Session 1 - Clay Dube, 9/15 morning

[cgao]

[clay dube]

Please read the attached documents prior to our session on Saturday. You may wish to print them out. As always, our aim is to inform and to inspire. How might you use parts of these readings or some of the ideas they contain with your students?

The contemporary news articles are short. It's okay to just scan them, though reading them closely will yield rewards. For the primary source readings, all but one are short. Try to read them and to imagine the world they help illustrate. 

A - demography, geography readings
1. South Korea - head of the central bank calls for more babies
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2017/09/06/0200000000AEN20170906014700320.html

2. North Korea - part 2 in a three part series on living in North Korea
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/22/life-in-north-korea-coming-of-age

3. Japan -- marriage is getting harder and harder to make happen 
https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21706321-most-japanese-want-be-married-are-finding-it-hard-i-dont 

4. China -- not enough water and too much pollution 
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/21/asia/china-water-crisis/index.html

5. China, Japan, South Korea - Video Games
China, Tencent's video game empire under assault: https://www.economist.com/business/2018/09/08/tencents-kingdom-is-under-assault-from-chinas-regulators

Japan, nearly a million teens addicted: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/08/31/national/930000-japanese-teens-addicted-internet-survey/#.W5vIdfZReUk

South Korea, Game industry critical of WHO game addiction label: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180328000730

B - 19th century China readings 

1. Manchu rule and hair -- What do the new rulers demand? What is their argument for the requirement? 
2. Emperor Qianlong to King George III, 1793 http://china.usc.edu/emperor-qianlong-letter-george-iii-1793
-- What is the emperor's complaint? What does he expect the British monarch to do? 
3. The Treaty of Nanjing, 1842 http://china.usc.edu/treaty-nanjing-nanking-1842
-- What must the loser of the Opium War (1839-1842) provide the winner? What are the long term consequences of the conflict and this settlement?
4. Placards posted in Guangzhou -- What is being opposed? What actions is advocated in the placards?
5. The Taiping Land System http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/taiping_economic_pgm.pdf
-- How did the Taiping plan challenge the existing social and economic order? 
6. Ridding China of Bad Customs -- How does the anti-footbinding society propose to eliminate the custom? What are Qiu Jin's complaints about the status and treatment of women? What does she call on women to do? What does the 1907 Yunnan newspaper article propose doing about opium? And, finally, why and how does 1920 article from Women's Magazine call for the eradication of indentured girl servants? How does the author propose using the concept of "face" (reputation) to fight against holding women as indentured servants?

 

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Michael Frew]

Many of my middle school students spend many of their hours each week playing video games in their schedules, competing with homework and excercise activities. A popular online game, Fortnite, is particularly popular among our students. While reading about the shockingly high rates of "gaming addicition", I think of how American children could mirror a similar fate. Knowing that gaming is a societal health problem may force students to re-evaulate their priorities as they spend many weekly hours gaming. Exploring this idea also gives us a chance to explore 6th grade mathematical standards: rates and proportions, as well as percentages. For example, considering the population of Korea as a denoninator and the number of gaming addicts as a numerator can helps us to compare rates of addicition between countries, including our own. It also allows us to speculate and inquire into why we are seeing the rates that we are. Thus, we are engaging in NGSS practices of using data to engage in question asking. We could also use the data to make predictions based on the current rates to hypothesize what future gaming rates. 

[Sophia Kang]

With an increasing global economy comes more opportunities for the hybridity of cultures. For example, we see McDonald's food looking different in Korea (ie. bulgogi burgers) and especially in LA, there are foods that are combined together such as sushi burritos or bulgogi tacos. As other ethnic foods become introducted, there is the exoticism of "cultural" foods with some ethnic foods becoming more expensive than what they actually cost in their motherland and people taking advantage over others to serve these novelty items outside of the motherland. I am curious as to who benefits from globalization?  

[Sophia Kang]

Using data to make predictions and hypothesize the future is a great idea! I was thinking of including data in my students' synthesis essay prompts, requiring them to use it to make their claims about pro/con video gaming in an argumentative essay. I think the data about Japanese declining birth (at a negative percentage) particularly interesting and might use that in my class. 

