[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I guess a lot of my questions here at the end focus on the future. I firmly believe that people will get to a point where enough is enough and they will rebel and create a 'better' government. Hello Iran. I'm not sure you, Professor, can answer some of these but I'd like to pick your brain. 

How much do we know for a fact goes on in North Korea? How much do the people know? Do Koreans really want a unified country? Does it matter at this point or in the next generation or after? My 16 year old Korean American student, it was her grandparents who immigrated here from Korea...what happens when all those people are gone?

Hong Kong....what is happening these days? We had this massive protests and then it like fell off the radar? 

Japan - population decline. What are they doing to try and remedy the fact they are basically going extinct? 

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I think it is interesting you are comparing the two protests, I don't really see them as the same. The cultural values both eastern and western play a huge role in both these protests, plus the anti-communist bias the west has when covering anything communist related. The western value of individualism bite us in the butt quick hard during the pandemic since many clearly don't care about public health until it is their health and they don't want a government mandating what they can and cannot do with their body *cough*. Plus of course anything western is going to be anti-communist! I usually use Ho Chi Minh as an example in my classes because when you really study Ho Chi Minh, he wanted independence for his country and he would do what was necessary to get it. The US had the chance to help but the US government chose imperialism instead. We got over our anti-communist sentiment a little bit when it comes to trade but politically? No. 

I know the catelyst for the protests in China are about the Zero Covid policy but I don't think the policies they are protesting are the same level as many lock downs in the west. I'm not sure what your life was like during Lock Down but I could still walk out my front door, and run errands I just had to wear a mask and couldn't eat in a resturant. 

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I have two ideas with this one. One is to discuss the history of China and how China was a major dominating force and then fell behind. It isn’t a country with a relatively short history like the United States. China as a state has had a golden age and then declined but it like the memory of it as a people is still very much there. China today recognizes what steps they must take to be competitive in a globalized world, kind of like Japan after the Meiji restoration.

The other idea I have is more of a micro level analysis. For a person with a family to feel secure and prosperous what do they need? Necessities? A comfortable life? This might be a hot take, but I can compare it to what we are seeing in the younger generations here in the US. Where many younger adults are having to put off major life goals because they don’t have the means to take them on like buying a house and starting a family. We could even wrap it around to what policies would help improve our own population decline.

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I think this is an interesting topic for discussion in both a history class or a geography class. I think I would probably open with asking students where they dream of living when they grow up. We live in Kansas so none of them think they will stay here. Since many Americans don’t even consider the idea of the government regulating where they can and cannot live it would be a good discussion. We could research other policies similar like work visas or school visas that are similar but different.

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

One of the things that I have done before, especially when discussing why places like Russia and China go communist, is to discuss the system. The history behind both these countries is similar in that they come from centuries of (mostly) absolute monarchy and have much of their population that lives in relative poverty. We compare it to the United States and discuss what would happen to a lot of people in the US if we were to shift to a communist regime. China has done something that the Soviet Union couldn’t (?) or chose not to, China evolved. Is it Marx’s idea of true communism where there will be no need for a government? No, but it continues to work well enough. One of the pitfalls of democracy, which we are experiencing, is majority rules which doesn’t necessarily lead to the best or most utilitarian outcome for society. To be fair there are many instances of the same thing in authoritarian governments; however, those responsible for that decision is limited.  

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I was thinking about Denis’s question about the memory gap regarding the Vietnam war vs. the Korean war. I took a class over the Vietnam war in college and the televised part of it was a large part of my undergrad research.  If you think about the time period that the Korean war happens it…it is kind of an awkward time. It isn’t that long after WWII, when our soldiers were seen as heroes fighting the evils of fascism. And then there was the Korea war, which was fighting the evils of communism, but was over shadowed by the conflicts around it.

Historically, not necessarily at the time, Vietnam is see as more of war against imperialism than rather than furthering the goals of communism. If you ever read much about Ho Chi Minh, he wanted a country of his own people without the overlord of foreign imperialism. Check out the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence (Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam). Having read a fair bit about Ho Chi Minh, I think the help he accepted from the communists was a means to an end. He had asked the US but Truman said no… Plus the American people are disillusioned with Vietnam. Being able to see the horrors of war on your own TV set every evening…Compare it to today’s footage of Ukraine. With the introduction of smart phones and social media, warfare we are seeing today is a whole other image.

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

What would the human rights violations under Chun Doo Hwan be comparable to? Cultural Revolution in China? Nazis in Germany? The ‘re-education camps’ seem a little like the Cultural revolution? Was there and ideology attached to it or what was it for?

How does the conservatives in Korea compare with conservatives here in the us?

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

It is interesting to me that Korea seems more open to accepting Catholicism. When Catholicism is introduced into Japan and China, the Japanese eventually don’t like it and try to eradicate it, and the Chinese, although not accepting really, it doesn’t really take off. Professor Jung-Kim discussed what made it an attractive alternative but I’m just curious as to why Catholic missionaries seem to have had more success despite the cultural similarities to their neighbors?

