Final Essay

[Jennifer Place]

     This was my first seminar at USC and I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to learn from such a distinguished group of professors and with such an amazing group of teachers.  I found the range of topics to be remarkably diverse, especially for the short amount of time we were together.  Each lecture contained valuable and interesting information that can be utilized in many different grade levels.  I am using the information on contemporary Chinese art to develop a unit for my students that travel to China, visiting the 798 art zone.  Although it is is always interesting to visit any art museum or gallery, I want the high school students to have a better understanding of the contemporary artists, how art has changed in China and why it is amazing that the new art zones even exist.  WIth this understanding, I believe their visit to the 798 Art Zone will be more interesting and meaningful.

      Aspects of the lecture on Kabuki theatre will be incorporated into my after-school theatre group and in my sixth grade art class as a component of the arts of China unit.  Grade 6 art lessons will also benefit from many of the other lectures such as postcards and films.  I believe my students will thoroughly enjoy learning about Asian film and K-pop.  I am already sharing the K-pop information with my colleagues in the music department.  We have begun talking about a collaborative unit. 

      Clearly, all of the information presented during this seminar will enrich my classroom teaching and therefore my students' understanding of the visual arts of East Asia.  I am very grateful that the seminar has enriched my own understandings of how the visual arts have grown and changed in East Asia.   Much of this information was quite surprising!  It is this knowledge that has helped me better understand the culture of China.  I will continue to participate in on-line offerings, wishing that I was closer so as to attend other offerings at USC!

    

     

     

 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I was unsure what to expect from this seminar. Were we studying history? Was in an art history type course? Would we analyze media? It turned out to be such a unique mix of lectures, field trips, and media analysis. I have had very little exposure to East Asian visual culture, and this one week seminar taught me more than I could have anticipated. I credit the USC East Asia Institute for teaching me most of my East Asian history through previous seminars. Now, I also feel comfortable bringing art and film into my curriculum. 

While I plan to analyze art and film clips with my classes, I also feel that the seminar has helped me understand my students better. I work with many Korean students and families, and understanding their culture and interests is important to me. Many of my students love K-pop, and as I mentioned in class, one of my students even moved to Korea to purse a career in K-pop. Previously, I really had no idea what my students were talking about. This year, I have already had a few conversations with students about Korean script, K-pop, and even films. For the film review, I asked a few students if they had a favorite Korean film. This sparked a whole conversation about cinema, TV, and history. 

 

I plan to use many of the documents and some of the film clips from class. For example, when studying philosophy I hope to find clips from films reflecting Chinese philosophies played out in daily practice. I also would like to create a homework lesson and possibly ask students to watch a film and connect it to a topic for the AP exam.

 

Overall, I personally learned a lot in this seminar, and I hope that I can use what I learned to add to and build my curriculum.

 

 

[Nira Sun]

This is my second time attending seminar at USC. As much as I enjoyed the first one, this seminar surprised me in so many different ways. I definitely believe that visual arts are effective ways to introduce topics and culture to students in order for them to gain deeper insight on everything about Asia.

Musics:

• When Professor Kim introduced K-pop music, it reminded me of when I had my Mandarin students making music videos of Chinese songs. They were so engaged in learning the lyrics and understanding the meanings by watching the original MV. Most students are benefited from the visual assistance because it fills in the blanks which they get from unfamiliar vocabulary in the lyrics. Once they have understood the content of the music, they made one of their own. Through out the process, students collaboratively practice the language with their partners in an engaging way which most of them enjoyed.

Movies:

• I was definitely impressed by Dr. Yasar’s presentation on Japanese films. Even though we didn’t understand the Japanese language but we were all able to feel how the characters were feeling in the movie due to their facial expressions and tones. I watched the Tokyo Story because of this presentation. The message that I would like to deliver back to my classroom to my students is that we all have emotions in common disregard the languages we speak. Watching movies can certainly help students to understand the different lifestyle then to compare with their own.

• Dr. Yasar also introduced a book named “Sentimental Fabulations” by Rey Chow which I think can be used as a great reading resource for students to gain knowledge of common values presented in Asian movies. Besides the book, it would be great if I can find movies to compare with the Asian movies to strengthen their comprehension.
• Introducing the concept of “soft power” to students. This is a big topic which can be introduced by comparing Asian movies with western ones. I also would like to have students research on the production companies of recent movies.

Cartoons or Posters

• Cartoons or posters are another form of visual arts which emphasize on delivering message through images and very little words. It serves as a great opportunity for students to comprehend the messages without looking for new vocabulary. It goes quite well with world language learning goals.
• In addition, cartoons and posters are usually funny and interesting which will most likely attract students’ attention. It’s also a great tool for students to work collaboratively with classmates.

 

This seminar has definitely changed my curriculum design for my Mandarin classes. I’m now able to integrate more visual arts into my language learning classes. I sure hope that my students will find it more interesting and beneficial to their learning. 

