwvIHoDA&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=china&f=false). This book has much on California Mennonites who came via China: https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/california-mennonites. Among other things, I learned that there is a novel about the journey these people made through China: Wilfred Martens, River of Glass (http://www.amazon.com/River-Glass-Wilfred-Martens/dp/0836119134).

Of course, some Chinese Americans are Mennonites. There's a San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church (https://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Francisco-Chinese-Mennonite-Church/115929995085267 ). Like some other religious organizations, Mennonites are also recruiting Mennonites to teach English in China (http://mcc.org/get-involved/serve/openings/english-teacher ).

In case you're wondering, I am not a Mennonite and knew nothing about this migration before looking for something to post as a sample link between California and Northeast China. So - please hunt, learn, and share.

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Click on the link below for a pdf with the presentation. It's over 16 mb (after I squashed it a bit, it was over 25 mb to start).

http://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/article/attachments/dube-late%20imperial%20china-1000-1800.pdf

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Hi Folks,
You can get a pdf version of my Japan presentation at the link below. It's over 9 mb. You can click on the webpage captures to visit the actual pages. The full presentation, including the video is over 100 mb and will take a long time to download.

Compressed: http://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/article/attachments/dube-japan-origins-1800-small.pdf

Full (>100mb): http://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/article/attachments/dube-japan-origins-1800.pdf

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Described by many as the world's first novel. Murasaki's tale of the shining prince was written in about the year 1000. An excerpt is attached, but there are many excellent web resources to draw upon.

Pride of place must go to the wonderful Tale of Murasaki website created by Liza Dalby. It introduces the world of the Heian court, discussing clothes, make-up, relationships and a lot more.
http://www.lizadalby.com/LD/tale_of_murasaki.html

Dalby's own story is quite interesting. Be sure to click on the next button at the bottom of the page.
http://www.lizadalby.com/LD/liza_dalby.html

UNESCO - wood block prints and chapter summaries, click on the take away genji link for a concise summary of the mammoth novel.
http://webworld.unesco.org/genji/en/part_1/1-1.shtml

A scroll depicting the first fourth of the Tale of Genji
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~arth17/GenjiMonogatari.html

An example of a student project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiwCVbsRp0o

Guide to teaching the novel using a 1987 animated version of the story
http://www.aems.illinois.edu/publications/lessonplans/chalk/chalk_2.html

I've also attached two sample images of a 1654 version of the book. They come from the Library of Congress.
http://lcweb4.loc.gov/service/asian/asian0001/2005/2005html/20050415toc.html

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Sei Shonagon's diary is a wonderful way to launch discussions with students. What questions might you ask to guide students in reading these two selections?

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