[Xiaowei Hunt]

 

I just completed my curriculum project and feel that I have learned so much from the seminar. I look forward to seeing all these beautiful educators again at another opportunity! 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Before going to USC for seminar on Gender and Generation in East Asia, I learned that there would be new changes to AP Chinese Language and Culture exam starting fall 2019 with these six themes: 1) Families in Different Societies; 2) The Influences of Language and Culture on Identity; 3) Influence of Beauty and Arts; 4) How Science and Technology Affect Our Lives; 5) Factors that impact the Quality of Life; 6) Environmental, Political and Societal Challenges. I was thinking and even struggling with what to do in teaching my students the what, the why, and the how for the new themes in my AP Chinese classroom. It was to my relief  that the seminar at USC's China-U.S. Institute shed some light on my curriculum and lesson planning. 

I come up with some ideas I can use for my AP Chinese class:

For the theme of “Families in Different Societies” in my AP Chinese class, I could introduce Ban Zhao’s “old standards” for women in simple Chinese (my students may have difficulty reading Ban Zhao’s  original Chinese text) about good women being) as 1) 不自大derived from 卑弱; 2) 先人后己(putting others before oneself) as good women such as Ban Zhao herself never lived a life of her own(i.e., selfless devotion to her family and emperor). However, Ban Zhao’s traditional “old standards” have changed over dynasties to today’s “hot mom standards” being “Women holding half the sky” and they can “be graceful in the living room, be skillful in the kitchen, kill a Trojan virus in their computer, find ways to decode stuff, drive a car, buy a decent house, win in battle with husband’s mistress and beat off a rascal(上得了厅堂，下得了厨房，杀得了木马，翻得了围墙，开得起汽车，买得起洋房，斗得过小三，打得过流氓). 

 

For the theme of “Environmental, Political and Societal Challenges” in my AP Chinese, I could show the students “Wondering Earth 流浪地球 Liúlàng dìqiú” with subtitles in Chinese and Engish. I could design my lessons around this movie for global warming causing the people of Earth having to build giant thrusters to move the planet out of orbit and sail to a new star system. After 2,500 years, young people continue the fight for everyone's survival. I can also combine the recent Shanghai trash sorting to lead my students to reading, speaking and discussing what Chinese people are currently doing for environmental protection. 

For the theme of “Influence of Beauty and Art” in my AP Chinese class, I could design activities that allow comparison and contrast of what makes a Chinese woman and Korean woman beautiful from ancient times to modern times, such as from ancient foot binding to contemporary plastic surgery. 

 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

At our visit to the Korean Cultural Center, I asked the docent a question about plastic surgery in South Korea and I was surprised she told us that subway announcers tell where the cosmetic surgery centers are. She also said that men in Korea also do cosmetic surgery. I wonder why this is so. I may ask my students questions in Chinese and they will answer or discuss them in the target language---Chinese. This would be a very interesting topic. I am forming some questions for discussion now:

1.  What makes a Korean woman beautiful?

2.   Why has South Korea become capital of plastic surgery?

3.   Where can you get information about plastic surgery in Seoul? (Internet, Magazine, Friend or subway?)

4.   Why is appearance so important in South Korea? 

I am glad I asked questions like a student because it pushed for thinking and more research. I am going to use the same method to encourage/require my students to ask questions in class. 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Teaching with Primary Sources has been an effective way in many classrooms for many teachers. Years ago I took an online class focusing on this strategy. The visit to the Japanese American National Museum on 8/9/19 once again reminds me of the many pictures I saw at the museum that can be used in my own Chinese classroom. I have the pictures I selected attached here and explain how I will use them in my class. 

The three pictures are:

Early Japanese School in the U.S. 

U.S. Government Apologized

Every Dog (No Distinction of Colors) Has His Day

 

I will conduct an “I see, I think and I wonder” activity to stimulate students’ mind in looking at Japanese American life in the first part of the 20^thcentury. I think this activity can engage students in a lively discussion and push for their critical thinking. 

Attachments:

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[Xiaowei Hunt]

In my mobile phone I still have a picture of me standing in front of the "7 Traveling Themes in Korea recommended from BTOB" poster. I am glad Lin Kuang, our amazing colleague living in LA, took that picture for me(see attached). 

