[Mario Galindo]

Mario Galindo
East Asia Since 1800
January 3, 2019

Art as Art

East Asia Since 1800 has already been incorporated into the classroom. Since the first session the students in my classes have heard about the course and its many topics. Without specifically saying that I am a lifelong learner and student, the reading, writing, speaking and listening that guide and form my high school activities and lessons say it for me. An effective teacher is a performer of sorts. The subject matter and curriculum need life and genuine curiosity to captivate, then create life long learners. This is the basic goal: to help as many students to find their particular curiosity within Language Arts using as many aspects of East Asia Since 1800 as the overarching structure.

Teaching is an art and the brushstrokes of this unit in essay form delineates the first steps. Like all good storytellers the beginning, middle and end need very careful planning. How a lesson is structured is a story. Most teenagers have some type of knowledge of World War 2. The beginning of our lesson starts there. “What do you know about WW2?” leads to “How did Germany, Italy and Japan become allies?” From there to Pearl Harbor. Beginning, middle and end.

I teach in the Arts School of my High School where documentaries, Visual Thinking Strategies, music and cinematic activities are common, so to begin to fine tune a bit from the brushstrokes here are a couple of specific activities. Taking the first initial question of “What do you know about WW2?” and coupling it with cinema makes a powerful beginning. Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises follows the development and struggle to design and build the best fighter plane for the war. Presenting this topic from the point of view of design as art and love of craft and not adamantly political makes a truly unique beginning where students can create, research and/or design all within a World Literature survey class’s general topics of heroism, society, imperialism, and globalization.

Using propaganda posters from Japan, Italy, Germany and the United States leads into the middle of our story’s “How did Germany, Italy and Japan become allies?” Visual Thinking Strategies allow student inquiry by requiring them use visual evidence to create context through their own questioning. The teacher begins by asking them, “What is going on in this picture?” and then guiding them to focus deeper by asking, “What more can you find?” From the specific student answers the third part of our unit structure organically moves forward.

The scholarly articles from both Japan Society books provide specific Pearl Harbor history to compare and contrast with what the textbook and particular Pearl Harbor documentaries say highlighting the idea that there are multiple sides and views to history which brings us back to the goal of helping build student curiosity. Sampling both the American and Japanese viewpoint in their perspective beginning, middle and end of each particular country’s history sets-up many other possible lessons and activities, while, at the same time, starting in on a new curricular narrative. Another beginning, middle and end to whatever comes next by asking the next initial question: “How does one know whose story is true?”
 

[Mario Galindo]

Had the opportunity to visit San Diego's Balboa Park for my second Make-up visit. The Museum of Art has an Art of East Asia exhibit highlighting China, Japan, and Korea.

The park is huge with many other museums and goings on. As I walked to the exhibit I found a Japanese Teahouse and display explaining the long tradition that San Diego has had with Japan going back to 1915. One of the earliest Japanese Garden was part of an exposition Panama-California. This initial friendship with Japanese culture continued for years. By the mid fifties the garden and teahouse had closed.

San Diego and Yokohama eventually became sister cities in order to try and reopen the Teahouse and restablish friendship. Not till the late 1970's did definite plans begin. Today it is fully reestablished and, as I passed by, seemed popular with a long lines of people waiting their turn for both the teahouse and garden.

The Art of East Asia exhibit was set up in a way that highlighted each country yet connected them by the East Asia theme. The first piece that caught my attention was an intriguing wooden Japanese sculpture called Flying Apsaras. I learned that figures like this (a woman with flowing long dress and hair) were Buddhist and where seen as heavenly worshippers that accompanied the Buddha.

From Korea the exhibit focused mainly on beautiful animal and organic decoarated pottery and a glazed techinque that Korea mastered called Celadon.

Huge gilded BCE statues of the Buddha were the most impressive pieces from China. The multiple figures dominated the exhibit room demanding your attention.

Along with the attached picture I took more and antcipate using them in class as a way to highlight ancient art.

 

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[Mario Galindo]

One topic I feel I left out from my overall posts (as I review what I have written) was the visual image. This entry and the image you uploaded from the Joker card Mao forced me to remember that within the Cultural Revolution and many of the other historical eras and events of this course, the visual image has been a big part.

As you mention in your post, the saturation of red in this particular image adds meaning, context, and persuasion subtly. Many times the constant, constant visual "subtltie" is just as persuasive as dogmatic speeches. When your mind stops listening your eye keeps adding meaning. The stark red on pristine white in your case. Without the visual image of history something is lost.

