Asia and the World

[Anonymous]

You mention that the Hmong people who have immigrated to UCLA lack identity. Having travelled to the Golden Triangle of Thailand last summer, I'm not surprised that this group feels isolated and lost. In their own country...their own land...these groups are prisoners. Treated less than citizens, many of these tribes (including the Mien, Lahu, Lisu, Akha, Hmong, and Karen) resort to tourism to make a buck. Unfortunately, they are losing their culture with the onset of foreign visitors. It appeared to me that many of the tribes maintained their culture for the sake of sustenance. Who would blame them when the government does not intervene to ensure that all people are treated humanely!

[Anonymous]

Dear Colleagues,
I want to alert you to the current issue of Saudi Aramco Magazine, a magazine
published to promote Middle East issues. I find the magazine, with its archives
and open access, to be an invaluable source of articles and information. But the
current issue, is simply the cat's meow. It's title, The Indian Ocean and Global
Trade. You can access it using the following link: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/
I hope you find this exciting and useful. You can copy articles into Word
or, I presume, other word processing programs and keep them for future use. Please
observe copyright laws and rules of use. nb

Nicholas Beck
[email protected]
EarthLink Revolves Around You.

[Anonymous]

I have a number of articles that, if requests are limited, would be willing to share on the Silk Road and how goods, ideas, and culture was transmitted across it over time. Right now, I have over 50 requests that I need to respond to and fill. These are articles are from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet that I have formatted, but are copyrighted by their respective authors, so please observe the copyrights when using. Usually they are OK for classroom distribution and use.

[Anonymous]

I want to jump into a discussion of pop culture for the Fall 2005 seminar group and hope that others join.

thanks to the previous post for the Christian Sci Mon article. I'll check that out after writing this.

Two weeks ago, there was a subtitled show in a Chinese language on channel 18 called Kung Fu Soccer. On a whim, I tuned in because of the title mostly but also because I'm trying to focus on China.

I don't know if this was from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Mainland China and don't know the dialect but I'm guessing it was from Hong Kong. The premise of the show was that this soccer team used magical Kung Fu while playing soccer. They were highly regarded by the people and admired for their skill in kung fu as well as soccer. After defeating another team that practices kung fu in a soccer match, an overarching governing soccer body legislated that kung fu could no longer be used in soccer. Initially distraught, the team pondered disbanding. However, they resolved themselves to practicing soccer without kung fu and win despite the change of rule.

I want to offer an interpretation: Soccer is an English invention. Kung Fu is a Chinese invention. I believe this could be a postcolonial critique of British global economics. Bear with me.

Like soccer, the global economy in its present state is very much a lingering remnant of Victorian English colonialism. Like soccer, the world is required to play by certain rules and like FIFA, the rules come directly from the Western powers embodied in the World Bank and the IMF. The kung fu is an allegory for Chinese ways of doing things or Chinese identity which has been rejected very much like the Chinese economy of Mao and Deng. However, like the Chinese economy of today, China will continue to struggle on and "beat them at their own game" like the economic free trade zones that have been established in China or the recent attempt by a Chinese style corporation like CNOOC to buy Unocal.

Does this ring true with anyone or am I stretching things too far?

waiting for responses, dan

[Anonymous]

Nick,

thanks so much for informing me about the ARAMCO website. I find the discussion of oil the most intriguing and troubling issue in the world and its issues usually parallel so many other economic strands such as rainforest depletion and modernization versus conservation (environmentally as well as culturally).

In terms of our current discussion of East Asia and the New Media in class, has there been a more telling display of American jingoism and protectionism in the face of the lip service we give to a free market economy.

For those who followed this story during the summer, certain reps in congress and certain editorials in newspapers like the Daily News did their best to frighten the American public by stating that China was trying all sorts of tricky gambits to steal our oil. At the same time, news coverage by newspapers like the Financial Times, responses from certain Unocal board of directors, and editorials by certain financial experts encourage the sale to CNOOC on the bases of 1) it was a richer deal for the share holders, and 2) to welcome China increasingly into the fold of the world economy. These accounts usually added that the UNOCAL holdings were so small that a sale to China would not put any pressure on our oil economy and that China made concessions already by floating their currency the Yuan.

