Movies and Books

[Anonymous]

I was just looking through Vistas magazine (Loyola Marymount Vol 9 #1--I guess I receive this magazine because I attend their wonderful Napa Wine Festival every year and saw a story that caught my eye: "Immigrant Dreams--One professor's groundbreaking research on LA's Koreatown is fueled by his personal story". Many of my students just went on a fieldtrip to Koreatown this week so I decided to read the piece. He wrote of the staggering poverty in this neighborhood (which I wasn't aware of). Evidently real wages for working families has declined by 17% in the past decade, while the cost of living has skyrocketed. The large numbers of minimum wage jobs in this area has created a significant group of residents who work full time, yet live in poverty.
Besides Dr. Park's "Koreatown on the Edge", he also published a book with his brother (an associate proffessor at UC Santa Barbara),"Probationary Americans--Contemporary Immigration Policies and the Shaping of Asian American Communities".
He's done some interesting research. The trends are not all positive. In the end he feels that education is still the solution

[Anonymous]

I just finished a novel with the most interesting premise--Joanna Catherine Scott, the author, adopted three Korean orphans while living in the Phillipines in 1985. When her children reached teenagehood, they wanted to know more about their heritages; they wanted to reconnect with their Korean identities. Scott attempted to find their mother (who was still alive but had abandoned the children--it's a complicated reason that is detailed in the story) but she found little information of the children's home, family or past. So, Scott embarks on researching her children's original family/culture, and, as a result of her research, pieced together this story, this novel. She captures the Korean culture (in this case, during the 1970s-80s) as well as some other novels that I've read by Korean and Korean American authors. Her explanation for the mother's abandonment of her children, however, is told with a definite Western feminist spin. Despite this, the story is still powerful; it is a testament to a mother's love--since she can't confirm her childrens' identities through facts, she creates a story to satisfy them (using as much fact, and her oldest son's memory as sources).

[Anonymous]

I've been meaning to share some Asian-themed children's books that I use as supplementary material in my high school classroom. Finally, I'm sharing a posting that can work for all grade levels.

Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog by Pamela S. Turner
In this story, set in Tokyo, a dog always follows his master to the train station in the morning, then waits for his return in the evening. One day, his owner unexpectedly dies at work, but Hachiko still waits for him; Hachiko waits, until his own death. Today, there is a statue commerating Hachiko in the train station. The story illustates the importance of loyalty to the Japanese.

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
This is a story about Japanese Americans trying to recreate normalcy in the internment camps of World War II. It is a story of hope; the idea that forming teams, playing a game, and learning to work together could alleviate some of the trauma of being interred.

The Trip Back Home by Janet S. Wong
Janet Wong is an American poet (and children's story writer, obviously) who has a Korean mother and a Chinese father. Much of her poetry works towards fusing the multiple cultures that make up her identity. This story is told by a young American girl traveling to Korea for the first time. Even though she does not speak Korean, she is still able to connect with Korean traditions and her Korean relatives.

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
A Japanese American grandson tells the story of his Japanese grandfather--both the grandfather's experiences in Japan and America. The story honors both cultures.

Momotaro: Peach Boy illustated by George Suyeoka
In the novel I teach, What the Scarecrow Said, a Japanese American is trying to adapt the Momotaro story, a Japanese folktale, to his American environment. So I was so pleased to find this illustrated version of the folktale. It is the story of a boy who goes off from his family to fight many battles and overcome many foes, but in the end, he returns to his family to resume his duties as a faithful son. The story is a great way to introduce Japanese values, but there's a bonus: in the back is "an introduction to things Japanese" in which there are written descriptions accompanying illustrations of items ranging from paintings to millet dumplings to armour.

Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding by Lenore Look
This story details customs associated with the Chinese wedding, told from a niece who is afraid she'll lose her uncle's attention once he is married. This author also wrote Henry's First Moon Birthday, which details Chinese birthday customs.

In The Leaves by Huy Voun Lee
Xiao Ming teaches his friends how to create Chinese characters by comparing them to the actual objects that he and his friends find on a farm. The characters for grain, fire, autumn, field and sprout are explored. What a great way to introduce students to the pictograths that make up the Chinese language!

[Anonymous]

I just watched a very good movie on DVD -- The King of Masks. It is enjoyable viewing, good acting, a good story. There is nothing inappropriate for classroom viewing, but I'm not sure how it would be applicable except as a cultural view of China and an example of a well-done movie.

The story centers around an "old" man -- Wang -- who is a street performer and makes his living traveling by boat around China, probably sometime in the early 1900's. He wants a successor to pass on the secrets of his craft, so buys a young boy in the black market. Seeing "parents" selling their children because they can't afford to keep them was a sobering (but not shown as depressing) scene. The man begins to teach his new grandson tricks, but they soon run into problems.

