[Cindy Nguyen]

This is one of the saddest story I have ever read.  Yang Jisheng wrote about the worst manmade disaster recordeed in Chinese history in his book Tombstone.  In this book, he compiled horrific stories of relatives, families, and communities experiencing horrendous death due to starvation.  The Great Famine is rarely spoken of in China due to the massive failure of agriculture reform and the large volume of brutal attacks against farmers.  It gives accounts of cannibalism, mass murders, and the horrible deaths of farmers who were silenced because high Communist commanders didn't want to admit their total failure in agriculture.  This would be a good article for students to read and annotate on their own and then share their thoughts with the class and/or their elbow partner.  The lesson would help students understand that some government would only want to project to their citizens and foreigners only their accomplishments and not their failure.  Students could also relate this story to their own experiences of government coverup.

[Cindy Nguyen]

The slogan "in agriculture learn from Dazhai" was first said by Mao and has become the epitome of China's "complex and diverse" culture.  This city is a model for other agricultural communities to follow with its six criteria for Dazhai-type commune.  Chinese leaders have used Dazhai as an example for others because the city exemplifies the Communist core ideology of hardwork, dedication, and commitment.  Dazhai became popular of its use of self-reliance, pure man-power and many agriculture achievements.

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[Cindy Nguyen]

I really enjoyed reading about the stories of peasants and their perspective of China during the 1940s.  It gives the reader an inside look of how life was really like for the citizens who were living in the rural parts of China.  It was really sad to read how many peasants were living a desolate and horrendous life because the Nationalist government was busier with the Americans and Communist Party than to deal with its own internal problems.  I would use certain selections of the readings to use in my class.  For example, "the Nationalist government didn't help at all during the famine" is an excellent excerpt to use in class because it shows how some citizens were willing to commit treason.  It would be good lesson for the students to learn about the different circumstances that would push citizens to overthrow their government like the Americans, French, and etc.

[Cindy Nguyen]

The White Paper Excerpt: United States Position in China provides information about America's financial involvement in China prior to the communist take over.  This excerpt was written by Dean Acheson who was Secretary of State in 1949 and was considered a central figure in creating foreign policies for America.  Dean Acheson wrote about the destruction of the Nationalist Party due to their "regime without faith in itself and an army without morale" and the rise of a well-disciplined and patriotic Communist Party.  He deflects any blame for America and instead list the substantial amount of financial aid America provided for their ally which was still not enough for the Nationalist Party to maintain their power in China.  I would chunk the reading for my students and then review their findings as a class.  I would group the students into multiple groups with different parts of the reading and then have the groups with the same excerpt to come together to share their findings with each other.  This gives students an opportunity to share their ideas and maybe form new ones.  After this is done, the class will gather back together and have a class discussion about each of the chunks and hopefully be able to piece the parts back into one.

[Cindy Nguyen]

During second semester, I usually have the students analyze political proganda in forms of cartoons, newspapers, and advertisement.  To scaffold the lesson, I would introduce terms like: bandwagon, loaded words, testimonials, and etc. to help students have an idea what are the different types of propaganda that are used.  After students have a handle on the subject matter I would break the students into groups (depending size but usually 4 students) and have them analyze the political cartoons.  Each group will have a different propaganda and will present their findings to class once they are done with analysis worksheet.  I was thinking I can introduce propaganda even earlier since now I've resources for the imperialism in China.  This will give students an opportunity to critically think about how the use of media can influence/change a person's perspective on that matter. (they can also relate it today's use of social media)

[Cindy Nguyen]

I like how you mentioned Sun Yatsen's Three Principals and how the Enlightenment ideas influenced his principles.  At this moment, I am discussing in my class the influences of Enlightenment ideas and how it effected the development of Western governments.  It's hard for me to mention Asia in this unit because of the time constraints and the massive amount of information that I need to present to my students.  With Sun Yatsen's Three Principals and his ideas of separation of power and his belief of the importance of the people over the monarch is a perfect way introduce China into the unit.  I want students to realize that it was not only Westerners who was influenced by Enlightenment thinkers and ideas.

[Cindy Nguyen]

I like the idea of using "Things about America and Americans" because it gives students a different perspective on things in their lives.  Many of us never really think why things are they way they're or how it became like that.  With this article, students will be able to connect the two terms colonization and assimilation to their own lives.  Being an immigrant myself, I can help students understand the pressure of having to choose between two identities.  Hopefully my students will be able to use their own experiences to relate to the material more and become more intrigued with the lesson.

