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Molly Cowan-Johnson.
AnonymousI found a great article that highlights the biggest Asian sports stars. An article in The Diplomat titled 10 Biggest Asian Sports Stars, http://thediplomat.com/2014/08/10-biggest-asian-sports-stars/ makes the case that Asian athletes now span all over the globe playing in different sports. Number one on the list is Manny Pacquiao, boxing icon. Number two on the list is Masahiro Tanaka, who plays for the New York Yankees. Number three on the list is Li Na, the most decorated Asian tennis player. The list is impressive because it spans so many sports, from basketball and cricket.
AnonymousOver the last decade, I have used the book: In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson to introduce my students to Asian culture, history as well as to the history of immigration to the United States. This is especially important for the children of immigrants or for new English Learners, it speaks to their experiences and allows a venue for bringing familial ties into the instructional program. The importance of sports, a la, How Baseball Saved Us, has been demonstrated over and over again for the various "minority" groups within the fabric of American society.
Students are placed in cooperative groups of four and are asked to "Think like an anthropologist" in the spirit of Kaplan's gifted and talented techniques. As a class, we cull through all the questions and decided upon the twenty best questions. Then students are charged with interviewing a family member, relative or acquaintance who must be twenty or more years older than they. They then take the information and create a brochure using Pages, they must have pictures, captions and citations. We will then conduct a contest among a different class to select the best product. These publishing their information is the ultimate goal.
Finally, in their cooperative groups, they must go to three different sport websites and find noteworthy events to post to a timeline. They decide upon the theme of the timeline, e.g. Great Moments in Japanese Sports, or Asians Take the Field (examples of past projects) The best timeline is mounted around the classroom in time for Back to School Night. Once again making their work public.
LBGuthrie
King M.S.
AnonymousI am posting this via Lguthrie's site since I have once again been kick of the site and can not post anything.
Did you know that it was a Japanese American who broke the color barrier in National Basketball the same year that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in National Baseball. It was in 1947 that Wataru "Wat" Misaka was picked up by the New York Nicks for the 1947-1948 season. He was a 5'7" point guard. Amazing, that he was picked up in 1947 only 2 years after WWII and the incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans. You can find a DVD on "Wat" at the Japanese American National Museum gift store.
Jchomori
AnonymousIt seems like Macau is quickly becoming the Las Vegas of China and not just for the casinos but for championship boxing matches! This is in large part to olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming and to Manny Pacquiao who has had a couple of fights there now. Boxing would love to open up the market in China, but then again that's every industry.
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/11931224/pacquiao-algieri-proof-china-growing-boxing-market
AnonymousI agree with the concept of integrating martial arts as a viable alternative to aimlessly running around the PE track, and allow the student the opportunity to sample a variety of martial arts to see the one they will chose. Beyond the physical fitness and self discipline benefits. The social skills involved with sportsmanship and self defense rules are a valuable social capital for our students. They engage in age appropriate social interactions with their peers free of misguided animosity. Martial arts in any form allow for release of negative energy and infuses the brain with naturally produce endorphins.
AnonymousI teach fifth grade, I think it would be awesome to include, but I am not sure I could teach it. Are there volunteer teachers or organizations that work in schools?
AnonymousMy students are big fans of basketball and I think this is an awesome idea especially because the stories we presently read about Asian Americans, do not pique the interest of boys. We encourage students to connect with the readings and using biographies to compare the stories of Asian athletes on local teams. [font=merriweatherregular, Baskerville, Garamond, Cambria, Georgia, serif]But the point guard has many believers and will likely pick up more Asian-American fans when he comes to the Lakers, predicted Joz Wang, editor-in-chief of[/font][font=merriweatherregular, Baskerville, Garamond, Cambria, Georgia, serif] [/font]8Asians.com[font=merriweatherregular, Baskerville, Garamond, Cambria, Georgia, serif]. L.A. County, alone, has nearly 1.5 million residents of Asian descent. [/font]“There’s a huge fan base here,” said Wang, who is Taiwanese-American. “Literally people like me — not huge fans of the NBA, or even huge fans of basketball but fans of Jeremy Lin.”
Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak in a statement Sunday called Lin "a solid player who will make us a better team" who would receive a lot of support.
“In addition to what he’ll bring us on the court, we think Jeremy will be warmly embraced by our fans and our community," Kupchak said. http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2014/07/13/17000/linsanity-los-angeles-asian-americans-lakers/
Anonymous23. I attended this event at USC and I expected an author writing about a foreign country-China without having had the local experience of co-existing with the people, Washburn had written the book about. Instead I was surprised to discover the depth of his research and profound knowledge, the command and respect for the Chinese peoples’ customs. I appreciated the easy to read writing style, fill with honesty, awe of the regions he was able to visit while in China, his candor when I ask him, “what, qualify you to write this book? Or are you another armchair anthropologist with an imperialist perspective?” Washburn related that he had extensive knowledge about the geographic areas he wrote about in his book. He mentioned that, during his travels he befriended everyday people that were friendly and were willing to openly share the routines of their daily lives. The author mention he was constantly moving in the golf circuit and had plenty of opportunities to travel and experience a wide range of regional customs, such as eating and drinking with the locals. I felt satisfy that the author had done his research and I recommend his book about-The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream- it is entertaining worth reading.
