Home › Forums › Core Seminars › Rise of East Asia, Fall 2017 › Session 5 readings, 9/30 morning
Indeed North Korea is a nation that brings more questions to mind than answers. It is often that foreigners tend to doubt any news that come from the official channels because it is a well known fact that the North Korean dictatorship tends to show only what is favorable to their image. It is not hard to see how much the development of their nuclear weapons has cost the general population. The ideology of its leaders and the manipulation of the people’s minds have resulted in hunger, illness, and many other malaises. It is not a surprise to know that only a small percentage of North Koreans are privileged with benefits. Another point that really caught my attention is the fact that we are so close to a nuclear holocaust and the diplomatic channels that usually work with the leadership of powerful countries might not work with the North Korean leadership. It was a scary and sobering lesson to learn of such nuclear power in the hands of such an immature leader.
When talking about the Korean Civil war, I really like the quote that Dr.Kim quoted from Bruce Cummings:
In reading the article, "Top 10 Things to Know About Korea in the 21st Century", you learn about many interesting facts about South Korea. The article gives information on religion, population, and geography. These facts give one insight into what life is like in Korea, what Koreans like to do, and historical information regarding the country. The way that I feel that I may incorporate this into my classroom is by doing a compare and contrast between life in South Korea and life in North Korea. This will allow my students to learn about a new country, and life in a communist and a non-communist country.
The nature of South Koreas politics since 1945 was interesting to hear about from Dr. Kim. I really appreciated seeing the face to the country through the leaders it has elected. When Dr. Kim shared about Roh Moo-hyun and his suicide or the unification desires of Moon Jae-in, the values became ever present of the relatively young country and I saw a lot of parallels to the history of the United States. I don't think that many students get the opportunity to hear the narratives of east asian political leaders and to humanize these countries would be a great experience for my students.
Cranes is a great story of the challenges that friendship can overcome, even ideological ones. The two friends, Song-sam and Tok-chae we’re on the opposite sides of the Korean civil war, but through the recollection of their shared childhood memories they were able to rekindle some semblance of their past friendship. Song-sam was clearly in the role of power during this, their latest interaction, but that wasn’t always the case. Tok-chae was also a leader at times in their friendship, and he showed great concern for his friend. For example, when they climbed a chestnut tree to collect the nuts and Song-sam fell off, Tok-chae helped him up and after they got to a safe place, shared with Song-sam all the chestnuts he had collected. I think that because Tok-chae was always so kind to Song-sam, he found it easier to set him free, like they once did with a crane they had caught together.
This would be a great story to read with students because it contains many literary elements they must be familiar with. For example, this story uses foreshadowing, a lot of symbolism and has a great moral theme.
Wow! This is a great idea to have students present their ideas on what is to become of Korea after World War II.
I think it is particularly important to relate what happens in Korea to various countries in Asia, such as China and Vietnam. High school students could compare and contrast the developments of these countries after World War II and throughout the Cold War.
I think there could also be discussions on the implications of the split of Korea, China, and Vietnam and how the world would be different than the world we have today if these countries had not split.
I appreciated Professor Kim's lecture this morning on Korea after 1945. Like Cindy, I was stunned to hear about the creating and re-creating a constitution in the post-World War II Korea. I agree that our history textbooks gloss over this aspect of Korea. I think that we could use this example to draw on the differences between what happened in "democratic" Korea and how America handles amendments to the Constitution. I think this is important to reinforce to our students how our system of government, compared to others, has survived the challenges of our history since 1789.
Korea’s Twentieth Century Odyssey by Michael E. Robinson is a great supplemental text for a unit on the Korean War. The Korean War is infamously known as “The Forgotten War.” The text provides a detailed description of the Korean War, before, during and after. For example, it discusses the “occupation” of Seoul by North Korea or the military tactics the US used against the North Korea. Robinson notes that US warfare contributes to North Korea’s long disgust of the US, in part because of the US destroyed North Korea in two years.
I would probably use this text to augment what little information my World History textbook has on North Korea. I feel like the students will gain a deeper understanding of the Korean War, and hopefully connect what happened then to what is happening between the US and North Korea today.
Evelyn, I agree with you that Cranes is a great short story to share with students while discussing the Korean War. I think it is useful to include stories when we are discussing history to bring about a different perspective of the legacy of the war.
I have had to read the story a couple of times to better understand Sunwon's short story. I find it interesting how the author tied to the two main characters with their childhood lives in the past. I guess in the end, the "Communist" Tokchae was freed by his childhood friend Songsam, am I correct?
