[Brigid Schmidt]

I agree with you Cynthia. I noticed some Buddhist ideas in Sutoku's constitution as well and Confucianism. In section VI, they encourage what is good and not to conceal others' good qualities, but to chastise evil. It goes further (in section X) to advise people to refrain from angry looks and that all men have hearts, reinforcing teaching love and compassion and promoting non-violence. The talk of harmony is brought up multiple times and not going against the harmony, which further emphasizes that calm, loving Buddhist ideal and somewhat aligns with the 5 vows too. I see elements of both throughout the constituition. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

While I haven't seen this movie yet, my husband has, and loved it. As a film and theater undergrad, I think it is important to show our students influences from other cultures. Here we have the first foreign film win the Academy Award for Best Picture. I agree that a Rated R film isn't something I would show in class, but I rarely show movies anyway. I do show clips of things for ideas and starting assignments or lessons. I think comparing and contrasting Korean culture to our own version of American culture is a great assignment. This also shows a family working together when times are tough. How could they relate that to our current situations? Maybe some of our students' parents have lost their jobs or businesses due to Covid. What are the parralles that their families are doing with what the Kim's family did? For myself, I too, picked up an extra job as a tutor while my husband was laid off from his job due to closures. I think this could make some really interesting essays from my 8th graders especially. Now, I think I will go find this movie to watch! 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I have always had an interest in history and especially WWII. Schindler's List was a heartbreaking film that told stories of upstanders helping those in need, but I haven't heard of this film before. Thanks for bringing awareness to these accounts. My 8th graders study WWII in their US history class, so the accounts from this film could be useful to bring up during oral or online discussions. Like you mentioned, who are the bystanders and what is social justice? Why do we not know about these upstanders and these events as much as we learn about others? I would like to say that events like these only happened in the past, but the truth it, they are still occuring today, like we learned from Symposium on Xinjiang. How do we better teach our students the value of another human life nomatter their race, religion, or nationality? I will look for this film. Where did you find it?

[Brigid Schmidt]

As an English teacher, I found myself very interested in Professor Yamashita's descriptions of the Chinese Writing Culture that started around the Sui dynasty in the 600s. This writing culture emanates in China and is written in classical Chinese. What is interesting about it is that is focuses on writing history to justify or legitimize states. The three kingdoms in Korea and Japan also accept it. They first wrote the Kojiki (710) but the unique thing about it is that is was written phonetically as opposed to the Nihonshoki (724) which was written in classical Chinese. From a young age, our students are taught to sound words out and they write many stories phonetically, so it would be a good comparison to talk about how an earlier Chinese writing was done this way as well. I think my students could benefit from learning about early Chinese writing cultures and relating it to early English and other languages. They all have to write for history, so in a way, they are studying like the early Chinese Writing Culture. 

 

[Brigid Schmidt]

Hi Samantha! 

I thought I saw you in that class about the Holocaust with me. What a small world. I agree with you, I have a hard time understanding how those horrific events happened then and it is appalling to hear that similar treatment is continuing today. It makes me feel helpless. After listening to this talk, I started talking about Xinjiang with some friends and family and not that many knew about it or the extent. It would be my hope that the more people who know about it, a change might come about. As teachers, we are educating the future and it is our job to not only teach academics, but respect and human decency. Although this is a difficult topic to teach, perhaps having my students listen to a personal story and have a class discussion about equality and relating it to people or events throughout history could be a really moving lesson for my 8th graders. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

Over spring break I took a class on the Holocaust and Human Behavior. Red Scarf Girl was one of the books we had to read for the course. We also received a "Teaching the Red Scarf Girl" Teaching Guide book with many ideas for lessons and discussions for Middle School grades. Red Scarf Girl takes place in Shanghai, China in 1966 and is about Ji-Li and her family. The book is during the Cultural Revolution and describes how her family was treated by the Communist Party due to being well educated and affluent. Although this course is about ancient Asia, this book opens students up to China's past and culture. In addition, this book teaches the students courage, equality, and loyalty. 

