[Zoey McKinney]

I do a current events project in my 4th grade class where students read and respond to newspaper articles of their choice. Before we start the project, I teach them some basic media literacy skills. I think Professor Rosen's lecture touched on some of these topics, and I could see myself using some of his resources with the students. I always tell them that it's so important to look at who produced a piece, not just at the content of the piece. The Chinese-produced Belt and Road video was so interesting in the way it attempted to sell the idea. I think my students would be really interested in watching it and talking about what message was presented and how it was presented. It would be great to find an age-appropriate American video or article about the topic and show them how different the perspective is. I think for them to just be aware at their age that we have biased opinions of other countries and other countries have very different opinions of us would be a great goal.

[Zoey McKinney]

Professor Brown talked about nostalgia and tradition as a theme found in postcards, and showed a few examples that showed scenes from the past, including scenes from the Tales of Ise and the Tale of Genji. You could use some of those images to start a discussion with students about what they notice and what they can learn from looking at the art. I think it could also be interesting to look at those images at the end of the unit and think about what facets of the time period are shown and which are ignored? What did people have nostalgia for, and how did they romanticize the past? You can even then bring in modern depictions of medieval Japan and see how the image of that time period has changed in the last century!

[Zoey McKinney]

The fourth grade curriculum includes the building of the transcontinental railroad, and in this unit we talk about technology and modernization. I think this would be a good place to fit in a discussion of postcards, and how they are a facet of modernization. Words like "modern" and "technology" usually bring to students' minds computers, phones, and other gadgets, and it can be hard for them to understand how something as outdated as a telegraph could ever fit into those concepts. I liked Professor Brown's comparison of postcards to social media, as it would help the students understand how mass reproduction and a postal system might revolutionize a country. Many of the postcards also had images of modernity, such as new fashions, new transportation, and popular new activities. 

[Zoey McKinney]

In this poster I see delegates from Africa who are visiting China and being warmly received by a worker and peasant. They are taking a photo in front of a tractor and there are many more tractors in the background. The scenery is very colorful, with bright colors and flowers in the foreground. Along with the smiles on the people's faces, the colors give the image a very positive mood. The African delegates are shown wearing some traditional clothing. This image reminded me of a Russian poster I saw in school, where the Soviets were welcoming the Chinese delegates. I think the message here is one of unity with other Communist places, but also it shows the Chinese as world leaders. They are bringing farming technology to less developed countries, showing them the way to prosperity. I think this poster would be from the Cultural Revolution based on this message and its softer, more artistic style than earlier posters.

[Zoey McKinney]

This poster shows three men standing together holding the Little Red Book. They are standing in front of a map of the world. The three men are different races: European, Chinese, and African. They are holding guns and are possibly soldiers. I think the message here is about uniting as a strong alliance with Communist countries across the globe. It demonstrates the successful spread of Communism outside of China. The map in back is actually in red, showing the goal of converting everyone to Communism. Though there are three men standing together, the Chinese man is front and center, leading the others. Mao's quotations are vital to all three of them. The poster uses the color red liberally of course, to represent Communism, and I think the use of black and white creates a strong contrast and a striking visual effect. I think this poster is from the Communist Revolution in China, or directly after it, as it seems to be celebrating Communist military victory.

[Zoey McKinney]

One of the things I appreciated in Professor Yasar's presentation were his thoughts on how to engage students in watching older films or foreign films. I know that my fourth graders would have a lot of those reactions that he discussed - "Why are they acting so weird?" or "It's in black and white!" so I appreciate that he addressed those. It's interesting to compare Tokyo Story with the K-pop videos we discussed yesterday, and their "schizophrenic" nature as Professor Young called it. Thinking about the media that students are consuming today, it is extremely fast-paced, it's louder and packed with jokes and dramatic moments to get audience reactions. I think today's students are probably able to follow these productions better than we are, but when it comes to an older, slower, quieter film, they might be a little lost. They're not used to long, stationary shots, and scenes of household chores. I think it is definitely valuable to expose them to films like this to give them a sense of where there current media comes from. I liked Professor Yasar's ideas for questioning about content, context, and formal elements, as these can be applied to any piece of media and give many entry points for students to access the piece in different ways. 

