Session 12 - Wrap-up seminar

[Tanish Fortson]

I agree with you, I can honestly say that I enjoyed all of the seminars. This has been a great experience and I appreciate everything the foundation has been doing to bring education and awareness to the Asian cultures. I am looking forward to the next seminar as well, which will tackle Asia to the present. The content was presented in a context that was very understandable even for teachers with no background in Asian cultures. Although I did have some trouble understanding some concepts I think that overall I did get a variety of information and resources to share with my students.

 

I do plan on incorporating weekly lessons of work around Asia with my kindergarten and 1^st graders. We will learn about Confucianism.  This concept might be difficult for 5 and 6 year olds so I would need to create a craft as well to go with this potential lesson such as a drawing a picture of Confucius or pretending to be apart of that life style.

 

[Catalina Silvestre]

That is so awesime that the younger students will have you to introduce this material to them making them global learners.  i really beleive that we as educators need to move into the realm of making our students aware of the world around us at an earlier age.  My son is five years old and ask many questions.  this has sparked an interest for him as he now wants to attend more museums.  Also rememeber he glasses that we received during ne of the seminars. Well, he had a lot of questions and i was ble to actually explain it to him.  This has been an amazing gift and I think that I will attend the other portion because knowledge is power and i am simply trying to speard as much as the knowledge and power as possible into the students that we teach.

[Catalina Silvestre]

There have been numerous films that I have watched for the purpouse of this institute.  I did get carried away and it lead to me finding a major interest in Asian films.  over he seminar I have watched the fillowing: 

1. Wolf Warior

2. IP Man ( i plan on watching all of these with my son as he enjoyed teh first on with me)

3. Bank Attack (which was commical)

4. Falling Flowers

 

I will be writing film reviews on 1. Wolf Warrior and 4. Falling Flowers  

[Cindy Nguyen]

The Fall Seminar has greatly impacted my perspective on Chinese culture and history.  Prior to this session, I honestly believed that the Cultural Revolution was a welcomed change for China and its people.  I knew the Great Leap Forward was not perfect with its rapid modernization of industry and agriculture but I thought it a successful program.  During Professor Dube's lecture, I realized the profound negative and deadly effect it had on the regular Chinese person.  The group of people who should've been benefitting from the social and agriculture reforms were the ones that suffered the most.  Millions of Chinese farmers died from starvation.  Many high ranking officials cared more about their reputation and the success of Mao's initiatives than the suffering of their own people.  I realized that history needs to be researched from multiple sources and perspective because many events in the past can be warped and shaped by the wrong people.

[Christine Xu]

Many scholars have described the Evicting of Beijing’s migrant workers is a “ruthless” campaign.

The latest round of evictions began in the wake of  a fire on 18 November that killed 19 people in an industrial neighborhood in south Beijing, and 17 of the victims were migrants. City officials have declared a 40-day campaign against “illegal structures”, which for years have housed the millions of migrant workers who run Beijing’s restaurants, delivery companies, construction sites, retail shops and a host of small factories. 

What is “ illegal structure” and “legal”? It is not fair to take the rights away from these innocent people to let them leave their capital city. The city should not be only for the local people ( Beijing Hukou holders). The Chinese Hukou system did not give the people the equal rights. These evictions are “ a serious trampling of human rights”. I am so surprised the government made the decision and implemented the campaign. 

Human rights and government system in China would be good topics in my classroom.

Sources: the guardian 

[Sonia Arrayales]

For my film review, I just could not decided what to watch. I personally like anime, so what came to mind was the film Spirited Away. There is another move that is not appropriate to show in school, but was mentioned was Lust Caution. I am torn between the two, hopefully I can do both.

[Cristina Hernandez]

Thank you Dr. Dube for sharing this information.  As I reviewed the information I was stunned to see how easily is to displace people who have not enough resources.  The sad part is that those people were the ones that worked to build the city and it is not fair to do that to them.  However, it is important to notice that regardless of political ideology any government will repress their citizens in order to accomplish thei goals.  We see this not only in China, but also in other countries including our own.  We have massive deportations of people who work the fields so we can be fed, or work doing the jobs that nobody else wants to do.  We send them back under the disguise that they are breaking the law, but what about their contributions to our society?  Interesting topic.

[Cindy Nguyen]

I agree that Hong Kong became an economically prosperous nation under British rule.  I was lucky enough to visit Hong Kong a few years ago and saw first hand how diverse and affluent the small island had become since the Treaty of Nanjing.  I realized the Treaty of Nanjing was an unfair treaty created by the British to take advantage of the powerless Qing dynasty.  Although the treaty was unfair to China, the citizens of Hong Kong seemed to have acclimated to being under the British rule.  This was seen months prior to the transfer of sovereignty from British rule China with the a large number of citizens protesting against the switch.  It has been 20 years since the transfer and I would like to know if Hong Kong is still as prosperous as it once was being under the British rule.

