Wednesday, 8/1, morning session - Ken Brown, CSU Long Beach

[Boyan Zhang]

It is fascinating to have the opportunity to see so many Japanese postcards from the past, and Prof. Brown really provided a new perspective to look into people’s lives and the trend in the past, as well as into art history and history in general. In my Mandarin class, I might not use the Japanese postcards or sheet music, but Prof. Brown’s lectures definitely gave me some ideas in terms of how to use real everyday items and art crafts in my classroom to teach my students about Chinese language and culture. For instance, last year I came back from china, I brought back some hand fans, with traditional Chinese paintings on them, and I can use those items to illicit conversations from my students using the target language.

 

[Juan Liebana-Mena]

I was really impressed with Dr. Brown’s presentation and to realize how much something as simple as a postcard can tell about history and social issues. Dr. Brown’s knowledge and enthusiasm are contagious and I really liked how diverse the postcards and images were.

Some of the images were not easy to digest, but I still consider them very necessary in order to learn about the war and to better understand modern Japan after the war. The war images supported Dr. Brown’s idea that war today is a part of nation building very strongly. The transition from the war and masculine modernity of the war images to the new women images was also quite interesting. They described women from the five senses and also the theme of modern love was quite recurrent.

I found the designs for sheet music very interesting too. You can see that the same trend of modernity also permeated the sheet music designs. There are themes of nature, children, love, tragedy, colonialism, and more avant-garde themes and imagery. The characters depicted were also quite consistent with the idea of modernity and every day events. There are modern girls going to the beach, modern boys playing baseball. However, despite their value for visual culture and aesthetics, it appears that these sheet music designs were not valued much in the artistic circuit due to the fact that they were inexpensive and held no much value.

 

[Jane Shen]

In today's lecture, Professor Brown showed a variety of Japanese artworks such as postcards, cigarette covers, sculptures, music sheets and so on. And many of the art works and the famous artists are based on the Great Japanese Militarism, the ambitious will to ruin the Asia.

Compare to the propaganda movies or posters we were introducted in previous days, I found that the Japanese artworks are more base on their own ambition, more implicit. I did not see any images that put down the Korean or Chinese Manchu besides the mark of the map of their territories.

However, the Chinese and N.Korean movie or posters were much more bolder. They stererotyped the Japanese soldiers into cold blooded figures which could raise the national anger against Japanese.

Compare and contrast, the invader's posters vs. the victim countries' ones, it seems to me that Japanese ones are more focused on their Spirit, while the Chinese/N Korean went bolder to fight back.

[Midori Sanchez]

Though it would not necessarily have to be coordinated to China, you could always have students write a postcard/letter to a friend or relative in another country to ensure their understanding of historical facts and issues during a particular time period, historical event, etc. i.e. A student writing from the perspective of a YA in an American colony to a relative in England and the reason why we are fed up with our treatment by the monarchy and need to become independent. They could even design the card to have a picture of Thomas Paine and/or Patrick Henry on it! 

[Carissa Sadlier]

I found Kendall Brown’s lecture dynamic and riveting. A light bulb went off when he used the term curating and with social media these days we are all curators. I can see an upper grades lesson on digital literacy that involves visiting a museum and talking with a curator and ending with a lecture about how we are all curators in the digital age through social media.  

The theme that keeps speaking to me this week is the idea of having blinders or ignoring inappropriate behavior throughout history. When Professor Brown talked about the hidden agenda within the idea of Deco Nationalism, I found another layer of the “blinders” idea. Where other countries look back at their history and ignore it, in America we are watching this happen daily with the current administration.

As a teacher, I know that it is a learned human condition to not think of mistakes you made or call attention to them, but without doing so the child doesn’t learn deeply. When we make mistakes and recognize it, synapses fire and deeper learning occur. It is as if governments and countries are still in the pre-school era of knowledge and behavior and will never learn till they take responsibility for past behaviors. How can you move forward when that big pile you’ve swept under the rug is now a giant obstacle in front of you? 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

I enjoyed this morning's session and presentation by Dr. Brown.  I learned a lot, for example, I would have never thought about Art Deco as an art form in Japan.  It was very interesting to find out about the "hidden messages," (although, sometimes in plain sight, as Dr. Brown stated) through the postcards, sheet music, posters, monuments, and buildings. Dr.Brown stated: "Old customs turn into new ones. One can't have customs/traditions without modernity."  I am planning to incorporate this into my unit entitled: "Who are we?" inquiring about one's background, traditions, values, customs.  I will show some of the postcards, covers for sheet music from different periods. I will brainstorm with students what is the same/different in the artifacts over time.  We will then compare how these are same/different to traditions/customs change over time in America.  At the conclusion, we will write about this topic.

[Midori Sanchez]

1. The WWII Museum in NOLA is amazing! Definitely go there sometime; especially if you are a history teacher.

2. I am not surprised that these atrocities have been "erased" from Japanese students' studies. From my perspective, I would attribute this mainly to the idea of "saving face". Seppuku and Harakiri, initially by samurai starting in 1180, was used as a means to maintain honor for themselves and family. Even today, it's a very important cultural ideal to ensure that you do not bring shame on your family (your actions don't always have only an impact on yourself, so act accordingly) but also to not bring shame to your country. At the time, it was "acceptable" to take part in these horrible acts because of duty. Reflecting on the past and realizing the horrific error of the ways though: If you don't talk about it, it didn't happen.

