pre-2011 web resources

[Anonymous]

It's interesting to note that the tiny shoes now seem to have become tourist souvenirs.

When she was last in Beijing, my wife, who's from northern China, was looking for gifts for our family - teapots, jadde, and the like - and took a lot of photographs to show me the various things on sale in a large open-air market (her trip was for spring festival, and of course it falls during the semester). Several stalls were stacked high with the small lotus-feet shoes.

The market is one which is a must-see for many foreign tourists and these were obviously a pretty hot item (I can't really see the Chinese being interested in buying the shoes). In fact, I began to wonder, given the cultural purge of the Cultural Revolution and the destruction of so many artifacts from the pre-Mao past, whether, in fact, these were recently-made copies - a bit like the faux Mao caps on sale everywhere tourists gather in Beijing?

Ray

[Anonymous]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/

This is a great website for international news. It's unbiased and informative, and covers stories across the world - both breaking news and background coverage. I highly recommend it.

A few recent reports include:

"On the tide of culture shock: Studying abroad is encouraging Chinese women to challenge male domination"

"China plans to build the world's highest airport as part of a 100bn yuan (£6.5bn) surge of investment in Tibet in the next four years, the state media reported yesterday"

'Their work is utterly shocking - but they just can't get arrested. Alfred Hickling on how China learned to love its young artists."

"Mao's forgotten son dies: Mao Anqing lived through the most tumultuous era in the history of modern China. But he spent his last years as an unknown recluse."

Also Japan, Korea, and other Asian states:

"Japan today bolstered its defences against a possible attack from North Korea with the deployment of an advanced Patriot missile defence system at a military base near Tokyo that critics say leaves the capital even more vulnerable to attack."

"Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, apologised yesterday for Japan's use of wartime sex slaves but stopped short of acknowledging that they had been forcibly recruited by the Japanese military."

"The story of the 13-year-old Japanese girl abducted during North Korea's cold war has inspired songs and a film, and is now hindering nuclear talks between the two nations."

Hope this helps

Ray[Edit by="rrobinson on Apr 4, 8:26:28 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

http://www.koreanhistoryproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://">http://www.koreanhistoryproject.org/

This is an excellent website - don't let the name fool you, it includes a wonderful overview of China. Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Russia, with timelines and printer-friendly crossword puzzles - and even a section on the various systems of romanization of South East Asian languages.

Ray

[Anonymous]

http://library.thinkquest.org/15618/inventor.htm

This is an interesting, albeit brief, overview of a handful of China's many inventions - in this case, under the headings of each dynasty, and of COMPASS | MEDICINE | GUNPOWDER | PRINTING | PAPER | EMBROIDERY | SILK

There's also a terrific book out there which details a host of inventions and innovations that the West has forgotten first appeared in China, from the stirrup to the wheelbarrow, the hoe to the fishing reel - however, I can't remember the title or author - I've looked on Amazon, but can 't find it... I'm pretty sure that the school library has a copy, so I'll track it down and post the details later...

Ray

[Anonymous]

I'm doing the reading for the Japanese literature lecture. In order to understand the literature, I've found the recommended websites very helpful. "The Flowering of Heian Literature" page on the World Civilizations Website by Washington University is a good place to start. I think it gives enough starting information. It gives a brief synopsis on Japanese literature with Japanese glosary links to Japanese concepts. I've used this World Civilizations site before for research. It would also be appropriate for students to use as a research source. There are also links to other civilizations such as China and Egypt if you return to the "World Civiliations" home page.wwwl.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANJAPAN/LIT.HTM

[Anonymous]

I reviewed another recommended site (Lynne Miyake and Jason Yoo) that is associated with the Heian period and The Tale of Genji. It is from the Costume Museum in Kyoto, Japan. This is a fascinating site with traditional Japanese dress from earlier and later periods in addition to the Heian period in Japanese history. Its a great teacher resource as well as a student resource. Students are always curious about clothing from other cultures. My students are especially interested in Japanese clothing. With each specific type of traditional dress there is a labeled diagram with an optional "explanation" button that viewers can click on to learn about the different parts of the outfit that is shown. What I thought was especially interesting was how the style of dress for women seemed to involve more head coverings in the Kamakura period than in the Heian period. There is also an overview of the Tale of Genji and a short biography of Lady Murasaki. A model of the Spring Palace from the Tale of Genji with characters and descriptions are also shown. http://www.iz.2.or.jp/english/fukusyoku/wayou/index.htm

[Anonymous]

http://www.mandarintools.com/

This website has many fun tools on it including " find a chinese name" and "chinese flashcards".

