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.Article: The Challenge of Reporting on Women in China, Where Men Control the Narrative
Author:Ami Qin
July 18th, 2019
This is an article I will definitley use in my Ethnic Studies class. It highlights how women are treated in China, and how difficult it is to have anyone even speak up about it. In one case a woman had to sign an agreement with her employer that she would not get pregant for 2 years, despite the fact that she desperately wanted a child. In another case a woman wants to leave her husband, but she isn't even on the deed of the house. THe difficulty is that women don't speak out and when they do and there are protests the government silences it, even on social media. I think for students to fully understand this in the context of living in China I need to give some background on the difference in the government of China, and then here in the United States. I like using articles in class because they often explain things in a concise manner and makes it easier for students to understand the larger concepts. This will need some additional prior knowledge to fully understand though. I'm looking forward to our last session so I can first have a better handle on the currently culture of China.
Workers during a lunch break in an office tower in Beijing, China. As the rest of the world seems to be making progress toward greater gender equality, however incremental, China has been backsliding.
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
By Amy Qin
July 18, 2019
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
There are dozens of them on display at the Museum of Shoes for Bound Feet, not far from the town in China where my mother grew up: colorful, intricately embroidered cloth shoes that fit perfectly in the palm of your hand.
When I visited the museum in the southern Chinese province of Sichuan several years ago, I looked down at my big size 9 feet and felt a wave of gratitude that I had been spared the fate that had befallen my great-grandmother and generations of Chinese women before her. Because behind each pair of shoes was a lifetime of unimaginable pain, all in the name of shaping perfect little bound feet — or “golden lotuses” as they were often called.
I thought back to that moment several months ago when I began reporting my recent article on how Chinese women have been losing ground. Living in Beijing, it is easy to see the progress that China has made in gender equality over the past century. Foot-binding has long been outlawed. Women in China are living longer than ever before. They excel in school, and now outnumber men at universities.
And in a society that for centuries held that a woman’s place remained in the home, women now have a major presence in the work force — one of the few positive legacies of China’s repressive Mao era. While the number has been declining, 61 percent of working-age Chinese women participated in the labor force last year — higher still than many countries, including the United States (56 percent) and Germany (55 percent.)
But in recent years, as the rest of the world seems to be making progress toward greater gender equality, however incremental, China has been backsliding.
As China correspondent for The New York Times, I write about the intersection of politics, culture and society in China. Together with my colleague, Zoe Mou, we began reaching out to Chinese women to hear their stories. I took the bullet train from Beijing to Tianjin to meet with Bella Wang. Over coffee, and then spicy roast fish, Ms. Wang talked excitedly about her love of Marvel movies and Michael B. Jordan. But her mood darkened as she told me about a “special agreement” her employer made her sign promising that she would not get pregnant in her first two years on the job.
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Bella Wang told The Times about a “special agreement” her employer made her sign promising that she would not get pregnant in her first two years on the job.
Credit...
Giulia Marchi for The New York Times
When we spoke, Ms. Wang was counting down the days until her two years were up.
“I’ve been wanting to have a baby all along,” she said. “But I haven’t dared.”
We traveled to a town outside of Shanghai to meet Sharon Shao, who graduated with a computer engineering degree from one of China’s top universities. As is only befitting a math whiz, she picked us up at the train station in a white car with an “E = mc²” sticker plastered on the side. We found a private room in a teahouse where Ms. Shao, over several hours, alternated between anger and tears as she told us about her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband. When she finally worked up the courage to divorce her husband, she said, she walked away with no claim to the apartment that she had helped pay for because, as is the case for millions of other Chinese women, her name was not on the deed.
“My friends always tell me to just keep quiet and move on,” said Ms. Shao. “But I want to share my story so other women can learn from my mistakes.”
By the end of our reporting, we had talked to dozens of women. I was stunned to find that nearly every woman we spoke with had a personal story to tell about egregious discrimination at the workplace or in the home.
One woman told me about how she dreamed every night of going back to work after she was forced out of a prestigious job when she had a child. Another woman said she wanted to leave her husband but was afraid because her name was not on the deed.
“If I divorce, I will lose everything,” she said.
“The more I think about it,” she added, “the more difficult it feels to escape this dead end.”
But as is increasingly the case in China these days, very few were willing to go on the record. This has become the reality of reporting in an increasingly authoritarian country whose — mostly male — leaders are so obsessed with controlling the narrative that even videos depicting extramarital affairs are subject to government censorship.
I understood why many women didn’t want to take the risk. Since China’s leader, Xi Jinping, took power in 2012, we have seen the detention of feminist activists, a crackdown on the burgeoning #MeToo movement and the emergence of “female morality schools” in which women are made to scrub floors and are taught how to apologize to their husbands.
Despite the overwhelming pressures, Chinese women are finding ways to push back.
We saw a glimpse of their growing anger earlier this year on March 8, known as International Women’s Day. In recent years, what is supposed to be a celebration of the women’s rights movement has been co-opted by online retailers and transformed into a Black Friday-esque shopping holiday in China known as “Goddess Day.”
That day, as women across China browsed online sales on cosmetics and sportswear, one female university student in Beijing walked up to two red Women’s Day banners that had been dedicated to the “little fairy” women, channeling the infantilizing tone so often used in advertising aimed at women in China.
She lit the banners on fire.
Photos of the blaze quickly spread on social media before internet censors took them down. We tried reaching out to the student but she declined to talk to us. Later, after she was reprimanded by school administrators, she posted a message on her social media account to clarify her actions.
“Damn it, this day is not meant for consuming gender stereotypes,” she wrote.
In a show of the simmering defiance that has quietly spread among women in China today, she concluded with the best non-apology apology that I have seen in a while: “There was indeed a lack of concern for safety when I set the fires so I apologize to my fellow students,” she wrote. “I should have used scissors.”
Amy Qin is a China correspondent based in Beijing, covering the intersection of culture, politics and society. @amyyqin.
I first heard about the Uighurs when I read Peter Hessler's book "Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China". Over the years, I have encountered brief stories about them from time to time, culminating with one of the optional readings for this Eleventh Session, a New York Review of Books. The Uighurs provide a case study of a religious and ethnic minority and how they fit into the greater society. There has been much controversy about how China has treated this minority within its borders. For my third grade curriculum, we talk extensively about religious minorities and accepting people for who they are. Within the AEMP program, we touch on cultural and ethnic differences and how each one of us has our own story. While the article below is beyond the reach of my third grade audience, the concepts are still of interest when discussing acceptance, government actions, and fairness. As a personal side note, I am interested in this article also because I will be traveling to this region of the world next summer. I look forward to meeting people of Uighur heritage.