This lost history has a memory, though. In our contemporary Los Angeles, at a public school defined by another historical image, this is playing out as I write this. The image is a black and white journalistic view of Robert Kennedy bleeding on the floor of the, then, Ambassador Hotel on Wlishire Boulevard, now, the RFK Learning Complex.

On that school campus a mural with sun rays in the background has flared the Korean community because, they say, the visual image is too much like the Rising Sun flag of imperialist Japan, an image that most history buffs can bring-up from our subtle subconscious instantly (much like the Maoist propaganda). The Korean community wants the mural white washed.

Another visual image comes into play. A second mural on the same campus, this one of Robert Kennedy and by a much more famous artist, Shepard Fairy, again shows the power of history and the visual image. As leverage, Mr. Fairy (no stranger to propaganda and the visual image's impact on humanity) has threatened to white wash his Robert Kennedy mural in support of the expression of the other mural. Sun rays are not exclusive to the Rising Sun flag, he argues. Sun rays as an artistic motif has existed long before. More so, the mural's rays are not even in the same color scheme.

So, subtle or not, history and the memory of history, along with the visual memory of those images continues. Is it still propaganda long after the world has moved on?

[Mario Galindo]

Thanks for the resource--had missed this before.

When I read this piece I finally began to understand what I had heard about and experienced as a kid. Growing up in LA I grew up multiculturally. One of my first neighborhood friends was Nisei. I got to know the family and since we were neighobors got to hear weekly rehearsals from my friend's grandmother, who lived with them. She played a stringed instrument that was a kind of harp that lied flat on the floor while she played and sang hauntingly slow melodies to (I never asked or found-out what the music or instument is called).

Because of my friendship I quickly noticed that there was some kind of animosity when years later more and more Korean people came to Los Angeles. Little comment that my friends mother and aunts would say about Korean people. I understood a bit because the same thing happened when my family made some comment about Central Americans when they started to also come into our worlds more often-- about the same time as when more and more Korean people had migrated to Los Angeles (I grew up near to what is now called Koreatown: it wasn't called that at the time). What I didn't understand (with both the Korean and Central American friction) were the historical and cultural details. "When my Name was Keiko" added a lot more detail to what I had learned since. Reading in the specific POV of an adult remembering back to when they were children clarified this on a personal level I connected to because of my reminiscing.

These same types of details are the aspects that can build specific lessons on culture, ethnicity, history and migration--all topics within the realm of my classroom. Thanx, again, for the resource.

[Mario Galindo]

I am also intested to see how my Generation Z students will resond to the Japanese model of Choose and Focus.

Anytime I mention money of bring up the topic of "Who wants to be rich" I get an automatic focus of about 3-5 minutes. So, this particular Japanese historic phenomenon can come in when reading or discussing change, adaptability, focus, negative to a positive, and set-up particular student chosen topical research.

From there we can tie-in financial literacy like mutual funds versus banking interest, long term versus shorter, and earning/spending habits.

 

[Mario Galindo]

Professor Schaede's lecture make me think about and understand something I had forgot about: specifically what she called the "smiley curve of profits".

Sometime in the late seventies or early eighties, if my memory can be trusted, I watched an interview on television with a Japanese carmaker where he said that the United States would never beat Japan in the autombile market. This comment made a huge impression on me because it is the first time I remember, again, if my memory can be trusted, that I thought about how we Americans where different from the rest of the world. I had started noticing how I was American when I visited family in Mexico and Mexican when I was in the Los Angeles. While I understood the ethicity and crossing the border aspect, the subtlties of culture, race, discrimination, and societal cronyism were just beginning to wake up questions (something that even now, decades later, still fascinate me).

The automaker, who was probably an executive (I remember the suit) said that Japanese made cars for the long run, that they manufactured looking at the big picture of years to come, while American car companies made cars with a short sighted, days, weeks and a tiny picture. I understood that automatically. I remember, now, how this insight guided me for years and years. I was living and doing things for the long run, not for immediate gratification.

All this came back when Professor Schaede drew her IMPORT to MANUFACTURE to EXPORT to $$$$$ chart and explained how this worked for Japan for cars, but also electronics, and had been repeated world wide by other countries. The Choose and Focus aspect of her explanation gave me the missing link of this early lesson. So much so that I passed it on to my entrepreneurial son. And once we begin a new Semester my students will also get the full lesson.

