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

[Natali Ramon]

Kim,

I hadn’t really thought about the power of post cards in enhancing the tourism and consumer culture of a country but you are totally right! You have also given me an idea to create a lesson plan for my Spanish class in which we examine what message countries in Latin America want to emulate with the post cards they create.  I notice you have an idea for a mini country research project. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we added this to my Latin America countries project for Spanish 1? Lets chat soon!  

[Natali Ramon]

Professor Brown’s first part of the lecture helped to cement my understanding of Japan and the power it wields in East Asia. I thought it was particularly interesting that at first Commodore Matthew Perry was portrayed in a demonic way on earlier illustrations, but later on Japan was very open to adopting western styles of government and invasion.  It’s willingness to adopt western techniques, I feel contributed to the level of domination they achieved in East Asia. This dynamic was well captured in Professor Brown’s observation that Japan “culturally left Asia and it united with the West”.  This trend of adopting western styles was emulated in the post cards we saw in class today, and I was fascinated to see how elements of Japanese culture were added.  As a lover of Art Deco, I appreciate being exposed to Japan’s take on “modern” styles. In my class, we focus in the Spanish language and Latin America. One way in which we can draw parallels between how Japan developed dominance by adopting a western style and how some Latin American countries did it is by looking at countries like Argentina and Mexico during the Porfirio Diaz regime.  Argentina is known to be one of the more Europeanized countries in Latin America and a lot of people call Buenos Aires the “Paris of Latin American”. It would be interesting to see why Argentina, much like Japan, was so willing to take on many stylistic aspects from Europe.  Additionally, during the Porfirian regime, Mexico’s elite also adopted a lot of European cultural aspects. Today, there are several architectural structures in Mexico City that look extremely French.  It would be interesting to see how and why Mexico decided to adopt European styles for the sake of “modernity” just like Japan did.    

[Jennifer Place]

Kim, I also found this lecture to be intriguing.  So much power in such a tiny little document.  I found myself thinking about the difference between today's American postcards and the examples presented in the lecture.  The Japanese postcard artwork was beautiful and displayed the highest quality and representation of artist elements and principles.  It was a pleasure to view them. 

[Stella Castro]

First of all I want to start out by saying that I always thought postcards were just a form of letting someone know that they are or were on vacation, or went to a nice place. I myself sometimes have bought postcards because they are pretty, they are of places I have seen or been to before, want to visit or it’s just a pretty picture. However, upon reading the article of Postcards, Commerce and Creativity I was impressed by some of the points made in this article. First of all I never imagined that Postcards had so much meaning to them. Granted they have a point to convey and relay and during the war, and also they had a lot of meaning in propaganda, during Mao’s term in office, but I still did not know how important they were and can be. Yes, postcard are important for people to send and write a message on them to their recipients as their purpose was intended, but I didn’t know how important they were used in an artists’ perspective. In this sense it was to acknowledge the artist of his wonderful work, but it was sad to read that the article stated that sometimes the artists never signed their works of art so that the artists are not recognized in the biographical references. This point I find sad as it is important for all artists to be recognized and given their credit. Another interesting point is how most cards were used for advertising purposes, where the designs of some the postcards featured women’s clothing, as well as stylish dressed women.  A company called Mitsukoshi, was the first to issue postcards with a Western culture connection. It was interesting to read how this same company after the Sino War started employing males as in house designers, with make  more up-to date kimonos, and the used of glass cases displays were utilized to show off these new patterns, and thus resulting in retail display. This was interesting, as I never imagined ever thin king about how the use of glass case displays erupted, and then while reading the article , there it  was, and an interesting point at that. It is interesting to read about how many times women are used n the pictures of the postcards, these images range from a nurturing mother to well dressed beautiful women, to sexily clad women. But I have to say that as long as there are women, women, will always be the objects of desire for men, (sometimes women as well). But for the most part the postcards were used fro advertisements of beautiful places, western style clothes, and propaganda.

[Natali Ramon]

 Midori,

What a wonderful idea of tying this post card presentation to students’ families story of their arrival to the US. I really like the component of students introducing a country and or their culture/life style through these post cards.  In my Spanish class, students must have a wealth of knowledge about Spanish speaking countries, but at the same time I also want my students to be exposed to other countries around the world.  Your project is a great jump off point for an assigned I have in mind within the world language department at my school.  I have a great relationship with the Mandarin teacher at my school and a really cool way of bringing Asia into my Spanish classroom as well has bringing the Spanish speaking world into the Mandarin classroom is if we could exchange post cards.  The Mandarin students could tell my Spanish students about regions in the Mandarin speaking world, whereas my students could tell the Mandarin students about a Spanish speaking country.

