session 1 readings

[clay dube]

The challenges for South Korea include an increasing number of women who just don't want to marry. Here's a recent article on the subject:

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21659768-more-women-ditch-or-delay-marriage-men-tie-themselves-knots-i-dont?frsc=dg|d

It begins,
"“PLAN B”, a guidebook for unmarried women living in Seoul, the South Korean capital, begins with a test. “Have your parents chided you for wanting to live alone?” “Are you often told that a woman’s best chance of happiness is being a wife and mother?” Too many noes will land the reader in the “soft tofu” category—unprepared for the rigours of life as a single woman in socially conservative South Korea. (Other types include thick-skinned “watermelon” and die-hard “walnut”.)"

[clay dube]

Women, married or unmarried, often confront difficult working situations in Japan. This article deals with the hostility of employers towards women who may wish to have children.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21663283-pregnant-women-are-furious-about-how-they-are-treated-office-were-busy-get-abortion?frsc=dg|d

A term has developed combining maternity and harassment.

[Anonymous]

After reading the article, "China Headlines" about how the Chinese Dream has changed, there was one section that really stood out to me about China being the "New Powerhouse for World Development." There were several examples of how China is working on their economic growth by creating relationships for trade and industry in other nations. I couldn't help but think about how this sounds so much like Imperialism of the past and how China is basically reinventing imperialistic ideas in other countries today. Some examples would be the trade relations between Russia and China, the energy partnership with India, and the goals for a transcontinental railway from Peru to Brazil. It almost makes me wonder where the new canal across Central America is going to go--then again that idea is already in the works.

After reading about all of these plans to finance these partnerships, it sounds like a great investment. I'm surprised that some of these old imperialist ideas are still working today to help build an economy. It was also interesting to see in the next section about innovation, and all the new technology that is being introduced. It would seem that in an age of technology making money from apps, drones, and online companies would be where the focus is, and from the article I would assume that these areas are still a priority for China today.
edited by skroop on 9/24/2015

[Anonymous]

I found the news articles this week very interesting. I did not know how drastic Japan's population decline was, and it was fascinating to read the bold new immigration policy they proposed. I did notice the article was dated back in 2008, so I am wondering if any of this did get passed or is in effect today, or given the political climate at the time, was turned down, as the article mentions. I also found if interesting how it spoke about the migration of South Americans to Japan, even if it was a failed attempt. I'm wondering if this has grown/decreased since then as well.

Furthermore, the article "A Ravenous Dragon" was interesting as well. I found it crazy how much China has gone into other countries for natural resources, and its need for resources since they have a fifth of the world's population. I found it ironic though how the article mentions how Western diplomats and pundits critique China for its invasion of resources in areas like Africa and Latin America, when the West has colonized or had imperialist efforts in these areas for hundreds of years. Neither is really quite innocent here.

Reading about Seoul definitely made me want to visit that city soon! I love the city life, so it seems like a good city to explore with its subway and bullet taxis, and to see how it has transformed into the city is it today versus what was mentioned in the article on how the city used to be.

[Anonymous]

I am interested in the article that mentioned the disputed lands in "The Shape of Japan to Come." Territory can be so hotly contested that it takes on even the identity of the people. I find it interesting that Mr. Abe wants to defend the land or make others do so, and threaten their citizenship. It sounds aggressive. I want to learn more about this.

[Anonymous]

It seems the Chinese Dream, as visioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is very similar to the American Dream in terms of lifestyle, but perhaps different with it's view of progress both in China itself and on a worldwide scale. It seems that along with the dream comes environmental and sustainability issues. The article "Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up" looks at issues with water pollution (and does not address air pollution) in relation with the depletion of their needed underground water aquifers in China's agricultural areas. Californians are familiar with such news as underground aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley are also drying up.
The water issues in both situations are global- farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley produce food for the world market, and if China chooses to produce less wheat because of lack of available water it would put more demand for wheat on the world market.
Nowhere is sustainability discussed in Xi Jinping's view of the Chinese Dream. Sadly this is also true for the American Dream as well. It may take another generation to see leaders shift focus from mere progress to long lasting solutions to the demands industrialized countries make on their natural resources.

