pre-2011 web resources

[Anonymous]

A couple of really good sites that I use for information on progressive issues are

http://www.zmag.org/znet.htm

http://www.teachingforchange.org

Both of these have really good links and are useful. The Znet site has a wealth of information on a country or regional basis and has speeches and articles on things that don't make it into the news that often.

[clay dube]

One of the best websites on contemporary Chinese demographics and agriculture is

http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/ChinaFood/index_m.htm

It was produced by Gerhard Heilig a few years back in response to Les Brown and WorldWatch's book Who Will Feed China?. That book argued that rising living standards and changing diets would combine with continuing population growth to dramatically increase China's overall food consumption. China would be able to purchase this food on the world market (now you know why farmers in Kansas favor free market policies and hate using food sanctions), but that poorer nations might be hard pressed to meet their needs.

Heilig has assembled a wealth of data and produced excellent charts and maps to discuss the current situation and the challenges China confronts. He concludes that China can feed 1.48 B people in 2025, even without technological improvements. He recommends, however, many important changes, including infrastructural strengthening and continued family planning.

This is a wonderful resource that high school and many middle school students would be able to use. Students might also draw upon data from the World Bank Human Development Index and the United Nations Infonation sites to see if trends since Heilig's work was published in 1999.

The site for the WorldWatch volume is http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/books/8/.

An essay based on the book is at

http://www.emagazine.com/oldissues/january-february_1997/0197feat2.html.

And finally, the US Embassy in Beijing released a report:

http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/fddeb12.htm.

[clay dube]

California resident Beverly Jackson is a longtime collector of the shoes worn by Chinese women with bound feet. She traveled to China and interviewed women who had their feet bound and produced a lavishly illustrated volume Splendid Slippers. Her website offers short excerpts from the book, reviews of it, and -- of course -- a link to buy the volume. Combined with works by Howard Levy and Dorothy Ko, this is a good resource to draw upon in introducing the practice to students.

http://www.silcom.com/~bevjack/

Levy, Howard S. Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom, Foreword by Arthur Waley. Introd. by Wolfram Eberhard. New York, W. Rawls, 1966.

Ko, Dorothy. Every Step a Lotus : Shoes for Bound Feet. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2001. Click here to see the UC Press webpage on the book. You can download and read chapter 2. It includes terrific images. Prof. Ko has also written "The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China," The Journal of Women's History 8.4.

Feng Jicai, one of China's most popular writers, authored an interesting novel on the custom and its place in family and social life. Three Inch Golden Lotus. It was translated by David Wakefield and published by the University of Hawaii press.

Yue-qing Yang's recent film Footbinding: The Search for the Three-Inch Golden Lotus is available and includes interviews with Chinese about the custom. In the film, Dorothy Ko argues that footbinding is routinely misunderstood.

http://www.movingimages.bc.ca/catalogue/Cultdiverse/footbinding.html

[Anonymous]

I just read about the gay scene, names, Murasaki's place in literature, food, pets, and the biography of Liza Dalby, and wish I had time tonight for all the other topics. This is a great website for both teachers and students interested in the Heian period and was listed on the handout from Lynne Miyake.

http://www.taleofmurasaki.com/lizadalbypage.htm

[Anonymous]

The "Literature in the Kamakura-Muromachi Period" website listed on Professor Miyake's handout is disappointing and deficient. It is only two paragraphs long and the second paragraph is quoted in its entirety on the handout. Better to read about the Kamakura and Muromachi Periods in the Keene anthology as well as pages 314-321 for "Three Poets at Minase."