[Cindy Nguyen]

With the industrialization boom, many countries become very prosperous and seen as world powers.  As wealth grows so does the amount of money the government can take and invest in.  The chart that was shown in class of "Manufacturing Output" you are able to assume the increase of manufacturing leads to a nation becoming more properous and with wealth comes investment in weapons.  This could be linked to how United States became one of the wealthiest and powerful countries in the world.  I would provide my students with the same chart and have them research the countries and the time era that was given.  This would help students to organize the events which influenced the rise of some nations and the fall of others.

[Cindy Nguyen]

I was deeply impressed by "We the Workers" and its portray of a factory worker's struggles in China.  It was shocking to see how unfairly the workers were treated by the government and the factory owners.  It seemed that the government is more interested in maintaining their power and money than to help their own citizens.  I would include parts of "We the Workers" during the unit of social changes in America during the 1900s.  By doing this, I am hoping my students would realize how fortunate we are today to have workers' rights and protection. Some students could also relate to this subject because of their parents/family members who might work in factories.  We could use this connection to help students to relate to the material.

[Cindy Nguyen]

Professor Kurashige lecture and readings could be used in multiple ways.  He provided exclusion acts targeting Chinese, Japanese, and Asians from becoming American citizens.  I would have students read excerpts from the exclusion acts from 1900s and the immigration laws today and have them complete a graphic organizer on the similarities and differences of the acts.  After the students have done this, I would then provide information/data on which political party has the majority vote in Congress.  Hopefully, students will be able to connect the relationship between  those in power and the laws are being passed.  In, Two Face of Inclusion  Professor Kurashige shows the relationship of the Chinese Exclusion 1882, 1892, 1902, and 1904 and those in office.

[Cindy Nguyen]

I am embarrassed to say I was caught up in the Korean Wave. Korean culture has taken Asia by storm and now it has spilled over to America.  I didn't realize I was caught in the Korean Wave until I caught myself eating ramyun noodles while watching Korean drama and drinking soju. The wild thing about this was that I was not alone!  Majority of my girlfriends were living this type of lifestyle too.  Of course I would never tell my students of this crazy life I live but I would incorporate Korean culture into my curriculum.  I would use Korean products to grab the attention of my students by showing clips of popular Korean drama, K-pop songs, and/or Korean food to show how influential Korean culture has become in America.  After this lesson, I would use this opportunity to provide the students with lessons on the occupation of Korea by Japan and then the decades of government instability.  Hopefully through this lesson I would be able to show the students another side of Koreans and not just what they see on the internet or movies.

[Cindy Nguyen]

The morning session with Professor Kim was very informative about the long and turbulent history of democracy in Korea.  I was honestly shocked at the amount of times the constitution had changed since the 1940s.  I though Korea was a stable government since Japan left and the United States was providing aid to the country.  The history textbooks that are used in my school only grazes over the subject of Korea and when it is mentioned it is usually connected to Japan's history.  In the reading, "Liberation, Civil War, and Division" gave the background on the conflict of the two Koreas and the rise of Kim Il Sung's military power.  I would use different excerpts of the reading and distribute to groups to read.  They would then read the excerpts and then reteach it to the rest of the class as their classmates takes notes the subject.  This method would help students focus only on their part, it breaks down the heavily informative reading, and gives them an opportunity to present their finding to their classmates.

[Cindy Nguyen]

It's amazaing to to read the lack of help Korea received from the international powerhouses because Korea was deemed a "protectorate" state.  For over 35 years, Korea was dehumanized and disregarded because Western countries and Japan saw Korea as uncivilized and needed to be controlled.  I incorporate Ebrey: Modernizing Korea and Colonial Rule to supplement the readings for imperialization.  This will give students a different perspective of colonization and not the typical Western power ruling over a weaker country.   Japan, a country deemed as civilized was becoming more similar to their counterparts as their economy blossomed and viewpoints became more nationalistic.  

[Cindy Nguyen]

Ebrey "Rise of Modern" gives light to the long and complicating history between Japan and Korea. High school history books rarely mentions Japan's planned alliance with Great Britain to achieve dominance in Asia and to be on parity with these great Western powers.  I agree with Amir about using excerpts and presenting to the class as an example that not all imperializing countries were Westerners.  These excerpts will provide students with a clearer picture of Japan and their attitude towards imperialism.

[Cindy Nguyen]

The idea of progress has led to the imperialization of many Asian nations by Western powers.  This idea of "progress" has led to the destruction and exploitation of these people and their resources in the name of profit and fame.  Another effect of imperialism was the power struggle between the loyalists and reformists during the Meiji Era in Japan.  For example, Commodre Matthew Perry is sent to Japan to encourage the Japanese emperor to "open" his ports to foreigners or he would have to face the consequences of his actions.  Twilight Saumari and the Last Samurai could also be good films to show the different interpretation of Western imperialization of Japan in class.  You can use primary sources to build the background knowledge for the students and then have them watch the movies to do a film critic, comparison, and/or etc.

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