Session 1 - 9/28 (morning), Clay Dube

[cgao]

 

Orientation, Geography and Demography

We'll focus on two things in the morning session - a) outlining the seminar and explaining the requirements and b) exploring the geography and historical demography of East Asia and discussing current population/consumption trends.

Prior to the session, please read the following materials (available via links below).

Required readings
China
Economist article on the rise of debate in China
Inkstone article on Sihanoukville, Cambodia - how tourism and investment from China has shaped the place

South Korea
NPR report on what the death of a North Korean defector in South Korea reveals

Japan
Women of Chinese, Korean and Japanese ethnicity discuss the place of women in Japan

Optional readings
Materials over the push to influence what teachers call the water between Korea and Japan
Report on declining labor force participation by women in China and India

Optional videos
Jonathan Watts, When a Billion Chinese Jump
Angel Hsu and Xu Xin, Data and the Environment
Aljazeera 101 East, Aging Japan
Arirang, Lower Consumption in South Korea and Single person households
 

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[Sara Newman]

I was really interested in the article about the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese voting rights activists working to boost awareness of representation issues in Japan. I thought it was especially interesting that Yuka Hamanaka--the one nationally Japanese woman of the trio-- wanted to align herself with the other women to speak out against the lack of political representation that people of other nationalities living in Japan experience. This article made me embarrassed to realize that beyond not being a voting rights’ activist in the U.S., I’ve never even thought about how people from maintain citizenship in their birth country instead of the U.S. must feel about their inability to participate in our political life.

[Sara Newman]

The data around infant morality in Asia really interested me since lately I've heard so many stories about stillbirths and disporportionate rates of infant mortality among certain groups in the United States. I learned that of the top five countries with the lowest infant mortality rates, three of them are in Asia: Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong. These three places had a rate of 2-3 deaths per per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is more than twice that with 6.2 deaths per live birth. This data made me really interested in what specifically accounts for the difference in outcomes for infants. Is the low infant mortality rate in Signapore, Japan, and Hong Kong due to better pre-birth care, better hospital deliverty practices, or something else? 

[Sara Newman]

During yesterday's lecture, I curious about why now 1/3 of all Japanese housholds consist of only one person. In Aziz Ansari's book, Modern Romance, he uses Japan as a case study for loneliness and largely attributed the decrease in dating, marriages, and childbirth to extreme work stress and business, so I wondered if these are in fact the primary casues of more people living alone than in the past, or if there are other factors that have led to this demographic change. For instance, does the fact that the population's aging and fewer people are choosing to live in three-generation households mean that more elderly Japanese are living on their own or in senior facilitites? Or is decreased romantic partnership among the younger generations the primary cause of this trend?

[Andrew Frank]

Sara, you make a very meaningful comparison here - in questioning how foreignors living in the U.S. are treated in terms of their voting rights. I also found this article ("Muted in country of birth" by Joel Fitzpatrick) extremely enlightening, especially since it seemed to emphasize the interconnectedness of the three major East Asian powerhouse countries. The interplay between these nations, even geographically (with the "East Asia" vs. "Sea of Japan" debate discussed in the session), seems to reveal countries continuing to make bold moves to emphasize their power. The fact that part of Japan's naturalization process asks foreignors to "give up any other nationality and their old passport" (Fitzpatrick) simply seems like an extension of this power play.

As we further discussed in the session itself, while debatable in its terms of its justness, Japan's strict naturalization also seems to fall in line with its other attempts to "legitimize" itself as a nation. As Professor Dube mentioned, several Japanese individuals love to note the size of the nation (as seen with the image of Japan superimposed on the U.S.). What is surprising to me is that Japan would not be more open to immigration, due to its aging population. If a full 27% of Japan will be over 65-years-old in 2020 (Dube), then why will Japan not open its arms to easing naturalization policies, in order to build its younger generation?

[Andrew Frank]

Sara, I love that you brought up Ansari's Modern Romance! I have read it as well, and his case study certainly came to mind while we discussed the "single-person household" in Saturday's session. Without discrediting Ansari's work, I feel that it may be too gross of a simplification to infer that the main cause of the single-person household is stress or a resistant attitude toward sex/dating. 

I truly had no idea - until Saturday's session - of the intense lack of space Japan faces. (6-8 individuals standing on one newspaper is truly mind-boggling to me!) Dube's comparison with California was especially notworthy: although California is still larger in terms of physical size, it only has 39 million+ inhabitants compared to Japan's 126 million+. I would like to infer that perhaps the single-person household has grown in popularity, because Japanese citizens simply want to feel they have their "own space." Although it may certainly not be the only reason for the rise in these households, perhaps Japanese adults crave this "space," since they lack it so much in their day-to-day lives...

[Andrew Frank]

One of my favorite readings, which we did not discuss on Saturday, was the Economist article, "Debating contests teach Chinese students an argument has two sides." Although I knew a great amount of Chinese students choose to study in America (which was a question raised in Lula Wang's recent film, The Farewell), I had no idea that it is often due to the fact that China has "brutal university-entrance exams." I was also surprised to discover that "Chinese education emphasises one correct answer to a question," unlike what is typical in American education. I am curious to learn more about Chinese education, specifically how I as an American teacher may learn from their country's pedagogical strengths & weaknesses...

