Journal+Entries

Week 1 February 10, 2009

Tonight featured a guest speaker, Dr. Richard Peterec, on "A Geographic Indtroduction to East-Central Asia, with an Emphasis on Political Geography." I enjoyed Dr. Peterec's lecture because it was all about geography, with lots of fun facts thrown in for a good mix. Things that I learned from tonight's lecture: The second half of our evening seminar was a film entitled //The Two Coasts of China: Asia and the Challenge of the West//. Most interesting to me (because I don't remember having learned about it in my history classes) was the Opium War. Previous to watching the movie, I did not understand how opium was manufactured and traded in cannon-sized balls, nor did I realize the control the West had over the Chinese in terms of its trade.
 * Geography = spatial distribution of phenomena on/near surface of earth
 * Contributing factors that influence these phenomena:
 * soil quality
 * valleys
 * mountains
 * water
 * There are 2 categories of phenomena
 * Physical
 * Human
 * State = independent //political// unit
 * currently 193 in the world today
 * China is world's 3rd largest state (order: Russia, Canada, China)
 * Vatican is the smallest
 * Montenegro is the youngest
 * Nation = cultural group
 * over 2,000 in the world today
 * largest is Han Chinese nation
 * Iceland is a true nation-state, and Japan is very close to being one
 * China is NOT a nation-state, because there are many nationalities that compose it; multi-national state; 8% of population are minority groups
 * People's Republic of China (PRC) & Taiwan are officially together
 * HOWEVER we (US citizens) don't need a visa to go to Taiwan, but we do to enter China
 * There are parts of China with certain autonomy
 * Everyone views the world through their own political spectrum!
 * Everyone views the world through their own political spectrum!

Week 2 February 17, 2009

The first part of tonight's class was a lecture by Professor James Pusey. Dr. Pusey seems to be extremely knowledgeable and perhaps an expert on Confucianism and Confucian philosophy. It was a challenge to keep up, since I am not so well versed in the topic! Some of the things I learned tonight: The second half of class was a delightful, hands-on Chinese folk dance experience. Though I can't remember the names of the dances, the steps will stay with me for a lifetime! (I wish I would have written the names down!) Many thanks to the dance professor, Er-Dong Hu, for his patience and willing to laugh with us as we clumsily danced his native steps.
 * Kong Fuzi was the real name of Confucius, and it means "master"
 * 551-479 BC was when Confucius lived; he believed in an ideal feudalism (feudalism was the societal norm of his era)
 * He had a revolutionary idea for his time: he wanted to get back to where China had been while still moving forward
 * Confucius' time seemed to be a dark, unhappy time, much political corruption, a general sense of "it could be better"
 * Living during the Zhou (pronouced "Jo") dynasty, whom no one obeyed, thus nothing seemed to be working right
 * Li = rituals/rites
 * Confucian rules of self-restraint, politeness, correct behavior
 * emphasis on li, not laws
 * leads to good government by nature
 * Dao = way/path
 * Political - Don't use force to make a policy work (never found the right leader to make this happen)
 * Private - Individual must know right way to live/be obedient
 * Confucian did not become discouraged; continuously taught that the only thing to do is good, and it does not matter if no one sees your good action
 * Junzy = gentleman; this is the ideal ruler, and the term was originally for the aristocrats, but eventually encompassed everyone who did the right thing
 * Confucianism was revolutionary because it covered across the classes (anyone could be a junzy, and anyone could be xiaoren, or a petty, self-absorbed person)
 * Ren = humanity; to be a real person, you must be human, because if you're not humane, you're not a real person
 * See handout for further details. Confucian teachings are outlined therein; Dr. Pusey empasized many of them
 * Confucian obligation: one must tell a ruler when the ruler is wrong

