Introduction and Orientation (July 24)

[Alexis Marianiello]

Qian's narrative reads quickly and is not full of challenging vocabulary, and as such could potentially be given directly to my students, though I would probably not choose this text to provide. 

 

I wonder if there would be any different takeaways if this study was conducted today, almost 20 years later. This is always a good question to pose to students about any text they read.

 

Alternative viewpoints and situations not included in this study should also be considered. Teach students to question what they read, and not just read what is there, but wonder about what is not there. Students should also be taught to wonder about the context of the reading given to them. What was China like in the late 1980s? What was America like in the late 1980s? How did these relationships compare to American relationships? Where could they look to see examples? Additionally, this reading comes from a chapter of a book, so students should be encouraged to wonder what the rest of the book was about and why the author chose to focus on the difficulties in relationships among Chinese who moved to the U.S.

 

I don't know that I would be likely to use this reading in my classroom (because it is relatively narrow in scope and doesn't directly relate our curriculum), though I have isolated several ways in which students could read and think about this article. However, if I were to use it, it might be before my second unit, called "Connecting Hemispheres." This unit largely details the increasing global connections in the 15th-18th centuries. Qian's chapter is readable in its lexile and also accessible in its content the way that many texts used in history classrooms are not though, so it would potentially be interesting to provide this to students before the unit begins and hve them discuss (either open-ended or through guiding questions) how this cultural clash of gender roles between the U.S. and China in modern day could connect be connected to different global societies intermingling more for the first time.

[Cheryl Watson]

Well, I can say that technology has advanced to the point where we can use ZOOM, SKYPE, Jitsi, Google Meet, WebX, etc allows us to cross boundaries and connect internationally. 

Medically speaking, it allows doctors (with and without borders) and medical researchers to exchange information in real time for this unprecedented modern pandemic.

Our students see history unfold in real time, excluding "fake news" and disinformation. From the perspective of crossing boundaries, they could begin to understand the politics behind pandemics.

A good lesson would be one where students track border restrictions for Americans and how it might related to recent proposed legislation regarding cancellation or non renewal of H1 or special skills visas for professionals. Economically, students can study the financial effects of the loss of highly skilled professionals on businesses, communities, and in our universities. 

Students may compare and contrast immigration from 1920s and in 2020 to note comparisons and correlations.

[Cheryl Watson]

The article could be used as a consumer finance question.

If one compares the income of the lowest earners in our country, it is still considered something close to a "king's ransom" in developing countries. Of note is the fact that we as Americans rely heavily on credit: credit cards, car loans, mortages, student loans, borrowing, etc. whereas many many people save up money to pay cash for anything they use of consume. For example, in Jamaica, people buy land and build each part of the house once they have saved enough money to do so. What does this mean? It means that people will take a few years to build their homes piece by piece until it is complete. Once the home has been built, the owners do not have a mortgage. Encourage students to compare the average salary in Jamaica as compared to a minimum wage worker as well as the variables that may influence our decisions to rely heavily on credit.  One reason is: in America, "go big or go home". Part of the reason for our over consumption is to have more or to have something big to show that we have achieved some level of success, when, if the truth be told, we could live very comfortably on a lot less.

[Cheryl Watson]

One could use this article to note the rising divorce rates in China within the last few years. Twenty years ago, China's divorce rate was very low as compared to 2020, where divorce has skyrocketed. What factors contributed to this recent trend in China, and are the reasons behind the divorce rate the same as those statistics in America?

[Cervantes Lee]

Yes. Indeed, during the 14^th -18^th century, China shall be the largest GDP producing country and had a great amount trading relationship with most Asia countries.  In our history book (I grew up in Taiwan), the history textbook downplayed the "sea trade commerce" of China with South East Asia, Japan, India, Arab, Italy and other European countries. To me, the reading is fascinated as well. Trade business crossed lots of boundaries in goods flow, information flow, money flow and cultural/knowledge/wealth exchange.

 

 

 

 

[Cervantes Lee]

The recent US-China Political Competition really hurt American Chinese or Chinese American. Decoupling is the term politician people use. We still have over 4-6 million Chinese living in the US. The bilateral trade, business, and education are still on-going. Hope the situation won’t continue worsening by November 2020 election.

 

[Alexis Marianiello]

"What's a motivation to cross boundaries?" was a question posed during our preliminary meeting on Friday. The responses given were profit, education, opportunity, discovery of culture, religion, missionary work, and seeking refuge. This question, posed to us in the seminar, would also be a good question to put to our students in high school and middile school. Another question that was posed, though that we didn't spend much time on was "how is crossing boundaries different before maps?" It would be a great question to ask students about and and opportunity to provide students with primary sources relating to exploration afterwad. 

 

How is crossing boundaries relevant to class? In my case, extremely relevant. World history cannot be taught in a vacuum. Even events that appear to be isolated in an area have often been set in motion elsewhere on the globe. Unit 2 of the MWH sequence in South Carolina is called connecting hemispheres, and is built around the (basic but important) inquiry question "What were the consquences of increased global connection and interactions." The entire unit is based around the idea that as Asians crossed the Pacific to the Americas and as Europeans crossed the Atlantic to the Americas, the world became truly "global" for the first time as cultures started mixing and clashing. I am hoping to learn more about east Asia in this course (it is a blind spot of mine, unforutnately) so that I can create a more balanced set of resources for my students to investigate and learn from. 

[Alexis Marianiello]

Really interesting - both of these are ways I hadn't considered using Qian's work. 

