Introduction and Orientation (July 24)

[Emily Efland]

I really enjoyed reading the stories about relationships in this piece -- each mini case study was a fascinating look into gender dynamics and how they are shaped by economics, social mores, and immigration. Excerpts from this book could be used to explore how economic and social structures influence and gender power. These stories, read alongside excerpts from other examinations of gender (maybe pulling from Kristen Ghodsee's "Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism") could provide evidence for a debate over the question: "What kind of economic structures and social norms allow people to live most freely?"

Some different ways I could see using these stories in a classroom:

- In groups, students could read excerpts from several of the relationship stories told by Qian Ning. They could sort the stories based on different patterns they see -- thinking about how relationships are shaped by power (financial, social, and power from immigration status).

- Students could debate this statement in a Structured Academic Controversy: "Women live better lives under socialism." Evidence from Qian Ning's stories, Ghodsee's book, and American feminist movements in the late 80s could all be included, to ensure that students grapple with how not only financial structures but also societal values influence women's lives. 

[Natalie Lau-Chien]

This theme of crossing boundaries is so fascinating to me and I am so glad that we took the time together on Friday to begin activating our minds on what kinds of boundaries might one cross and who crosses boundaries, as well as why studying boundary crossing could be important or useful.  People cross a wide array of boundaries throughout their lifetimes--political, geographical, cultural, linguistic, etc.  Varying factors push/pull/draw people across boundaries--curiosity to explore other parts of the world; political asylum, education, employment, increased freedom, pursuing a better life, safety, and more.  Studying boundary crossing would be useful in understanding the evidence of global influences and globalization that are all around us wherever we go.  I imagine that in nearly every country, there are people either residing or visiting from other countries, e.g there are communities of Americans (expats) in China and Chinese in the USA as well around the world (the Chinese diaspora).  Understanding the factors that disperse people around the world and the influences that they have on the places that they move to helps people to gain a better understanding and appreciation of our world and also as individuals, and see that our world is very interconnected.  Through this global awareness, I would hope that students would gain a broader, more accepting view of the world and the value of diverse influences and connections beyond our own political borders.  To bring this topic into my ESL classroom, I would give students the means to share their stories about the borders that they have had to cross to arrive in the place that they currently reside in the USA.  Then we can talk about many other peoples around the world that have also crossed an array of boundaries and influenced the places that they lived or visited (connections to social studies and language arts, as well as math if you calculate distance).  

[Brigid Schmidt]

Friday's meeting talked a lot about crossing physical and figurative boundaries. With Covid-19, there have been many boundaries set up for people to help keep the country safe and stop the spread of the virus. As some areas started to open up, many people were uncertain what boundaries they could cross. Can we go inside a store or a restaurant if we are wearing a mask? How do we exercise outside in a mask? Is going outside safe? Is traveling safe? And for all of us teachers: are schools safe? We have been living in the boundaries of our homes for months and it is scary to know what we should do and how to stay safe. In life, there are often boundaries and decisions to make on what to do. We discussed missionaries crossing physical boundaries like boarders, but also sharing and teaching their religion to others. This idea of crossing boundaries stuck with me as I crossed state boundaries to be home in Michigan for the summer to help my family. I now am traveling back to California and am crossing state boundaries again. We've seen many states with different boundaries set up, some more than others. For safety, we are keeping our distance, wearing masks, and were tested negative for Covid. During this time I have learned to listen more to others rather than judge. It is very easy to judge people who cross different boundaries from you. I think there is a great lesson for my students in crossing boundaries and trying to judge others less. 

[Deborah Johnston]

I have also been thinking about COVID-19 and the crossing of boundaries this year, both in terms of people who have needed to be separated from both family, homes and work, as well as in terms of the suspension of trade and tourism due to the pandemic.   Disease is an important topic in the world history curriculum and crossing boundaries is at the root of how we teach about it.  Whether it be the spread of the plague by Roman soldiers during imperial days, or more recently, the spread of the 1918 pandemic by soldiers during WWI, or the spread of the bubonic plague in the 1300's due to trade (or more recently, the spread of SARS or Ebola through travel and trade, or the spread of smallpox into the Americas in the 1500s by missionaries and others.  Boundaries were crossed as all of those diseases have spread.  The difference we are now seeing with the coronavirus pandemic is that social, economic, cultural, and environmental boundaries have ALL been crossed, and much more quickly due to our very globalized world.   In addition to the classic book, Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill, my favorite book on the subject is Deadly Companions, by Dorothy Crawford.  I have used this book with high school students to great success.   The problem with teaching disease of course is that it can be depressing.  Arnold Pacey, in a book called Technology in World Civilization, has a chapter entitled Survival Technology.  This highlights the progress made in the late 19th century in public health-- especially in terms of sanitation and the introduction of vaccines.   I developed a lesson on this topic where students create Public Service Announcements for the eradication of specific diseases using technology that is appropriate for the time (please email me if this is of interest, the file is too big to upload [email protected]).  By seeing how technological boundaries are crossed in terms of both medicine and communication over time, the lesson draws on a more hopeful future.  We are actually going to start this school year with this lesson as we all need a bit of hope right now as we think about crossing those next boundaries into the future. 

