[Carlos Oyarbide]

 

 

After all these years, all the movies and articles I have read, nothing ever explained how a Leninist Party power structure was organized. For all the information that is disseminated about communism, I was a bit stunned when I realized that I had absolutely no idea how the internal mechanism of powers worked in a Leninist system of government. Such a fundamental idea is so important in understanding the politics of China. Too often we gloss over the details that shed so much light on a subject. We have almost become numb to the word “communist” and we seem to almost view it as a synonym to mean “dictatorship.” And while there is certainly some overlap between the two concepts of government, there is a substantial difference. I think that comparing the top down power structure of a Leninist party to Americas’ three branches of government or other political structures such as bicameral legislatures. Students could compare and contrast different features of the structures and disgust the possible benefits and cost of each systems as it pertains to the people being governed. I think that too often, we speak about government systems besides our own with this inherit sense of inferiority and this prevents us from thinking critically not only of other government’s, but of our own government. 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

My playing card depicts what I assume is a celebratory march to commemorate Mao's Long March.  Male and female soldiers are marching alongside holding sign that celebrate the communist victory in China. The mixture of shovels and riffles might symbolize the the economic and military revolution that celebrates the collective strength of the proleteriate.

After researching my card, I learned that in fact depicts people marching along the road on their way to one of the cadre schools to be educated and learn to become self-sufficient as part of the Great Leap Forward and Chairman Mao's May 7 directive.  Conditions at the school were poor and ultimately unsuccessful and many of the people died during the reeducation process.

 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

After today's lecture, I was left wondering about the transitional government that bridged the gap between the Xing dynasty and the communist revolution. Most of the information regarding the Chinese Republic’s government centered around the events and forces that led to the revolution. Much of the attention was spend discussing the Boxer Rebellion and some of the major actors behind the revolution that ended the Xing dynasty. In particular, much of the attention was paid to efforts of Sun Yatzen and his efforts to fund and support the war from the U.S. But once he becomes the president of the republic, not much was discussed about the relative failures or successes of the government. I couldn’t help wondering what, if any, events catalyzed the communist revolution. What was this new government’s philosophy? After years of struggling to overthrow the Manchus, what was accomplished and how did this effect the life of the average Chinese person? It’s hard for me to think of China in the twentieth century without thinking about communism. It seems like communism was inevitable. But I can’t help but wonder if this was actually the case. If people were more satisfied with their government, was communism truly inevitable?

[Carlos Oyarbide]

I think the image of the Japanese victory over China would provide an excellent cross-disciplinary opportunity. If you were to show this to students without explaining its context, it could provide you with an excellent “hook” to teach bias, propaganda, context, explicit versus implicit meaning, and I’m sure many other content specific skills or subjects.

 

By simply asking students “what do you see” you can start to unravel the many layers of an image and its purpose. Guiding questions like: “who do you think is being depicted?”, “Why are they fighting?” “How are the two sides depicted?” As the students answer these questions, you can then lead students to whatever topic of skill you want to introduce or built upon.

 

Discussions about images and how they shape perception on a subject could apply to several subjects. The controversy caused by photos like this when the the website was put up can lead to further discussion about history and propaganda and even ownership of historical events.

 

This photo also reminded me about the discussion we had about the controversy of the Sea of Japan V. the Sea of Korea. The names we use and the images we use shape the perception of the history and by extension, the present. Particularly, names and images define the feelings that outsiders have towards an unfamiliar event or place.

[Carlos Oyarbide]

I think that segments of “We the Workers” might be an interested film to show and discuss in either a history class or an Economics class. I think it really helps ground what can be a rather abstract concept: collective bargaining. It would be a good opportunity to show a real world example of the process that workers must undergo in order to fight for a higher living standard. It shows the real struggles and dangers that workers must undergo.

 

I also think that it would be interesting to compare the rise and fall of unions in the United States and compare them to the chart that was shown after the presentation via the website. Students could even do a more in-depth model analysis of unionization trends in China. They could look at states that are currently “right-to-work” states and look at the average paid for workers in certain sectors and compare them to the same profession in a union friendly state and draw conclusions. The same can be done for business in China and then compare their findings in both countries. I think that while these concepts might seem abstract at first, after watching the film, students will be more empathetic and interested in learning about worker rights.