The article is found online at https://www.businessinsider.com/china-uighur-detention-camps-cleanse-religion-leaked-documents-nyt-2019-11
Business Insider online article posted on November 18, 2019 titled:
China's Communist Party has a special manual instructing officials on how to deal with Uighur university students who get back to find that their families have been imprisoned as part of the mass repression of the Uighur people.
It includes help for dealing with questions about how and why their families were taken away, according to leaked internal documents published by The New York Times on Saturday.
The Uighurs are a mostly-Muslim ethnic minority largely based in Xinjiang, in western China. Many Uighurs call the region East Turkestan.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has installed a high-tech police state in the region and detained at least 1 million Uighurs in prisons and camps. Former detainees have described physical and psychological torture in those centers.
The 403 pages of internal documents published by The Times detail the extent of China's efforts to deflect questions and criticism of unprecedented crackdown.
One of the most striking parts is a question-and-answer briefing to explain to family members left behind why their relatives are gone. The document encouraged officials to liken the detained relatives' mental state to a serious, contagious disease like severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, that requires the quarantine of the Uighur detention camps.
In a Monday press conference, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, did not deny the authenticity of the documents but accused The Times of misinterpreting them and "smearing" China's counterterrorism tactics.
He also praised the effectiveness of the country's deradicalization efforts, saying that Xinjiang had not experienced any violence of three years because of them.
The documents include instructions for local officials to corner Uighur students returning home, as soon as they arrive, to stop them from speaking more widely about what is going on.
A seven-page guide for officials in Turpan City, in eastern Xinjiang, includes 13 questions and model answers to tell students when they ask about their vanished families. The Times described it as "chillingly bureaucratic."
When students ask where their relatives are, officials were told to say, "They're in a training school set up by the government to undergo collective systematic training, study and instruction."
Many Uighurs have been arrested or forced into detention on flimsy charges, such as texting people outside Xinjiang or setting their clocks two hours ahead of Beijing's time zone to align with Xinjiang's natural daylight schedule.
The document also told officials to say that detainees "have very good conditions for studying and living there" and that tuition, food, and living arrangements are all free.
Former detainees have described detention centers as overcrowded, with almost nonexistent hygiene standards. They have also recalled being shackled to chairs and forced to sing propaganda songs to get food.
Officials were also instructed to tell Uighur students that their relatives had been sent away "because they have come under a degree of harmful influence in religious extremism and violent terrorist thoughts" that could lead to "severe" consequences if they acted on them.
If asked why relatives have to be detained to receive their "training," officials should liken their condition to a disease or cancer that requires a quarantine, the document says.
"If you were careless and caught an infectious virus like SARS, you'd have to undergo enclosed, isolated treatment, because it's an infectious illness," the officials were told to say, referring to the deadly respiratory disease.
"If you weren't thoroughly cured, as soon as you returned home you would infect your family with this virus, and your whole family would fall ill."
Another part of the document says that officials should say that the "training" has to be done being closed doors because "otherwise, they will never be able to thoroughly eradicate this stubborn cancer in their thinking and could easily again be swindled and exploited."
Officials were also instructed to tell students to be grateful that their family members were receiving this "free education."
"Treasure this chance for free education that the party and the government has provided to thoroughly eradicate erroneous thinking, and also learn Chinese and job skills," officials were told to say. "This offers a great foundation for a happy life for your family."
Many relatives of detained Uighurs in Xinjiang say their relatives are professionals — such as doctors and editors — and do not need vocational training.
China has acknowledged the existence of some "re-education camps" but repeatedly denied any reports of torture.
The East Turkistan National Awakening Movement last week published the locations of 465 prisons and detention centers. The activist group said at least 72 of those camps had not been declared before, suggesting that Chinese authorities may be expanding the detention program.
The Times' tranche of documents also contains other shocking details about China's crackdown, including that:
Officials have batted away foreign criticism — including from the US and the UN — over China's human-rights record, insisting that what happens in Xinjiang is an internal matter, even though many of those detained are actually citizens of other countries.
Last month, China's UN ambassador also warned that criticism over Xinjiang could jeopardize US-China trade talks.
The government opened more than 12,000 investigations into officials in Xinjiang who did not closely follow its instructions to monitor and detain Uighurs, The Times reported, citing official statistics. But the story of Wang Yongzhi, an official in the western Yarkand county, was circulated most widely.
According to The Times, Wang had complained that the party's detention targets did not align with its economic ambitions for Xinjiang and secretly ordered the release of 7,000 Uighur prisoners.
He stopped being seen in public after September 2017, and months later the party said it was investigating him for "gravely disobeying the party central leadership's strategy for governing Xinjiang," The Times said.
He later signed a confession, likely under duress, saying that he drank heavily on the job and "broke the rules" of the Communist Party.
The document was circulated widely and read aloud to Xinjiang officials to warn that any infractions could lead to a similar demise, according to The Times.
The document leak to The Times hugely undermines Xi's grip on power. He has ruled the Communist Party with an iron fist and has since his ascension to the presidency in 2012 purged dozens of officials in a nationwide "anti-corruption" drive.
The leaker was not named, identified by The Times only as "a member of the Chinese political establishment" who "expressed hope that their disclosure would prevent party leaders, including Mr. Xi, from escaping culpability for the mass detentions.
This article is very recent, but it struck me as important when we compare the response of the military to the current protests in Hong Kong, versus their response during the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989. I think that this is beneficial to look at as a classrom why the government and military have changed tactics so drastically within the last 30 years. They realized they're wrong and want to be kinder? They worry about the opinion of the world with the internet and all the media coverage? Or is it financially motivated- are they worried that too heavy a military presence will "kill the goose that laid the golden egg"?
Found in The Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7692433/Chinese-Peoples-Liberation-Army-Hong-Kong-Soldiers-clean-streets-latest-protests.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
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Police fired tear gas while protesters threw petrol bombs and fired arrows in clashes outside Hong Kong's Polytechnic University on Saturday, just hours after Chinese soldiers made a rare appearance to help clean up the city's streets.
China's People's Liberation Army soldiers in shorts and t-shirts made a surprising appearance on the streets of Hong Kong today, helping residents clean up debris and barricades after anti-government protests blocked roads.
The presence of PLA troops on the streets, even to help clean up, could stoke further controversy over the Chinese-ruled territory's autonomous status.
A city spokesman said the Hong Kong government did not request assistance from the PLA but the military initiated the operation as a 'voluntary community activity'.