Speaking of Korean Wave, I clearly remembered how it was hitting China back in mid of 1990s. When Prof. Kim mentioned it in class, I had the urge of sharing what I experienced about Korean War.
At the beginning of the Korean wave in China, I was a college freshman in China. My college was a foreign language studies university where it took lots of international students to come and learn about Chinese language and culture as well. Majority of the international students we had back then were students from South Korea. In order to practice the Chinese language in a more economical way, they usually paired up with local Chinese students who were fascinated about Korean language culture. This was what I did back then. I helped them to learn Chinese and they taught me Korean.
Learning Korean language was mainly for us to understand the Korean dramas which I didn't really like due to its slow pace. I think I just wanted to learn a different language and Korean was the popular option back then.
When I lived in the dorm in China, we didn't have TV nor smart phone back in 1997ish. All I had was a radio which I listened to every single day. I listened to stations in English which was my major requirement. Other than that, I also listened to lots of music station. To exaggerate the influence of the Korean wave, there was even a special station or radio program solely broadcasting Korean music known as the K-pop this day. I even asked a friend bring up a whole set of cassettes of South Korean songs which I still have today.
Division is common, its fuel money and power; the forces of North Korean and the Soviet verse Southern Korean and the U.S. creates two powerful forces. Thus, unification can only start with the children (once the older generations die out...). Educated is one way to unify - teaching children about thier history and the history of countries, such as the U.S. might bring about an equitable solution.
One thing I can do in my classroom to teach empathy and the causes division is to set up a real life like scenerio, and have the students problem solving in small groups. I will provide them with a desired tangible (ie. a large chocolate chip cookie); They will have to determine who should get it and why. The objective is to develop discussion, and to problem solve for an equable solution.
A sad reality of American media is that it often works to stir up fear in people and to create polarizing views and stigmas about people. This has largely been the case for Korea in that most of my students often laugh and only associate Korea with Kim Jong Un and nuclear weapons; It's either that or the comedy movie "The Interview." I would love to take this same line of thinking as a point of teaching students empathy and open-minded, humble thinking in critically analyzing anything they consume (whether it be via social media, friends, news, etc.). I would like to help students to identify the ways in which creating stereotypes and caricatures of people can be damaging, and then hammer in that idea by presenting them with articles and news clips that do these same things against them (my students are all minorities; either African American or Latino/Hispanic).
Off the top of my head, placing the history of Korea's division in the language of "Civil War" can be an excellent opporunity to help students re-evaluate and strengthen their understanding of the American Civil War, whilst also teaching them another example of what that has looked like in a nation like Korea. In addition to this, my head is flooded with imagery of the Berlin Wall and what it meant for and did to people of Germany. In a world history course, I might have students investigate and research different national conflicts (Apartheid in South Africa, North and South Korea, Berlin Wall, etc.) and then compare and contrast all of these events.
Topic number Five struck my attetion the most, I guest because earlier, I had wrote about a socialist rule, and opposed its effectiveness. Topic finve states "YOU CAN STILL SEE CONFUCIANISM IN ACTION ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA ... important philosophy in guiding the lives of the Korean people." It's been an awakening for me , as I study about China, Japan, Korea, and other Asia countries, I've learned so much about their politics, social, and military authority, and I am grateful to have had this privilege. Rules and order are necessary for the human survival, and someone or some type of system most be implement to avoid chaos. As the Korean nation states "the importance of human relations and reciprocal ties among people, Confucianism helped bring social stability and authority to Korea’s rulers;" thus, rules are a necessity. However, I still whole true to my belief system, that all men have the right to state their opinion or views; unlike many South Koreans who continue to adhere to traditional principles, and a communist rule.
Of the top then things to know about Korea that Mr. Edward Shultz writes about, the three I found the most interesting are: Korea is the home of many interventions, Korea is technologically advanced, and Koreans want to be reunited. The first two I knew about already because for my lesson plan I will be focusing on East Asian scientists and inventors, so I did quite a lot of research on this matter. Of these three, the fact that Koreans want to be reunified, is the most resounding. I used to work for a company that had Korean owners, and about 70% of the employees were Korean. This was an interesting experience for me because I got to learn about a new culture, through the expressions and interactions of the people I worked with. Something that I found kind of surprising is that some of the men would attempt to make jokes about each other, or insult each other, by saying that they were from North Korea. When I heard these “jokes” I thought it was very sad that they expressed these types of feelings about their less fortunate equals. I knew not to assume that all South Koreans felt this way, thankfully. This fact is further proven by what Mr. Shultz writes: “When Koreans look to the future, foremost on their mind is the reunification of their country.”