After coming back to my classroom, I did some research online about BTOB whom I really did not know anything about before the field trip. I now know BTOB is an acronym for Born to Beat) is a South Korean boy band formed in 2012 by Cube Entertainment. They are famous K-pop singers with "Insane"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmuHZa6DQOc) and "Tell Me" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y1pKXf94VA) being most popular. On the poster they recommend me to take a trip to PyeongChang for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Wow! What an eye-opener for me! Even though I am Asian, I don’t know much about Korean language and culture. Now knowing a little about the BTOB may become the start of my Korean learning journey as I am always interested in learning languages of all countries and ethnic groups. To the students in my classroom, I can ask them to compare in the target language (Chinese) TF Boys from China, Backstreet Boys from America, BTOB from South Korea, in terms of the singers’ ages, time periods they become famous, foods they enjoy, hobbies they have, language in which they speak and sing and the song appreciation in themes and style.

Attachments:

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[Xiaowei Hunt]

Professor Tran’s lecture and discussion today brought to my mind three feminists in the early 20^thcentury in China: Qiu Jin, He Zhen and Ding Ling.

I would like to talk about what they have to do with my Chinese classes:

For Chinese Level 1 class, I can introduce their name, their birthday and their family, including their parents, children or husband. For Chinese Level 2 students, I can talk about what these three famous women liked to do (writing), countries they traveled to and why. For my Level 3 and AP Chinese students, I can show them movie of

Qiu Jin at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7GjmO_SwMand ask them to describe the movie and explain its significance. 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

My response is based on the Primary Source Readings.pdf. Another surprise! Even though I had lived in China for 36 years before I moved to the United States, I have never heard of or read anything by He Zhen until today. After Professor Tran's detailed analysis of He Zhen's communist idea and my reading of the Primary Source Readings.pdf, I was totally at awe for the young and brave He Zhen. The message she wrote for the women at that time was simple, inspiring, provoking and uplifting. I can't help quoting her words here "If every single woman understands nothing is more evil than money, and they all unite together to cooperate with men to utterly overthrow the rich and powerful and then abolish money, then absolutely nothing will be allowed for individuals to own privately. Everything from foods to clothes and tools will be put in a place where people---men and women alike, as long as they perform a little labor, can take however much of whatever they want just like taking water from the ocean. This is called communism.” I would have been knocked awake to her call if I had lived at her time! 

 

Question: How come Mao Zedong and other early Chinese communist party members not put or recommend He Zhen’s essay as selected reading in k-12 Chinese language textbook?

 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Joy,

Thanks for narrating the story. I am clearer about what happened in the 孟母三迁story now. Your students are hilarious with their questions. I think that story was so ancient that a new version of 孟母三迁should be written. It occurs to me that we may ask our students to rewrite the story, change where Mencius and his mother live, change all three places the mother and the son move to and given reasons. Guess what? We might get our students very creative. Just a thought about what we can do in our classroom with what we learn here. 

---Xiaowei 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Lin,

Thanks for posting the question we discussed in the morning today. Remember we both tried to translate Professor Wang's title slide "What Makes a Chinese Women Beautiful? (什么构造中国女性之美？) into Chinese this morning? 

I agree that the qualifications of a beautiful woman are virtue, talent and beauty. Specifically a beautiful woman educates her child and helps her husband (相夫教子); she keeps the family life in harmony with her witty words and ways of handling situations; and she makes herself and family members look good and neat. I also agree that nowadays women in China are still deeply influenced by the three qualifications. In addition, I can’t agree more that a beautiful woman should have a career, which means she should be financially independent, so independence is another qualification for a beautiful woman.

 

Like you, I am also impressed with the picture on one of Professor Wang's slides with these words " Man is for relying on, so he should be liable; woman is for love, so she should be lovable!” How heart-warming it is!

 

---Xiaowei 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

 

Hi Frederic, 

You wrote "as teachers we don't throw away "apples" with worms (the metaphor referenced in the story) but, rather, work to cut the worm out." I can't agree with you more. I feel the You Jin’s novels were selected just for us teachers as they really come in handy before 2019 school year starts. When a student's behavior is a bit "unique", we really need to go to the bottom of what happed. In the past in a workshop I attended, a presenter told a group of teachers about dealing with inevitable "bad apples" in baskets with "Just throw them away since you can't do anything about them." Comparing the strategies You Jin   wrote in her other novels selected for this workshop like "The Boy with Golden Hair" and "Pets", we know that we really should not throw away "bad apples"; instead, we should work to cut out the bad parts only. 