Fire fighters try to extinguish a fire on the barricades in the main road next to the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong in Hung Hom district of Hong Kong
Debris left by protesters litters a road leading to the out-of-use Cross Harbour Tunnel, near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Anti-government protesters clash with police. A protester wearing a mask can be seen in front of a cloud of smoke as bricks litter the street
A pro-democracy protester stands on barricades outside the Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is in its sixth month of mass protests
Arrows and an archery target are seen in the water of a swimming pool. The pool has a layer of oil caused by protesters throwing molotov cocktail fire bombs into it as practice
A protester wielding a bow and arrow walks along a footbridge roof. Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule under a 'one country, two systems' formula guaranteeing its colonial-era freedoms. Protesters' demands include full democracy and an independent investigation into perceived police brutality
Riot police brandishing shields face protesters head-on in Hong Kong. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly said he has confidence in the Hong Kong government restoring order
Protesters stand by ahead of a clash with police. A sign for the Hong Kong Poytechnic University is clearly visible behind rows of umbrellas
Fires can be seen in the road. Protesters stand against a wall as the chaos ensues. One holds a sign reading: 'Disperse or we fire'
A pro-democracy protester rests at the university. He wears a hard hat and a gas mask to protect himself in the clashes
Protesters in gas masks wearing all black are seen during today's clashes. Fires rage in the background during the confrontation
Up to 12,000 soldiers are now believed to be based across Hong Kong - more than double the usual garrison number, foreign envoys and security analysts estimate.
Hong Kong has been rocked by more than five months of demonstrations by protesters angry at perceived Communist Party meddling in the former British colony, which was guaranteed its freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Beijing denies interfering and has blamed the unrest on foreign influences.
In October, Chinese soldiers issued a warning to Hong Kong protesters who shone lasers at their barracks in the city, in the first direct interaction between mainland military forces and protesters.
Protesters wearing black hoodies with their faces covered carry bows and arrows along a bridge. One appears to have a walkie-talkie in his hand
Protesters walk along a road near Cross Harbour Tunnel. They appear to be wearing protective body armour and shin pads
The soldiers could be seen helping to clear the roads near their barracks in Hong Kong, carrying brooms in this picture as they jogged
China's People's Liberation Army soldiers (pictured) in shorts and t-shirts made the surprising appearance on the streets on Saturday
They were there to help residents clean up debris and barricades after anti-government protests blocked roads. Pictured: One of the soldiers with the National Flag of the People's Republic of China on his left arm
It is feared the soldiers being on the streets, despite the reason, could worsen the situation with protesters. Pictured: A soldier carrying bricks on Saturday
A protester wearing a gas mask with a make-shift shield and baton faces police. Hong Kong has already had more than five months of demonstrations
Clashes between protesters and police have become increasingly violent. China has said any attempt at independence for Hong Kong will be crushed, but troops have remained inside their base.
Chinese state media repeatedly broadcast comments made on Thursday by President Xi Jinping, in which he denounced the unrest and said 'stopping violence and controlling chaos while restoring order is currently Hong Kong's most urgent task'.
Saturday's clean-up followed some of the worst violence seen this year, after a police operation against protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday.
The authorities have since largely stayed away from at least five university campuses that had been barricaded by thousands of students and activists who stockpiled petrol bombs, catapults, bows and arrows and other weapons.
Many protesters appeared to have left the campuses by late Saturday but Hong Kong's Cross-Harbour Tunnel was still blocked by protesters occupying Polytechnic University, where violence flared again on Saturday night.
Chan, a 20-year-old Polytechnic student said: 'We don't want to attack the police, we just want to safeguard our campus.
Protesters used what appears to be plastic doors to protect themselves during clashes outside a university
An anti-government protesters stands at a blocked outlet of the Cross Harbour Tunnel near the Polytechnic University
Hundreds of residents moved in to help clear barricaded roads (pictured on Pok Fu Road on Saturday) near several universities that were occupied and fortified by protesters this week
The presence of PLA troops (pictured inside their barrack on Saturday) on the streets, even to help clean up roads near their base, could enrage protesters and stoke further controversy over the Chinese-ruled territory's autonomous status
A member of China's People's Liberation Army stands guard inside Osborn Barracks in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong on Saturday
Up to 12,000 troops are now believed to be based across Hong Kong (pictured, Osborn Barracks in Kowloon Tong district) - more than double the usual garrison number, foreign envoys and security analysts estimate
'The reason why we want safeguard our campus is we want citizens to join the mass strike and protect Hong Kong.'
Earlier, hundreds of pro-China demonstrators gathered by the city's legislature and police headquarters, waving Chinese and Hong Kong flags. Some held up posters reading 'Police we stand with you', while others chanted 'Support the police'.
Pro-China protests have so far attracted much smaller numbers than those angry at Beijing.
By late afternoon, the PLA soldiers had left the streets outside Baptist University beside their barracks in Kowloon Tong.
Police in riot gear try to separate students and local residents near the University of Hong Kong after the latest batch of protests on Saturday
The former British colony has been rocked by more than five months of demonstrations (pictured, residents pull down a barricade outside the University of Hong Kong), with pro-democracy protesters angry at perceived Communist Party meddling in a city guaranteed its freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997
An anti-government protester cleans up after demonstrations at the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong on Saturday
Local residents remove a barricade as anti-government protesters sit in the road outside the University of Hong Kong on Saturday
Clashes between protesters and police have become increasingly violent (pictured, a smashed window at the Polytechnic University), and China has warned that any attempt at independence for Hong Kong will be crushed, but the military have remained inside their base
Chinese troops have appeared on streets only once since the 1997 handover to help clear up after a typhoon in 2018. It was not clear how many were involved on Saturday.
The PLA garrison in Hong Kong said that when some residents began cleaning, some troops 'helped clear the road in front of the garrison gate'.
Demosista, a pro-democracy organisation, said Saturday's clean-up operation could set a 'grave precedent' if the city's government invites the military to deal with internal problems.
By late afternoon, the soldiers had left the streets outside Baptist University, which neighbours their barracks in the leafy district of Kowloon Tong. Pictured: A pro-democracy protester sits on Pok Fu Lam Road on Saturday
Chinese troops have appeared on local streets only once since the 1997 handover, to help with cleanup operations after a typhoon in late 2018. It was not immediately clear how many were involved on Saturday. Pictured: The clean up operation at the Polytechnic University
In August, Beijing moved thousands of troops across the border into Hong Kong in what state news agency Xinhua described as a routine rotation. Foreign envoys and security analysts estimate up to 12,000 troops are now based across Hong Kong - more than double the usual garrison number.
Standing beside a black flag with the slogan 'Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our Times,' James Wong, 23, was among protesters manning a bridge at Baptist University.
'We didn't want to confront the people and the PLA troops directly,' he said.
'We are not directly against the PLA, but rather the government. But the PLA should not leave their base because this is Hong Kong territory.'
