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Joe's comments are really interesting. The big challenge for Cuba remains the economic one. Unlike China, though, Cuba doesn't have access to the giant US market.

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Hi Sarah -
I wish we had more time to dive deeper into this and many other topics. There are several quick points, though, that we could make on marriage.

First, there was great variation across China. In some poor areas and in many parts of Taiwan, it was common to "adopt in" one's future daughter in law at a young age. The girl was raised alongside her future husband. This is touched on in the film Girl from Hunan (based on a Shen Congwen story), but has been written on extensively by Arthur P. Wolf. This, though, was not the norm, but hints at the variety of customs.

Virtually all women who wanted to married and most men married. The poorest men constituted the biggest exception to the universal marriage norm. They simply couldn't afford the bride price and were called "dry sticks."

Most households consisted of an elderly parent (or couple), a married couple, and their children. Only the richest households managed to achieve the multicouple/multigeneration under one roof ideal. Most families divided the family property and lived separately as soon as two sons had married. Property was divided evenly among all sons. (The son who took care of the parents got a little more and this too would be divided once the parents died.) It was this system of partible inheritance that allowed for near universal marriage. It was different from unigeniture or primogeniture practiced in other places.

The new CCP-dominated gov't did recognize the old marriages (even if the couples were underage). In rural settings, parents continued to dominate marriage decisions for years. In most places, though, people now choose their own partners. And in cities divorce is on the rise:
http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=592 Divorce, though, is still much less common than it once was.

I think that students love learning about family systems and norms of behavior. What kinds of things might teachers do to help students understand varying systems (and soon you'll note differences between China and Japan and Korea).

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Thanks for the news about the SNL skit -- I can't wait to check it out. Thank you for the links.

What do you think of it and of this Olympics parody?

South Park: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/187263/?tag=China

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Willie's right about the remarkable Long March. I think it will interest many students. There are many works on the subject. Harrison Salisbury wrote one that I think has some great illustrations and interviews with survivors.

The Long March is perhaps the greatest retreat in world history. It covered thousands of kilometers and only a few made it. It inspired young people during the Cultural Revolution, who were encouraged to go on marches of their own.

Here's a map a faculty member at St. Martin's has posted:http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/rlangill/HIS%20217%20maps/Long%20March%20map.JPG

Here's a map company's map of the march (it also describes the march):http://unimaps.com/chinaLongMarch/index.html

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Lilia's made some great recommendations. There's been a lot written on families (Maurice Freedman is probably the best known, but there are many other authors). The multigeneration family was a pre-1949 ideal, but it was rare. And so was polygamy. The limit, as Lilia says, are two: what you can afford and what you can handle!

Most families divided up the family property as soon as a second son married. The parents would live with one of the sons and that son got just a bit more than others in the property division. This resulted in a really fragmented farming system. David Wakefield's book Fenjia is the best on this subject. Ebrey's Chinese Civilization and Society has interesting marriage and other documents that students might find interesting to read.

Macao was a Portuguese colony and as Lilia noted in class, it was brought back to China in 1999. The Portuguese offered it back to China in 1974, but the Beijing government declined to take it back. Hong Kong was the bigger treasure and in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government didn't want to risk making a mistake in reabsorbing the colony and thereby jeopardize turning people in HK against a return. The one country, two systems offer has also been made to Taiwan.

Great points on the linguistic diversity of China! (The demography/geography ppt has maps on this and you'll get it and the others at the end of the seminar.)

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Thanks, many thanks, to Joe and to Zamira for contributing to this discussion. These are great recommendations. Zamira -- what could you use from Raise the Red Lantern? (I think there may be a couple scenes.)

Whenever possible, please change the subject line to the name of the movie or the topic being discussed. This is a big help as readers scan the listings.

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Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for bringing in the NPR interview. Orville Schell heads the US-China Center at the Asia Society. He's best known for his long career writing about China and he's a member of our board of scholars. You can see him speaking at USC at:
http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=214

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Julie likes Chinese food and I think it's great that she displays the chopsticks. I think ordinary everyday items from other cultures reveal so much and agree that we should stop to appreciate them.

