The Manchus are expecting inhabitants to shave their heads in a show of submission. The Manchus simply want to people to shave their heads in a show of loyalty and unity, as subjects under “Heaven”.

The emperor refers to China, as a “celestial kingdom” which ties into the belief that China is the center of the world. He believes that there is no need to trade with Britain, he essentially wants King George to respect Chinese customs and withdraw his ambassador.

The treaty of Nanking first off imposed extraterritorial rights on the Chinese, claiming that British subjects would enjoy full security and protection of property. Furthermore British subjects are allowed to continue living and trading in China. China must pay 6 million for opium as ransom for British officials. Basically, this treaty marked the beginning of foreign domination of China and the loss of Hong Kong, ports etc.

The Taiping economic plan usurped the old order based on gender and feudalism. Confucian thought relied on a old order based on social hierarchy, older to younger, male to female etc. The Taiping plan was much more egalitarian, defying boundaries of gender.

I would of never known that China was facing a water crisis until I read this article.  I also rarely keep up with current events which is why I was interested in taking this class, to broaden my knowledge about other countries.  How can people live that way?  More than 75% of shallow and deep water can't touch the skin because it is a grade 4 or higher.  You would think city designers would have come up with an actual design to preserve or resuse water before the population increased rapidly.  There always has to be a problem in order for people to take action.  How about planning for the future before there is a problem? I guess the Chinese government didn't think that water pollution would become a huge problem.  If I found deformed fish in the water, I would not go near it but many people there did.  When you think you have it bad, others have it way worse.  Nevertheless, it's good to see that there has been some improvement in the last years and that people are taking actions into their own hands by reporting companies that break enviromental rules. 

I'm interested to find out what was the outcome of these placards? Was there an violent clash, was it put down by British forces? I am thankful for this piece of infromation, since my school texbook mentions little about the reaction to the treaty on Nanking.

I think there's a connection between low birth rates and changes in gender roles.  Traditionally, the main role Asian women play in the family unit is to be the main caretaker of the children and home.  In "BOK chief calls for increased birth rate amid populatin aging" and "Most Japanese want to be married but are finding it hard" is something that is not only happening in South Asian countries but also in many cities in United States.  The article has only given me data on stastics and research but reality of this article is being lived by many of my friends and myself.  Being raised in a tradition Vietnamese home has casued me to be pulled in many different roles and contractions.  The strongest contraction for me is playing role of a "proper and highly desired" Vietnamese girl and being a "strong and career oriented" American girl.  A typical Vietnamese girl would be expected to clean, cook, raise the children, wait on their husband, and on top of that work. I am definitely not Super Woman. Reality is that one thing is going to have to take a backseat to one of the other.  My girlfriends and I had many happy hour discussions about the pressure of juggling a professional life and then becoming a wife and mom.  These two articles only publicized issues that have been on the minds of Asian women but also Asian American women for a long time. 

Similar to Japan, the aging issue is getting quite serious in China as well. The recent relaxed “one child policy” was meant to promote the idea of having a second child, and, ultimately help with the aging situation. However, it’s not that simple. Most of my friends in China refused to have a second child due to several reasons:

1. Financial pressure:

Similar to getting married, it’s quite expensive to raise a child in China now. Unlike how we were raised, the parents now have to spend quite a lot of money on getting high quality and non-polluted food from overseas. As long as the parents want the best for their children, they are willing to invest on food and clothing items to ensure their children get the BEST. When children get to the school age, parents need to get ready to invest on schooling, inside and outside school hours. Extra academic works from tutoring on weekend are quite popular in China. I, personally, still remember my Dad used to ride bicycle to send me to weekend English program so that I could be ahead of my classmates in English learning. And that was more than two decades ago. Parents’ investment on children’s education (academic & extra-curriculum ones) nowadays are getting more heavily.

2. Chores pressure:

As mentioned by Prof. Dube in class today, one young couple now need to take care of 4 parents (2 from the wife side, and 2 from the husband side) in addition to dealing with the chores within their own family. Younger generation also prefer to buy their own houses instead of living under the same hood with older generations. With that said, in order to take care of them, young couple will need to make extra trips to parents’ houses to help out as needed.

As opposed to the traditional Chinese family dynamics, older generations start releasing themselves from helping to take care of grandchildren as well. I have quite a few friends been complaining the fact that no one can take care of the child while they have to be at work. What they end up doing is to send the child to daycares at very early age which adding more financial burden to what they are already dealing with.

3. Work pressure

Different from the “9-5” works that our parents used to have, our younger generation has been dragged into tons of over time that they have to commit to at work. In order to maintain a stable financial situation, both wife and husband need to work. I often see my friends in China posting about them still working at late hours. If they are lucky, they will have one of their parents pick up the children and cook dinner for them.

Quite obviously, none of these reasons are isolated. They are all somehow connected and contributed to the aging of the society. With all the pressures that they are dealing with now, it seems to be a quite bright idea to not have a second child.

The readings and topics regarding geography and demography in East Asia were particularly intriguing to me as an educator because they addressed relevant human issues such as family planning and conflict. One of the primary challenges of being an educator lies in being able to capture the attention of a student and draw from an intrinsic place of motivation. I can imagine articles relating to marriage and family planning being highly relevant to students in that they are all preoccupied with love, romance, and relationships. This could be an excellent platform for introducing and equipping students to think in terms of geography, demography, culture, economics, and politics. 

The debate in regards to the naming of the sea between Korea and Japan is very interesting as well. This could be an excellent opportunity to create a lesson in which students can construct an argument and debate whether the sea should be called the "East Sea" or "Sea of Japan." Parallels could be made to student daily life and the ways in which they address and handle interpersonal conflicts. 

In short, this first session was a reminder of the rich history of Eastern Asia and it's deep relevance to modern American society, culture, politics, etc..

The letter from china's Qianlong emperor to Britain's King George III in 1793 showed the emperor's intelligent diplomatic strategy rather than being arrogance.

When the first British envoy visited China in 1793, Emperor Qianlong senced the military threat from the west to the Qing Danasty. He refused the requests from the King George III, and one of the requests is that they wanted the trading restrictions to be relaxed. Qianlong used some excuses and refused British trading requests which were beneficlal to the british side. The Emperor wanted them to leave as quickly as possible. From the letter, people also can feel that Qianlong was arrogant and ignorant in relation to foreign affairs. He believed that China was at the centre of the world.  People may think that as the emperor rufused the trading, he also rejected western technology and the products from the industrial revolution. China may missed its opportunity of modernizing and opening up to the world. However,  as an emperor, he was thinking defending his territory. Qianlong strengthened military defence, and on guarding against suprise attacks by Britain. One of the the point Qianlong made was that Britain was demanding some area for them to trade, so he believed they had to not only observe the coastlines carefully, but also prepare military defence. This shows Qianlong was aware of the potential threat posed, and could explain his actions in rejetiong British.