[clay dube]

Hi Joe and others -
The Korea Academy for Educators has been around for several years. Mary Conner, a longtime educator and the author of a book on Korea, founded the Academy along with others. It works closely with the Korean Culture Center and other local institutions. We have had many teachers participate in their programs and each has spoken glowingly of them. I imagine they'll have the website back up before too long. In the meantime, don't hesitate to write directly to Mary at the address provided.

You may also wish to check out the KCC website at: http://www.kccla.org/english_/home_.asp.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the new sites. Please post all website reviews to the Web Resources forum: http://uschinaforum.usc.edu/forum66-web-resources.aspx. All teachers signed up for the Asia in My Classroom forum can post resources to that forum (and also to the film festival, lesson plans, and other forums).

[clay dube]

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his wife Becky visited the Great Wall just before leaving Beijing. Here are photos -- do you recognize the place?
http://www.defense.gov/PhotoEssays/PhotoEssaySS.aspx?ID=1987

[clay dube]

I'm posting this for Nina Petkova. Her unit is entitled "Empires, Drug Wars, and Nationalism." You can click on her ppt and doc files to open them.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[clay dube]

Renli's right that footbinding has not been prevalent for a long time. Campaigns against it began in the 19th century and it was largely eradicated in the early 20th century. It's useful to note that there were others who opposed it even earlier than this. Li Ruzhen wrote Flowers in the Mirror (李汝珍, 鏡花緣) about 200 years ago. This novel is quite pointed in its criticism of bias against women. Women go to compete in the civil service exam and they even bind (or threaten to bind, I've forgotten) the feet of a loudly complaining man.

The practice varied from place to place. In the paddy rice south, it was most limited to the better off because there women worked in the fields. In the north, however, women generally didn't work in the fields (the land was less able to absorb additional labor, rice can absorb all sorts of extra work, whereas dry crops can't productively absorb as much) and a larger portion of the female population had bound feet.

It's worth saying again that most of China's ethnic minorities did not follow this practice. If you're interested, the books cited above have a lot of information about it.

In addition to the works mentioned, another readily accessible autobiography illuminates the practice: Ida Pruitt, Daughter of Han. It's an oral history of a woman born in the middle of the 19th century. The subject was a servant and had bound feet. She also describes the binding of her master's daughters' feet.

I want to stress that while part of late imperial China, footbinding doesn't define China or the period.

[clay dube]

Felice Beato was a pioneer of photography and trained his camera on East Asia. The Getty Museum is currently featuring an exhibition of his amazing work. Check it out for stunning middle of the 19th century images of China, Japan, Burma, and many other destinations.

The exhibition opened last week, 12/7 and runs through 4/27. 2010. Don't miss it.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/beato/index.html[Edit by="Clay Dube on Dec 15, 8:05:01 PM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

The Gates Foundation has underwritten a study of the value-added teacher evaluation methods employed by LAUSD/LA Times earlier this year. The study was reported on in the NY Times last week:

Sam Dillon, "What Works in the Classroom? Ask the Students," NY Times, Dec. 10, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/education/11education.html

Here's the report itself - Measures of Effective Teaching Project
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/college-ready-education/Documents/preliminary-findings-research-paper.pdf

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,
Some of you volunteered to review specific units and some of you have been assigned to do this. It is required. We think the additional feedback from fellow educators will help you produce stronger units.

Please note: Post your lessons by Jan. 8. Post your evaluations by Jan. 14. Your revised lessons are due by Jan. 21.

Send questions to [email protected].