At times you want to lecture the old man, but you see how the culture affected his judgement. It is an entirely different society from ours today. Of particular interest, and a theme in the story, is the appreciation of boys over girls. In fact, in the black market, there were mostly girls and some had been sold over and over because girls were deemed useless. There is also valid commentary on the importance of entertainers and their role in society.

Altogether it is an engrossing, uplifting movie. Netflix and Ebert both give it a 4 and I would agree with them. (1999, 1 hr. 41 min)
Courtney Lockwood, Venice High School

[Anonymous]

I presently teach at the high school level. I teach World History, AP World History, and AP European History. But, before this, I taught 18 years at the middle school level or junior high level. My movie collection is considerable, having recorded and collected videos for the past 20 plus years. But my absolute favorite video on the recent history of China continues to be Theodore White's "China, a Revolution Revisited." It was made twice, first released under the title of "China, Roots of Madness’ approximately 1969 and then re-released again in 1972 on the eve of Nixon visit to China. The images are extraordinarily well selected, with images of all major events described, except for the Xi'an Incident, because as Theodore White said, you don't invite a cameraman to a kidnapping. The video begins with the Boxer Rebellion of 1899. The voice over, by and music match the narration of Joseph Campbell. Graphic images include decapitated heads. The career of the sinister Ci'xi is, of course, delineated. The rise of Sun Yat-Sen, Yuan, Mao, and the warlords are developed according to importance. The Northern Expedition to the Marco Polo Bridge incident are all included with actual photographs or videos (movies.) The civil war as well as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China is all given ample visual and textual development. The video even shows the events of April 12, 1927 when the nationalists attacked the Communists in Shanghai and concludes with images of the December 1927 in Canton when the Communists staged an uprising and the Nationalists suppressed it.
The video features Pearl Buck, Ernest Price (State Department officer), and Professor Early Swisher of University of Colorado. These people add to the authority and gravitas of the video.
The video shows the last ship to leave China as the Nationalist flee to Taiwan. Life in China is shown as it developed under Mao. But here, the video concentrates on China's attempts to control the minds of the people rather than on the events such as the Great Leap Forward. The Cultural Revolution is not mentioned as information on the events in China during the period from 1950 to 1976 was difficult to gather, even for the CIA.
Unfortunately, this video is no longer available for purchase. It can be found, however, in various university and public libraries.

[Anonymous]

Having been a teacher for the past 35 years, I have, like most teachers, purchased many books for my reference and enjoyment. The most valuable book I own and enjoy is Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culutre, edited by John S. Bowman. It was, of couse, published by Columbia University, in 2000 so it is a recent addition to my library. It divides Asian history and culture into East Asia (China and Japan) and chronicles first the political history, then it chronicles the development of the arts, culture, thought, and religion, and finally, it chronicles the develpment of science, technology, economics, and everyday life.
It follows this with a chronicle of Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (Macao.)
In part II, it deals with South East Asia, namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka or Ceylon. India is delineated with in particular detail.
Part III deals with the present counties of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malasia, Burma (Myanmar), the Philippihnes, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Part IV details the chronological history of Mongolia, the Central Asian Republics, and Tibet.
What I find most valuable about the book is the clarity with which it is written. The most salient points are brought forth clearly and with good explanation. For anyone who teaches Asian history and needs a resourse book which can be relied upon for easy to understand concepts and historical development, this book is the excellent. I highly recommend it to those who just like to read a concise accounts of a region's political, social, scientific, economic, technological cultural development. Nicholas Beck

[Anonymous]