In some cases the two sides clashed, before the dwindling number of anti-government protesters at the campuses retreated. Pictured: Protesters on Saturday near the University of Hong Kong
Pedestrians walk past debris left by protesters on a road leading to the out-of-use Cross Harbour Tunnel near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Anti-China students and activists have barricaded at least five campuses in the last week, stockpiling petrol bombs, catapults, bows and arrows and other weapons. Pictured: The clean up on Pok Fu Lam Road at the University of Hong Kong
Hundreds of residents moved in to help clear barricaded roads near several universities.
Earlier clashes on Saturday saw at least one petrol bomb thrown before anti-government protesters at the campuses retreated. No soldiers appeared to have been involved in the confrontations. 'We just want our lives to continue,' said one resident who was helping clear streets near Hong Kong University. 'There are many elderly who need to go the hospital and children who need to go to school. I am very sad to see what is happening in my community.'
Saturday's rally to denounce the anti-government violence drew a mix of young and elderly.
'A lot of people keep silent, afraid of the rioters. It's time for all the people who are silent to step up and say that's enough,' said a 49-year-old housewife surnamed Kong.
Pedestrians walk next to a brick wall built by protesters. Rows of colourful umbrellas cover the railings overhead
In October, Chinese soldiers issued a warning to Hong Kong protesters who shone lasers at their barracks in the city, in the first direct interaction between mainland military forces and protesters. Pictured: A barricade near Pok Fu Lam Road
In August, Beijing moved thousands of troops across the border into Hong Kong in an operation state news agency Xinhua described at the time as a routine. Pictured: Pro-democracy protesters block a road in Hong Kong on Saturday
A 70-year-old street cleaner died on Thursday after being hit on the head a brick police said had been thrown by rioters. On Monday, police blamed a rioter for dousing a man in petrol and setting him on fire. The victim is in critical condition.
On the same day, police shot a protester in the abdomen. He was in a stable condition.
Pro-police protesters laid white flowers outside the government office to pay their respects to the cleaner. Others applauded and cheered the police, some bowing and giving thumbs up as they walked past riot police on duty.
Train services suspended earlier in the week were gradually resuming, metro operator MTR Corp said.
China denies interfering in Hong Kong's affairs and has blamed Western countries for stirring up trouble. Pictured: A road block being torn down near the University of Hong Kong on Saturday
Pictured: Residents form a human chain to remove debris from concrete barricades built by protesters on Pok Fu Lam Road at the University of Hong Kong on Saturday
After the architecture lecture, this was a wonderful read tying in to what I learned about it last Saturday. The issue of Japan being a scrap and build society versus lasting architecture and renovation is an interesting topic to bring up. A question to pose to students when tasked with an architectural project is what materials would be best to use, that will deteriorate least/ weather gracefully? How will your building maintain itself or generate funds to be able to maintain itself, future reparations? Where would you build? What would you use it for? Who is your intended audience/ consumer? How important is nostalgia/history when deciding to redevelop?
The article can be found on the online newpaper the japan times :
https://features.japantimes.co.jp/nakagin-capsule-tower/#pagetop
Title: Nakagin Capsule Tower Saving an urban dream from the ravages of time: The future of Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Tower hangs in the balance as architectural enthusiasts attempt to preserve the fading landmark
Author: Chris Russell
Date: November 10, 2019
Saving an urban dream from the ravages of time
Hip to be square: The Nakagin Capsule Tower boasts one of the most recognizable exteriors in Tokyo. MARTIN HOLTKAMP
The future of Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower hangs in the balance as architectural enthusiasts attempt to preserve the fading landmark
CHRIS RUSSELL
Staff writer
In the 1970s, if you were to take a walk through a certain part of Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district, one building in particular would have almost certainly caught your eye. Eschewing anything resembling traditional design, the zig-zagging geometry of its array of small, gleaming pods cutting against the azure sky, the Nakagin Capsule Tower was, and remains, a striking sight.
While the building exuded a technology-fueled optimism at the time of its construction in 1972, the structure, designed by renowned architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007), gives off a different impression today, with the building seemingly hemmed in by the towering glass-and-steel structures that now surround it and a large net almost forlornly cast over the building ever since one of its windows fell onto the street below — not so much a future that awaits but a future lost.
Unsurprisingly, its unique, forward-looking design has seen the building become a minor pop cultural fixture, featuring in numerous music videos as well as films such as “The Wolverine” starring Hugh Jackman — in the latter case as a love hotel in Hiroshima Prefecture, naturally.
Although the Nakagin Capsule Tower is still capable of lending such productions a futuristic sheen, its reality is one of neglect and decay. The threat of demolition has long hung over the building even as a committed group of residents and architectural enthusiasts have fought to save it, with their battle now entering a crucial stage.
Today, the capsules have long lost their luster and are rusting on the outside, the structure’s earthquake resistance is deficient, there are problems with hot water, drainage, leaks and the air conditioning, and the building is full of asbestos.
“To solve (the problems), basically the only solution left is to exchange the capsules,” says Tatsuyuki Maeda, head of the project to preserve the building.
Tatsuyuki Maeda poses for a photo in one of the capsules. MARTIN HOLTKAMP
Forty capsules have fallen into such an extreme state of disrepair that they are now unusable, with some having been used to grow plants — an echo of metabolism, the name of the architectural movement underpinning the tower, of which Kurokawa was a key figure. Another 80 are used as offices, second homes or hobby rooms — the capsules’ soundproofing lends them to practicing musical instruments — and 20 people actually live there.
Maeda himself owns 15 of the capsules, with his first purchase coming in 2011, and he sits on the building’s management board. Initially passing the tower on journeys to school and, later, working nearby, in many ways his involvement in the Nakagin project is the culmination of a lifelong interest.
Currently, the preservation project is in talks with a foreign company — Maeda is unable to say who — that attempts to conserve old buildings and neighborhoods and is interested in buying Nakagin. The current owner of the land seeks to redevelop the complex, and, if a purchase is unsuccessful, demolition is a likely outcome.
The foreign company also supports the replacement of the capsules, which, including additional renovation work, a construction company has estimated could cost at least ¥2 billion, excluding the price of land. A more detailed estimate of the total cost, which will be used to formulate a bid, is currently being drawn up, with a final offer expected to be reached by February, although it could take longer.
“If possible, they are considering paving the path toward (registering the towers as) a World Heritage site, or as a Tangible Cultural Property,” says Maeda, adding that the International Council on Monuments and Sites has already come to inspect the building.
That the building is still around to be considered for such a distinction is a small miracle in itself. In 2007, support for demolition by capsule owners passed the crucial 80 percent threshold, but the Nakagin Capsule Tower found an unlikely savior — the global financial crisis. With the resulting hit to the economy, Nakagin Group couldn’t proceed with its plans for redevelopment.
“Fortunately, they stopped the development and demolition,” says Kenji Watanabe, chair of the Japan chapter of Docomomo, an international organization dedicated to researching and conserving modern architecture. “That’s why it’s still there.”