Below are the assignments

unit creator
unit reviewer 1 / unit reviewer 2

Elsie Beneke
Jonathan Chuang / Heather Macias

Emily Isler
Elsie Beneke / Heather Macias

Heather Macias
Emily Isler / Elsie Beneke

Andrew Mercado
Peter Luevano / Michael Oviedo

Matthew Ball
Genein Letford / Christopher Miller

Genein Letford
Matthew Ball / Christopher Miller

Christopher Miller
Matthew Ball/ Genein Letford

Daniel Magana
Brenda Miramontes / Sara Quezada

Sara Quezada
Brenda Miramontes / Aldo Garcia

Brenda Miramontes
Daniel Magana / Aldo Garcia

Aldo Garcia
Sara Quezada / Daniel Magana

Shelia Buttle
Renli Zhang / Nina Petkova

Nina Petkova
Renli Zhang / Mladen Christov

Mladen Christov
Nina Petkova / Matthew Diaz

Renli Zhang
Mladen Christov / Nina Petkova

Jonathan Chuang
Lucas Plotnick / Martha Guerrero

Matthew Diaz
Jonathan Chuang / Heather Macias

Martha Guerrero
Heather Macias / Peter Luevano

Heather Macias
Peter Luevano / John Baxter

Peter Luevano
Irella Perez-Martinez / John Baxter

John Baxter
Irella Perez-Martinez / Martha Guerrero

Lucas Plotnik
Emily Isler / Matthew Diaz

[clay dube]

Heather and others,
I'm sorry we didn't get into this fully. I can discuss it at the follow-up session we'll have about a month after you turn in your units on 1/21. Each of you will make a short 3-4 minute presentation on your units and I can spend a few minutes on footbinding. Right now, please note:

Footbinding was a cruel practice. None of those who study it will describe it differently. All acknowledge the pain and suffering it meant for girls. It's important to remember also that plastic surgery, tattoos, piercings, and so on are generally undertaken by adults (well informed adults? that's another question, sober adults, yet another question). Also, these are generally reversible (not pain-free and not necessarily easy, but reversible). Footbinding was carried out on children by adults and left them permanently injured.

Please will note that in addition to being cruel, footbinding was an act of love and an act designed to serve the family. Please listen carefully to these points.

Footbinding is one of the topics that every teacher needs to discuss when looking at the varying experiences of Chinese women. It emerges about a thousand years ago and survived into the last century.

Not all women had their feet bound. Many non-Han ethnic groups such as the Hakka and Manchus did not bind their women's feet and it was much less common among ordinary people in the South than it was in the North, probably because women in the South usually joined in agricultural labor.

How are we to understand this custom and role men and women played in perpetuating it? How should we raise the topic with children? Is it enough to note that our own culture imposes standards of beauty that cause some to endure suffering, surgery, or psychological damage?

Below are some web resources on footbinding that you may find interesting.

California resident Beverly Jackson is a longtime collector of the shoes worn by Chinese women with bound feet. She traveled to China and interviewed women who had their feet bound and produced a lavishly illustrated volume Splendid Slippers. Her website offers short excerpts from the book, reviews of it, and -- of course -- a link to buy the volume. Combined with works by Howard Levy and Dorothy Ko, this is a good resource to draw upon in introducing the practice to students.

http://www.silcom.com/~bevjack/

Levy, Howard S. Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom, Foreword by Arthur Waley. Introd. by Wolfram Eberhard. New York, W. Rawls, 1966.

Ko, Dorothy. Every Step a Lotus : Shoes for Bound Feet. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2001. Below is a link to the UC Press webpage on the book. You can download and read chapter 2. It includes terrific images. Prof. Ko has also written "The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China," The Journal of Women's History 8.4.

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9687.php

Feng Jicai, one of China's most popular writers, authored an interesting novel on the custom and its place in family and social life. Three Inch Golden Lotus. It was translated by David Wakefield and published by the University of Hawaii Press.

Yue-qing Yang's 2004 film Footbinding: The Search for the Three-Inch Golden Lotus is available and includes interviews with Chinese about the custom. In the film, Dorothy Ko argues that footbinding is routinely misunderstood.

http://www.channelcanada.com/Article638.html

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,
Here are a couple of USCI newsletters that look at China in the 2010 US elections.

Pre-election: http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=2275

Election results:
http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=2296

[clay dube]

Before discussing the ramifications of the report, it may be useful to actually look at the report. Some of its shortcomings will be apparent. I doubt the gap between even Shanghai schools and the US average is as great as the test results suggest, but I suspect the trend is accurate: hard working students with good teachers in Shanghai achieve great progress and American students need to work harder (huge family role to consider here) and be better taught. Yes, I know we likely didn't need a study to understand this.

It might be interesting to see how students respond to these results.