Furthermore, the teaching guides offers extensions to the book, and one idea I liked was Reader’s Theater. My students really enjoy presenting in groups and presenting part of the text almost like a play could really help get them engaged in the story. I also like the extension that allows students to Illustrate a scene. In middle school, students do less “art” type projects and more writing and structured work. As a previous art teacher, I always am looking for way to relate our readings or assignments with art to reach my visual and more creative learners.

[Brigid Schmidt]

Like Mario, before today I knew very little about the Uyghur people. After listening to the lectures today, I briefly mentioned this to my husband, who reads a lot and is just generally very knowledgeable, and he not only knew all about the problems they are facing, but also said he recently ate at an Uyghur restaurant. He even has seen the image that Dr. Anderson showed us! Like Dr. Anderson, I have a strong interest in music and the arts, so her talk was enlightening. As a singer, I am used to singing harmonies, so it was interesting to me that their music is more melodic rather than focusing on harmonies. Similar to how I grew up learning music, some of their music is a reflection of religion-but not all. I think in many cultures music is apart of a religious experience. When I work with the music program at my school, it would be really neat to listen to some music from that region and the Uyghur people. 

Something that all three of the speakers mentioned were the "education camps" and the way Uyghur people are treated. I feel saddened that I was not aware of this before. Dr. Anderson mentioned the government basically seeing everything you do. Dr. Kurban said that the government had control of social media, control of the media, said every move is monitored. It was heartbreaking to hear how she can barely communicate with her family. It is crazy to think you could be sent to these camps just for having an Islamic name or family members overseas, or having contact with foreigners. We saw all of the cameras in the pictures watching what people do. They are even imposing Han Chia propaganda on Uyghur students. I recently took a class on the Holocaust and Human Rights and this fits right in with those topics and stories. I have my 8^th graders read articles about current events from all over the world and we do class discussions on them. (Currently we do these in an online forum.) This would be a very important topic to being up to them. Thank you all for being so open and sharing your experiences.

[Brigid Schmidt]

While we have focused much more on the origins of China, I enjoyed hearing Professor Yamashita talk about Japanese origins starting back to 250 million years ago. Last year I taught geography and archipelago, so this would be a perfect segway from that unit. It is fascinating to think about Japan being connected to the Asian mainland, reminding us that Japanese people were probably not that different than other people living on the Asian mainland at that time.

Professor Yamashita also discussed dualism, which I take to mean coming from two different origins or beginnings. (Correct me if I am wrong in this case!) He says that there are archeological references that reveal dualism from people's blood types and fingerprint. With all of the ancestry and 23 and me and other geology tests that have peaked curiosity as of late, this is extremely interesting to think about the origins of where you came from. It is even mentioned that whoever came to populate Japan came from two different ways, speaking two different languages. I think students would be curious to examine this further. Another area he discusses dualism is from myths. I teach myths in both my 6th and 8th grade English classes so I would love to examine the differences in the two styles of myths and talk more about the horizontal style versus the vertical style. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

This idea is great! While my students are at home, I know they are aching to travel somewhere, just like we all are. It would be really fun to have them find 2 places to travel to virtually and compare and contrast the architecture of the areas. They may even interpret cultural styles and ideas. To tie this into East Asia, I could either give options of places to choose from or specific cities in East Asia. I think it would interest them to use Google Earth to simulate traveling from their home. They might even write it from the point of view of a traveler visiting these areas. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I enjoyed Dr. Bharne's lecture on East Asian architecture. Having a background in art, I have always been interested in architecture and design. When I travel to new cities, I look for the buildings with remnants of historic preservations. I am drawn to learning about the traditional cultures and styles through the architecture. As I visited parts of Asia, I noticed this reverence for the past more often in rural communities rather than larger metropolises. I found it interesting to read about the different walls and barriers the cities might have. In the Korean article, the wall was mentioned as a way of protection, defense, or separation. The article about Chinese architecture also mentions walls. Both architecture styles also used the natural formations and elements of the hills and mountains as boundaries. It seems as though there was a lot of need for defense with the use of walls. Were they more in fear of invasion or wanting to keep others out?