[Deborah Johnston]

I am inspired in November to have my Chinese students read the 1928 Li Gongpu article about the Hoover-Smith US Presidential election in conjunction with another piece written from a Chinese perspective that perhaps compares Biden and Trump in such a clear-cut manner.  I think that this external perspective-- even almost 100 years later-- provides food for thought on the American Democracy experiment.  I wonder if this lesson would best be done before, or after the election? 

[Rebecca Blankenship]

Emily,

I love the idea of using a debate for looking at the role of women in Socialism.  I teach Women's Studies and I think my students would really dig into this.

[Alexis Marianiello]

This response is mostly a rambling narrative of how this reading might inform or have inspired some potential ideas for instruction. It also contains some musings and questions that came up as I read this background text. 

 

From the first few sentences, Carr's narrative highlighted an aspect of global trade that is often overlooked in traditional (at least, classroom) historical narratives: the thriving trade in Central America and South America. From a classroom perspective, we often teach about the colonization of these areas by Europeans (and possibly the syncretism of those cultures), but not much else. As Carr goes on, he uses words like "cosmopolitan" and "wordly" to describe Mexico City as he descries the affluence in these European colonies that is not often mentioned. It would be interesting to use two competing narratives - one of the affluence of these societies and one of the poverty - and have students investigate whether/how social standing and race played a part in this dichotomy. 

 

Could we use visuals of Chinese and other Asian goods as compared to comparable European and European colonies goods produced around the same time? Students can analyze the images and make inferences about production methods, value, etc. based on what they see. As the reading goes on, it goes into detail about stylistic mimicry, which leads me to believe this would be an interesting and effective activity. Students could inquire as to the economic motives for producing replicas to the popular items, the geographic reasons as to why they were different, etc. If needed, teachers could provide guiding questions to the students. 

 

Could students make connection to modern cultural appropriation? Would they get their on their own reading these passages, or would they need to be guided to see the similarities? Can we discuss cultural appropriation and sycretism in the same circle? How are they connected? How are they different? These last few are questions that I myself even need clarification on and would like to hear POV from students. 

 

Students taking vocational classes and working with materials may be able to make an authentic connection to production.

 

One of the troubles with teaching world history is that there is so much and "we don't know what we don't know." I read was reading a history ed. book the other day that lamented the fact that history majors simply need to take a number of required courses in their discipline to earn their degree, and how a cohesive knowledge of history is often lacking, which I find absolutely true of myself. 

 

I wonder at the difference between peripateric and migratory? 

 

It's unlikely that I would provide this reading directly to my students. The majority of my students are reading under grade-level and only a few are reading above. I would consider modifying this reading to provide as an introduction to the activities or discussions I mentioned above, perhaps with some additional visuals and maps. In an AP or IB course, this reading would provide an interesting enrichment to the subject of trade and the blending of cultures during this era, bringing students out of the mindset of "bare bones, need to know" and what have you.

 

Additionally, it would be interesting to read about this subject matter from the perspective of China. This article speaks much on the enrichment of culture in Europe and the Americas as a result of these imports, but little about the impact of exports on China or how they recieved the European and American copycats of their art. 

[Megan Hsiao]

The discussion of crossing boundaries on Friday was very insighful. As a world language teacher, I am encouraging my students to cross the language boundary to learn another language. While they are learning a foreign language, they are also crossing the cultural boundariy to learn about the culture and history in another country. Today, discussing the concept of crossing the boundaries with our students during COVID-19 pandemic time seems to be more relevant and meaningful since living in an environment where following social distancing and wearing a mask has become the physical boundaries to keep us safe. At this difficult time, we might not be able to cross the physical boundaries to travel across different states or countries and we have even become sensative to the air that we breathe. As these physical boundaries are set for health measures, many people argue the value of these restrictions and deem it as unnecessary. Therefore, we could discuss with our students with the concept of "crossing" the boundaries, meaning even our own unwilingness of wearing a mask could be a phychological boundary that we should cross first in order to resume our daily activities as we shop or go back to school. I hope that the discussion of crossing the boundaries would help our students to adjust to many new "normals" in this unprecedented period of time. 