[Ingrid Herskind]

Living in California makes Angelinos very aware of drought conditions and a lack of water. We talk about the impact of environmental conditions on international relations--especially issues of security. Many nations, especially in the Middle East and Africa, have been fighting over water for years. I hadn't realized that China was struggling for water and wonder how their quest for water will impact the security of the region.

When dealing with water conflicts, it's interesting to look at the types of conflicts:

• Control of Water Resources: where water supplies or access to water is at the root of tensions.
• Military Tool: where water resources, or water systems themselves, are used by a nation or state as a weapon during a military action.
• Political Tool: where water resources, or water systems themselves, are used by a nation, state, or non-state actor for a political goal.
• Terrorism: where water resources, or water systems, are either targets or tools of violence or coercion by non-state actors.
• Military Target: where water resource systems are targets of military actions by nations or states.
• Development Disputes: where water resources or water systems are a major source of contention and dispute in the context of economic and social development.

Here's a bit more on the security issues surrounding water in China:

China-India: The Brahmaputra River

The Brahmaputra River is a 2,900 km river that originates in Tibet and flows through India’s Arunachal Pradesh state before merging with the Ganges and draining into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh. It is considered an important resource in all three countries that it flows through: for China, it provides hydroelectricity; and for India and Bangladesh, a key agricultural lifeline in otherwise overpopulated and arid region.

The Brahmaputra River is particularly important to the agricultural industry in India’s Assam plains, and worries have arisen recently regarding a series of hydroelectric plants that China is in various stages of construction on its Tibetan plateau. Some experts believe that these projects will reduce the flow of the Brahmaputra in India, compounding an already tenuous water situation in the affected areas.

I was thinking about tying the California drought issues to the international conflicts.

Here's a video on Water Wars in California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ts8PfO4KSk          

Here's a video on Water Wars between Israel and Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZNxPRfZJnc

And finally a video on the water shortages in China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bAEr8Waffo

ih 🙂

 

 

 

[Ingrid Herskind]

Sophia-

This is such an important question that we deal with constantly in International Relations and also in US History. I've attached an image showing the balance between the benefits and costs of globalization on economic growth. It's hard to talk about the benefits of globalization without really examining the costs. We often look at how MNC's (Multi National Corporations) use the developing world for their development-- both good and bad. Last year, we did a research project on the impact of MNC's on the developing world and globalizaiton as a whole. The students chose 1 MNC and had to look at 4 different perspectives, both positive and negative.  One student chose the Nestle Corporation--wow! Anyway, I agree that this is a difficult debate.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Margaret Siryj]

The 2017 CNN News article on The China Water Crisis peaked my interest and was timely because this past week in my Economics class taught to high school seniors, the subject of water came up in a class discussion.  Economics is the study of choosing how to appropriately allocate limited resources, natural and human.  Factors of production include the idea of “scarcity” meaning “the limited amounts of resources to meet unlimited desires” (Prentice Hall, Economics Principles in Action, 2007).  Many of my students were quite surprised when I stated that the majority of the water they use for daily needs comes from Lake Havasu, Arizona. 

The morning session with Dr.Dube was an eye opener because I did not realize that China was grappling with the same question and concern that Southern Californians are dealing with and how to increase awareness to all citizens.  Chairman Mao’s plan to disport the water flow from the wetter North to the arid South.  A comparison can be drawn with local economics and resources.  In the 1990’s California and the Department of Water and Power built a dam in Riverside County to offset some the need from Arizona.

In my classroom throughout the semester we will be pursuing the topic of natural resources, and this article reflecting the same problem and concern affects citizens around the world exposes and highlights a precious commodity: water.  I plan to use this article and ask my students to research and draw comparisons and contrasts to California and China and the water crisis.  At the conclusion of their research, I am thinking to ask an essential question such as, “California and China:  Should I limit my daily shower(s), Why/Why Not?  Students will submit their findings and will present their evidence to the whole class.