AnonymousI thought this would be a good way for history teachers to get their students even more interested in Japanese internments camps by teaching them about the role that baseball played during that awful time period for Nisei. This is one indicator of just how American these young men really were. The irony, they spent their time playing the American pass time while being interned inside of the United States.
AnonymousI am not really familiar with sports outside of country. To be honest, I'm not really familiar with athletes' names. I can sit an enjoy a good baseball, football (American), or basketball game, but I am not able to name most of the players.
This website provides the 15 highest paid Chinese athletes of 2013. I was not able to find a 2014 list, but this list is insightful to the amount of money athletes make. As you can see, the range between the highest paid athletes ranged from $1.77 million to $20.04 million in 2013.
#15 Ding Junhui- Snooker, US $1.77 million
#14 Liang Wenchong, golf, US $2.09 million
#13 Zhang Linpeng, Football (Soccer), US $2.22 million
#12 Sun Xiang, Football (Soccer), US $2.25 million
#11 Feng Shanshan, gold, US $2.38 million
#2 Lin Dan, Badminton, US $4.83 million
#1 Li Na, Tennis, US $ 20.04 million
http://www.china.org.cn/top10/2014-04/02/content_31967142.htm
edited by malvarenga on 5/16/2015
clay dubeOne topic that may help interest students in Asia is the new and impressive presence of Asian athletes in North American professional leagues such as the NBA and MLB. John Hunter Boyle's Modern Japan: The American Nexus (1997) includes several short pieces on Japanese baseball, including information on Ruth and Gehrig in Japan. Of course, the classic work is Robert Whiting's You Gotta Have Wa (Wa = harmony, 1990).
Here in Los Angeles, we know about Hideo Nomo and Kazuhisa Ishii of the Dodgers, Chan Ho Park, formerly of the Dodgers, and the Lakers' current nemesis Yao Ming, star center of the Houston Rockets.
Let's see if we can list additional players from Asia in sports and come up with ways to leverage student interest in sports into learning about Asia. For example, do our students know that there are Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese leagues? What are the most popular sports in Asia? How long have Asian nations participated in the Olympics? When have Asian cities hosted Olympic Games? Can we compare team names across cultures?
clay dubeNY Times article on baseball in Taiwan: hot and noisy. Our 2018 study your included a fun visit to a game between the Brothers and the Lions.
clay dubeBaseball's opening day is upon us. In 2015, National Geographic assenbled some terrific pictures from the game around the world:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150328-baseball-sports-history-opening-day/
Some of the images are tied to Asia:
#3 Bystanders watch a game in the Philippines.
#6 Game played on the frozen Bering Sea.
#8 A man sells hot dogs at a 1960 baseball game in Japan.
#13 Japanese championship celebration.
Ichiro Suzuki is playing his last major league games in Japan - Watch from MLB:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fngV4oDggRk
clay dubeJapanese professional baseball launches 3/29/2019: http://npb.jp/eng/
Taiwan - the leagues streams video from games: http://www.cpblenglish.com/
Korea: http://eng.koreabaseball.com/
Philippines (amateur and mainly collegiate): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Baseball_League_(2019%E2%80%93present)
Article about the history of baseball in the Philippines: http://www.ethnicgroupsphilippines.com/2016/04/04/reviving-philippine-baseball/
Article about the decline of baseball in the Philippines: https://sports.inquirer.net/324924/breaking-major-league-baseball-a-stranger-in-our-shores
Molly Cowan-JohnsonSkateboarding is one that might not seem as popular but it is one that the Japanese have come to dominate recently, especially since it was included in the Tokyo Olympics. I noticed a marked interest in skateboarding after the Olympics with my ‘obviously not skateboarder’ students so it could be an interesting topic for all students too. Japanese skaters won more medals than any other country in both street and park skateboarding during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Yuto Horigome won gold in men’s street skating but it is the Japanese women who swept! That sweep included: Momiji Nishiya (gold in street skating), Funa Nakayama (bronze in street skating), Sakura Yosozumi (gold in park skating), and Cocona Hiraki (silver in park skating). Funa is my favoriting having seen her at the Super Crown competition in Jacksonville but Momiji is also bad ass too.
This discussion of the female skaters is also super interesting since skateboarding isn’t really looked at very favorably in Japan. Also the discussion of breaking gender norms with these women competing in skateboarding which is kind of a double whammy. Another reason why Funa is one of my favorites is because her mom is always with her and that momma is all about it!