Writing this now I am thinking I should ask for a cut of their first million.

[Mario Galindo]

In Part I of his lecture: Reconciliation, Professor Kubo stated that overcoming the past for Japan and the United States of America was a extremely rare occurence, specifically because, generally speaking, it left a limited enemy/colonizer relationship after Imperialism. This truly intrigued me.

Professor Kubo went on to explain and list many of the posible reasons for this. For example, Japan's signs of Democracy in the 1920's before the overpowering militarism of the 1930's, The Cold War's push to make Japan an ally to help with the USSR, and one of the most striking--American occupation until the Vietnam era and LBJ's return of Okinawa in 1972.

Not till after reading "The 1950s: Pax Americana and Japan's Postwar Resurgence" from Takuya Sasaki and Hirodhi Nakanishi and researching a bit on The Intercept and also reading their article "Japan Made Secret Deals With the NSA That Expanded Global Surveillance" by Ryan Gallagher did I begin to understand why Professor Kubo possibly presented this complex historical period the way he did. And I am truly honered to have had the experience.

To keep this forum-length, as of 2013 American military base Camp Hansen on Okinawa is where, according to the Gallagher's article, mass surveillance, data gathering, and "robust" military working relations continue. Also, in the Sasaki and Nakanishi piece incidents like the "Lucky Dragon" in the early 1950's have fueled the what-really-is-the-treaty-agreed-upon that Japan and the US have had/have since the very successful surprise Pearl Harbor attack?

[Mario Galindo]

When Professor Dube mentioned the idea of Socialism with Chinese charcteristics many questions I had about contemporay China were thawed. The idea that Lenin's thought was still essential while Marx's removed, for example.

Having a class consciousness and a type of "primative democracy" where, in order to work, certain individuals retained privilege and power, makes sense to the embrassed American lifestyle while still firewalling the national internet.

Another enlightening idea was the example of pragmatism where a black cat and a white cat are the same. . . as long as they both catch mice, that is.

Whatever it takes as long as it's for the "good" of the country. There are plenty of mice to spare.

[Mario Galindo]

Yeah. This session gave me a lot to ruminate. I was a Creative Writing major and have a truly personal connection with literature. I had very little knowledge of East Asian literature with the exception of Haruki Murakami before this course. I had always been fascinated with the storytelling of Japanese films, including adult anime, so getting a primer on "serious" literature has opened up another literary vein to explore for me.

When Professor Miyake kept asking if anyone had read this piece or that one and no one answered I felt bad, especially since I had read a few of the short stories, but kept silent because I wanted to hear someone else's interpretation. I got enough, though from her energetic presentation of the work.

Since, I have done a bit of research, which, as I mentioned, will keep me busy for years to come. So, in a way, it was better: as a true teacher she did her job by exposing the topic and making me work for my own answers.

[Mario Galindo]

Studio Ponoc, Ghibli, Miyasaki, Kawajiri and finally Haruki Murakami have taught me about Japanese storytelling: unique and surprisingly original, something implacable and distinguishing in the presentation and characterization, settings that magically pull one in to a foreign existence, and, at the same time, are universal—yet, definitely Japanese.

Now, newly introduced to Tanizaki Junichiro, I know that this goes back at least to the early 20th Century. “The Tattooer” fits snuggly within this story world I’ve experienced since my introduction to it decades ago. Maybe part of the mystique is the dark side of humanity, the non moralistic approach to story. There is a natural realism right along side a surreal, Magic Realism-ness, to borrow a literary term usually not applied to East Asian, that seems to know that humanity has an evil that forces the good to have meaning. The clichéd idea that one needs “bad” to appreciate, and even strive for “good” is not cliché at all.

In the sense of “The Tattooer” because all was peaceful and abundant, the vain pleasure of adding color to our skin, gives the evil pleasure of seeing others suffer truer meaning. From leisure and prosperity the mind can wander to places where it might not have otherwise if poverty and struggle took our waking existence. And, now that I am analyzing, this seems to  be a unifying element. Whether it is an evil witch or an underworld crime boss, a familial curse or a concubine that bring us to this narrative place, it is natural, compelling, and real. And because of that powerful.