Recently, I watched Lee Chang Dong's 2000 film, Peppermint Candy. Starting with a present-day introduction to a disgusting and obnoxious man and winding backwards through two decades, the film chronicles the rotting of a former soldier named Yongho in order to complicate the legacy of South Korea's 1980 Kwangju massacre.
The Kwangju Uprising of May 1980 (read more at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/korea/story/kwangju/ ) was a citizen revolt of staggering proportions in response to a coup by General Chun Doo Hwan. The frustrations of Korean modernization-- the despair at another lost chance at democratization as power was seized by yet another military dictator, the anger of a region shortchanged by the country's new (and emotionally, physically, and socially taxing) prosperity, the tradition of mass student unrest, the consequences of decades of militarized mobilizations--were brought to bear in the steets of the southwestern city, resulting in a brief moment of successful self-rule soon brutally crushed and hushed by the Korean military. The revolt revealed many of the problems of modernization in South Korea and got them into the public discourse (via underground channels), stripping Chun Doo Hwan's regime of its legitimacy before it even really began and dooming it to democratization. The 1980 revolt is now memorialized as the harbinger and eternal guardian of democracy in Korea, and a Kwangju industry has sprung up to sustain this nationalist narrative.
But the Grand March of History isn't comprehensive, and Peppermint Candy reminds us of this. Yongho, a sweet and poetic young student, was serving his requisite two years in the Korean Army when his unit was dispatched to Kwangju. Drawing on a large body of contemporary studies on the psychological effects of Kwangju, the film is built around the trauma that Yongho endures as a result of his role in the brutality. As the film unfolds into the past, we are able to piece together the degeneration of the man's emotional and moral fiber: starting with Yongho's drunken reunion-crashing and suicide in the present, we meet him a few days earlier to learn that he is a failed stockbroker whose family has left him, and then earlier and earlier, each time-jump signalled by footage of a train (the one that he jumps in front of) travelling in reverse, to the early nineties, and a tale of emotional abuse, and affairs by both he and his wife. The film then takes us to the late eighties, where Yongho is a policeman torturing student activists and selling off his emotions piecemeal-- an affair here, a beating there. Later (earlier), we meet him as a young policeman just out of the military, and witness his first beatings and the beginnings of his misogyny as he repulses his first love with his boorish treatment of a waitress who is in love with him. Finally, he is a clumsy and love-lorn soldier, fresh from singing with the group he disgusts at the start of the film, and scrambling to get on the truck to Kwangju, where he'll accidentally shoot a schoolgirl on her way home.
Violence ties the parts together, with each containing a specter from the story to come; a reminder of some brutal act that made him further deplorable-- an encounter with his dead first love, the wife he abused, or with the student he tortured-- all leading back to Kwangju, and the trauma overlooked by the oversimplifying nationalism of the present, a trauma that has ruined the lives of not only students and citizens, but soldiers as well. Peppermint Candy-- named for the gift of innocence and love that Yongho saved until the fateful day in May 1980, when his captain and peers, symbolic of the military-industrial complex of Korean mdernization, crushed them beneath their boots-- revises modern Korean history by broadening our understanding of who the victims of violence were, and sends a call to contemporary society to recognize and remedy the more painful parts of Kwangju's legacy.

[Anonymous]

I have also not only read this book but added it to the collection of books I lend my students to read. It was incredibly fun and interesting and the students enjoy it. It also exposes them to another culture... and history! Which is great because so many of the kids are oblivious to history in the sixth grade. The idea of the Kung Fu really draws them in. I have every intention of reading the story aloud to my homeroom next year during our reading time.

[Anonymous]

I saw this movie in the theatre a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful movie with stunning visual scenes. The ending scene is particularly beautiful and I know will be what I think of anytime the movie comes up. The story is of a gorgeous little Japanese girl with blue eyes who is sold to a geisha house when she is very young. The entire story was very fairytale like - with the main character starting out as a little slave girl and ending up getting everything she set out to get. The viewer does not get the sadness that should or could be involved with loving the person you are with and not being able to be anything but their "woman of the nights" (I think that's what it was called) unless they are a reflective thinker. The story did not offer very much of the Japanese world that could be shared with our students, as beautiful as it was. It is a very small focused view of the world at the time, and glazes over the whole of WW2, going very quickly over the time and showing only the one girls' view of what happened to Japan at the time. It does show the role of women, and it implies where or how women could be powerful. But it doesn't share very much that is useful from the standards or of the culture as a whole.

[Anonymous]

I thought this movie was absolutely fascinating. I honestly never knew too much about it but feel informed after seeing it. What a different lifestyle. I didn't read the book which is probably why I liked it more than other viewers, but feel lucky to be a woman in our society. The women had little voice and were expected to become a socially accepted person only after certain training. How crazy! We take our socialization for granted and are able to venture out into the world without the stigmas and labels of the Chinese women. I would recommend this to others as a way of opening our eyes to a different world.