The neglected interior of a space at the Nakagin Capsule Tower prior to renovation. TATSUYUKI MAEDA
The interior of a living space in Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo’s Ginza district. MARTIN HOLTKAMP
Between the cost and litany of problems facing the tower, you might reasonably ask what the point of saving it is. But the ideas that lie behind Nakagin give the building vast historical and architectural importance, with metabolism being Japan’s first postwar architectural movement of international significance.
Responding to both the devastation of Japan during World War II and the socioeconomic transformations that followed it, metabolism posited an idea of urbanism that saw cities and buildings as evolving and developing in the manner of living organisms — a radical challenge to existing ideas of city planning, with the metabolists prioritizing process over grand, fixed visions for the urban environment. A sense of the significance of the movement is given by the fact that three architects associated with metabolism have won the Pritzker prize.
“This metabolist movement presented the idealism of architecture in the 1960s: Many goals they set for the movement or for architecture or for city design remain the high kinds of ideals of many architects,” says Zhongjie Lin, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design and author of “Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan.”
Much of the work of the metabolists, however, remained theoretical, with few built examples in existence — other notable buildings include Tange’s Yamanashi Press and Broadcasting Center — further increasing Nakagin Capsule Tower’s importance.
In particular, the ideas behind the tower of modularity, industrialization and an embrace of recyclability and compact living still resonate today, says Lin, who points to ongoing attempts to build prefabricated towers and the existence of the small, yet adaptable Muji Hut as examples of Nakagin’s enduring relevance.
“Nakagin Capsule Tower represents the dream of a new type of urban living and a completely new urban form,” Lin says.
Metabolism itself tended to overreach, however, with many ideas not being supported by the technology of the time. Although Nakagin’s capsules were envisaged as being replaceable, with owners changing and upgrading their capsule, or even moving it to a completely different location, as they wished, the building design doesn’t quite allow for such a free-wheeling approach to city living — capsules were installed from the bottom up, meaning that moving one requires all of those above it, too. The planned modularity of Tange’s Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, also located in Ginza, has similarly gone unrealized.
And at the time of its construction, Nakagin Capsule Tower was pitched toward a more prosaic demographic — salarymen used to working long into the night and in need of a centrally located space in which to live and work. Pitching the building to those staying in the office until 2 a.m. now seems slightly jarring in a world of high-profile incidents of karōshi (death by overwork), but Maeda insists the ideas behind the tower were ahead of their time and today’s lifestyles have finally caught up, citing trends toward minimalist living, nomadic lifestyles and the embrace of koya (cabins) as living spaces.
This metabolist movement presented the idealism of architecture in the 1960s: Many goals they set for the movement or for architecture or for city design remain the high kinds of ideals of many architects.”
ZHONGJIE LIN, AUTHOR OF “KENZO TANGE AND THE METABOLIST MOVEMENT: URBAN UTOPIAS OF MODERN JAPAN.
The original brochure for the Nakagin Capsule Tower, targeting businessmen. ANDREW LEE
For all its impact and audacity, Japan’s hardly stellar record of preserving modern architecture casts a shadow over the project to save Nakagin. Of the 226 buildings so far listed as worthy of preservation by Docomomo Japan, 21 have been demolished. And although a facsimile of the original design was recently built, the demolition of the Hotel Okura’s iconic Yoshiro Taniguchi-designed lobby in 2015 drew an international outcry and highlighted for many how the country’s postwar architectural legacy isn’t always respected.
“The preservation of modern architecture is basically a failure,” Maeda says. “Japan is inevitably trapped in a scrap-and-build culture.”
Talk of preserving Nakagin reaches back to the mid-1990s, when British architect and writer Dennis Sharp, who organized an exhibition on Kurokawa’s work in London around that time, proposed gathering information on registering the tower as a cultural asset.
However, there is a question of how well conservation sits with metabolist ideas of growth and change. World Heritage rules, for example, stress how a building’s “conditions of integrity and/or authenticity at the time of inscription” should be sustained or enhanced, and it is unclear how UNESCO would interpret that in the context of a building designed to evolve like the Nakagin Capsule Tower.
The interior of a living space in Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo’s Ginza district. MARTIN HOLTKAMP
“If the tower is demolished, it would actually be a testament to the theory of metabolism — that the city is ever-changing,” Lin says with a laugh. “But a building is also an artifact. And as an artifact, it actually also embodies human culture, human ideals that we have.”
Kurokawa himself expressed his desire to see the capsules replaced, saying, “if you replace the capsules every 25 years, the building could be recycled for up to 200 years.”
“I designed the building to be an example of sustainable architecture, and it was the first of its kind in the world,” he told Tokyo Art Beat in a 2007 interview published a few months before his death. “I designed the building to have its capsules replaced every 25 years, so it’s ridiculous that 25 years have gone by and nothing has been done.”
Watanabe of Docomomo Japan, meanwhile, stresses the notion of “living heritage” — the idea being that while the facade and underlying philosophy of the architect should be respected, other aspects of the building are much more adaptable.
“Changing the function, changing the material is OK … but please don’t change the important characteristics, the design of the original design, the idea of the architect,” Watanabe says.
Maeda’s own ideas regarding the tower’s possible function post-renovation seem to go along with that, and he foresees the tower becoming less residential and more open to the public, although not completely so, with an emphasis on the curation of art and technology. In a sense, this is an extension of what Nakagin is currently used for, with the capsules being used by hobbyists and hosting TV and photography shoots, a direction Maeda has encouraged. Existing residents tend to work in art-related fields, too.
Bathrooms and other amenities are squeezed into the capsules. MARTIN HOLTKAMP
The Nakagin Capsule Tower’s futuristic appearance often features in movies and music videos. ANDREW LEE
Looming in the background in the preservation debate is the potential role of government. Over the years, Japan has been very proactive in securing World Heritage listings, for example, but these have tended to be for sites of natural beauty or those linked to traditional culture. Where it has embraced buildings outside those areas, they have primarily focused on those associated with the process of modernization seen during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) — although Japan did throw its weight behind a transnational effort to list work by the pioneer of modern architecture Le Corbusier, which included the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.
Last year, the preservation project launched a petition addressed to Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike appealing for help in replacing the capsules, attracting just under 8,500 signatures in the process. The petition was subsequently bounced between various departments of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government before, ultimately, it was decided that nothing could be done, as it is not public property.
While Maeda says that the government should intervene in preservation, there is a sense among others that efforts to conserve the tower would be better done through engaging surrounding communities and raising awareness. Watanabe stresses the need to increase appreciation of the value of modern architecture in Japan, arguing that the subject should be taught in schools. Exhibitions can play a role, too, with a metabolism retrospective at the Mori Art Museum in 2011 being a notable example.
