[Jess Meyer]

That is an amazing site.  Students could take image sets and look at change over time with representations.  Afterward students could take a second set of images and compare / contrast the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e on Western Art.  The impressionists (Monet, Degas) owe a great deal to the "floating world."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has several excellent articles on this.  One is here: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jpon/hd_jpon.htm and the other here:  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Great_Wave_The_Influence_of_Japanese_Woodcuts_on_French_Prints

[Jess Meyer]

I would love to have sets of postcards from the same time and a variety of societies -- China, Japan, the United States, Mexico , etc -- and have students do a comparative activitiy about modernization.  It would also be easy to do a change-over-time activitiy -- have two sets of postcards 50 years apart and have students discuss how / why things have changed and what has stayed the same.  Since postcards are so accessible to kids it would be easy to also do themed postcards -- architecture, women's roles, etc.

[Jess Meyer]

This image is showing foreigners posing with two Chinese people.  The body language and facial expressions are relaxed and friendly.  Red, as always, is a color that appears on the text, the tractors and one of the guest's clothing.  The tractor is interesting -- I cannot tell if the Chinese people are purchasing the tractors or showing them off.  I would assume this was during the period of the four modernizations because of the presence of the tractors and of the foreigners.

[Jess Meyer]

I really appreciated the list of themes commonly seen in Japanese movies.  Since I teach world history, I would like to have my students use the theme of "he tensions between duty/obligation (giro) and human emotion (ninjo)" to analyze the historical context and social implications of "Grave of the Flies" and "Gojira".  Both movies are excellent examples of changing perspectives.  (Grave of the Fireflies is about children in Japan at the end of WWII and Gojira is about the implications of atomic power in the world.)  I think these movies would be very accessible to my students as well as allowing room for analysis.

 

[Jess Meyer]

Honestly I had no idea that North Korea even had a film industry besides documentaries.  I have so many films to watch now!  I think the cartoons would be the most accessible to my students.  Taking a North Korean cartoon and comparing it to a WWII cartoon ("The Ducktators" from Warner Bros or “der Fuehrer’s Face,” from Disney) would let students analyze animation can be used as a tool for persuasion.

 

[Jess Meyer]

I found the propaganda cartoons / posters we looked at fascinating.  My students and I already look at propaganda from the Soviet Union so I would like them to do a comparative activity between the posters from the Soviet period and the Mao period to see what similarities and differences they can see.  (To add even more dimension I could have the students then look at Cuban and North Korean posters and look for the influences of China & Soviet art in how those revolutions / regimes are portrayed as well.  Students could look for the changes and continuities in how communist regimes portray themselves through the twentieth century.)

 

[Jess Meyer]

My name is Jess Meyer.  I teach World History / World History AP in San Marcos, TX.  I'm extremely excited to learn more about the visual culture to take back to my kids. 

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