Thank you Professor Rosen for your presentation on Film and Pop Culture in China. 

I greatly enjoyed the use of film clips to show the nationalism that is embedded in films produced to bring honor and pride in China; the tiny clip of the transformer holding the credit card was one that was a great example in particular. I also enjoyed the John Oliver clip with the parody of "The Belt and the Road". 

I think the takeaway from this that I could maybe use in the English classroom is the idea of author's message and audience and persuasive appeals. Though "The Belt and the Road" was meant to persuade and to target audiences in the United States and other English speaking countries. However, as evident from our classes' response the promotional video was not taken seriously. Looking at the video more closely though, there are clear tactics being used by their team such as using innocent children to deliver the message rather than adults and using music (and the popular and "hip" genre" or rap) with a fun and upbeat tone instead of more serious or factual based. Additionally, you could touch on cultural differences and expectations in other countries. For example the Nova car by Chevrolet being unsuccessful to Latin American audiences due to its translation of "no va" to "doesn't go".

When I teach the ancient China unit in social studies every spring, I find that my students are naturally curious to know more about modern China. They're aware that China today is economically powerful, the manufacturing base of the world, and few other basic details. In order to address this natural curiosity, I would like to show my students the amalgam of film excerpts that were part of Professor Rosen presentation and task my students with a "scavenger hunt" of sorts involving the following questions: 

1. What images of China do you see depicted in the film clips?

2. What is the inference the filmmaker wants us to make about China? 

3. How does this relate back to what we have learned about ancient China? 

Given the rapid nature of the clips, two viewing would probably be necessary. I would probably create a graphic organizer to help the students organize their responses or perhaps even have them work together in a small group. Groups could be given the opportunity to present their findings to the class, leading to academic dialogue with other groups who had similar or contrasting opinions on the film pieces. 

Some of my students are quite interested in politics, and one of them even wanted to become the U.S. ambassador to China when she grows up. Prof. Rosen’s seminar provided several new perspectives in terms of how I can explain Chinese politics to my students, which I found really hard to explain at times because some of the issues are quite sensitive to talk about. For instance, I sometimes face the questions such as if Taiwan is part of China, if China and the United States are friends, or what it is like to live in China under the government’s censorship, etc. With Prof. Rosen’s research and statistics, I will quote some of his opinions and data to answer my students’ questions, and ask my students to do more comprehensive research if they want to know more about certain issue.

I feel like I could adapt your first scavenger hunt questions to go along with my Visual Arts class after frontloading them with some of the different cultural images and how the Chinese cinema is guided to make them look good. Since I have younger ones I think it would definitely let them discuss in groups and is also why I would guide them a little bit more in the beginning on what they are looking for. I think it would be intersting if they would be able to pick up on those nuances. 

Two things stood out for me from the presentation: the visual/movie aspect and the data. Movies are straight forward, but numbers and data analysis is not always as simple as we think, it can be manipulated. 

Movies: wonderful clips and information to use to hook students into the new topic. Teaching Medieval History is not always as exciting as everyone makes it out to be (read sarcasm). By carefully choosing clips that are historically accurate this can be a great introduction to a lesson, chapter, or unit. As Professor Rosen did, we must take the time to choose the clips in order for students to answer the basic questions of who, what, etc.

Data: students can be tasked with analyzing data that shows the popularity of movies worldwide. Furthermore, students further look into the purpose of these movies and why so much money is being invested by private investors and governments, in this case, the Chinese government. 

I do a current events project in my 4th grade class where students read and respond to newspaper articles of their choice. Before we start the project, I teach them some basic media literacy skills. I think Professor Rosen's lecture touched on some of these topics, and I could see myself using some of his resources with the students. I always tell them that it's so important to look at who produced a piece, not just at the content of the piece. The Chinese-produced Belt and Road video was so interesting in the way it attempted to sell the idea. I think my students would be really interested in watching it and talking about what message was presented and how it was presented. It would be great to find an age-appropriate American video or article about the topic and show them how different the perspective is. I think for them to just be aware at their age that we have biased opinions of other countries and other countries have very different opinions of us would be a great goal.

I think the distinction you're making is exactly what he was talking about when he said that Chinese promotion of soft power hardly exists apart from the government while ours is not linked to our government. Our media definitely reflects our government, and individual politicians might make their own endorsements, but we don't have our government as a whole gifting us tickets to certain movies or mandating that we consume any media. I think other countries might see this as an example of our American freedoms and democracy, while the Chinese government's involvement with its media might raise eyebrows, regardless of the quality or artistic merit of the media.