[Anonymous]

I noticed that this article was written in 2008, so after reading it, I looked for other related articles that were more current. I wanted to see if the data in the article were still accurate, and whether the attitude toward immigrants was still the same. The Washingtonpost.com/knowmore in January of this year included data from a working paper at Tokyo's Waseda University arguing "-that aging is deflationary when caused by an increase in longevity but inflationary when caused by a decline in birth rate." (0.6 percent deflation rate annually over the past 40 years) Eastasiaforum.org wrote in March of this year that the negative attitude towards immigrants continues, but "The Japanese government has been quietly opening the door to increased immigration through various initiatives." I had noticed when reading the original 'huddled masses' article that there were many new initiatives being proposed in 2008, so I thought I would check to see if any of those initiatives had been passed since then. Japan has been recruiting Asian students from other countries, and etc.

[Anonymous]

I've been deeply concerned for many years about the pollution and depletion of resources that the American consumers have wrought on this planet. We're only 0.3 billion people. What will happen if 1.3 billion become equally conspicuous consumers? It's very easy to see in one commodity: ivory. African elephants are quickly on their way to extinction because of the demand by newly wealthy Chinese consumers wanting to display their wealth in this obscene way. This is the canary in the coal mine to warn us about the more serious consumption of hydrocarbons and their wending their way into the atmosphere, changing the environment is drastic ways. I hope that the education the young people are receiving around the world (i.e. U.S.C.) will increase their understanding of the environmental impact of the consumption. The most comforting thought is that if the People's Congress gets an understanding of this impact, they tend to make drastic changes quicker that the democratic congresses and parliaments of the world.

[Anonymous]

I read the three Spanish articles about the Chinese Dream. The first one talks about the Chinese dream for each Chinese individual should have as a Chinese citizen. Every individual should have a good education, health care, a stable job with a satisfactory salary, a safe society, and comfortable housing. The second article talks about sharing the Chinese dream with Latin America and the Caribbean with commerce and development. It also talks about how the relationship between Mexico and China decline after the 1990s. Now China would like a Free Trade Agreement (TLC in Spanish) with Mexico. China made it know to Mexico that China has free trade agreements with Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. China is also researching a free trade agreement with Colombia. The third article talks about the points of view of Stephen Orlins, who is the President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations since May 2005.
The three articles in Spanish are well written with few minor grammar errors. Not translated using google translate at all. Google translate is a horrible tool!

[Anonymous]

Plan “B” option in South Korea appear to be more female empowerment than a plot line in “Sex in the City”. Especially when looking at the patriarchial society of South Korea where men were prized for carrying on the family name, today’s women – with their bihonshik seems to understand and relish in their single station opting for celebrating one’s own independence than electing societal stigma. Why else would women in Japan, a similar society to Korea, opt out of the “male model as grooms” service for their, culturally specific, bihonshik?

What the authorless article – at least from the online version – makes apparent is not the newfound celebration of women, selecting to not marry or embrace their singleness, but the disgruntled voices of the men whose inability to accepting a growing population of empowered women whose achievements are being slighted than praised. After all, who wants to marry someone who can’t handle your success?
edited by cgao on 2/2/2016

[Anonymous]

As I read Nishi-Koisumi’s article on immigration, I had a lot of questions regarding the type of immigrants Japan welcomes into their country. As an American who comes from an immigrant family, I am used to hearing about immigration in a negative light, and to hear that immigration was welcomed, was a bit surprising. As I read about how Japan had somewhat of an open policy for immigrants, I wondered about the parameters of a desirable immigrant. I wondered whether working class immigrants are as enthusiastically welcomed as more affluent immigrants. I was also intrigued by the impetus to recruit immigrants of Japanese decent specifically even if they had different nationalities. One of the main takeaways that I took from my interpretation of this dynamics was on the importance of race/ethnicity when deciding what immigrants are wanted and which are not.
edited by nramon on 10/12/2015

[Anonymous]

So, finished with my 10 week grades, all prepared for tomorrow's district-wide testing, the night is young (7pm, still at work), what to do...? Ah, Session 1's East Asia Geography Demography readings! Why I've been looking forward to those for some time now... tonight, the Time Gods have nodded in my direction, to be sure
I found these reading invaluable into understanding the modern Asian mindset (if such a thing can indeed be quantified). So, some responses:

a) Odd that Japan would focus their efforts into bringing Japanese-descended workers from S. America (Brail and Peru) there... these men (presumably men) would not necessarily *look Japanese, nor have traditional habits, so why all the extra effort? Hungary has a large supply of IT-trained workers, and have very low crime rates, as does India. Both would probably furnish many legions of hard workers. We tend to be down on America for always thinking in racial terms (I know I do, anyway)... yet Japan's blatant ethnocentricity is rarely mentioned anywhere.

b) Interesting to see that Japanese conservatives are just as closed-minded, selfish, and screwed up as our own conservatives.

c) Technical note: slight confusion as the article jumps from the need for foreign immigrant workers to supplant Japan's shrinking labor force, to suddenly discussing laying off foreign workers due to the current recession. Read it through twice, seems to have been a transitional phrase missing, perhaps edited out.

d) "Japan Robot Association"?? Awesome!! Although relying on robots to "replenish the workforce and to help nurse the elderly" sounds a bit creepy, frankly.