[Jessica Ng]

Hi Alexis. First of all, thank you for the kind compliment on my post above!

I love your idea of showing students images of similar, "copycat" goods produced by different countries in previous centuries. Globalization of trade and technology has led to quite different circumstances in the 21st century; it'd be interesting to also bring in physical examples of modern-day copycats, from sneakers to soft drinks to cellphones, and even technology like GoogleHome vs. Amazon Echo. Students would really have to analyze each set of products to see how they attempt to clone or imitate their competitors.

[Brigid Schmidt]

I found this article interesting being somewhat newly married myself. It initailly caught my eye because Qian studied journalism in Michigan, which is where I am from. The article talks about men having a hard time coming from a heavily partiarchal society and not having the same jobs or status in the US. I can relate to how this could be hard for couples. My husband was laid off last year and had a hard time feeling confident when I was the only one earning an income. Even though our society has many gender roles that do not need to be traditional, he still felt unworthy being the "house husband." Fortunately, we are able to talk about it and he is now back in graduate school, but it was a learning experience. It is easy to see how couples could resent each other or feel like a failure to their partner. Like Maria mentions of the article, women's roles are changing and it is ok for women to be the "bread winner" or be more independent. Learning to work together and value your spouse for what they do bring into the marriage is key. It is hard to not let money divide couples though. 

[Sandra Garcia]

Rebecca, I found your post regarding food very personal and relevant, especially because you mentioned Chamoy- one of my favorite toppings for fruits and drinks  .  It resonated with my experience working in a school that is primarily Armenian and Hispanic.  I hear my Armenian students constantly talking about "Takis" the Mexican hot chips and about Chamoy, while my Hispanic kids frequently share how much they enjoy the Armenian Kabobs.  I agree with you that food can be a tangible way to bring history alive for students.  Regarding your second point about "marrying different ideas" to create something new, I strongly believe that due to the power of technology, most of our kids are amazing at smashing, recycling, and creating new content in art, music, food, and even religious practices- and we as teachers can help inspire them and show them how to be more intentional about it.

 

[Mike Hagiwara]

This article was a very interesting one because it puts into perspective the life of an individual in the United States who isn't originally from this country. Many of our students' families emigrated to the US for various reasons and suffered financial hardships-many still do. Like the reporters being discussed in the reading, many of our students' families have to make ends meet on meager wages and are sometimes forced to make difficult decisions about how to spend their money. I like that the reading could be used to initiate a discussion about so many different social topics not just related to China, but to immigrants from all over. It would also be a good way to introduce cultural stereotypes and stigmas which might be placed on those coming from Asian countries, particularly China. One of the other class members, in another post, mentioned how world history "cannot be taught in a vaccum." We have to educate our students to understand that what happens in one part of the world has global impacts, as well as consequences. 

[Jiaxing Weng-Zhang]

Over the weekend, I had an interesting conversaiton with a collegue of my who grew up near Boston and now is considered a southerner by her relatives.  She mentioned that up north people seems to have less of a stigma regarding vocational school compared to the south.  And more and more vocational schools were closed after the "no child left behind" policy.  In China, Mr. Huang in the ariticle became an early advocate for vocational school after he came back from the US in 1915.  In China now, after primary school,  kids scored below a certain grade in the the middle school entrance exam grade cutoff are sent to technical middle school, and there is one more selection during the high school entrance exam, and college entrance exam.  So to be able to make it to normal colleges, you will have to go through 3 selelction process, let along you want to be able to compete in  a glocal market, etc.  no wonder pressure is higher and higher.  On the other hand, I think vocational school is a good alternative since it allow students to learn a trade early on and start to work earlier than students who are heading to the other track. 

[Sandra Garcia]

For this activity I decided to write about George Bao’s written tale about surviving on thirty-nine dollars a month.  This light, funny story discussing Chinese reporters living in Washington, DC and bargaining stuff from yard sales to pay for a quarter of their original costs is indeed an easy read. However, the story can teach a lot more when one meditates in the cultural differences, and access to what some of us may consider essential activities or items in this country.

The idea of a professional individual not being able to attend a movie theater or eat at a restaurant for two whole years because they cannot afford it, or not growing up with a color tv set may seemed preposterous to some, unless you grew up like me. From the time I was born until the time I was 15 years old, I only watched one movie at the theater, and in my whole house, there was only one tiny black and white television that my grandparents watched. 

Even today in the world, here in America with all the conveniences of life, how often most of us say things like “I wouldn’t be able to live without______________” insert cell phone, computer, fast food, friends night out, etc here… And yet, a large percentage of the world does live without such conveniences and in many cases, they subsist in less money than 39 dollars a month even today.

The idea of working abroad and leaving family behind that you support through meager wages is not very different either to the stories of many men and women who come to the United States every day, especially from Latin America and many a times, through great personal risk in order to provide for the basic needs of their families. 

In short, this unique story about Chinese reporter’s journey may have a lot more generalizations and connections to present day issues that seem to meet the eye.

 

[Cindy Nguyen]

I also watched the youtube video of Jasmine Tang singing marachi songs in Spanish and traditional Chinese music.  I was very impressed to find out she migrated to Mexico at a young age and used music to as a tool to learn the language.  Many students in Los Angeles would be able to relate to Jasmine's story because they too had to migrate to a foreign country and begin a new life.  In the beginning of the school year, I would include this video in one of my lessons on self and/or culture.  This video would help students realize they are not alone in their struggles to assimilate to a brand life and culture.  I want to realize that they don't have to lose their hertiage to be successful in another culture.

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