[Ann Huynh]

In the text, “Postcards, Commerce, and Creativity in Japan, 1904-1940,” it talked about the role of postcards in modernizing Japan.  Postcards were all the rage and it helped Japan achieved a literacy rate of 100% literacy because the people had to read the handwritten messages.  This is fascinating because the postcards can also be used as propaganda by the government to convey the message that everything is harmonious.  In my class, I would display the postcard images and talked about what is the message that the image is trying to convey.  Then, later on I will have the students create images that they might want to put on a postcard.  This is a unique way to talk about the different periods in Japan, by the different visuals in the postcard over time.

[Kim Leng]

Yes.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful for students to learn about another country while engaging in the  hands-on experience of creating a postcard?  We can take a look at websites on Latin American tourism and have students examine the sites for images that continually stand out.  These images must be presented in the postcard.  For example, if they are researching Ecuador, what major images might one see for the country?  Will we see the Galapagos Islands because of its importance in the works of Charles Darwin?  Let’s make this collaboration happen this school year!

[Nira Sun]

Thank you, Donna, for posting these two excerpts from different versions of textbooks. It is indeed a heated topic in China in regards to the Japanese attitudes and perspectives on the history of invading China. As you have mentioned, “neither excerpt covered the massacre in detail and leave out vital information”. If you look at it closer, they even changed the term used to describe what happened in Nanjing, from massacre to incident. History is something that cannot be removed or changed. However, how we perceive history is a matter of perspective. And that perspective mainly comes from books and major medias. This makes it challenging for teachers to deliver “appropriate” message in classrooms. With that being said, I agree with what you said about having students compare the sources and analyze the bias. To add on to that, we can have students do research or discussion on similar historical events in other continents or countries.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I enjoyed how Professor Brown shed light on what at the time was consumable, "throw-away" culture. The postcards gave us a glimpse of a time that was different from some of the propaganda posters we viewed. Also it's interesting to look at cigarette boxes as a reflection of culture. I wonder if there is an American equivalent.

[Ann Huynh]

Japan’s manifest destiny is very similar to America’s manifest destiny.  This led to many conflicts and war between Japan and its neighbors.  In the end, the price of war led to the creation of a modern Japan.  As Japan began to rebuild itself after World War II, the influence and widespread production of postcards forced the population to become literate in order to read and take part in this rapidly growing invention.  Most of my students probably have no experience with postcards.  I really like how the postcards started harkening back to traditions.  I would like the students to think about traditions and what are traditions.  Some of the different images on the postcards would be a great way for them to study and learn about tradition.  We can look at different time period postcards and discuss what is happening in Japan at the time when the images were used.

[Stella Castro]

Aileen, I also think that having the students make their own postcards would be a great idea it incorporate what they are leaning and in trying to convey a meaning of some sort to the related content. It would also be a form of artistic expression of sorts, not to mention creativity. You write that postcards are small and so therefore it would not take your students a lot of time in trying to perfect their art. I know time is precious for students as well as teachers and content is of the utmost importance. You are lucky to have students that are able to do for themselves; I am a special education teacher, teaching the severely disabled and  I welcome the opportunity to allow them to make a postcard or a piece of art, on their own, if only they would be able to do so. However post cards are a good and fun way to help the students learn. After you have the students make postcards, you should have a gallery walk to display their work.

[Helen Kang]

The lecture on Japanese postcards and Imperial Japan (Dai Nippon Teikoku, 1867-1945) was very enlightening as it gave me chance to not only learn about Japanese art through postcards but also more about the culture and history.
Being a what you call a 1.5 generation Korean-American, which means I came to immigrate into United States with my parents who were in mid 40's I felt like I was stripped of a Korean identity and now told I would now be like any other "American" child. I never had a chance to fully embrace myself as a South Korean or even have a sense of identy as one before I had American culture and identity forced down my throat.

So when I ask myself, how much do I know about Korean history, I know very little to none, other than just general things that a non-Korean would just hear about, such as that it was invaded by Japan, and divided in to two Koreas because of a communist dictator in the North. I have recently have had the chance to get more detailed lectures about Korean history and now to get educated about the surrouding countries such as Japan and China is like finding my original roots. 
As I learn about the Japanese postcards and the arts expresssed in it makes me ask questions and make mental notes and comparisons to what was going on in Korea at that time and in my own way, finding traces of my home coutry reflected in them.

It was very interesting to learn that sending postcards were the latest and most modern thing of the times, and what was written was exposed on the post cards, and it was considered a part of a "public discourse". It also reflected travel and tourism as people would often send postcards when they went to visit a place worthy of being put on a postcard and the traveler would send it to their friends and family back home.

[Juana Evink]

 I have always love postcards, I have a few from my trips to Europe. As I was reading through professor's Brown " Postcards, Commerce, and creativity in Japan, I find myself loving the art and images in them. Japanese' art is impressive, and Brown does a great job proving how influential modernism was in Japan and how postcards help the process.

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