Week 3 February 24, 2009

Professor James Mark Shields joined us for a talk on the history of Buddhism. Dr. Shields had an excellent powerpoint that greatly increased my information retention as it appealed to the visual learner inside me. Dr. Shields also had a nice way of relating to the students and making sure everyone understood the discussion at all points. Some things that I gathered: The second half of class was spent in meditation. Soto Zen Buddhist Dai En Bennage taught us how to practice meditation. I found her instruction interesting; it was somewhat laced with political views. However, the time we spent in silence was relaxing and a wonderful way to wind down the evening. I may try to look her up to come talk to our classes at school, the students would likely enjoy the experience as well!
 * Buddhism is an English word used to describe a certain set of traditions
 * The core teachings of the Buddha include the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path
 * Buddha = the Awakened One (achieved through Nirvana) or to be awake; awakened to the way things really are
 * //Anyone// can become a Buddha, simply by achieving nirvana
 * Nirvana = the condition of being awake
 * The story of Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha, was an interesting one. We still do not know whether it is truth or myth, but let me tell it again. "Sid" was born to a wealthy family as a bright, kind, compassionate boy. A seer told his father that Sid would either be a great king or a religious seeker. His father, of course, wanted him to be a great king, so he sheltered him from seeing all suffering. Sid was not permitted outside the palace walls, nor was anything imperfect permitted inside the walls. There was no spoiled food, no elderly people, no sickness, and nothing shocking within his sight. Eventually Sid married and has his own child, and decided that surely there was something more to life than that which was inside the palace walls. So he left and was immediately shocked by the death and suffering just outside his home. He decided to leave his palace to find the truth. Through experiementation, he found that the middle path is the best, not extreme anything. At the age of 35, Sid sat under a bodi tree overnight and by the morning light, he reached nirvana: he eliminated all suffering from himself. He spent the rest of his life teaching what he had learned, and finally died at the ripe age of 85 from food poisoning. Sid would not be reincarnated as he had finally escaped its cycle.
 * The Four Noble Truths (anyone who lives by them is noble)
 * All of life is suffering
 * Suffering has a cause: craving
 * This cause can be extinguished, thus ending suffering
 * There is a path to follow by which suffering can be extinguished (The Eightfold Path)
 * The Eightfold Path
 * Right View
 * Right Resolve --first two: preparation
 * Right Speech
 * Right Action
 * Right Living --these three: ethics/way to live
 * Right Endeavor
 * Right Mindfulness
 * Right Meditation -- last three: mental state of being
 * Nirvana achieves two things
 * changes way of being - no more suffering
 * ends rebirth (suffering) cycle
 * There are three poisons that emerge from craving
 * Greed
 * Hatred
 * Delusion

Week 4 March 3, 2009

Dr. Pusey was back to explain Daoism and Chinese history. Again, another challenging lecture but with some great points. Let me share some information I gleaned from the evening: And on Chinese History:
 * Tao (pronounced "dao) = the way, the way to live, heaven's way
 * Read: Dao de Jing or The Way of Virtue
 * This book is the most translated book in the world
 * Don't read it looking for the answers, they cannot be found while you are still in the middle
 * The Tao is in being; it's not a thing, but it's not nothing
 * The world is composed of dualism, both positive and negative, binary, and even the forces are in "being"
 * Taoist idea: don't stand up and you won't be toppled; bend like reeds in the wind; go with the flow
 * Charlemagne was crude in comparison with the extremely civilized Tang Dynasty
 * Eastern Han Dynasty
 * 206 BC - 9 AD
 * 23 AD - 220 AD
 * Ming Zhu = enlightened lord/good ruler

Week 5 March 10, 2009

Tonight we faced a cancellation or change in someone's schedule, so instead we learned as Ann Pusey, native speaker, taught us part of the Chinese language. This was one of my favorite classes, because I love learning languages! Some things that I learned: The second half of class was led by James Orr, and it was a history of early Japan.
 * Pinyin is the new system of reading Chinese, it literally means "spelling the sound," and it replaces the former Wade-Giles system
 * Chinese is a tonal language
 * There are four tones (well, kind of five...)
 * Stroke order is very important in Chinese characters; start at top to bottom, then left to right, and all of the strokes should be within a square
 * Adjective characters come before the noun character (radical before phonetic)
 * Unfortunately, I cannot draw the characters here, but I can review my notes to see some of the ones we learned
 * Themes: governance and legitimacy
 * Periods in Japanese History
 * Jomon (4000 BCE) -hunter/gatherer
 * Yayoi (300 BCE)
 * based on rice cultivation
 * Uji tribal system
 * Kofun tumuli- burial tombs, symbolic of concentration of wealth
 * Yamato family emerged from Uji cluster
 * Imperial Japan (500 AD-forward)
 * Yamato & peer clans adopting Chinese infrastructure
 * Japan eventually adopted much from nearby Chinese culture
 * Buddhism
 * Chinese writing system
 * Tang-style government
 * Mandate of Heaven legitimacy of rule
 * Shogunates were warriors who ruled Japan
 * Kamakura (1185-1331 AD)
 * Warring States of 16th century
 * Tokugawa (1600-1868 AD)
 * It's definitely worth it to look up a picture of the Heike crab!