[Jessica Ng]

Hi Brigid. Good to see you again!

I am in a similar position; my husband and I have been in the suburbs of Kansas City, KS for over a month, and next Sunday we will (cautiously, by car) make our way back to Los Angeles. As we crossed state borders during our last trips, we often talked about how we probably did not have an accurate reading of COVID risks from simply going by state statistics. People who live near state borders are crossing them all the time, and likely carrying/spreading the virus on their way; instead, we needed to look at the web sites of cities and counties individually to assess the risk before staying overnight. It's just a reminder that, when applied to our teaching, it's extremely important to have students exercise critical thinking and to look at information from many different angles.

[Alexis Marianiello]

This was great to read! What a practical perspective of a more figurative type of boundary. 

[Megan Hsiao]

"Surviving on $39 a Month" is a very interesting article that I think I can use it as a cultural discussion reading material in my Chinese class. Although this article shows a vivid description about how a Chinese journalist lived in the U.S twenty years ago, it also reflects the economic growth in China today. The students can discuss various aspects regarding Chinese society such as the values of saving and spending money, Chinese international students studying abroad, and China-US cultural comparison in terms of social life/leisure activity, etc. It is particularly interesting to see Bao's description about how he wasn't able to socialize with other American friends because he couldn't afford to pay for the dinner at the restaurant. Living on a tight budget not only demonstrates Chinese virtue of saving money, but also exemplifies the strategy of govenment control. I would defenitely plan to use it in my class! 

[Cristina Hernandez]

I totally agree with you that food is such a great way to get students engaged in the study not only of history, but also of languages and many other disciplines.  I teach ELD and AP Spanish and food is a sure way to engage students to learn and practice their new acquired skills on the target language.  They not only cross the boundaries of language, but they also get the opportunity to try  new gastronomy and get to learn about the background of the dish/culture/country.

[Cristina Hernandez]

I found very interesting the fact that “Talavera” a Mexican traditional ceramic style that hails from the city of Puebla in Mexico has its origins in the exchange of Chinese ceramic with Mexico during the 1600’s -1700’s.  Carr’s essay clarified some of the questions that I had since I visited Puebla a couple of years ago.  When I saw the Mexican ceramic, it brought to my mind the same ceramic that I have admired during my visit to China and I was fascinated by the similarities.  In Mexico, this ceramic style is considered very traditional and often is celebrated as one of Mexico’s cultural icons.  I wonder how the crossing of boundaries affected the development of the Mexican cultural identity and the evolution of the same.  I am looking forward to see how my students will look into their own cultural backgrounds and see the influence of other cultures and the crossing of boundaries that shape their identity. Cheers!

[Jonathan Tam]

This reading caught my eye the quickest because to survive on $39 a month seems almost unheard of. But, once I read that housing and food were covered, I soon realized that the article was less about survival in America and more so frugality in American culture. On top of the fact that the 1980's are foreign to me as is, this made the article very entertaining and also made Bao someone who I could empathize with. We explore Bao's desire for clothes in America as well as electronics like any 20-30 year old would typically desire. We see him shop at yard sales for clothes almost how we use ebay / craigslist / facebook to buy things nowadays. And we see him haggle a broken microphone only to replace the battery to have it fixed almost how we buy used electronics with slight scratches on them. A quick google equates $39 a month to about $122 to live off of outside of food / housing - which actually doesn't seem too bad because I remember a time where I only spent around that much each month. This was a very interesting read and I'm interested to see what the stories 40 years from now might sound like about how international folks spent what change they had.

[Cheryl Watson]

It stands to reason that when one culture comes in contact with another, a cultural exchange takes place. Far flung cultures adapt, adopt and appropriate some techniques, routines, artistic expressions from other cultures with striking results. It reminds me of past travels in Europe where I  noticed a lot of Italian architechtural influences in both Eastern and Western Europe.

Of note are my travels a few years ago to Mexico where, upon visiting a museum in Tijuana, there were copious amount of Chinese artifacts, porcelain and Chinese silks using indigenous populations weaving methods.  The combination of Mexican indigenous weaving practices along with the workings of Chinese silks made for exquisite finished cloth and wearables.  

For instance, most people are not familiar with the fact that Picasso's cubism style was heavily borrowed from various black southern African artisans who originated that form.  Remember that European painters never saw the geographic shapes put into artistic expressions.

For students, cultural exchanges can be used to understand our transnational, interconnected, interdependent culture.

 

Today, Korean American beauty products upended the US cosmetics industry for the better. Korean women are known to use seven (7) products prior to applying makeup in their daily skincare regimen as compare to American women who use only one or two products prior to putting on makeup.

 

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