[Anonymous]

I agree. This site has a wealth of information about current issues in China - population, food, traffic, etc. It discusses the current populations statistics and the challenge China faces to keep the population below 1.5 billion. In 1949, the country had a population of about 540 million. Only three decades later its population was more than 800 million. This huge population increase from the 1950s to the early 1970s contributed to a population growth we are seeing today because of the reproductive ages of the current population despite already low levels of fertility. Most projections are that China's population will increase to 1.48 billion. The most recent projection estimates that China's population will increase by more than 260 million people between 1995 and 2025. This presents a major problem for China's food supply: within only three decades the country will have to feed an additional 260 million people, approximately the same number of people in total population of the USA.

In addition, the site also discusses food trends in China and that more Chinese people are eating meat causing a lower demand for grain. They are also eating healthier because they have access to a wide variety of foods: fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.

[Anonymous]

The website http://www.silicom.com is an excellent resource for students or adults who want to find out more about footbinding. It is a very mysterious tradition that thankfully no longer exists in China today. THe website discusses how and why did the torturous tradition of footbinding evolve and continue well into the 20th century. It answers questions such as did the men make them do it? Was it a way to keep women and girls under male control?

I read a book called Snowflower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See and I was horrified to find out how the process of footbinding was forced on young girls. They started breaking the feet as early as 8 years old and they were in torturous pain for most of their childhood. The feet would bleed and become infected and the girls were unable to walk. As adults, women were not able to walk on their feet without special shoes. This process was started because of a style trend - women with small petite feet were considered highly desirable. Foodbinding evolved into social and economic status. Women with small well-bound feet were considered a "good catch" and had more opportunities for marriage than women with large feet.

It is an very archaic practice and the pictures of the bound feet tell much of the personal story.

[Anonymous]

I reviewed the website http://www.mandarintools.com/ and it had many helpful tools and and fun activities. You can learn Chinese, go through Chinese flash cards, convert currency and even get a Chinese name! My Chinese name is Bai Tian Rong. My first name is Rong - it means glorious. It is kind of fun to try out the various links on this website and learn about Chinese culture in the process.

[Anonymous]

I reviewed the website http://library.thinkquest.org/15618/inventor.htm which discusses the history of various Chinese inventions. One of them is silk, the production of raw silk and the raising of silkworms, which is one of China's greatest contributions to the world. This reminded me of the tour we took of the silk factory in Shanghai. It was fascinating to learn about how silk worms are raised and see all the various stages of making raw silk. It is hard to believe that such soft beautiful fabric originates from the silk worm. It is also amazing that the Chinese discovered how to make silk out of the raw material from the silk worm. Touring the silk factory was an unforgettable experience.

[Anonymous]

If anyone is interested in purchasing tickets to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, go to
http://www.cosport.com. Tickets go on sale in September 2007. You will be able to buy tickets to the sporting events and even creat your own travel packages with accommodations only or select a fully inclusive package that includes tickets, airport meet and greet services, meals, ground transportation, and host services. Packages are now available for purchase.

[Anonymous]

Since I teach math, I was curious how the ancient Chinese culture contributed to the mathematics we use today. The website http://www.saxakali.com/COLOR_ASP/chinamh1.htm
discusses the development of mathematics in Ancient China. "Chinese mathematics," covered many broad topics and was defined by Chinese in ancient times as the "art of calculation". This art was both a practical and spiritual one, and covered a wide range of subjects from religion and astronomy to water control and administration.

By the year 1000 AD, the Chinese invented seismographs to measure earthquakes. They also had ships big enough to sail around the world, but did not do so. The ships had a magnetic needle and used it for navigation in 1119. China developed many other inventions in science and technology, including gunpowder, paper money, moveable type, and blast furnaces capable of producing cast iron.

THe Chinese are responsible for being one of the first cultures to use a decimal system.
The first evidence of mathematical activity in China can be found in numeration symbols on tortoise shells and flat cattle bones dated from the Shang dynasty (14th century B.C.).
These numerical inscriptions contain both tally and code symbols which are based on a decimal system, and they used a place value system. This shows that the Chinese were one of the first civilizations to understand and effenciently use a decimal numeration system. Early Chinese mathematics had a great influence on other later civilizations, in India, Japan, Korea and other counties.

Chinese mathematics encompasses many broad topics. I wish our curriculum did too.

[Anonymous]

Check out this factmonster site. This particular chart shows how our fourth and eighth graders compare to many asian nations in science and math scores. This might be an interesting discussion topic for fourth and eighth grade classrooms

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0930079.html

[Anonymous]

Here is an interesting story about a Canadian that employs children with hearing impairments to give tours of the Great Wall

http://www.travelwithachallenge.com/China_Children.htm

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