[Brigid Schmidt]

When reading the Proclamations of the Hongwu Emperor and the placards I also thought of the legalists. Like the legalists, the emperor wanted the laws and rules to be followed by everyone, no matter their position. His proclamation made it clear that there are immediate and harsh consequences (including death) for those who break the rules or lie. He says there are no exceptions. However, he brings up a time that he conquered the city of Wuchang and took over the city as well as Chen's concubine. He questioned if that was wrong to take a woman improperly and so he gave up women and music and valuable objects. He wanted his people to see that if he can do away with tempting things, they should be able to also! He warns them to "be cautious!" On the other hand, placard #7 at least states they will inquire the facts first before they make judgment. Overall, the values of obedience and keeping people in line are what I see coming out of both this document and the placards. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

Sandra, 

 I agree with your thoughts that perhaps the poem "To Someone Far Away" could be somehow linked to "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow." Both poems share similar raw emotions about looking back at her home and remembering the loving times they had together. It is possible they were both from the emperor. 

The narrative poem, "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" was elloquently written with metaphorical language to evoke emotion. He uses vivid imagery and the simile "drowned in tears of sadness like a spray of pearl flowers, veiled with springtime rain" and we can immediately picture the softness of those many tears. The half of the laquer box and part of the hair pin makes you feel a little heartbroken while reading it. The poem gives off the image of love lasting even after death. My question is why would he even bring her to war? He loved her so much and the two did not want to part, but by taking her with him, she was a distraction that the other men thought would ensure they would be defeated in battle. He allowed her to be killed so he could focus and lead his men into victory. The title is truly meaningful because it shows a love and sorrow lasting to the afterlife. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I went back through this poetry section because I only skimmed through it before. I connected with the poem, "To Someone Far Away." This past week I lost two people important to me and due to the pandemic, funerals aren't the same. I am not certain this poem is about someone dying or a breakup, but the imagery gives off the feeling of loss and mourning. The reader can imagine being in that room, picturing the flowers in the hall, and still smelling her scent. Even as years pass by, the loved-one is not forgotten and the love for them still lingers in those memories. 

The other poem I enjoyed reading was "Looking Out Over the Plains." The figurative language used makes you feel like you are outside looking forward. The poem is freeing but maybe lonely too. Being out there alone with hills in the distance, the far waters meeting the sky, neglected town, and shadows. I love beeing outside as the sun is setting at the end of the day and turning into twilight. Sometimes it is the perfect time to be alone with the beauty of the earth all around you. Being cooped up inside, this poem is making me want to go outside! 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I had the opportunity to attend the live virtual lecture by Professor Tom Narins from the University at Albany. Although I did not know much about the topic, I still found his lecture engaging and filled with interesting information. He discussed the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, which is a set of infrastructural and institutional frameworks organized and forwarded by the Chinese government. He explained global sovereignty to be power which is borderless that spans the entire world. I learned that China has now taken the helm as a leader of Globalization of the world economy and institutions. He stated that smaller countries neighboring China are very concerned about the economic dependency on China as the BRI progresses and advances. I found it interesting that this initiative relates or stems from Silk Road as my students were studying those trade routes from the second century BCE. I am embarrassed to say that I did not realize this was an economic route still used today. He mentioned it as a digital Silk Road suggesting growth and changes in in our world currently. While I still have much more to learn about the BRI and the way sovereignty works, I am glad I was able to dip my toes into this subject.

[Brigid Schmidt]

I like your idea about using these traditions to drive behavior in the classroom. I taught 4th grade last year and in our history curriculum we studied Chinese Buddhists coming to California in the 19th century and then Japanese Buddhists laborers coming to work on the railroads. I feel like this could be a good way to connect these traditions to the classroom based on what the students are learning as California grew. 

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