[Anonymous]

I was at a tribute to Korean musician and artist, Nam June Paik at LACMA last week. I was blown away. Besides having an amazing immigrant story complete with a stop at a Japanese detention center Mr. Paik's art was really out of this world. One of my favorite pieces was a 1968 clip where he shows a Buddha meditating infront of a Televison. It was awsome and easy to replicate even at home. So easy that UCLA now has many Buddha's practicing infront of a a TV throughout its campus. It is so simple it is genius. Another awsome example of genial simplicity was his Zen T.V. A broken television set with a straight bar in its middle flipped on its side. Very cool. Mr. Paik envisioned television as extremely important in the 1960's and wanted to make the experience more interactive. His early TV documentaries experiment with sound, image and color to create a whole experience. Think about it. This is two decades before MTV hits it off. He also saw television as not only entertainment, as it was marketed back then. He saw televisions as information tools and envisions the internet and its communication when TV was in its infancy. Aside from all this he was also one of the first to have a live simulcast on two coasts. NY and LA musicians played for each other and were able to see each other as well as hear themselves. Again, video conferencing way ahead of its time. There were many clips and 11 artists who payed tribute to this incredible man. Anyone can definetly use his life as an example of the immigrant success story, as well as the remarkable contributions immigrants make to this country.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how well received the movie would be for high school students but it was an entertaining love story with alot of implicit messages about Japan during the turn of the 20th century and the relationships between men and women at the time. It gave the impression that families in rural areas during that time were so impoverished that selling their daughters to become bar maids was one of the few options in order to survive. At the same time, city life seemed to be flourishing. It's interesting to note that the Geisha's "knight in shining armor " was a man old enough to be her father, which was probably not unusual in that cultural time period. The movie also suggest that after the American occupation, the role of women changed dramatically and in some sense you come away from the movie with some nostalgia about the ..... old days. The kimono's, the hairdo's, the dances, all express some mystical beauty from the feminine side that hopefully will not be totally lost in our future world.

[Anonymous]

Rent this Japanese film on DVD. It will renew your love for teaching and give you something to fantasize about.

Setting: Pre WWII Japan
Features a Japanese professor who teachers German to Japanese military boys who's longed to retire and just write. He finally retires and his students are crushed.

Yearly they reunite and decide to form a foundation to honor him based on a child's 'Marco Polo' type game.
They ask him "Mada kai?" (Are you ready, to die, yet?)". He responds "Madadayo," (not yet) and they commence to drinking and storytelling. The story gives a realistic (I think) historical perspective of the
destruction of war and the toll/struggle it takes on its survivors. Life goes on, people show respect, have & remember good times & bad times. Boys become men and pay their filial respects to teachers/elders.
As it should be. Of course his wife has to do all the work why the professor wallows in his "genius" so a cultural lesson there.

Fine for the classroom and fine for your soul. See it, show it.

3 thumbs up.

[Anonymous]

THE BEGINNING OF HIP-HOP IN THE BRONX IS DOCUMENTED IN THIS BOOK BY CHANG. LOOK INTO THE LIFES OF DJ KOOK HERC, AFRIKA BAMBAATAA AND GRANDFATHER FLASH, REWIRING TURNTABLES AND RE-ENGINEERING POWDER-KEG RACIAL POLITICS OF THEIR HOME TURF. REVIEWED AS OBSESSIVELY RESEARCHED, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, CHANG'S BOOK IS THE FUNKY, BOOTLEG, B-SIDE REMIX OF LATE-20TH CENTURY AMERICAN HISTORY.

I WOULD THINK STUDENTS WILL BE CURIOUS AS TO THE CONTENT.
DEFINETLY CAUGHT MY EYE.

[Anonymous]

WELL. I FINALLY CHECKED IT OUT AND I LOVED IT. THERE WERE A COUPLE OF SCENES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE THAT WERE CRAPPY. ONE SCENE REMINDED ME OF AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL. TALK ABOUT PLATFORM SHOES! AS SOON AS THE CONFLICT BETWEEN "BIG SISTER" AND PROTAGONIST (SHE CHANGES HER NAME THREE TIMES) IS SET YOU CAN'T HELP TO ROOT FOR HER. SHE DOES A GOOD JOB OF CONNECTING WITH THE AUDIENCE. THE VILLAIN "BIG SIS" IS A REAL ..... GOOD ACTRESS. THE COSTUMES WERE AWSOME, THE STREETS A LITTLE TOO CLEAN TO BE REALISITIC, I THOUGHT. OVERALL, THE MOVIE IS A DEFINITE MUST SEE AND SINCE IT IS A PEOPLE STORY IT TRANSCENDS TIME AND PLACE. OH, THE WEB'S WE HUMANS CAN WEAVE. TOO BAD PEOPLE WERE DISAPPOINTED. I HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK SO I TOOK IT FOR WHAT IT WAS. A REAL NICE ROMANTIC STORY. HOLLYWOOD ENDING AND ALL.

THERE ARE SOME TEACHER FRIENDLY SCENES WHERE PLACES AND CUSTOMS ARE REFERENCED BUT MOST OF THE CONTENT IS KINDA RACEY IF YOU ASK ME. E-BAY ANYONE?

ENJOY!

[Author]

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