[Carlos Oyarbide]

It is ironic to watch the struggles of the proletariat in a supposedly communist country. As I watch the unionizers struggle and perceiver, I kept wondering about the laws and the realities of China. On the one hand, there are laws that are meant to protect the workers and their interest, while on the other, there seems to be an unspoken agreement (or maybe not so unspoken) between businesses and the government to allow for the exploitation of workers. Watching the unionizers risk their safety in organizing laborers made me imagine the sense of betrayal that struggling Chinese citizens must feel towards the broken promises of their government. But, I also realize based on the interactions between people in the the film, that some of them maybe don’t feel betrayed at all. That they are so focused on surviving that they don’t have time to dote on the legacy of their revolutionary past.

 

Our guest predicted that the communist part in China would eventually have to become a socialist democracy. I have to agree that it seems like the only way for the communist party to remain in power. I couldn’t help but wonder what children are taught in school about the history of their government. I kept asking myself, “how is it possible that people that celebrated the communist revolution tolerated the abuse of factory owners?” 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

Looking back at the 19^th century in East Asia, it’s easy to look back and understand why those countries wanted nothing to do with Europe and America. It is almost as if they knew then what we know now. How opening access to their countries would lead to the ultimate exploitation of their resources and work force. Korea, in particular, was right to be wary of doing witness with the West after all of their negative interactions with Japan and China However, with the impending Gunboat Diplomacy, it seems as if there really was no way to avoid the impending catastrophe with the west.

 

It seems that isolationism is always doomed.  Either through force of the sheer will of new ideas, the reflexive instinct to withdraw from the rest is futile. One of the ideological clashes can be seen in the conflict between Eastern Learning and Wester Learning in Korea. While the exposure to the West was not necessarily all negative, it cannot be denied that it forever changed the cultural course of Korea. Ultimately however, it would be Japan and not the West that would Colonize Korea. So the question is: once external forces begin to exert their influence on a country, how can it keep its sovereignty and cultural identity in tact? Whether a country chooses to willing adopt new ideas, trade partners, etc. or whether it chooses to turn inward and isolate itself, history seems to teach us that the outcome will be same. 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

I too found this "twist" to be fascinating. I feel that once a person has been defined by his or her beliefs he or she is then seen only as that narrow caricature of a person. Not enough attention is paid to people who have their belief evolve or change over time. Too often when attention is given to someone who has changed his position, that person is seen as a “flip-flopper” and seems to instantly lose credibility in the eyes of the public. It is important to remember that history is a collection of narratives. Often, those narratives are one dimensional for the sake of convenience. We don’t seem to have much patience for nuance when it comes to inflammatory issues such as immigration or racism. 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

The struggle between the isolationist and internationalist during the 1920s seem to mirror much of what is going on today in the U.S. Today, of course, the population being targeted in our immigration policy is people from predominantly Muslim countries. The echoes of the Chinese Exclusion Acts can’t be ignored when you think about the prominence of southern and more conservative states and their role in imposing migratory restrictions. I can’t help but wonder why we seem so hardwired to fear people who may look differently, dress differently, or believe differently than we do.

 

Throughout the lecture, it was interesting to have my preconceived notions of racism challenged. Before today’s class, I had assumed that the anti-Asian racism in California was essentially the same throughout the rest of the U.S. I also assumed that the reason why California was featured so prominently was because of the geographical proximity between California and China. One thing that history has borne out is that eventually, there is a great deal of assimilation that takes place among all ethnic groups that come to the U.S. The powerful for of U.S. culture is difficult to deny and to a certain extent, there was and still is, this desire to become American. 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

One of the interesting things about North Korea is its use of its nuclear armament as its chief diplomatic tool. Unlike Iran and Iraq who abated their nuclear programs in exchange for abolishing economic sanction, North Korea has continued to build and refine their nuclear weapons while still using them as their chief bargaining tool with the West. With a seemingly air tight control over its civilian population, North Korea is able to endure crippling economic sanctions. Recent heated exchanges between North Korea and Donald Trump has frightened many Americans. But trying to look at the situation objectively, I can understand why the North Korean leadership is not interested in surrendering its nuclear arsenal. Looking at the recent history of other nations with nuclear aspirations who gave up its nuclear programs it seems that North Korea’s unwillingness to suspend its own program is actually very pragmatic.