Yuka Yoshida, co-founder of Showcase Tokyo, which holds English-language tours of Nakagin, notes how little awareness there is of the building among Japanese people. “I hear a lot of people saying that they asked the way to this building, but none of the people walking around knew about this building, or whether this existed or not,” Yoshida says. “So it’s really amazing — Japanese people don’t know about this building.”
For her part, Yoshida thinks open house events, as seen in other cities, could drive greater appreciation. Still, that can take different forms, with implications for how conservation should be carried out.
“It’s two different kinds of appreciation: It’s appreciation of the building as preserving the history of the past and the appreciation of the building as part of the urban fabric. And right now I think the problem that the Nakagin Capsule Tower encounters is that these two cannot be reconciled,” says Lin, who nonetheless speaks approvingly of Maeda’s intentions for the tower.
“It would be kind of a breakthrough in design and preservation if this can be accomplished,” he says of the plan.
While a path forward for the building has emerged, whether it can take it remains an open question for the time being. What is more certain is the strength of feeling that the Nakagin Capsule Tower elicits.
“The thing that I really feel about doing the tour is that people really have an interest and really have love toward this building, the idea and the theory,” Yoshida says. “A lot of people want to preserve this building, but it doesn’t mean just preserving as it is.
“Everyone really wants to see it metabolize at some point.”
The Article can be found online The japan times : https://features.japantimes.co.jp/giant-squid/
Title: Dissecting the secrets of the legendary giant squid : Renowned zoologist and team shed new light on seldom-seen creature.
Author:Andrew Mckirdy
Date: September 26, 2018
This article would be much more interesting for my Kinder class. This article would be awesome for an ocean unit and tying it in to literature about the Kraken and sea monsters. This information is actually very exciting and interesting because of the ideas that I have about an inquiry unit and bringing in Guided Language Acquisition Design Strategies. Using a pictorial input chart and chants about zoologists. So much learning can go on.
Renowned zoologist and team shed new light on seldom-seen creature
ANDREW MCKIRDY
Tsukuba, Ibaraki Pref.
Staff writer
In ancient legend they were called the kraken, fearsome sea monsters of giant proportions that would drag sailors down to their doom.
More than 2,000 years later, the world still remains mystified by the creatures we now know as giant squids.
But researchers, led by internationally renowned zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera, are doing their best to unlock the secrets of the fabled deep-sea denizens.
Last week at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Kubodera conducted a dissection of a 394-cm-long specimen along with a team of researchers from universities and other institutions around the country.
“The giant squid is a very rare animal,” said Kubodera, who in 2012 became the first person in the world to film one of the giant creatures in its natural habitat, descending nearly 1 km beneath the surface in a small submersible to record the creature near the Ogasawara Islands about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo.
“We have learned a lot about the makeup of giant squids’ bodies, but we want to learn more,” he said. “We have researchers here today who want to find out about the squid’s nervous system, its eyes and its blood. I’m a taxonomist, but today we’re looking at the giant squid from a physiological perspective. We’re looking at it from lots of different aspects. Everyone here is interested in giant squids and we want to find out more about them.”
Giant squids are one of the most seldom-seen animals in the world, and much about them remains unknown.
They are believed to be able to grow up to 13 meters long, and can weigh almost a ton. They live at depths of anywhere between 300 and 1,000 meters, and have eight arms and two additional longer feeding tentacles. These are tipped with hundreds of jagged suckers, which they use to snatch prey from up to 10 meters away.
Giant squids have two eyes the size of dinner plates — the largest in the animal kingdom — and a sharp beak similar to a parrot’s. The main part of the body is called the mantle, which houses all the basic organs. On the underside of the body is the funnel, which the animal uses to exhale, expel waste, lay eggs, squirt ink and propel itself through the water.
“One of the things that I like best about them is their size,” said Kubodera, who in 2004 became the first person in the world to photograph a giant squid in its natural habitat, and in 2006 became the first to film one in any environment when he caught one with bait off the Ogasawaras.
“You don’t normally see squids as big as that,” he said. “When you dissect a normal-size squid, the stomach is very small and so are all the other parts. When you dissect a giant squid, you need to use your whole body just to move it. They really make an impression. They have the same bodily makeup as normal squids, but they are much larger. That’s the appeal for me.”
An illustration from the original edition of Jules Verne's “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” depicting a giant squid grabbing a sailor. ALPHONSE DE NEUVILLE. PUBLIC DOMAIN
Professor Mitsunaga Narushima, chief of the department of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Mie University, was invited to assemble a team of researchers to take part in the dissection. The 15 team members were drawn from a range of medical fields and assigned different roles according to their area of expertise.
“This was a very valuable opportunity, so I asked a lot of people from different fields of research to come and look at the giant squid from a medical point of view,” Narushima said. “We have people looking at the nervous system, at the eyes and at the blood.
“My field of research is the nervous system. Plastic surgeons do a lot of treatment on peripheral nerves and I am looking at developing a new treatment. I’m trying to create a model based on experiments on live squids. No one really understands the workings of squids, so I have been trying to find out by asking people like Kubodera. He said no one really knows, so he asked if I would like to come along and get involved. I thought it would be interesting to do that from a medical point of view, looking closely at the nervous system.”
The team dissected a squid that had washed up in the Bentenhama area in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture, in March 2014. It was frozen the same day and then stored at the museum in Tsukuba. The squid was thawed the day before the dissection.
Kubodera began by laying the squid on the floor of the dissection room, washing it with a hose and then spreading the tentacles out to be measured. The total length of the animal was 394 cm, with a 165-cm-long mantle and tentacles that extended up to 187 cm. It weighed 174 kg.
Kubodera cut open the mantle as the researchers looked on, and removed the internal organs including the stomach, liver, reproductive organs and hearts. Giant squids have two hearts — one brachial and one systemic.
“We found out it was a mature female,” said Kubodera. “It was a female and it had very large ovaries. The fallopian tubes were also very large, and it seemed as if it was in a condition where it would have laid eggs that year. I’ve never seen fallopian tubes as big as that.”
Once the parts of the squid were separated, the researchers took a closer look at the areas that interested them.
“Squids are special,” said Chihena Banda, a postgraduate student in Narushima’s plastic surgery department at Mie University who moved to Japan from his native Zambia in April. “They’ve got giant nerves and it’s a nice way to study how nerves function. You can apply that to human beings as well.
“I knew the professor is into nerve research, but I didn’t think we would be studying it on a squid. But it’s exciting because it’s got special features that no other animal in the world has, and an opportunity like this — to explore this animal, study it and finally get to translate all this hard work into human benefit — is a good opportunity for me.”