Now. How can I use this in the classroom? Easy. Tattoos, or “ink” in the vernacular, has been around for centuries. People have an evil side and that is normal. Why do some of us have milk and cookies for dessert and others of us chose other things? Is there anything wrong with choosing one or the other? And that’s just for the Freshmen.

[Mario Galindo]

From this session the one fascinating thing was how the influence of the West in many ways made East Asia what it became (and is now in the 21st century). I was completely ignorant of this: how studying the West, studying its culture, imperialistic tendencies, at its schools, and, in a way, regurgitating back what they learned, made East Asia successful in war, trade, and cultural influence. An almost perefect appropriation by being excellent students. A frightenenly historic example of "reaping what they sow" and "careful what you ask for" melded into one for the West a few decades in the making. Incredible! 

[Mario Galindo]

I have seen the black and white footage for decades. The enormous mushroom clouds, the Zeros dropping blasts that lifted debris and grey smoke into the lens of documentarian’s cameras. FDR at the dais “infamous” and having “nothing to fear”. Yet, after all that, I still had no clue of the idiosyncratic details of any of it.

After reading “The Holding of US-Japan Negotiations” by Moriyama Atsushi I still gave no clue. People do what they do for their own reasons, and the more one knows of these reasons, the more difficult it is to understand humanity. The historical accounts and expert analysis make it clear that war, politics and power are unpredictably human and unforgiving for both sides.

A third side is the presentation of history and all its nebulousness to students. The right/wrong, black and white world of dilemma-less existence leaves the class discussion in a truly difficult space of insecurity and potentially inevitable fear of the world. How can people—human beings—behave in this way?

After years of teaching dogmatic be-good-do-the-right-thing presentation it feels as if it is almost better to not know—as an adult I mean. How must it feel like as a 21st Century student beginning life?

I have always been intrigued by history. Why? I don’t know. This post and experiencing “East Asia after 1800” has forced me to ask myself this question on a deeper, almost philosophocal, sense. Am I placing myself in an nonexistent world were my flash forward privilege makes me hindsight safe? Am I grateful in knowing that if I was born 100 years before I would not be writing this because of all kinds of frighteningly horrific scenarios?

Either way, what do Pearl Harbor and Japanese-US relations mean to our Trump era, immigrant bashing, Pop Culture obsessed existence? While I can try to justify, or make some sense of my answers, I really have no clue. As a lover of history I am grateful for knowing, yet . . .

I really have no clue.

[Mario Galindo]

Couldn't make the Saturday Sessions so this is based on solely reading and viewing without the help of the morning and afternoon lectures so here goes. . .

In Orwells 1984 Prolefeed is the version of the news that is manufactered to keep the proleteriat mind on orthodoxy. The article on how Chairman Mao mysticly cured the ailing peasant class martyr is just that.

From saying to saying the woman is saved from the bourgeois medical establishment that denied her medical care for years. Is it because I am reading this 50 years in the future that this seems so contrived and laughable? Or is this solely progaganda to cheer on the already converted masses?

Also, as I watched the thousands of Middle and High School students marching in the short videos and read excerpts from speeches on revolution I could not find specifics or details of what they were changing? All I read was slogan after slogan. Out with the old and in with the new! Imperialism was bad! Afro Americans in the US are second hand citizens because of capitalism! 

Again, is this the point?

[Mario Galindo]

I prefer to experience a work of art with as little known as possible. Backstory, history, gender, political affiliation, and other signifiers all add context that in a way buffers the art from speaking without this support. For my taste, good  art should work without any of this help initially. After, particular context only elevates the artist’s work, and, if truly great, may take it to possible masterpiece status. 

 

I approached “Diary of a Madman” this way. All I knew is that it was first published in the early 20th Century and that according to Mr. Dube’s description it was a famous Chinese story.

 

Once into a few of the short sections I thought of Kafka. This paranoid voice convinced that everyone was in on his demise. Having a long history with short fiction and many translations I soon after wondered how much the  translation has added to the flow and style of the prose. It felt contemporary with an ease that brought me right into the story while staying in the setting’s early 20th Century. It also reminded me of Dostoevsky.

 

Once the theme of cannibalism surprisingly came in it felt right and not out of place. From Kafka and Dostoevsky I thought about Aesop and Swift using satire and parable as a means to their purpose. The powerful “them”—even his older brother and the town’s kids. How could they be as they are? Their parents must have taught them. How else could they not be human beings like myself? All of it worked and kept me reading on. 