[Zoey McKinney]

I think "The Great Wall" is a really interesting case because as a movie it had so much going for it and it was such a box office disappointment. I know in the U.S. the narrative I was hearing about it leading up to its release was about "white washing." Of course we have plenty of examples of white washing characters by casting white actors in Asian roles (e.g. Emma Stone in Aloha, Tilda Swinton in Dr. Strange), and a lot of people felt that Matt Damon leading the cast of this movie was white washing because it took a leading man role away from an Asian actor. However the difference was that this movie was directed by a Chinese director, who cast a white actor purposefully to appeal to a larger audience. He wanted his film, which was rooted in Chinese culture and a huge Chinese cast, to make a mark globally. However in the U.S. we are very multi-cultural, which brings with it a lot of problems, such as lack of representation in the media. A lot of people balked at the idea of the white savior in a Chinese film, while the Chinese director clearly did not see it that way. This shows a disconnect between our two cultures that we are still trying to navigate.

[Zoey McKinney]

Dr. Kim's presentation on K-Pop was interesting to me because my little sister is a huge K-Pop fan, and I have seen and heard bits and pieces of the culture from her. When Dr. Kim was discussing the treatment of the idols, where they are trained extensively, expected to be perfect, and "discarded" after a few years, reminded me of a news story my sister shared with me. In December, one of the members of SHINee, Kim Jong-hyun, committed suicide at the age of 27. At the time, I heard from a few people about what a big deal it was in the K-pop community, as it was completely unexpected. In his final note, he talked about the pressures of being in the spotlight, and it seems very likely that this fame contributed to his depression. Dr. Kim discussed the rise of K-Pop stars as exemplifying an alternative route to success, as opposed to the traditional idea of good college to stable job. In my own classroom my students are interested, not necessarily in K-Pop specifically, but in online celebrities on YouTube and musical.ly, which seem to be a continuation of that idea of success. I've had plenty of students say that they want to be YouTube stars when they grow up. While I agree that going to college and getting a degree is not the only path to success and shouldn't be presented as such, I think it's important that students are exposed to the realities of "stardom." Some students have the talent and determination to be successful in the entertainment industry, and I believe in valuing their skills and encouraging their creativity, but I want them to be aware of what they are getting themselves into. I believe that since Jong-hyun's death there has been more criticism of the K-Pop culture of perfection and pressure, but there is definitely room for improvement in that area.

[Zoey McKinney]

I found the work of Xu Bing to be particularly interesting and useful for work with students. His New English Calligraphy and "A Book From the Sky" challenge our ideas of language and China as an "other." For most of us, a page of Chinese characters is meaningless. The forms are so different from our own characters that they are impossible for us to read. The new form of writing Xu Bing created, which uses English letters to form hanzi, looks just as indecipherable at first, but with effort can be read by someone who speaks English. One of the messages that I take away from this is that foreign languages, though strange to us, are used in the same ways to express many of the same ideas that we have. I think it is easy to look at foreign writing and feel distant from it, as though it has nothing to do with you. In truth, the content of the writing might be very familiar to you if you could decipher it. I would love to add "Look! What Do You See?" to my library, because I think it could get students in a different headspace, where Chinese is not so alien, but actually might have a lot of similarities with their own language. 

[Zoey McKinney]

Starting with Dr. Kim's lecture on North Korean cinema was very effective because it is definitely the topic I know the least about, and have the least experience with. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the importance of looking at an issue from both sides. Of course we try to teach this already, as we want our students to be aware of bias and critical of the media they are consuming, but I personally have always thought about these lessons in terms of more controversial topics, e.g. the pros and cons of the California missions (which we study in our 4th grade curriculum). Dr. Kim made me realize that issues that seem more straightforward have another side that needs to be examine as well. By this I mean that American popular opinion of North Korea is pretty consistent. It wouldn't really occur to me to stage a debate about it because we pretty much hear the same message from the various American sources. However, exploring the North Korean perspective today showed that I myself was quick to make assumptions without really looking at the other side. "Choe Hak Sin Family," the movie showing an American soldier shooting a Korean woman, was really interesting in that regard. I think viewing it alone, I would have dismissed it as anti-American propaganda (which it certainly is), but today we also looked at why that anti-American attitude exists and what the full historical context is. 

On another note, it was interesting to learn that the difficulty in studying North Korean film lies not in availability, since the Library of Congress has a large collection, but in language, since the movies are not subtitled. The films we watch are often created to appeal to the broadest possible audience, so it's interesting to think about an industry that does the opposite - creates films solely for its own population's consumption, with separate films created for the rest of the world. 

[Zoey McKinney]

Hi everyone,

My name is Zoey Smith and I teach 4th grade at Warner Avenue Elementary in Westwood through LAUSD. This will be my third year teaching. I attended USC for my B.A. in History and Psychology, and I'm excited to be back! I am half Chinese, half white, and I have spent a lot of time learning and thinking about mixed-race ("hapa" for those that are part Asian) identity. I would love to help my students develop their identities in the classroom as well, and to generally work on providing them with a culturally responsive education. Looking forward to meeting you all next week!

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