VIDEO: Watch a video of the squid dissection. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT! PHOTO BY SATOKO KAWASAKI
The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera (seen in photo at right) dissects the giant squid Sept. 19. SATOKO KAWASAKI
The dissection was organized by filmmaker Shinichi Motoki, who is currently making a documentary about Kubodera’s work. Motoki will also film Kubodera hunting giant squids in Toyama Prefecture next January and February, and he aims to complete his documentary by April or May. He intends to market the film to an international audience.
The expedition on which Kubodera filmed a giant squid in the wild for the first time was part of a collaboration between NHK and the Discovery Channel, and produced ground-breaking programs which aired on those channels in 2013. Kubodera’s work has not been broadcast since then, however, and Motoki is keen for the world to take notice.
“Kubodera is interested in squids from a very pure point of view,” he said. “He wants to know all about them. What is a squid? He’s not interested in discovering what medicine can be developed from squids or doing something from a business point of view. He just wants to know how they live, and I think that’s a great thing.
“It’s a very basic form of science. Why is a leaf green? If you know the answer to that, that leads to something further. He’s always searching, always pursuing something.”
Giant squids live in all the world’s oceans, but sightings are most common off the coast of Japan. Motoki explains that trenches in the Sea of Japan act as a trap for the animals and the cold water temperatures in winter force them to the surface, where they are swept toward shore by strong winds.
“Giant squids are one of the rarest animals to see, but you can see them in the seas around Japan,” he said. “You can see them come right into ports, but you only see that in Japan.
“I want to tell the world that the animal that was known in history as the legendary kraken can be seen in Japanese waters. I want people to know about squids and I want people to know about Japan’s seas. That’s why I’m making this documentary. I want to convey the wonders of Japan’s seas, with the giant squid as a symbol.”
Kubodera is now 67 and technically retired, and he has been given the title of curator emeritus at the National Museum of Nature and Science. He has also researched octopuses and normal-size squids over the course of his career, but he acknowledges that it is always the giant variety that appends itself to his name whenever he is mentioned in the media.
As he goes about his business in the dissection room, pointing out details to the researchers and peering with wonder at the creature’s inner workings, it is clear he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m too old for new challenges,” he said. “But there are still things that I’m involved in that I have to make sure I do properly. I’m still involved in surveys in Japan. There are varieties of octopus and squid that still don’t have names. We have to give them scientific names, and that is one job I am involved in.
“Then there is the next generation of children. I want to teach them about the interesting things that live in the sea. So I am still involved in filming underwater in Japan and putting that information out there.”
Renowned zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera. SATOKO KAWASAKI
The members of the dissection team pose for a photo before the procedure. SATOKO KAWASAKI
I found this article to be insightful in offering a personal perspective. I find the topic of reunification between the two Koreas to be such a relevant and current topic. Since the 1953 armstice, it has been over 60 years since any conversation has really occured. While some may be in favor of reunification, others are against the idea and consider North and South Korea vastly different from one another. I felt that this article offered a refreshing point of view in relevance to some of the current political tensions in China. While Hong Kong protests for its fight towards democracy, it's interesting to note how President Xinping pushes for reunification of China with Taiwan. I think we are undergoing a very important time period and climate of transition and push for change as integral parts of Asia pushes for political change.
This is the link to the article below: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/05/16/610976485/2-generations-2-different-perspectives-on-korean-reunification
Courtesy of Euni Cho
Jean H. Lee, the former Pyongyang bureau chief for The Associated Press, is the director of the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center.
Fleeing war in North Korea in 1951, my aunt and her siblings scrambled aboard an American cargo ship pulling away from port, her parents and grandmother shouting their names to keep track of them in the chaos of the evacuation. They made it. But their grandfather stayed behind in Wonsan to protect the family property.
He thought his family would return. They never saw him, or the rest of their family in North Korea, again.
As the leaders of North Korea, South Korea and the United States discuss denuclearization and a possible peace treaty to formally end the Korean War of the 1950s, I wanted to check in with my aunt, a child of the war who was born in North Korea, and her millennial daughter Euni Cho, who grew up in democratic, thriving South Korea.
Foreign journalists have described the way South Koreans feel about the blossoming detente in dramatic terms: Euphoric. Giddy. Emotional.
We international observers want South Koreans to be giddy and euphoric because it fits a convenient narrative. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, too, wants his people to be overcome with emotion: The show of unity in the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas was meant not only to establish ties between the two leaders, but also to grab the attention and emotions of the South Korean people — and to remind them of their connections to the North even after 70 years of division.
But I know, from speaking to my own family, how conflicted and complicated their feelings are toward North Korea, and how diverse their points of view are. Each generation bears a different history and, as a result, dreams of a different future.
Polls do show overwhelming support for President Moon's efforts. But have South Koreans so blindly embraced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent overtures promising to renounce provocation in favor of peace? As an American journalist who covered the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, has lived and worked in Pyongyang, and has kept a close eye on the trail of broken promises on all sides over a quarter-century of negotiations with the North Koreans, I watched the Kim-Moon summit — and approach Kim's anticipated summit with President Trump — with a mix of optimism and skepticism. While I'm hopeful things will be different this time, we've been down this path before.
My aunt Younghwa Chun, a Viennese-trained pianist, watched the April 27 inter-Korean summit live on TV at home in a suburb of Seoul.
"I wasn't particularly moved," she says.
Courtesy of Euni Cho
Like President Moon, my aunt's personal history traces back to the North. Her roots lie in Wonsan, the coastal city where Kim has a seaside villa. Later this month, the North Korean government will fly foreign journalists, including South Koreans, to Wonsan as part of a media junket designed to broadcast to the world the promised destruction of a northern nuclear test site.
My aunt was a toddler when her family fled, and doesn't have memories of life in North Korea. But she heard countless stories of life under communism and arduous journeys south — "if people fell off the boat, you could lose family members forever" — while growing up in Busan, the South Korean port city where the cargo ship landed and where many North Korean refugees scraped together new lives.
"When we were younger, we hated communism. They don't have the freedoms of democratic nations, and they maintain oppressive control," she says. "They execute people and kill them without trial."
For many in South Korea, live footage of their president holding hands with Kim and the two chatting privately — on the South Korean side of the DMZ — was altogether stunning. No North Korean leader before Kim Jong Un had ever set foot in South Korea since the 1953 Korean War cease-fire, and here he was, laughing with their president. The moment humanized Kim, and by extension all North Koreans, for many South Koreans — including my maternal uncle, Sung-jin Cho, who was sitting next to his wife at home watching the televised events unfold.
"I was a bit skeptical but my husband was very enthusiastic. He was intrigued by the summit," my aunt says. "But he's from Seoul, and I'm from a family from North Korea, so there's a difference in perspective."