 

This is when “East Asia after 1800” came in. I noticed the influence of Western culture: evolution, the feeling of primitive versus modern peoples, the old world up against a new changing world. The footnote that slicing a piece of your own flesh to be eaten in reverence to parents quickly brought Murakami to mind, taking me to the end of we must fight for change. The we can be better—should be better tone naturally politicized the ending. A genuine plea for change. The story seemed to ask, How can we not fight for change in China?

 

Not that I’ve read without any context, the other readings hopefully will take Lu Xun to masterpiece status.

[Mario Galindo]

I checked three or four maps online to re-count the number of borders China shares with other countries like we did in class a couple sessions back and I counted three different totals. Not only that, as I clicked for another map, a phishing virus temporary froze my computer as a voice repeated that my computer had been locked for security reasons. My spinning rainbow wheel on my Mac was the only icon that moved on the screen. Do not try to restart your computer or the detected virus will spread, the voice said. Call for support right away.

After the sixth or seventh repeat of the message one of my sons yells, "Don't fall for it, Dad!" All I can think is is this Chinese phishing? I couldn't restart or shut down. I tried to force quit--nothing! I unplugged the CPU and, after a few minutes, things were back to normal. I stayed away from another East Asia map search after that.

Just as China influences the countries it borders as well as the whole world, I thought how much do other countries influence China. We discussed in class how many things from American culture become popular and profitable: Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds. The interlationships between countries has always been interesting to me. How cross fermentation of cultures creates something new. It so happened that The Fowler museum had an exhibition called Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives which touches on this particular topic.

The way the exhibit explains it "... it explores the roles that art plays in creating meaning and defining purpose for people across the globe". I decided to explore and take in each room of the exhibit and if something seemed East Asian in any way to me I would go up and verify my find. I walked up to three pieces and was three for three.

The first artwork was a hand puppet called The Blind Schloar from Taiwan. The puppet is striking with an oversized bright yellow head and red-ruby, bright lips. Across, up, and over the entire face there is writing. I learned that the writing on the puppet's face was a passage from a prerevolutionary texbook used in China called Book of Three Character Phrases. Though the card details say the artwork is from early to mid 20th Century it looks contemporary in design. Something that in a life sized version would easily be part of a Cirque Du Soleil show on the Vegas Strip. So, the question? Taiwanese, Chinese, or Hong Kong and Macau? We havent covered too much on Hong Kong or Macau, so I am not sure. From what I do know and see on the art itself, it seems that England and Portugal could also be at play?

The next piece I identified as East Asian was from Northern Luzon, Phillipines. The Ifugao people created a beautiful ceramic jar of classic dark blue on white, that until my visit to the museum, I thought was unique to Chinese style. Vine leaves cover the entire jar up to the rim where the pattern ends and is replaced with two single leaves side by side, hash markings symetrically scattered on either side of the leaves. Once I looked closer I realized there were four metal heads attached to the top part of the jar just as the vines begin. The Phillipines have come up in disussion, but again, I don't know the intimate relationships (if any) with China. More questions than answers learned on this artwork, which is in my experience just as much of the learning process than getting a concrete answer. Maybe as a sign of status? Comparable politics? Is that the Chinese/Phillipine intersection? What I do know is the Spanish influence on the Phillipines, and how both negative and positive has impacted their present cultural identity. So, another country comes into the posible Chinese influence--Spain. Is their a Chinese/Spanish intersection?

Ending my East Asian journey I walked up to the Buddha in a beautiful gilded laquer from 17th Century Myanmar, or as it was called when this impressive work of art was created, Burma. The idol was made of wood for a Theravada Buddhist temple. I found out that Theravada means "Doctrine of the Elders" and that it's origin is Indian. Also that in our time, now, this practice is the predominant school of Buddhism in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. This made me think about the similarities and differences between Buddhism? Also, which way was the major influence on Buddhism in China? From what we have learned so far, it would seem that China has the influencial presence, yet this "intersection" of faith has multiple cultures and countries since at least the 17th century. So, again more questions than answers for me. We also touched on Tibet and it's historical importance to China and Buddhism, so another country? Does Tibet have a similar placement in the "one China" policy like Taiwan? Much learning, yet.

As I left the museum I noticed a woman waiting right out side the exit. Soon after, a few students came up, notebooks and pencils in hand. The woman welcomed them into the exhibit. Sounds like an extra credit activity opportunity for my students as well.

 

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