It's interesting that Germany paid reparations and feels great shame and sadness for the atrocities committed and now seeks the path of using education to teach about what happened during WWII to not hide its role in the hopes of ensuring that history doesn't repeat itself. And then you have Austria though...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anschluss-and-austrias-guilty-conscience-795016.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/austria_nazism_01.shtml
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-amateur-film-collection-challenges-narratives-about-life-nazi-austria-180957193/

[Courtney Hendrix]

I agree in wanting to use the idea of having the students recreate the postcards after studying the different styles and types that we saw. I would like to in addition incorporate the idea of them creating their own postcard using the Art Deco simplified shapes, different lines, and bold colors that we saw in many of his later postcards with their own chosen subject matter or a theme given to them. 

What also stood out to me in his discussion was how everyday simple objects can have a further history beyond their general use like the ball pen and how it was a political tool when used in conjunction to the posters but a beautiful everyday piece when it stood alone. I mainly reminds me of discussions I have with my students on what makes art, art and how items can have different meanings in different settings just as he mentioned liking to incorporate 'cheaper' items in the museums and how that change change their value. 

[Courtney Hendrix]

I really think my students would enjoy Professor Brown's comparison of postcard images to Instagram and the notes on the back to Facebook. As we know our students' put a lot of effort in their social media so to tie in the postcard images being an important visuals to share like we do on Instagram in the photos we 'curate' could give the power of the postcards during that time more interest. As well it could be a good discussion on how we portray different messages or collage different images to create a meaning and how what we show and 'curate' could have more meaning beyond the visual

[Juana Evink]

Today's lecture on postcards and modern Japan by professor Brown, was very interesting, full of color, beautiful images, and new information. It's amazing how much the wolrd's technology has changed. In the early 1900s, postcards were the "it" thing in Japan. As professor Brown was going to his presentation, I was thinking how could I use this in my classroom, and how my students will be puzzled by postacards. I'm wondering if using postcards will be a good introduction to my unit on Medieval Japan. Possible if I want to focus on continuity and change?

[Juana Evink]

In this reading Professor Kenadall Brown goes more into detail about how postcars were a refelction of Japan's modernism, commerce and technological innovation. He writes, "Picture postcards are inextricably linked to modern consumer culture..."As I was reading this, I kept thinking how social media in the U.S.reflects  American consumer culture, how we currently communicate, and interact with other people.

[Juana Evink]

Today's afternoon, presentation by Professor Rosen was full of great information and new concepts like "sof power." In his reading, he elaborates more on how Chinese's cinema has not being able to reach the same economic succcess in the U.S.,  that American films have in China. He describes how China is trying to device "new strategies that will make their cultural productions more attractive to Western consumers.." Yet, they want to limit the number of American films screened in China.  One problem, that I think Chinese's films have is that most people outside of China doesn't speak mandarin, whereas most people in the world speak or atleast understand English, which helps American films to be successful in addition to their story lines and starts.

[Martin Castillo]

Wonderful background information. Professor Brown' information allowed us to better understand what he was going to present afterwards. As educators we all need to understand this; we will have students from countries that were affected by the Japanese occupation and annexation. It is of utmost importance to present unbiased facts in order for them to understand the task at hand.

With that said, both his presentations offered a wealth of information and images for us to choose from. Depending on the age level, basic information such as color, shape, and protagonists can be compared and perhaps contrasted. At a higher age level more critical thinking skills will be needed in order to understand the purpose of the images: to support the nation, the soldiers, a brand, etc. A good way to do this would be to match up the information with the image. A jigsaw activity is also possible by breaking up the various images into art, craft, etc. like Professor Brown did and have the students present the different groupings of post cards, music, etc. 

[Zoey McKinney]

The fourth grade curriculum includes the building of the transcontinental railroad, and in this unit we talk about technology and modernization. I think this would be a good place to fit in a discussion of postcards, and how they are a facet of modernization. Words like "modern" and "technology" usually bring to students' minds computers, phones, and other gadgets, and it can be hard for them to understand how something as outdated as a telegraph could ever fit into those concepts. I liked Professor Brown's comparison of postcards to social media, as it would help the students understand how mass reproduction and a postal system might revolutionize a country. Many of the postcards also had images of modernity, such as new fashions, new transportation, and popular new activities. 

[Zoey McKinney]

Professor Brown talked about nostalgia and tradition as a theme found in postcards, and showed a few examples that showed scenes from the past, including scenes from the Tales of Ise and the Tale of Genji. You could use some of those images to start a discussion with students about what they notice and what they can learn from looking at the art. I think it could also be interesting to look at those images at the end of the unit and think about what facets of the time period are shown and which are ignored? What did people have nostalgia for, and how did they romanticize the past? You can even then bring in modern depictions of medieval Japan and see how the image of that time period has changed in the last century!

[Author]

Posts