[Denis Vovchenko]

The central tree idea we see in Shintoism reminded me of the Tree of Knowledge in the Genesis. But as far as I know, that Biblical image did not lead to any architectural adaptations, right?

[Denis Vovchenko]

The comparative approach is essential in teaching world history because it is impossible to cover very much. What Vin said about the round shape of Buddhist temples reminded me of Teotihuacan in Mexico which influenced the Maya and the Aztecs and more speculatively, even the Cahokia and other Mound-Builders in North America. I think it would be a great primary source assignment/discussion to have students those temples defined by the stone-clad hilltop sanctuaries. Visual learners should love it!

 

[Denis Vovchenko]

Week 2 Reactions

Ise is indeed a captivating site. Last night we focused a lot on it although Vin in his “Between Ise and Katsura” argued against seeing Ise as a defining architectural monument going against the grain of the Bruno Taut tradition (pp. 9, 33).

In relation to the simplicity I also wished we talked more about the influence of Shinto tree worship on architectural forms such as the central pillar mentioned in “Between Ise and Katsura” (13) and especially on Buddhist temples in Japan in “Behind the Wood Culture” (38). Last night, Vin related the Shinto central pillar to the Axis Mundi. We saw the same concept in the layout of ancient Chinese cities in Wheatley’s reading last week. Since the Japanese borrowed Chinese urban planning patterns in the Heian period, I wonder if they transformed the Chinese Axis Mundi ideas to fit their traditions. Does anyone know?

Japan is famous for creatively changing foreign influences as Vin emphasized last night talking about Zen. Although in the video, Vin stressed that Zen Buddhism proved to return Buddhism to its original simple ideals by deemphasizing Buddha’s divinity and elaborate iconography. This reminded me of German and Swiss Protestantism with its iconoclasm, rejection of Catholic saints, biblical literalism, “faith alone,” etc. In contrast, Mediterranean Catholic and Orthodox Christians where Christianity had started and developed kept those traditions. Is it fair to compare outlying areas like Northern Europe and Japan in their attempts to purify adopted religions?

 

[Denis Vovchenko]

Great points about the diminishing stigma of imperialism among formerly colonized nations! The Brits themselves began to feel less bad about that legacy probably earlier than other former empires - remember the anti-Roman conspiracy scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). More recently, BBC produced a 5-episode series trying to balance negative and positive aspects of imperialism.

• “Doing Good” Episode 5 in Empire (BBC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5tM_X3Grhk

Maybe, there is a generational cycle in popular reactions and memoreis - now there is a renewed attack as we see in the war on monuments as it spills over from the US into Western Europe. 

[Denis Vovchenko]

Great points! We often read and teach students that Chinese were and are less "serious" about religion especially afterlife etc. From the Wheatley reading, it seems that well before Confucianism and Daoism ancient China had established religious views that informed their urban design. How developed were they? Did anyone describe those views in a systematic way? 

[Denis Vovchenko]

Questions for Vin and others?

What religion informed ancient Chinese “astrobiological” urban patterns? The reading by Wheatley mentioned that they had started as early as the Zhou period or earlier. I don’t think Confucianism or Daoism were already so entrenched at the time.

Why was Vin not using the concept of postmodernism when discussing 10 styles of architecture? From my limited understanding, that trend supposedly emboldened Asian architects and urban planners to be less imitative of Western styles and appreciative of their native patterns (according to at least this article I used in my globalization class - Botond Bognar, “Surface above All? American Influence on Japanese Urban Space,”  Uta Poiger ed., Transactions, Transgressions, Transformations: American Culture in Western Europe and Japan (New York: Bergbahn Books, 2000), pp. 45-74

Is the book where “Framing the Asian City” serves as the introduction already published? I would be curious to read the essay about Soviet models for the reconstruction of Beijing in the 1950s.

 

[Denis Vovchenko]

Now I feel even more strongly than before that we should not be shying away from such aspects to sensitize the students to the plight of urban poor worldwide. In particular, in a unit on globalization I would play an excerpt from The Slumdog Millionaire to help students relate to the slum images that Vin included (the slum hill in Lebanon is stuck in my mind).

Vin’s perspective on “Disneyfication” would help me in a post-colonial unit showing continuity and acceptance of Western influences from Victorian administration buildings to modernist “monstrosities” like the Kyoto train station.

The second reading by Paul Wheatley could be assigned in an upper-level college course on early Asian history. Students should have easier time absorbing concepts like geomancy and astrobiology in classical Chinese urbanism because the author provided examples of the same from ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian traditions.

 

[Denis Vovchenko]

It was easy to connect our discussion, the video lectures, and the “Framing the Asian City” reading. I could discern Vin’s philosophy of accepting even less aesthetically appealing styles of urbanism. He described slums as one of its ten types. I may be wrong to assume that most educators (like myself) typically do not include the coverage of slums into their units on Asian art and architecture. I am sure Vin emphasized the slums out of his concern for social justice that also came through in his comment on sustainability during the discussion last night.

Vin’s comments about Disneyfication were also eye-opening. As he mentioned, most experts decry or ridicule cookie-cutter ultra-modern skylines and shopping malls mushrooming worldwide as examples of “Coca-colonization.” But as Vin said, local developers and government agencies demand that kind of style as reassuring symbols of Western order and new openness to the world.

 

[Denis Vovchenko]

I agree that Vin usefully complicated "sustainability" by emphasizing social justice as its necessary dimension. However, I fear that the trend is going in the opposite direction as we see in Asia or the US ("gentrification") with green nice spaces for the elites and rundown polluted areas reserved for middle and lower classes. Someone mentioned the original "Bladerunner" but "Elysium" is an even more graphic illustration of that real dystopia.

[Denis Vovchenko]

I also love gardening! I will check out Richard Nisbitt's book. Thanks!

[Denis Vovchenko]

My name is Denis Vovchenko, I am originally from Kazakhstan which has kept my interest in the rest of Asia throughout my life. My research focus is on Christian-Muslim interactions in the Balkans and Asia Minor in the 19th and 20th centuries. By the way, you can see the Bosphorus in the background of my picture.

I teach European and world history at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma so I  need to fill in my glaring East Asia gaps. This is one of the few summers my family and I spent in Oklahoma - before COVID19 restrictions, we typically tried to wait out the Oklahoma heat in a cooler place like Moscow where I could also collect archival materials. Staying in Oklahoma this summer gave me more time to grow a lot of tomatoes and to finish a couple of articles - hopefully, they will be published soon but the peer review process is slow.

Another change is that I chose to teach all of my classes online this academic year.

I have taken several AFE online courses. Looking forward to another stimulating book group!

 

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