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Jonathan Tam“China is a celestial kingdom that doesn’t need help from the outside” is the quote that resonated with me, namely because I feel as though this attitude was greatly expressed to the outside world. When the British wanted to open trade lines to China, a request was made by the Chenlong emperor for the British to kowtow to him. I would definitely consider it pride that led to the turmoil that would follow after the Chenlong emperor’s death, but this political attitude that was expressed to the outside world certainly made it worse.
Jonathan TamHaving grown up in urban settings for most of my life (New York and Los Angeles), I have always been intrigued by rural life. But, when Dube shared information on Uyghurs and their nomadic lifestyle across central / west China, it was certainly even more intriguing to hear about the role of islam in China. Where the lens tends to be more so on the happenings of east China, the mixture of culture occurring in places like Xinjiang with mongols and eurasians seems to be far from the mixture of culture faced in the east. I’m certainly left very curious as to how aspects like food, politics, and language have evolved in this region.
Jonathan TamAmong all the information in the readings, the information I found most interesting was the emerging role of students at the decline of the Qing dynasty. Many were followers of Sun Yatsen’s teaching in countries like Japan, using their education in those areas to teach the successes of reformation. Some of the articles even go so far as to say that Sun Yatsen’s education was influential through his time in London. Hearing much of this for the first time, I definitely thought that the debate really humanized the experience and the voice of people because those same voices are very much present in our country today. There is American interest in rebelling or reforming or maintaining the status quo and those voices were resonated through the debate.
Jonathan TamWe the Workers was definitely an interesting look into the emerging role of advocacy and unions in China. It was interesting to juxtapose the emergency of unions in China to how well established they are in the United States to the point where bargaining and dictating of things like teacher contracts can occur. I really appreciated Han Dongfang’s discussion of the film’s purpose as well as his approach to worker’s rights as a social justice issue that our country has had a long history facing.
Jonathan TamI really appreciated Kurashige's untold perspective from the view of politics because it really revealed the fickle nature of those in power in America as well as how many lives were affected. The narrative of Chester H. Rowell and his perception change during World War 1 of Asian Americans brought about a new wave of published materials that affected American citizens. This was seen further in Seward, Hoar, Gompers, Roosevelt and Phelan - who each held a very influential perspective on the policies that would go onto shape Asian American lives. There is a huge parallel to what is going on today with latino americans in our country and you can almost see the same wheels turning and the same publications creating their stories to decide the lives of these people.
Jonathan TamThe nature of South Koreas politics since 1945 was interesting to hear about from Dr. Kim. I really appreciated seeing the face to the country through the leaders it has elected. When Dr. Kim shared about Roh Moo-hyun and his suicide or the unification desires of Moon Jae-in, the values became ever present of the relatively young country and I saw a lot of parallels to the history of the United States. I don't think that many students get the opportunity to hear the narratives of east asian political leaders and to humanize these countries would be a great experience for my students.
Jonathan TamYang Gensi was a soldier in the People's Republic of China during hte time of the Korean War. He was born as a peasant and sought revenge against the wealthy, which prompted his membership in the Communist Party. While protecting a strategic position in Communist North Korea against the Capitalist South Koreans, Yang Gensi withstood multiple waves of attack until he and two older soldiers were left. Out of ammo, Yang Gensi jumped towards a group of American soldiers with a satchel pack of explosives (depicted in the picture). He is regarded as a super hero by the Chinese government and a park was built in his name, hence the caption "the forever hero." The depiction on the card shows him charging valliantly against the enemy in a heroic stance with the explosives in his hands.
Jonathan TamI was unfamiliar with the events in Japan immediately World War 2, so it was insightful to read about the fate of Japanese people in the years after the war. Some were greeted with slavery and others were greeted with addiction. One of the most insightful aspects of the events that followed in Japan was certainly how Britain and the United States began to plot against the spread of communism in the East. It seems as though much of the policies aimed to destroy the influence of socialism and communism in particular rather truly restore stability to Japan.
Jonathan TamI was very familiar with the systems involved during the Tokugawa Order, but the foreign policy was something very insightful and refreshing to look through again. I had known that the Japanese were very resistant towards foreign nations, but to see how far nations pushed to test Japan's boundaries was very interesting. It definitely paints countries like Britain and even the United States in a much darker light, and exposes the greed and inaction by everyone involved. In a later sequence of the revolution, it describes how the Americans were interested in trade and went to lengths to display their dominance and power to attract the Japanese. The Japanese had overturned centuries of foreign isolation as a result and this resulted in the destruction of the Shogun. As politics spiraled out of control, the text shares how much of the Japanese population remained bystanders, which gridlocked any progress. Opening trade without a clear understanding of value also placed the Japanese at a tremendous disadvantage, losing value in gold / crop and other commodities. I found this pretty saddening to read, but also insightful.
Jonathan TamI'm in the situation of doing the readings after the seminar, which actually had a tremendous amount of merit when it came to reading When My name was Keoko. My knowledge of Korean-Japanese relations was very limited, but I felt a lot of empathy towards the characters of the story thanks to the historical context (the invasion, the olympics, etc.) that was provided. I think that the anecdote will resonate with students. The story begins with how a young girl navitages through her family, which is something a lot of teenagers can relate to - navigating how they talk to their parents, how they get back home without getting in trouble, where to go for chisme (gossip). But where the story turns is with the introduction of a a huge change to the korean community with the japanese and I think that many latino-americans can feel empathetic towards the sitaution based on the socio-political and economic changes occuring within our country. I really appreciate this reading and I think I can use it with my students.
Jonathan TamMy undergraduate degree is in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Environmental Sciences with a focus in Applied Mathematics. I once had the pleasure attending a lecture at UCLA by a chinese physicist who explained the plan he had to create clouds in china. His goal was to fire canonballs into the sky that would shatter and create particles that clouds would form by. As students to a guest lecture, we didn't say much but I remember talking with friends after the lecture hall about how crazy that idea was. He returned a few months later to report that most of the canonballs didn't shatter and ended up destroying houses and hurting people on the way down. This must've been in 2013, but something I knew even as early as then is that the Chinese pollution problem is well out of control and even the most drastic solutions are being considered at this point. Having seen the data on this, it's near impossible to anthropologically solve these things. Nature will run its course and reach stability over the next thousands to millions of years, but at this point, the only thing that anthropoligical measure can do is really just neutralize or maintain it at its particular levels.. Carbon neutralize. Pollutant neutralize. Ozone neutralize.
Jonathan TamI had an interesting thought a few days ago as I was riding the bus home and I noticed how many advertisements there were for television shows involving families and family development. I saw advertisements for different ethnic families and families from different parts of the country, and I realized how successful our country's media has been in pushing that as a value among citizens in our country. I don’t think I’ve ever seen representatives of our country rally for more birthdays and extended work into retirement. It seems like a very well thought process based on our media and capitalistic values.
Jonathan TamI'm Jonathan Tam. I work with 11th and 12th grade at the School of Social Justice at Miguel Contreras. I like pineapples on pizza.