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Nov. 18, 2009 -- Rebels of the Neon God
Film by Tsai Ming-liang of Taiwan
http://china.usc.edu/ShowEvent.aspx?EventID=1200

Dec. 1, 2009 -- Dream Weavers
Film by Gu Jin of China
http://china.usc.edu/ShowEvent.aspx?EventID=1215

Everyone is welcome at both screenings. Tsai Ming-liang and Gu Jin will take questions following their films. Please note that space will be tight for the 12/1 screening.

Remind friends and colleagues that they can get a weekly list of China-related events from us by subscribing to our Talking Points newsletter at http://china.usc.edu/subscribe.aspx

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Hi Morgan,
In fact, the Chinese are world class recyclers and have been for a long time. When I lived in China in the early '80s, we all took bags and bottles to the market to buy bulk items. This was decades before that became the LA norm. A colleague here at USC, Josh Goldstein, is writing a book about the history of recycling in China. We funded some of the contemporary part of his work. You can read about it here: http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=769

As you can see from this article and many in the popular press about how China's processing much of our e-waste, the Chinese are carrying out a lot of recycling, though often not in conditions that are best for the workers themselves or the environment.

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Hi Folks,

I've attached a collection of article and book excerpts we don't usually include in the seminar, but which you may find useful. They focus on the efforts the Chinese state began making in the late 1970s to implement the birth control policy.

There are many more possible sources, but this is already pretty extensive. The two books that I'd include if I were expanding the handout would be Judith Banister, China's Changing Population (1987) and Tyrene White, China's Longest Campaign, Birth Planning in the People's Republic, 1949-2005 (2006).

Here are the big points that these excerpts illustrate:

1) Once the Party-State made reducing births a national policy in 1979, the full force of the party-state structure was put behind its enforcement. In most places, great pressure was exerted on all and especially women of child-bearing age, to comply.

2) China is an immense place and implementation of the policy varied from place to place and time to time. As with all measures, the energy and enthusiasm of the enforcing cadres made a big difference in the manner and thoroughness with which implementation proceeded.

3) Carrying out the policy involved (in various combinations) persuasion, coercion, and economic incentives and penalties.

Later in the seminar, when we are looking at the post-1976 era, I'll show slides of propaganda posters and go into greater detail on population policy and trends.

I would love to see some world history, government, or economics course include innovative lessons on state/society relations that use China's population policy as a case study. Population trends affect everything from governance, to education, to economic development, and environmental sustainability. Nothing is as personal as childbearing and child rearing. And nothing is as rooted in millennium-old customs and teachings as the family and the ancestor-worshiping mandate to have children so as to perpetuate the family-line.

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Hi Folks -- Thanks to Patricia and Sarah for the wonderful suggestions. I heartily encourage everyone to take advantage of all three.

Please post organization and web suggestions in the main Asia in My Classroom discussion forum http://uschinaforum.usc.edu/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=8. This way more teachers will be able to benefit from these ideas.

Sometimes, though, web and organization suggestions make more sense in the seminar forum such as when they address a particular theme raised in a session. For example, for our first session, geography sites such as the following might be good (someone could evaluate them and post the results in the web resources thread of the Asia in My Classroom forum).

California Geography Alliance
http://www.humboldt.edu/~cga/

National Council for Geographic Education
http://www.ncge.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

National Geography Standards
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/standards/matrix.html

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Facing History and Ourselves FREE Online Workshop
The Reckoning: Understanding the International Criminal Court

Tuesday, December 1 — Tuesday, December 15, 2009

What does justice look like after genocide?
Can the rule of law be a tool for prevention?

Join Facing History and Ourselves to explore these questions by clicking on:

You are invited to join a free online workshop about justice, genocide, and the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The workshop will highlight the various ways these films, and additional resources, can be used with students to explore both the history of the ICC and various questions around justice in a global society.

The online workshop will take place over two weeks, and you will be able to participate at your convenience. We are honored to have several distinguished guests join us for our online discussions, including "The Reckoning" filmmakers Paco de Onis, Pamela Yates, and Peter Kinoy. Additionally, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will join us online on Monday, December 7th.