(www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Club/4561/inu-yashapast.htm)

[Anonymous]

I found a good website with a lesson plan on footbinding geared toward elementary school students. There is a questionnaire titled "Lotus Shoes Worksheet" about student perceptions of beauty that I plan to use with my high school students. A young girl named Lee Shee Ping was born in the United States but had her feet bound so that her chances for finding a wealthy husband in America were increased. Has photos and suggested activities.

http://www.autry-museum.org/learn/images/Tom_Shee_Bin_Lesson_Plan.pdf

[Anonymous]

Marco Polo! Here are some sites. I don't know which one is best.
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http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=488
Has lesson plan on Marco Polo and various other links. All kinds of interesting resources. Next 2 sources were accessed from this site.
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http://www.silk-road.com/maps/images/polomap.jpg
Black and white map of Marco's and father's trips
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http://edsitement.neh.gov/M_Polo_flash_page.asp
Interactive color map. Takes a while to load, but then you can answer a series of questions one by one, and watch the route develop on the map.
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http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/p/polo.shtml
Oversimplified
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http://geography.about.com/cs/marcopolo/a/marcopolo.htm
Short summary, with other geographical links
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http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
This is a wonderful site, The Medieval Sourcebook, another place to spend your whole life.
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[Anonymous]

I came across a well written essay titled "Tokugawa Period's Influence on Meiji Restoration," which reinforces what we learned today from Professor Notehelfer's excellent lecture.
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/jhist1.htm

[Anonymous]

I found the Time Magazine article that Clay has mentioned -- "How to Tell Your Friends from the Japs" -- here: http://www.josephluk.com/scrapbook/

[clay dube]

The complete 2004 Human Development Report, including articles and statistics, can be downloaded at:

http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/pdf/hdr04_complete.pdf

Individual chapters can be downloaded at:

http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/

Data from the report can be displayed in a number of ways. Students can build their own tables for comparison:

http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/

[Anonymous]

PBS has a website called TeacherSource where one can use the documentaries shown on PBS in the classroom and then do lessons off of those video sources. There are some documentaries and lesson plans which focus on Asia. These are geared more towards middle and high school students. There is a search option on the page where you can find lessons geared towards K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. I didn't find many things for elementary students, so I wouldn't use this page myself, but it would be useful for teachers of older grades.

http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/

[Anonymous]

Ask Asia is a K-12 resource on the web for teachers, students, and administrators. The website is fairly easy to navigate through. There are links for current issues, lesson plans, profiles on different Asian countries, a reference page, an expert page, and related links to Asia. The teachers and administrators page has information about how to incorporate Asia more into the classrooms. The teachers page has a "Resource Center Locator" which gives the names of universities, museums, and organizations related to Asia. For administrators, there's a page with a list of foundations that support Asia-related content in schools. Administrators who are interested in incorporating Asia into their schools can write grants to receive additional funding for their schools. (The Freeman Foundation was listed in here.) I would definitely use this website to obtain more information about Asia in the classroom.

http://www.askasia.org

[Anonymous]

Asia for Educators is a website that focuses mainly on China and Japan. Clay mentioned in class how Columbia University also has a strong East Asian department. The site has excellent pictures and resources. Under each subject area, there are lesson plans, websites, and list of recommended materials to order for each subject area. This site is mostly a resource for educators. This would be very helpful for teachers who teach social studies and want to teach units about China and Japan. Art, literature, philosophy, and more can be integrated into the units. Teachers could also see the main events that happened in each country according to time period. The time chart has China and Japan lined up next to each other, so a comparison of the two countries could be made.

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/

[Anonymous]

AsiaForKids is an online catalog to find Asia related resources. This might be helpful for educators of younger students because they can find kid friendly picture books about East and South East Asian countries. Videos about Asian countries can also be found. Many of my young students learned best through read-alouds, pictures, and through classroom talk. If I had more money for my classroom, I would definitely look into purchasing more cultural (Asian) books so that my students can learn about the differences among Asian cultures.

http://www.afk.com/

[Anonymous]

The Asian Film Connections website seeks to give viewers information about East Asian films. This website can be viewed in English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. This site lists more recent movies (since 1998) from East Asian countries, more specifically Korea, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This site also has links to resources if one is interested in gathering more information on the film industry in these countries.

http://www.asianfilms.org/

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