 

[Margaret Siryj]

Ingrid,

Your post provided some good you tube resource clips for my 12th grade Economics students!  I was surprised to learn from Dr. Dube and the CNN article from 2017 that China is facing some of the same concerns that we as Southern Californian residents are grappling with today.  The article mentions that Mao back in the 1950's was determined to disport the water from the rain drenched North to the arid South, but the project was projected to cost 80 billion dollars.  As you may know, here in So Cal in the 1990s a massive water creation project was initiated and now assisting with the precious resource, water.  The water collected in Riverside County offsets some of the reliance that we previously had with resources from Lake Havasu. 

My students will be graduating soon and this information will have an impact on thier daily lives especially since many of my seniors are planning to attend college/university here in Southern California.  I am hopeful that the awareness of the water shortage literally creates a "ripple effect" and my 12th graders can share their knowledge with family, friends, and roommates.

 

[Lin Kuang]

While Mr. Ma , the richest Chinese businessman felt a little nervous to apart from his phone for a  couple minutes while he was at the stage for a conference just presents a huge amount of population worldwidely who are addicted to their phones, ipads, or related electronic devices, a truly “Modern Opium .” The author addressed the myopia issues caused by playing video- games excessively on the Smartphones, which is truly severe issue for our young generations. Even though this article explored the serious issues of video games in China, Korea, and Japan to blame the Tencent  or other game producers provided addicted games to tempt young kids and causing the addictions and myopia, but the government seems to take actions to try to reduce the damages. How about our students in America? My 10th graders are on video games all the time, their attendance, their work habits, and their corporations are driven by games. Some video gamers reported to school twice a week with thick glasses and all assignments undone. Some students came to school and seek all opportunities to play online games on computers or ipads provided by teachers for their learning purposes since the curriculums are online. Some students play competition games and engage their friends in the class. Being educators and parents, we ran out our strategies to stop them to access to online games. I’d like to hear more detailed report about video games in Modern American Classrooms. We are utilizing the students’ motivations on video games to create educational videos. Kahoot became so popular on our campus. “ Some may view as a schocling affirmation that video games are eroding the education of entire generation, but the U.S. Department of Education sees it as an opportunity; a chance to to reinvent education in a way that makes it more relevant to today’s student.”  Are we going to put our curriculum on video games in order to engage students in learning?

 

https://www.polygon.com/2015/4/13/8401113/u-s-department-of-education-the-future-of-education-includes-video

“ U.S. Department of Education: The Future of Education includes video games in classrooms”

 

[Kathryn Sutherland]

One of the notes that popped out at me that I wrote down from Dr. Dube's seminar read "Aging population is the East Asian story--so what does this mean for the economy?" Relating this to my class might be a little challenging--I could put out a bunch of manipulatives, take two away, put one back, take two away, put one back, and ask what they think will happen to the manipulatives if I keep going--but the concepts of population, death, and birth rates might be a little much for the five year olds. 🙂

However, this is still a topic that I as a not-five-year-old find very interesting (it is also a topic that I would have loved to explore when I was teaching high school statistics!)  The negative population growth in Japan was first brought to my attention in Aziz Ansari's book Modern Romance--he explores the subject of dating in Japan, listing some surprising statistics (for instance, 1/3 of Japanese people surveyed under 30 said they had never dated; approximately 1/2 of Japanese men in their early 30s were single; 45 percent of women surveyed 16-24 "were uninterested in or despised sexual contact") and hypotheses of why there has been such a stark decline in relationships and marriage (shifts away from arranged marriages, stagnation of the economy and of men's wages, rise of career women).  His book is just about romance--it does not delve into the economic ramifications of an aging population in Japan (and East Asia).  The government's response over the next few decades to the decline in birthrates in these countries will be very interesting to follow, and will likely determine geopolitical powershifts.  What will happen? Will governments decide to encourage immigration? Will economic incentives for women be enough to decide to have children? Will a more "western" approach to relationships be adopted (more children out of wedlock, more single parents or co-parents?  Side note: the difference between the US and Japan with regards to relationships can be seen when juxtaposing Japan's reality show, "Terrace House" to "The Real World." Both have strangers living in a house together...but how the strangers go about living together could not be more different!)  If nothing is done, the economy may start to enter a negative feedback loop: fewer people, less money; less money, fewer people...  Dr. Dube mentioned that China was looking to robots and automation as its population ages--and how will this affect the global economy?  Whenever there is a void, for better or worse, something will arise to fill it.  The aging population in East Asia is a problem with no clear-cut or win-win solution.  