[Daniel Horowitz]

Probably the biggest take-away from the seminar is the realization of how rich and extensive visual resources can be. I would not have considered looking for postcards or sheet music imagery before the seminar. Now I find it important to include imagery from everyday life to remind students that history is not always about conflict. We saw imagery of Ukiyo-e, the “floating world” of everyday life that gives us a wonderful glimpse into the past.

We also saw many examples of propaganda, some with great artistic merit. Can we consider some of the great works of Western Art that were commissioned by the church for a particular purpose propaganda as well? I used propaganda as the driving theme of my lesson plan. It’s a great tool for seeing multiple perspectives, as well as an explanation for why so much conflict occurred during the Cold War.

We also saw how film can be used to tell intimate family stories and political rhetoric as well. With the internet it is very easy to bring imagery into the classroom as well as film. It is important to learn that there is more to Korean history than a single war, and we saw in Tokyo Story a view of post-war Japan that is not present in our history texts.  The films of Chinese director Yimou Zhang give us a fascinating glimpse into everyday life in China during various historic periods.

So I now have a wealth of resources that I can use in the classroom, and I value the importance of sharing individual, personal stories, as well as imagery connected to major historical events.

[Ann Huynh]

The seminar on Exploring East Asian Visual Culture has been very rewarding and insightful.  I learned more about Japan and Korean cinemas, including North Korean.  There have been many films from these countries that showed the changes in culture and attitudes.  In addition to the films, there are many other types of art works, such as the postcards and sheet music in Japan, including Kabuki theatre, to the role of colors and symbols used in paintings and prints.  The variety of visual arts were numerous and plentiful.  My students are very young and they have very limited exposure to anything relating to Asia.  Therefore, I would use the film clips from the Asian countries to start a conversation about what it is that they are seeing.  I would like to choose films from different years to put the timeframe in perspective for them.  After viewing several film clips from the East Asian countries, I would like to move to posters and have the students think about its power in relations to propaganda.  This week-long seminar also provided me with many art forms to display.  Many of the art works contained a strong political message about the current ruling government.  I would like the students to think about the importance of visual representations.  Depending on what is shown, they would be equipped with the ability to analyze and look at visuals with a critical lens.  I would culminate the study about visuals by trying to visit the museum with the students so that they can experience the visuals firsthand.  The biggest takeaway that I would like them to have is that even though we speak a different language, visual arts can convey messages that transcend language.

[Jessica Rodarte]

Attending the US-China Institute on Visual Culture was an eye-opening experience.  I learned quite a bit of history, such as the concept of “soft power”, the relationship between China, Korea and Japan, and the richness of visual culture in East Asia.  I plan on using all of these in my classroom to make my instruction in World History richer and more complex.

In particular, I was fascinated with the concept of “soft power” and the ways in which China, Korea, and Japan are exercising “soft power” in the American entertainment industry. I work at an art school in which many students are highly interested in the entertainment industry—musically, visually, and theatrically.   I plan on using the arts as an entry way to discuss the governments and politics of China, Korea and Japan.  I believe starting with a discussion of Hollywood films, K-Pop, and Anime is much more interesting than going directly into a discussion of the way in which countries try to exercise their strength over other foreign powers in ways that are much more subtle than military might.

I also plan on discussing the relationship between East Asian countries with my students.  I actually didn’t really know how complex the relationships are and I believe that it’s important to have students understand this. My school has a predominantly Latino population and while they tend to understand the complex and fragile relationship between Latin American countries and the United States, they don’t always understand how similar the regional conflicts and tensions are between Latin America and East Asia.

I am excited about introducing more of the visual culture of East Asia, specifically films.   I was really taken by the films that we watched in and out of the institute.  I really appreciated how the styles are very distinct but the themes are such human themes. This is crucial because one of the hardest things to teach is empathy.  Having students watch films that show the similarities in human experience will help students increase their empathy for other people who are different than themselves.

There is much gratitude on my end to all the people involved in creating such an insightful and transforming experience.  I came out of there with much knowledge and new friends and colleagues.  Thank You.

[Anthony Pollard]

     The USC U.S. China Institute Summer Seminar was a conventional opportunity for learning about East Asia. Educators brought together to learn information about East Asian visual culture, otherwise we may not had been exposed. From the information we learned, we are able to share with others, as it is intended for us to do, being that we are educators. This is a beginning of our exposure to East Asian culture, and the end of our ignorance thereof.

     I intend to incorporate my learning and study, into practice by using this content as supplemental information. For example, when I teach students about citation, I can direct students to content that relates to their academic subject matter. Caiifornia Common Core State Standard, Writing Standard (5) states students should "develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience." Instead of entirely using the cliche content of older texts, we can infuse cultural awareness by using East Asian content derived from the seminar. Students like literary content associated with Manga and Anime. These styles exist from Japan, but many students do not know that, maybe they do not care to know, but it is still good to inform them. Plus, students read Manga and Anime without being coerced.