Here's the site where you can download the study:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2011004

Here's a different comprehensive chart than the one I showed in class:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/12/46643496.pdf

And details on the study:http://www.oecd.org/document/61/0,3343,en_32252351_46584327_46567613_1_1_1_1,00.html[Edit by="Clay Dube on Dec 15, 4:25:14 PM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

Great issues --
The key point for all to remember is that China's rise doesn't mean that others must decline, only that the gap between China and others will narrow. The trick will be avoiding the perception that power is always zero sum, that is if you have some, then I must have lost some. The challenge, as always, is what states elect to use their strength to accomplish. China's leaders assert that they are focusing on internal development issues. Some of China's neighbors, and their American ally, aren't so sure and see China as acting in a more aggressive way. I think the difference is less in Chinese words (they've long claimed expansive sea holdings), but more in the recognition by others that China is now better able to act to affirm those claims.

The Mao period did set the stage for some of what was achieved in the post Mao period. This can mainly be seen in water control, electricity, and road infrastructure. Mao's policies, however, caused immense disruptions, bred fierce distrust of the regime, and brutally took lives and the spirit of many who survived. Mao did establish an independent China that for better or worse has determined its own course for 60 years. Because of this, he's still got considerable respect in China.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

The author of a new study about Mulan and representations of Mulan posted the following note to the H-Asia discussion list. I think it may be an interesting resource for those planning to use the film or those who are interested in the history of Mulan and stories about Mulan.

****
From: baerchen dong

_Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China and the United States_, Temple UP, 2010 Lan Dong http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2009_reg.html

Mulan, the warrior maiden who performed heroic deeds in battle while dressed as a male soldier, has had many incarnations from her first appearance as a heroine in an ancient Chinese folk ballad. Mulan's story was retold for centuries, extolling the filial virtue of the young woman who placed her father's honor and well-being above her own. With the publication of Maxine Hong Kingston's _The Woman Warrior_ in the late 1970s, Mulan first became familiar to American audiences who were fascinated with the extraordinary Asian American character. Mulan's story was recast yet again in the popular 1998 animated Disney film and its sequel.

In _Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China and the United States_, Lan Dong traces the development of this popular icon and asks, "Who is the real Mulan?" and "What does authenticity mean for the critic looking at this story?" Dong charts this character's literary voyage across historical and geographical borders, discussing the narratives and images of Mulan over a long time span­from premodern China to the contemporary United States to Mulan's counter-migration back to her homeland.

As Dong shows, Mulan has been reinvented repeatedly in both China and the United States so that her character represents different agendas in each retelling­especially after she reached the western hemisphere. The dutiful and loyal daughter, the fierce, pregnant warrior, and the feisty teenaged heroine­each is Mulan representing an idea about female virtue at a particular time and place.

Reviews
"Dong has convinced me: She is the world's authority on iterations of Mulan. She does a meticulous and scholarly job of finding and outlining versions of Mulan between the 'Ballad,' Kingston's, and Disney's. The chapters are a great pleasure to read and bold in their argumentation . Dong performs brilliant close-readings of texts that clearly benefit from her unique and comprehensive knowledge of Mulan tales. This book makes a unique contribution to Asian, Asian American, and American studies, and it reads like a labor of true scholarly love. Bravo!"
­Floyd Cheung, Smith College

"Dong's engagement with probably the most emblematic figure in Asian American literature is timely and admirable. She provides a comprehensive account of the historical presence of the Mulan legend/Ballad in Chinese literature and a compelling discussion of the ways the story has evolved using a wealth of archival data on the legend through the centuries."
­Rocio G. Davis, City University of Hong Kong

Lan Dong
English Department
University of Illinois

---------------------------
Note: The Temple UP website lists the book's contents as follows:

Contents, List of Figures, Acknowledgments 1. Prologue 2. Heroic Lineage: Military Women and Lady Knights-Errant in Premodern China 3. From a Courageous Maiden in Legend to a Virtuous Icon in History 4. The White Tiger Mythology: A Woman Warrior's Autobiography 5. One Heroine, Many Characters: Mulan in American Picture Books 6. Of Animation and Mulan's International Fame 7. Epilogue Appendix, Notes, Bibliography, Index

[clay dube]

To those who posted their answers here -- thanks -- and to those who have yet to answer the question of what you should do now that your father has violated the law, please get your response in.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

Just for clarification -- you folks are followers of Master Mo!
smiling,
clay

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