[Kurt Hansen]

Chinese Child Policy and Big City Blues-I connected these two because of the difficult issues in the city for housing and rights. I was surprised by the desire of parents to have daughters. My whole life I understood that the main problem with one child policy was the idea that parents needed a son to take care of them when they're older. I have pictures in my mind of parents sending daughters away on ice flows to avoid supporting a daughter who would just go off, find a husband and be no help in old age. It surprised me that parents wanted daughters, because sons were too expensive to set up in life. As cultures grow from farming and rural areas to industrialized and urban, needs change and daughters become much more appealing to parents. I connect this to rules in large Chinese cities requiring the expense of boys to be set up in apartments and the lack of rights for education and voting if not set up properly. On a side note I also found it interesting that the Chinese government spent money advocating daughters over sons and their decision to adjust the policy over time. Lastly how will these policies effect their population division in the future?

[Kurt Hansen]

Unfortunately its not hard to believe that 2.7 million people have no voice in the governing of Japan. Faced with an aging population and the problems that come with that, the government has no plan for immigration reform. I didn't know that they also clung to the idea that any non-japanese person wasn't allowed to vote. These are 2.7 million people who aren't represented by their government and have limited ways to have their views even brought up. Its brilliant that these women are standing up and trying to at least open communication that this probelem exists and foster a debate about it. Maybe it's time for the American educated Empress to start advocating, for these women and the 2.7 million others who cannot speak for themselves.

[Haena Shin]

The NPR report on the death of a North Korean defector in South Korea struck a chord for me. It's really heartbreaking to know that a country could be so torn apart due to the war, and over 70 years later, still be separated. When reading this article, it made me think about the perspective of Han Seong-ok and what she may have gone through before she and her son starved to death. Similar to Los Angeles' homelessness crisis, I feel that the Korean government needs to step up and take measures to provide adequate support and resources for North Korean defectors who resettle in South Korea. I'm hopeful that this tragedy will cause a shift in the South Korean government and society to have more ownership in supporting North Korean defectors.

[Dennis O'Connell]

As an elementary school teacher, I am always trying to find ways to adapt what I am learning to a classroom of 7 and 8 year olds.  During Session One, I found several ways to bring the geographical information into my classroom.  Showing students a map of East Asia and identifying where the different nations are in relation to each other and in relation to California is extremely helpful.  I liked the idea of superimposing the maps of various nations on that of the United States to talk about the differences in size of the natiions as well as the climate changes as one moves from north to south.  The exercise we did counting the border countries of China could also be adapted to an elementary school classroom.  A discussion could be had regarding the difficulties that arise when you have more and more neighbors.  I look forward to future sessions and how I can bring East Asia alive for my students.

[Dennis O'Connell]

I was intrigued by several things in this article in The Economist (June 15, 2019).  Firstly, is the sheer number of Chinese students who are enrolled in American colleges and universities.  According to the article, approximately 333,000 students are currently attending classes in the USA.  Secondly, I did not realize that there was a "negative" perception by some for those who choose to study in the US.  I knew that on the positive side, many view studying in the US as a good career move and the chance to study cutting edge subjects.  I did not consider, however, those who view those studying in the US as taking the "soft option" due to their families being well-to-do or that it may be considered a "cop-out" for those students intimidated by the Chinese university entrance examinations (gaokao).  On a more positive note, in my opinion, is how the American education system encourages students to appreciate the other side or sides of an argument.  While Chinese education emphasizes one correct answer, American education helps students "think outside the box" and understand opposing views.  While one may not end up agreeing with an opposing view, one would at least gain some empathy for how the other side is thinking.  I am guessing we will all get some practice in this "American-style debate" during our next sessions and our debate about How to Save China!

[Cynthia Stults]

I second all that has been said above, but I would also like to add how surprising it was that people whose families have been living in Japan for nearly a century are still considered foreigners without voting rights. I would hope that more and more people would speak up as I would find it maddening to live in an area where "foreigners" like myself make up a significant portion of the population, but yet have no say as to how my community was run or governed. I almost hate to say it about the United States' own immigration and naturalization policy, but if born here, you are instantly a citizen and granted the right to vote. "Foreigners" born on Japanese soil are not afforded such a right. It gives a bit of comfort knowing we aren't the worst about voting rights.

[Cynthia Stults]

This article definitely shed some light into some of my Chinese students' behaviors in class. They are much more comfortable in math where typically there is a right answer and a wrong answer, but even if I offer them options as for how to solve the problems, they are uncomfortable and ask me which is the right one for them to use. In language arts, when discussing (simple) texts and making inferences about characters and themes and giving opinions, it definitely takes them longer to develop answers, than if I ask them to sequence events from the story. Their behaviors make a lot more sense now.

[Cynthia Stults]

Dennis, I am totally onboard with your ideas. In 4th grade, it's all about California and I LOVED the idea of comparing both the size of the East Asian countries to California, along with their populations. I think it would be enlightening for the students to try the exercise where they stand on the newspaper to get a feel for how crowded some of the larger cities are too. 

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