[Jonathan Tam]

I agree that it is quite interesting that such an ancient system is used for so many things today in China. While there were suggestions that it kept the poor working and not homeless - It still leaves something to be desired, because it really keeps social classes rigid. Rural families will stay in rural areas and other families that begin to benefit from the influx of trade will benefit more. Education systems, retirement plans and services slowly became available to individuals in urban states - leaving rural citizens behind. This has certainly left a mark on the disparity of wealth and presence of uninhabited areas in China.

[Matthew Wong]

I want to express my gratitude to the USC U.S.-China Institute for the opportunity to learn more about East Asia in the modern and contemporary period. While I initially was interested in the Chinese aspect of the lectures, I found the modern history of Korea and Japan also interesting. I now feel like I am better able to provide more historical knowledge about East Asia to my students.

 

My lesson plan ideas may likely focus on modern China, specifically thinking about China today, its problems and challenges of the 21^st century. I am interested in developing a lesson about the failure of the Nationalists to unite the civil war. I think my students will find this topic interesting, and believe it will be part of a post-World War II unit.  

[Sonia Arrayales]

Upon seeing the photos of the Beijin migrants being forced out, it reminded me of the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee being forced out of thier homes with their families and their belongings. In Beijin, we see the same occuring with the migrant workers, They are being forced out of their homes, leaving thier families and thier personal possesions. Just has Andrew Jackson tried to purge the Cherokee, the Beijing officials are doing the same the migrant workers .

[Luis Camacho]

Session # 12 by Luis M. Camacho

It was a very interesting session that helped us to understand in a closer way some of the important facts of living in Asia, especially in China. Doctor Dube exposed in a perfect way for us to check and compare some of the differences between living there and here in America such as the high cost of apartments in the big cities. The property lease law for commercial residential use that need to keep paying a fee to the government for use of land, after property is already fully paid.

 

From my personal experience, I had the opportunity to be working for along 5 weeks at South Korea back on 1999 and 4 weeks at China in the year 2000. I always feel privileged for having those opportunities in my life working as an Engineer. This seminar helped me understand the History of these countries, the important events that formed their political movements and the contribution of important people such as Mao-Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek with the development of their nation.

 

I enjoyed particularly the use of timeline information to compare the development of the nations at important moments of the history. I have great plans to use this technique to connect great inventions and discoveries with the needs of the people along different moments on the human history. As a teacher I will have the possibility of share this valuable information with my students, specially with the Physics class, connecting the concept of development of technology with the people needs at different stages of the history.

 

[Cristina Hernandez]

Reflection on Session 12

I agree that this seminar was fast paced and full of information.  However, I totally appreciate it.  It has made a difference in the way I see East Asia, but mostly China.  I have made my students aware of the enormous influence China plays in our daily lives and some of them began to get more curious about Chinese culture.  The Kpop is also a great influence in our teens here in America and it is such a great idea to make them aware of the influence that East Asian countries have over our societies without even thinking about it.  We find China even in the movies that seem to be "American" but the influence goes above and beyong.  It is interesting to see how the students begin to understand this concept by looking at their surroundings and appreciate all the different things that come to us from China and by the Chinese people.  Cheers.

Forum: Asia in My Classroom

Topic: Session 12

[Alejandra Jimenez]

Thank You to everyone who put together and participated in the seminar. My take away from the seminar is that Asian history is extremely complex and many of its political leaders have been influenced by Westerner ideas in order. The seminar was very fast paced, I think that one of the most valuable characteristic I would pass on to my students is the Percerverance that most Asian cultures share in order to achive sucess, even though they may fail, but they continue to push themselves to be worthy family members, friends, students. I have started talking about the communities around our school neighborhood, and most students have responded the korean signs, shops, restaurants, along with Bangladesh, Salvadorian, Mexican, and Guatemalan businesses. We have started to compare and contrast. Most of my students already like some of the treats the Korean culture has to offer which is video games, music, and BoBa. Thank you again to broaden my views about East Asia.

[Jane Shen]

Cindy, I am glad that you questioned if Hong Kong is as the same prosperous as it once being under the British govern. Personally I went to China twince, once was in 1997, several months before the transfer from the British to China, and another time was in 2014 Christmas. I felt some differences according to my own experience. Part of the differences were because of my own position change. The first time I visited Hong Kong was from Mainland China to Hong Kong. I felt that the fashion streets were so busy, the jewery shops were filled with shoppers from all over the world. There were many travelors at that time. However, I can sense the anxiety from the residence there because the transfering date was approaching. "97" was a popular number symbolzing the transfer in 1997. Back then, the Hong Kong movies, especially the martial art movies were still popular among Asian countries and the world. there were no Korean K-pops yet. 

However, the trip in 2014 was different. Flew from America to Hong Kong, I felt like the shopping was much more affordable compare to the first trip. There were K-pops everywhere. Business was not as prosperous as the first time and the reason was not only the transfer, but also the worldwise economy crisis. No one living there were talking about the "97". the residence's lives seemed to be adjusted to the transfer yet still struggling to survive from the high expensed, limited livng spaces and competitive market shares.

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