 

On the one hand, giving up the arsenal would benefit the lives of most North Koreans, but on the other it would compromise the existing power structure. I think this topic would make for a great debate inside a high school classroom: Should North Korea give up its nuclear weapons? It could be examined from a couple of different perspectives. Obviously, it can be examined from the North Korean perspective, but it can also be examined from an international perspective such as South Korea or the U.S. 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

This is a very informative and accessible article that provides a great overview for students who do not know much about the Korean peninsula. If I were to teach about Korea in my classroom, I might begin with this article to build background knowledge. The “Top Ten” organizational structure of the text also lends itself nicely to chunking the text with struggling readers. I can imagine breaking students into pairs or small groups and assigning them a different number so they can then share out the information with the rest of the class.

 

As students present the information they gleaned from their assigned reading, other students could take notes. I would then ask students to share out the information they learned from their individual notes. Each group could then synthesize their notes to create to create their own top ten things they learned about the Korean peninsula. This might seem a bit repetitive, but I find that structuring readings this way is a very effective way to distill new information for struggling readers. 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

You don't have to be an economist to understand the impending financial doom facing Japan. With an increasingly older population and a declining birthrate, Japan must come to grips with the underlying cultural factors that have helped exacerbate the problem.

The article lays the crux of the problem at the feet of women who no longer need men for financial security. It certainly acknowledges certain male inadequacies and shortcomings to be sure. Male and female dynamics aside, the articles claims that the fundamental causes of the decline in marriage and child rates are economic. This is not surprising considering that the article is published in the Economist. 

However, there is one statistic included in the article that I feel warrants a closer look. According to the article, “Only 2% of Japanese children are born outside marriage, compared with over 40% in Britain and America.” I would argue that while the decline in marriage and birth will certainly be economically devastating for Japan, the true underlying cause of this decline has more to do with culture than economics.

                                            

The two greatest factors that I feel could offset the decline in birthrate would be to have more children out of wedlock and to increase the number of immigrants into Japan (which is not mentioned in the article but Japan’s restrictive immigration policy is widely known) 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

Without a doubt, my favorite take away from this session was the vendetta registration system. I feel that the vendetta registration system is the perfect metaphor to describe the Tokugawa order. On the one hand, you had the ultra regimented bureaucracy associated with the Tokugawa order, while on the other you have the steep tradition of feudal Japan. The romanticized reception of the "Incident of 47 Ronin" exemplifies the push and pull of modernization and tradition. 

To me, this very Japanese example of the conflict between progress and tradition provides a very tangible introduction to a universal conflict. This creates a vast doorway to explore any world civilization that has faced this decision. 

 

This decision poses a very interesting question to ask students at the end of a unit: How can a nation progress into the future without erasing the past? This essential question can be used to study the transition of any nation into modernity. However, I feel that it is particularly poignant in regards to the 47 Ronin. The romantic reception of the act is in stark contrast to the regimented bureaucratic controlled imposed by the Tokugawa order. The celebration of this defiance speaks to the subconscious desire of a modernizing people to return to a romantic past.

[Carlos Oyarbide]

I too was blown away by the aggressive cultural oppression forced upon Korea. I couldn't help but make a connection to the British occupation of Ireland and their efforts to eradicate Gaelic. I loved how the Korean press was able to exploit loopholes that the Japanese censors could not catch but how Japan also recognized the importance of cultural expression. As oppressive as the Japanese occupation was, the cultural outlet that was permitted seems strangely out of line with the excessive demands of the Japanese. It is particularly striking when one thinks about the mandatory bowing to the east. 

I think it would be very interesting for students to explore different occupations and resistance movements around the world. I think that this would lend itself particularly well to a compare and contrast essay for World History. The examination of military might versus the cultural will of an occupied people would provide students with a great opportunity to make universal connections to very different parts of the world that experienced very similar situations.

 

[Carlos Oyarbide]

Admittedly, I have a very little knowledge about East Asia and I have a very general (and limited) sense of its history. One of the things that I was that I was familiar with was the animosity between Korea and Japan. Prior to the class, I assumed that the animosity was a result of the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War II. I had no idea how prolonged the occupation was or how impactful it would be on the cultural identity of Korea.

 

I am very interested in learning about how the history of Korea ultimately led to the modern cultural transformation of the country. Juxtaposing the cultural development of North and South Korea would be fascinating. I have seen snippets of K-dramas and now I know that in some of those dramas the characters are dressed as Yangbans. Before I could name the dress, I assumed that the costumes were a reference to Korea’s past but I always wondered why so many of them were set in that era. Of course, it is possible that they are not and I am basing this opinion on my very limited exposure.

 

Additionally, previous to the class I had did not understand why so many south Koreans were practicing Christians. I am excited to learn how the conflicting influences of the East and West shaped the modern cultural identity of South Korea in the coming weeks.

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