     I believe East Asian art is of the greatest relevance to students. Students have told me they learn better from visual representations. When we study Racial Profiling, students will learn about East Asian soft power. Students will have an opportunity to develop their own ideas about a nation's influences on people.

     A lot of the information from the seminar may be mature for high school students. However, I created a mini-lesson to expose information about China, Japan, and Korea. Specifically, about the music scene, K-Pop; it's popular at school. Our classroom demographics are highly diverse, so this is a great opportunity to teach tolerance. 

[Helen Kang]

This is my first time participating in US-China Institute and boy, did I come across it at the right time! Actually it would have been better had I know about the wonderful high caliber free workshops before I started teaching my Korean language and culture classes. My original subject associated with my degree in music, and I added the Korean language teaching designation later on by taking the Korean CSET and adding it to my credential.
Being Korean-American and bilingual was the only reason that I was able to prepare for the CSET and pass it rather easily. But when it came time to actually teach the Korean language, I felt so very inadequate to teach the language let alone its history and culture. The culture, I felt can only give them a watered down Korean-American Culture was frozen in time and we did not grow with S. Korea with their waves of changes that came since and any South Koreans that comes to visit the U.S. now and engages in a conversation with me will tell you that I definitely am very different in my thinking and ways of doing things compared to them. I have been away from living S. Korea for close to 40  years now.

I have not had a single class in Korean history and really did not care.. America was my home now!
But as fate would have it, the direction of my credential started to weigh more towards Korean subject with the current K-pop and K-culture boom.

Before attending the USC US-China Institute's intensive 1 week seminar on East Asian Cultures, I had attended the Korean Cultural Center's 1-week seminar on Korean culture and history and really got to experience for the first time, a high-caliber, highly academic condensed education from distinguished professors, and I could not be more grateful for the immersive experience. I felt that I can speak and teach my students on Korean history and culture with much more confidence and authority and made me feel emotionally more grounded.   A few weeks later, I got to experience the same type of immersion of rich history and cultural learnings, but now expanding out to include the closest neighbors to my homeland, Japn and China! The information was so dense and compact that I felt there was no way I can internalize and digest all of the information from just one session, so I was glad to learn that US-China institute continues to educate and this would not be a one-time experience.  I need the continued education as even now the cultures and history of these East Asian countries continue to evolve and change as fast as the times do.

[Ruth Hickman]

As a newbie to seminars for Educators, I was super excited to attend the US-China Institute and Explore East Asian Visual Culture at USC. My field is Arts, Media, and Entertainment so this seminar was perfect for me! Overall, this was such an amazing opportunity to connect with other Educators from such different backgrounds, schools and fields. I was inspired to bring K-Pop Videos, Japanese Art Deco paintings, and Asian films into my classroom. 

Since the program ended, I have continued my research on East Asian Visual Culture and I plan on using Professor Yasar's lecture on Ozu's, signature camera position, the 2 1/2 feet above the ground and discuss how it serves a lot of purposes. I can teach the importance of camera placement in film to my TV/Video Production high school students. Moreover, I also love Ozu’s modern life and movement from one place to another and the break down of the family in his filmmaking as well as the "Pillow shot", which evokes a certain place. Furthermore, I will incorporate the Common Japanese Themes in class discussions:

The Four Seasons

The tensions between duty/obligation (giro) and human emotion (ninjo)

Impermanence and decay

Loneliness

The dialectic of stillness and sudden violence

Ero-guro-nonsense

I had such a wonderful experience and loved staying at the Radisson Hotel across the street from the USC campus because I was able to explore the University and arrive easily everyday. As an Educator, I feel that I grew because I learned more history, which is one of my favorite subjects. I learned about the concept of “soft power”, the relationship between China, US, Korea and Japan, and the rich visual culture of East Asia. I plan on using everything that I learned! 

I want to lead a discussion of Hollywood/China/Nollywood/Bollywood film industry, K-Pop, and Anime with my students in my classroom as I love to incorporate culture in arts, media and entertainment. I also want to incorporate the “Look! What do you see?” activity that professor Michael Berry presented during his presentation about Contemporary Chinese Culture and Cinema.

I was also so intrigued with the concept of “soft power” and was unfamiliar with the term and the ways in which China, Korea, and Japan are exercising “soft power” in the American entertainment industry. As a entertainment industry professional, I have worked in television and commercials for many years and as a Career Technical Education Instructor, many of my students are interested in the entertainment industry. I want to use the arts as an entry way to discuss the global news and governments and politics of China, Korea and Japan. 

In conclusion, I want to thank all of the wonderful Professors that I learned so much from and a special thanks to Catherine for working so hard at organizing all of the daily logistics and for all of the delicious food. I want to celebrate the US-China Institute for this influential East Asian Visual Culture Seminar and express my gratitude for the new resources my students and I now have access to. I gained new friends and colleagues and I can not wait until next summer. 

Thank You So Much! Feel free to follow my students and I on Instagram @phs_tv and @patriot_photo xo #ruthteachesyouth 

Cheers!

 

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