 

Xiaowei 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

"Pets" by You Jin, a famous Singaporean writer gave me happy surprise! I am very surprised that Madame Tham was depicted as a teacher who won over Wen Li, a “difficult” student who loathes all her past Chinese language teachers who thought “Wen Li is utterly worthless. She doesn't pay attention in class and her homework is a total mess. When I spoke to her, her attitude couldn't have been worse. She's hopeless, a hard nut to crack”. However, Madame Tham makes connection with Wen Li through giving Wen Li a green-haired turtle, a pet that puts smile on Wen Li’s face.  Madame Tham is like spring breeze and rain to re-arouse Wen Li in learning the Chinese language. I can relate to Madame Tham and Wen Li as I am a teacher and have students like Wen Li. 

I have been looking online for the original “Pets” in Chinese by You Jin so that I can prepare it for the students in my AP Chinese language & culture class, but have not been able to find it. I will continue to search for it. 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Dr. Dube,

Thank you for the information. This seminar has opened new windows for me to see the other side of the world. 

Xiaowei 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Professor Yasar introduced us to “Banshun”(Late Spring), a Japanese movie released in 1949. I learned a couple things. First of all, the impact of American occupation of Japan is obvious. This can be seen from the Coca Cola billboard advertisement in “Late Spring” on the road Noriko and Jun ride bicycles. American soft culture is also embedded in Masa, Noriko Somiya’ Aunt’s words about finding a good-looking future husband who looks like Gary Copper, a famous handsome American actor at that time. Secondly, winning of Filial Piety is straightforward, which is evidenced by Noriko Somiya’s eventual marriage. Even though she does not want to get married at the beginning and middle of the movie due to her wanting to accompany her widowed dad, Noriko marries at the end anyway for her father, her aunt and by the social norm then. This is an act of filial piety that wins at the end. Thirdly the symbols of Japanese tradition are seen everywhere. Late Spring is suffused with the symbols of Japanese tradition in the tea ceremony that opens the film, the temples at Kamakura, the Noh performance that Noriko and Shukichi (Noriko’s father) witness, and the landscape and Zen gardens of Kyoto. 

 

 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

On August 6, 2019, I was fortunate that I was given the opportunity to watch a full-length version of Nanfu Wang’s One Child Nation. Honestly I applaud for Nanfu’s bravery in making such a documentary, and I believe she made sensational news with this documentary worldwide. 

I just wanted to tell how I feel about her One Child Nation from the standpoint of a woman and a mother who experienced the one child policy in Mainland China 1978-2000. 

The data in Nanfu’s documentary could have been more sufficient. Throughout the documentary, it seems the people she interviewed were either from the village she was born, from the nearby rural area, from a writer, one or two baby traffickers or an American couple in Utah. I would like to see she also interview people in urban areas in Mainland China who were also impacted by the one child policy. She used limited data to mirror “One Child Nation” which might have been too generalized or stereotyped. 

 

I experienced and witnessed this one child policy 1978-2000 as a woman and mother in a city setting. I had one child only myself. All of my brother and sisters each had only one child. In Urban areas in China, as far as I am concerned, the mindset of male child being more important than female child was not prevailed. I know that people living in urban areas thought it was feudalist ideology (which was considered backward) to put boys over girls for education or jobs.  

To sum up, it would be more convincing if Nanfu and her crew had also interviewed people in other places (metropolitan city, middle-sized city, small town) of Mainland China for this documentary of such a big theme/topic. 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

In Professor Jung-Kim’s presentation there are two slides showing military comfort woman Statue. I heard about the term military comfort women, but I did not expect to see any military comfort woman statue until this seminar. According to Professor Jung-Kim, the statues can be seen in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul, South Korea. The statute is a young Korean lady, short-haired, in traditional Korean outfit, sitting on a greyed-colored chair, facial expression serious (no smile). Most importantly there is a pigeon on her left shoulder, symbolizing peace; therefore, comfort woman statue is also known as Peace Statute. Another statute of similar theme can be found in Chinatown, San Francisco where The memorial statue is made of bronze and stands at 10-feet tall. It depicts three young women atop a pedestal — one each from China, Korea, and the Philippines — standing in a circle, holding hands. 

 

I am glad statues of military comfort women were finally installed to remind people of what happened to some Asian women in WWII because whoever passes by the statute would ask “What is this?”, “What happened?” and “How did this happen?” etc.

 

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