By participating in this online workshop you will:
• Gain online access to the film modules and a viewing guide created by Facing History
• Join in discussions with Facing History staff and educators from around the globe on how to bring issues of justice to your students
• Interact with the filmmakers, key figures from the documentary, and leading practitioners in the field
• Broaden your perspective and knowledge by being in conversation with legal scholars, practitioners, and experts in the field of international justice

If you have any questions,
please contact
Tanya Lubicz-Nawrocka
[email protected]
(617) 735-1643

Click here to register or get more info. Click here to register or get more info.

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Differentiated Instruction to Maximize Student Learning
and Close Achievement Gaps
in History-Social Science, K-12

January 13 and February 3, 2010
8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Los Angeles County Office of Education
12830 Clark Avenue, Room 606A
Downey, CA 90242

The Los Angeles County Office of Education is proud to present Differentiated Instruction to Maximize Student Learning and Close Achievement Gaps in History-Social Science, K-12, January 13-14, 2009. K-12 teachers are invited to deepen their understanding of differentiated instruction in the context of History-Social Science to better meet the needs of learners. Based on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson, Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Virginia, participants will analyze the learning profiles, readiness levels, interests, needs, and cultural styles of students to frame instruction around essential knowledge, concepts and skills identified in the California History-Social Science Framework and Standards. A deeper examination of the achievement gap in History-Social Science, based on the work of Randall Lindsey and Stephanie Graham, will allow teachers to analyze content, instruction, and assessment through the lens of cultural proficiency.

Day One: January 13
Teachers will examine the purpose, benefits and current interpretation of differentiated instruction based on students’ learning profiles, readiness levels, interests, needs, and cultural styles. Activities will involve participants in analyzing sample lessons, developing new lessons differentiated to meet students’ learning needs and/or adapting existing lessons from adopted instructional materials for classroom use.

Day Two: February 3
Teachers will examine a Cultural Proficiency Continuum for History-Social Science to analyze content, instruction, and assessment to change practices that may be culturally destructive for some to become culturally proficient for all. They will explore strategies for using multiple perspectives and differentiated instruction to support student learning styles, improve learning, and close achievement gaps.

DEADLINE TO REGISTER: JANUARY 4, 2010

For additional information,
please contact:
Michelle Herczog, Ed.D.
Consultant, History-Social Science
Los Angeles County Office of Education
(562) 922-6908 or
[email protected]

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Japanese American National Museum
http://www.janm.org/
Target Free Family Day
Merry Melodies!

Saturday, November 14, 2009
11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles CA 90012
(213) 625-0414

FREE ALL DAY
Delight in a day of family fun at the National Museum. November’s theme is music.

All Day Craft Activities:
• Make some jolly jingles by creating your own colorful and fun tambourine.
• Shake Shake! Time to be creative and design your own maraca using a variety of materials.
• Origami Corner: Make an Origami turkey, Gobble Gobble!
*Special Toy Drive: Bring a new, unwrapped toy to the National Museum and we’ll donate it to the Children’s Hospital of L.A. Schedule:
• 12 PM: Learn how to play giant Taiko drums.
• 1–4 PM: Kidding Around the Kitchen will help you make a veggie soup that will be music to everyone’s taste buds. This recipe is in honor of Vivaldi’s, Four Seasons.
• 1–3:30 PM: Have a great time singing your favorite songs with friends and family at the Rock Star Recording Workshop. (Limited to 20 children; first come, first serve)
• 2 PM: Taiko Performance

• December 5: Winter Family Breakfast Feast Cooking Workshop
•
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• December 12: Target Free Family Saturday
•
•
• January 3: Oshogatsu Family Festival

The museum also has a toy drive to benefit the Children's Museum, click
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102751774701&s=6105&e=001Z2QlZBl6VT_MWezWap0A04csHRUKF0TCx1eccMI7m5F6UUmwOw3GdP95e_-izM5EehOiRO0SLOF0SkUYeq-IAw__l01V8uueL4_SkrrBziapEphUj51izWXF-nJkYAZhNQXpu-Ux7_xmXGNAMr6sbA==> ">here for more info.

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