 

[Miriam Choi]

As I was reading through the articles Dr. Dube assigned to us, the one that caught my attention was the article about South Korea calling for more babies.

Even though I never grew up in Korea, I'm always being surrounded by Koreans and the Korean culture. I, too, have witnessed this shift in population every time I visit S. Korea. My mother tells me stories of her childhood and how she grew up in South Korea. She always referenced how there is a culture shift from her time, to now. A decrease in family size was one of the factors. My mother alone has 3 siblings, and my father alone has 4 siblings. I am an only child, and my mother tells me how she had plans of no more. Many of my friends are an only child, if not, have one sibling. When I engage in conversations with my friends, currently living in Korea, some don't even have plans of marriage or having children. I have always had questions on how and why this differs from other countries. 

Many of my students come from very large families. Many of their parents are either my age, younger, or possibly a couple years older. My students, on average, have more than two siblings. It would be very interesting to apply this data in our classroom. Since I teach 2nd graders, it would be hard to teach the urgency of an aging population. However, when it comes to family, and comparing family sizes from different parts of the world, I think they will get hooked instantly. Family is everything in their culture and since our classroom's country of focus is South Korea, I think it pairs perfectly. I would like to have my students collect data by surveying other peers and teachers, and compile them to create graphs on their findings. I think it would be very interesting to see how it differs between different cultures/communities and also look into different factors that play in. I am very curious to hear the questions that pop up as we dive into this inquiry of family size.

[Reynaldo Mangabat]

I love the Professors idea of Asianifying our curriculum. Iha already started using some mateirals such as the The Red Scarf Girl for my high school students. I wanted them to understand how self identity can be shaped by a person's milliue. This is a very timely discussion today when out society is stratified with so varied position in both in the political ans social spectrum.They can be challenged to make politically correct choices and decisions as they deal with their crisis and challenges everyday. Red Scarf Girl contextualize this in the experience of a young girl during an interesting period in Chinas' history - the cultural revolution. I plan to use other relevant matrials like movies such as "M Butterfly, The Last Emperor, and Sung Sisters. So yea lets Asianify our curriculum!

[Kim Leng]

I found the territorial disputes between Korea and Japan over rocks fascinating.  This dispute can be used in the classroom to provide students different perspectives.  I’ll have them do a mini research project about the rocks.  What are the reasons that Korea is claiming the rocks vs. that of Japan?  And have them take a position. Check out the following articles:

Profile: Dokdo/Takeshima Islands: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19207086

Stepping Ashore on a Disputed Island: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19841335

South Korea's Lee Myung-bak visits disputed islands:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19204852

Why China, Japan and Korea fuss over tiny islands — 4 things to know: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/17/why-japan-is-making-a-big-fuss-over-tiny-islands-4-things-to-know/?utm_term=.585d907c96cf

I think the above articles can be used to start the research.

[Gisela Gaona]

Hi Miriam,

Yes, I completely agree with you. Prior to this class, I did not that S. Korea was also in danger of a declining population. I have read many articles online that have touched on Japan's rapid loss in population-- specifically the working sector of the Japanese population. As I read your comment, I was wondering if the work culture of many Asian cultures has anything to do with this. I have read a large number of articles that detail how South Korean men specifically work insanely long hours. I saw a blog post of passed out S. Korean men on the street (some from drunkeness, but many more from exhaustion.) Perhaps due to the heavy sociatal pressures to increase work production, men and women are prioritizing work over starting a family. 

[Author]

Posts