(to be cont'd)

[Anonymous]

(cont'd from above)

e) That the DMZ separating South and North Korea has become a de-facto wildlife preserve for fauna was a nice historical oddity to learn

f) The article on the Chinese water shortage was informative, perhaps a bit depressing. The split between idelists and realists was insightful, highlighted by water engineer Wang Yongil's remark, “We have a water shortage, but we have to develop, and development is going to be put first.”One would think China's vast intellectual and industrial might would be dragooned into solving the water crisis first and foremost.

g) The Chinese demand for resources, and its effect on the world markets, is truly staggering... I had no idea as to its current scope and breadth. Especially with regards to the amount of investment China has in Angola, the Congo, et al. I find it hypocritical that those African regimes are typically military dictatorships that crush the will of it's millions of poor, and force them to do what the gov't wants... the very anti-proletarian actions you'd think a leader of the Communist world would be AGAINST! But horribly, they seem to have replaced proletarian ideals with the unstoppable march towards the The Bottom Line, much as we (the United States) did in the 1990s.

All in all, a huge jump in almost every aspect of my knowledge about the Land of the Dragon... thank you for that.

[Anonymous]

The Chinese Dream:

OK, I'm going to rant here a bit. I find it supremely annoying that the CPC ties it's identity so close to that of China... they portray themselves as one and the same, borrowing liberally from China's non-Communist past (Confucius, the "Silk Road" Economic Belt, et al.) when it suits them, in an attempt to fool even themselves as to their supposedly indivisible nature, when in fact, the truth is closer to a baboon on the back of a great, dumb ox, making the ox perform functions that benefit the baboon at times, and the ox at other times. The ox knows that it can never, ever get rid of the baboon... and if it tries, the baboon will kill it in an ugly, merciless fashion. Just as galling is that they describe themselves as "socialist", rather than "communist"... the two are NOT the same, and attempts to deliberately confuse the two terms plays right into the hands of our own idiot Republicans, who also want everyone to think they are the same thing. That way, any American socialist with ideas that would greatly aid the plight of the American worker (at a cost to our gluttonous one-percent) can be presented to the American public as "treasonous anti-American communism". Canada is socialist. China is communist. Belgium is socialist. North Korea is communist. Norway is socialist. Cuba is communist. Note the HUGE disparity is personal wealth, personal freedoms, levels of education, and such. They are NOT the same, and China needs to stop polluting the image of socialism with its communist political rhetoric. Finally, much is made of Chinese tourism, whereby newly semi-affluent Chinese are appearing all over the globe in a new passion for travel (the ancient Romans did the same thing during the Pax Romana, with Egypt and the rest of North Africa becoming popular destinations spots). Well, as a first-hand observer of these Chinese tourists, all I can say is, "stay home!" Their manners are beyond atrocious, and the vast majority are incredibly rude to the hotel staff and service providers who are forced to assist them. They seem to act most rudely to other Asians, those of non-Chinese descent. Seeing Chinese tourists in San Diego up close last year, I asked one Japanese-American hotelier his opinion of them... "filthy pigs, they yell at everyone and treat everyone like dirt!" Then he literally spit on the ground and walked away. So I think China has some growing up to do... it's all fine that a country's citizens now have the wealth to travel the world, but if they lack any sort of social grace and manners (ironically something Confucius is most remembered for: politeness), then they are doing irreparable damage to the image of the Chinese state.

OK, end of rant!

[Anonymous]

I'd like to point out that I meant "great, dumb animal" in the literary sense, "dumb" typically referring to animals because they cannot speak or write. It wasn't meant to imply some sort of mental deficiency on the part of China as a whole... heck, they invented half the stuff ever invented! So yeah, I realize now that came out wrong, apologies if anyone was offended.

[Author]

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