Personally, I was appalled by the yellow journalism and the scare techniques pulled by the corporate media and the grandstanding members of Congress. I will enjoy the website that NIck has suggested to me to follow oil news more closely.

responses? dan

[Anonymous]

Dear Colleagues,
I subscribe to a magazine called "Education about Asia." This magazine is published by SPICE out of Standford University (Sorry UCLA.) I highly recommend this publication. This month's issue contains some of the following articles:

Asia in the 20th Century
Asia's Environment 1900-2000
World History Textbooks
Japanese Society in the 20th Century
20th Century India, An Overview
Teaching 20th Century Chinese History.

I find the articles very informative and interesting.
Their website is http://spice.stanford.edu and their phone number is 800-578-1114.
The magazine is not cheap, but is worth the price.
Nicholas Beck

[clay dube]

Nicholas recommends a wonderful resource, Education About Asia. It's published three times a year and most teachers completing seminars with National Consortium for Teaching about Asia programs (such as ours at UCLA) receive one year subscriptions to it. Lucien Ellington, a professor of education and a Japan specialist at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, is the editor of the magazine.

EAA is published by the Association for Asian Studies. You can see the tables of contents of back issues as well as sample articules and supplementary materials at the AAS website:

http://www.aasianst.org/eaa-toc.htm

[Anonymous]

Dear Colleagues,
I want to alert you to the current issue of Saudi Aramco Magazine, a magazine
published to promote Middle East issues. I find the magazine, with its archives
and open access, to be an invaluable source of articles and information. But the
current issue, is simply the cat's meow. It's title, The Indian Ocean and Global
Trade. You can access it using the following link: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/
I hope you find this exciting and useful. You can copy articles into Word
or, I presume, other word processing programs and keep them for future use. Please
observe copyright laws and rules of use. nb

[Anonymous]

Using political cartoons is part of the state curriculum. So, in World History I use Sapajou who was a White Russian living in China in the 1920s to 1940s. His work is peerless and allows me to teach both Chinese history, Russian history, and the Spanish Civil War. The kids really get a kick out of making sense of this is an arcane bit of knowledge. I must say, we really enjoy it when we get to that bit of history in our course work. Below is the link to his story and his political cartoons. Don't load them and print them out for the overhead projector. They make a wonderful class lesson, especially if you have given the kids a through background in the history of China, Russian Revoluton, and the Spanish Civil War. Enjoy. nb

http://www.talesofoldchina.com/sapajou/sapajou1.cfm

[Anonymous]

cool website, nick. is there a reason why we shouldn't make an overhead for these? copyrights?

dan

[Anonymous]

Aheologists from Beijing had been digging in Lajia, an excavation site on the Yellow River in northeastern China for several years. They discovered the remains of a village from the Neolithic period. They uncovered houses containing human skeletons and animal bones, jade items, and pottery. According to their records, an earthquake proceeded by a flood hit the area. The silt carried in by the flood apparently preserved the items quite well. After digging 10 feet below the surface, the archeologists discovered a well-preserved bowl. When they lifted it, they uncovered 4,000 year old noodles. Amazingly, the pottery (and the layer of silt) preserved the noodles in an airtight space! Unfortunately, the noodles did not survive the discovery. Archeologists took a quick picture and the oxygen soon turned them into powder. Nonetheless, the team found that the noodles were made of millet, a grain which is still consumed by poor farmers in the region around Lajia today! WOW!!!

[Anonymous]

Hello and happy holidays,

Just a heads up about one of my favorite radio shows doing some broadcasting from and about China. The show MARKETPLACE on NPR from American Public Media will be doing live shows from China starting January 9 and running through January 20. The show is on at 2:00 pm on 89.9 (KCRW) but I listen to it online. The show reports on a lot of international and domestic topics relating to economics and politics.

Is anybody besides Reza out there? dan

[clay dube]

Thanks, Dan, for alerting us to the upcoming Marketplace series. Additional details about the series are available at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/china2006/.

Many public radio stations carry Marketplace (which originated at USC, but is now part of the Minnesota Public Radio empire that includes KPCC, 89.3).

[Anonymous]

Hey Christine,

Where did you find the information about the 4,000 year old noodles? What publication? I am highly interested, as I am gathering information to present in my upcoming Ancient China unit. That sounds really cool.

Thanks,

jem

[Anonymous]

I found the article in one of the ESL resources I get from my coach at school. However, there are some links you can look at to gather more information. They are as follows:

Neolithic Chinese Used Their Noodles

Picture of the World's Oldest Noodles

[Author]

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