Korea Summit Press Pool via AP
At 70, my aunt is coolly rational about the sudden shift in the North Korean leader's image. She notes that he executed his uncle and may have ordered his brother's assassination in recent years. "I'm doubtful whether he could change just like that," she says.
She's watching to see how things go between Kim and President Trump at their historic summit in Singapore on June 12 before she puts any faith in Kim's word. North Korea, in an abrupt shift in tone, threatened Wednesday to pull out of those talks, raising questions about whether the meeting will go ahead as planned.
"Most of us are a bit skeptical. North Korea has done so many bad things. They've lied so much, which is why we can't trust them," she says. "I'm half doubtful. We'll see."
She has another concern: whether President Trump will agree to withdrawing the 28,500 U.S. troops protecting South Korea while negotiating a peace deal with the North to formally end the war in exchange for pledges on denuclearization.
"If we open our doors completely and the U.S. troops are evacuated, I'd be very anxious," she says. "I think the U.S. troops need to stay until South Korea can stand on its own."
She harbors hope for reunification of the divided Koreas, but cautions against moving too quickly.
"We're not foreigners; we're one nation. I hope we're able to find peace," my aunt says. But "even when we reconcile with a friend, we don't laugh together the next day. There's always some pent-up anger."
Meanwhile, my cousin Euni was busy getting ready for work on the morning of the Korean summit. In her early 30s, Euni owns a patisserie called Sweet Studio Dal D in the trendy hillside neighborhood of Gyeongnidan near the U.S. Army base.
Euni was 3 when Seoul hosted the Olympics in 1988, an event that served as a turning point in South Korea's transformation from poor, war-torn country to tiger nation determined to join the First World. She grew up in an increasingly globalized South Korea. Her struggles and goals as a young South Korean differ from her mother's as a refugee from the North.
"All I knew about North Korea was what I learned from my parents, calling them 'commies,' " Euni recalls.
She grew up in the affluent Gangnam section of Seoul. "Everyone around me was well off," she says, "and no one cared about the issues between North Korea and South Korea because we led comfortable lives."
As far as she and her friends were concerned, "North Korea was a scary presence, and no one supported reunification."
Growing up with threats from North Korea all her life, she had become inured to them. It was during a stint studying at a pastry school in Chicago a few years ago that she saw how North Korea's nuclear tests and missile launches looked from afar.
"When I told people I was from South Korea, they thought I came from a dangerous country," she says at her bakery. "We may be numb to it but it's true that we live on a peninsula with nuclear weapons. It must've looked dangerous from the outside."
Euni's preoccupation has been to build a small business in a competitive, high-pressure economy — not threats from North Korea.
"Even though people spoke of the possibility of war," she says, "it doesn't immensely affect our daily lives, and we don't worry about it every day."
Nonetheless, she decided to watch the summit on her iPhone while commuting to the bakery. Her immediate reaction was one of amusement: "It was more interesting than it was moving."
Two weeks later, she put the event into broader perspective, calling it unprecedented and impactful. "I'm hoping for good results," she says. "We came all the way here. I hope we don't go back in history."
But Euni draws the line at supporting reunification, saying she finds it hard to picture how they will bridge the economic gap when life is already so difficult in competitive South Korea, not to mention the cultural differences after 70 years of division.
"I don't really feel that we are one nation," Euni says. "The two nations have very different values." Reunification may have benefits — but could also be damaging to society and to the economy, she says.
As leaders negotiate the future of the Korean Peninsula, they must keep the divergent dreams of the different generations in mind. After all, it's young South Koreans like my cousin, working late into the night baking birthday cakes, who will pay for reconciliation and reunification — or, as I remind her, of provocation.
"For me, it's more about whether there will be war on the Korean Peninsula. So if that issue is resolved and we can maintain peace, it would be even better if we could interact," Euni says as she prepares to dive into the day's baking.
"But I'm thinking: 'Must we become one nation?'"
Freelance journalist Dasl Yoon contributed reporting from Seoul.
Title: Five Chinese arrested in Japan for secretly photographing university admissions exam for foreign students
Author: Kyodo
Publisher: South China Morning Post
Date: November 8, 2019
Some 31,000 people took the exam this June, and more than 60 per cent of the examinees in Japan were Chinese nationals. Photo: A
Five Chinese arrested in Japan for secretly photographing university admissions exam for foreign students
Five Chinese nationals including the head of a Tokyo cram school for Chinese-speaking students have been arrested for secretly taking images of Japanese university admission exams for foreigners, investigative sources said Friday.
Ding Bin, the 36-year-old school president of MK Education & Technology, and four compatriots including school employees, are suspected of conspiring to obstruct the business of the Japan Student Services Organisation, a government-linked organisation that administers the national standardised test.
One of the group members allegedly took the test under a fake name and used camera-equipped eyeglasses to capture images of the Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students in Tokyo on June 16.
The exam, held twice a year, evaluates the Japanese language proficiency and the basic academic abilities of international students who wish to study at the undergraduate level at universities or other higher education institutions in Japan.
The most recent examples of exams are not made publicly available and the group was apparently attempting to build a larger data set of questions to give the school a competitive advantage, the sources said.
Some 31,000 people took the exam this June, and more than 60 per cent of the examinees in Japan were Chinese nationals, according to the administrator.
Concealed cameras in eyewear, watches, pens and other items used in everyday life are widely sold online and at shops in Japan relatively cheaply under the auspices of crime prevention, prompting experts to call for regulation to prevent them being abused in nefarious activities.
Small, easily concealed cameras have been used for illegal purposes in many instances across Japan.
Last month, a man was served an arrest warrant for allegedly filming a young girl getting changed at a nursery school in Obihiro, Hokkaido, while a man was arrested in March for allegedly placing a pen-shaped camera in a bathroom in Nagoya.
Yusaku Fujii, a Gunma University professor with expertise in security cameras, said the prices of such cameras have fallen and their performance has advanced “at a remarkable speed.”
“As they are hard to detect, we should tighten control by introducing a registration system for [purchases of cameras] that can be abused,” Fujii said.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: 5 Chinese arrested for recording Japan exam.
Why it's Important: I came across this article earlier today and I find it rather perfect for teaching students about plagirism. While middle school students are likely to need an introduction to plagirism as a whole, high school students benefit from a quick review that this article may offer. The topic of this article focuses primarily on the severity of plagirism through technology, which may be extremely relevant to our students' current generation. The headline of this article is a great hook to enggage students because many are unlikely to see a connection with the words "arrest" and "cheating". Teachers can take this article and make real life connections with the outside world. After all, we aim to protect integrity and prevent students from facing incidents that may jeopordize their education - even as drastic as arrest. By reading this article, students can apply ELA skills like context clues, inferences, identifying main claims and suportive details, etc.