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I always find learning about Korea to be fascinating! I love Professor Jung-Kim’s lectures and how Professor Jung-Kim addresses the roles of women in history and how women are impacted. I find it interesting that Korea is referred to as a “bastion of civilization” and the “hermit kingdom” in another source. I think many people know way less about Korea than either China or Japan. If I ask my students what they know about Korea…they might know about the Korean war in the 1950s or ….”the Interview”… It many general knowledge conversations about Korea is batted around as a tributary state to China and then a colony of Japan and little else.

Thinking about how I could use this in my own classroom, in AP World history, we teach about resistance movements to colonization. The Korean focus on strengthening their culture is an interesting and unique form of resistance that is different from some of the other examples we use.

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

From some of the reading and what I know about Communist China (and comparison with Communist Russia) I think one of their priorities is showing the world they can. Increasing production of agricultural goods is one, to meet the demands of their LARGE population. There is an interesting section on the Great Leap forward in the book The Edible History of Humanity that looks specifically at the failures of the policy but how most of Mao’s advisors were afraid to tell him it was a failure.  

A question I have from reading these documents is about nationalism. As a whole has there been a real popularly supported nationalist movement in China? Is there a national culture? I know China is technically multiethnic but do they see themselves as that?

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

Both Nationalists and Communists have the same idea of protecting China from outside forces but also of Chinese fighting spirit in resisting outside forces as well. From the documents it is clear that both sides through their plan was the best thing for China. In terms of country development, it is like China grappling with what it wants or should become after centuries of a monarchy. Newly forming governments often have factions that can’t exactly decide on what they should like the Federalists and Anti-federalists in US history.

I think it is interesting the Communist source from 1937 discusses democracy within the party, “…true democratic spirit is inseparable from the communist morality of selflessness…”

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I found the reading about Qiu Jin SUPER interesting. I had NO idea who she was before I started reading it but I couldn't stop reading it was so intriguing. 

I really enjoyed the analysis in this article because it can be applied in any culture. I kept thinking about the debate here in America about Civil War era statues and arguments for “cultural heritage”. Having grown up in the South, I’ve seen and heard people make that argument before…but as a historian and a history teacher I make sure to talk to students about the motives behind immortalizing someone. I think the romanticism that grew in the early to mid 20^th century with the American civil war is similar some of the symbolic use of Qiu Jin later in Chinese history. It isn’t necessarily her or what she did but her as a symbol. We see that sort of thing all over history. Oliver Cromwell for instance is a hero in English history as the Protector of the Republic….but in Irish history he is known for genocide. Because of that idea, I liked the author’s approach to analyzing Qiu Jin’s “afterlife” and how she was used by different sides at different times as a symbol.

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

I really like the collection from the Visualizing Culture, the Image gallery attached with the "Throwing off Asia. It's a really good collection that shows Japanese imperialism after the Meiji restoration. In my AP World Class, we usually compare China and Japan around the turn of the 20th century and what made Japan more successful in the long run than China. The visual narrative is great too it is very succinct with its explanation and the accompanying visuals. The visuals, I think, do a good job of showing that honoring traditions but also needing to break away with the past during the Meiji era.

I’m also really glad to find that there is an online Tokyo National Museum.

 

My questions are:

1. How did they go about modernizing? What exactly was their plan?

2. Resistance to modernization?   

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

Hi, I'm Molly Cowan-Johnson. I teach outside of Kansas City on the Kansas side. I teach, this year, AP World History, Modern World history, Sociology, and World Geography. Outside of school I'm a bagpiper and an avid traveler, covid put a damper on my globe-trotting plans for a couple years. I travel with students. I took a group to Japan in 2018 and a group to Peru in 2019. We have another trip planned to Japan next summer. My husband's name is Clay, he's a professional bass player and we have two corgis and a basset hound. 

This is my 2nd USC US-China institute seminar. I took the East Asia: Origins to 1800 last spring and now I'm back for more. My specialty in undergrad was British history and there wasn't a lot of other options besides US history so my goal taking these seminars is to learn a more comprehensive history about East Asia. I've read a lot primarily about Japan and the Mongols. I really enjoyed learning more about Korea in the last seminar. I look forward to learning more in this seminar.

[Molly Cowan Johnson]

In my World history class we start at 1200 CE and one of the things we try to point out is how irrelevant Europe is at that point. Our western educated students think Europe has been the leader of civilization forever. Using data that illustrates the economic impact of the Industrial Revolution but also shows the might at China was prior to the Industrial Revolution. It also opens a door to discuss imperialism and the weakening of the Chinese state leading into the 20^th century. Then you could ask students what China might have been like if they had progressed at the same rate as Europe.

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