Session 1 (8/25) readings

[Anonymous]

What I found interesting is that Japan started admitting all of the foreign-born Japanese immigrants from South America when they started to see that their workforce was decreasing. Yet, now as they are really in the midst of population decline and their demographics are shifting, they are not as welcoming to immigrants anymore. what the article doesn't explicitly say is why. It pits the liberals supporting the plan to support industry by importing a foreign workforce against conservatives who think the plan is a failure. What is not being said in the article is why. Why do the conservatives the plan was a failure. Is this a fear that "Japaneseness" is waning in the face of a declining native Japanese population and a "watering-down" of Japanese culture and demography? The fear of this is not anything new, especially here in the U.S. it seems that the Japanese conservatives seem to want to fix Japan from within, without the help of foreigners who will taint the Japanese demographics. This sounds very Chinese, almost Confucian. Look inside to fix it rather than outside of Japan. I hope to be able to discuss this or at least hear other viewpoints.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

It was very informative to see the diversity of educators in our session. As an elementary level teacher I was a little intimidated by the depth of knowledge of others. However I read current events constantly and could contribute a bit. I am intrigued by the level of trade and the progression of the increase in various areas. Also I thought it interesting that feelings about the different cultures by each group, the more trade we have the less we like each other. China is fast becoming an even larger world power and our students need to have a good understanding of the East Asian cultures. I visited Morocco this summer and learned about African trends in business development. China is a major investor in Africa and the US will be missing our if our citizens cannot be competitive and truly understand the opportunities presented.

[Anonymous]

I was curious about the female/male ratio imbalance that we learned about in China. My parents have a negative outlook on women who come to Korea, China, and Taiwan to get married. Do we know what that process is like? How are the women treated once they migrated? Do they have legal paperwork? My parents told me that they have heard of Vietnamese women participating in these "agencies" where they match up these women with eligible men in those countries. They said there is an inspection process and these women sometimes get really mistreated once they leave Vietnam. Does anyone have information on this and would like to share?

[cgao]

East Asia geography and demography - The attached readings cover issues present in contemporary Japan, South Korea, and China. What other issues have you heard about in the news? What are the key population trends? What are the key resource issues? What, if any, progress has been made in battling environmental degradation? How might such discussions be incorporated into the courses you teach?

Migration to/from/within east asia - Please take a look at migration trends for South Korea and Japan at these OECD pages:

• http://www.oecd.org/els/mig/imo2013.htm
• http://www.oecd.org/els/mig/keystat.htm

OPTIONAL: urban china - new world bank report - The World Bank and a Chinese government research center just released a big report on the state of China's transition from a primarily rural to a primarily urban country. It's too big (20 mb) to attach, but is available as a free download. The report is rich in data and charts.

• Download the report - if you're interested, at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18865
• A video introduction is available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/publication/urban-china-toward-efficient-inclusive-sustainable-urbanization

Chinese Philosophy readings - 4 attachments
edited by cgao on 8/21/2014

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