Week 6 March 17, 2009

Lee Soo-Hyun and Cho Sung-il joined us tonight in class to tell us about the defection of North Koreans. I am grateful for Lee's work in this field, because before tonight I was nearly completely ignorant of what is still today going on with the people of North Korea. Some things from tonight: Professor James Rice also joined us for a history of Korea. He taught me the following: We had a brief discussion on __Lost Names__ Ann then led us again in a lesson on the Chinese language. We practiced pronouncing the tonal sounds, and this time we learned where some of the characters came from (symbols of the nouns they represent).
 * In North Korea, the non-military citizens are second-class people, and when there is not enough food, they are left to starve
 * "The Chinese Problem" refers to the influx of North Korean refugees flooding their land just across the border; the Chinese send them back to North Korea where they are imprisoned and even killed
 * In Seoul, South Korea, the North Koreans receive simply inadequate care. There is no way to treat all of the North Koreans who enter as refugees.
 * There are North Koreans who flee to South Korea and China (and the US?) as refugees, but really they are spies who are seeking other refugees to kill them or take them back
 * Lee says that the North Koreans have no identity and they can't get one
 * South Korea attempts to reprogram the North Korean refugees
 * to help them assimilate
 * to prevent spies from infiltrating
 * the "Seoul Train" is the North/South Korean "Underground Railroad" --escape route for the refugees
 * A huge problem is that the generation that experienced the split between North and South Korea is now dying out, and the middle-aged to younger generations just don't care; there is a great need for education and opening awareness
 * Pre-20th century, Korea was a hermit-kingdom, untouched by the outside world
 * 1200's Mongols moved into the peninsula
 * Yi Dynasty saw a very stable time, no big invasions, but this led to stagnation of Korea
 * At one point, the Japanese occupied Korea, and by 1919, the Koreans had to abandon their language and culture for Japanese
 * must speak Japanese
 * must take Japanese name
 * lost land to Japan
 * sons conscripted into civil work force for Japan
 * women were kidnapped and handed over to forced prostitution
 * Occupied by Japan until surrender of 1945
 * North and South Korea were divided by the Korean War (the "Forgotten War") at the 38th parallel.
 * North Korea dominated the economic field until a crash in the 1960's
 * Check out YouTube's North Korean Mass Games!

Week 7 March 24, 2009

Professor Zhu was with us tonight to talk about Chinese Politics. With a detailed power point, I have a lot of useful information about modern China that I can use in next year's world history classes. A small part of what he shared: Finally, Professor Xie Xioaze joined us to share his contemporary Chinese artwork. His art is eye-catching and three-dimensional. Perhaps some day I will have the chance to see it in person rather than on slides, because it seems like it would really pull me as the viewer right into the piece of art.
 * China is both a capitalist and a communist country
 * politically communist
 * economically capitalist
 * Deng Xioping had reform policies that introduced competition
 * Special Economic Zones
 * Household Responsibilities system
 * corruption existed, but certainly not the worst case in the world
 * China is both rich and poor, both developed and developing
 * China has the second largest economy in the world, but per capita income is extremely low
 * huge gap between urban & rural wealth (city-rich, country-poor)
 * migrants travel to the cities from the countryside to find work, but are treated as second-class citizens
 * Peaceful development versus China's military budget
 * China has been peaceful, no war
 * HOWEVER, the military budget has been growing in leaps and bounds
 * if their intentions are really peaceful, then why the military buildup?
 * Nationalism is extremely high in China
 * satisfaction is higher than in Western world
 * China focuses on group rights over an individual's rights
 * Western world focuses on individual rights over group rights
 * The US and China are both friends and foes
 * political enemies
 * economic friends
 * both parties are still suspicious of each other; military clash with just not go away

Week 8 March 31, 2009

Professor James Orr visited us again, this time to teach about Modern Japanese History and the Peace Constitution. Some things I learned: For the second part of class, we began watching the documentary entitled, "Wings of Defeat." This film examined the view of the Japanese Kamikaze pilots of WWII and the perspective of the Japanese people with regard to these pilots. Fascinating- as an American with scant ties to Asian history, many of the stereotypes I had already formed in my mind surrounding the Kamikaze pilots had to be broken down to watch this documentary. It moved me to tears.
 * Tokugawa Shogunate (1600's-1867)
 * 15 Shogun rulers
 * decentralized power: many fiefdoms around the islands
 * Four-Class system
 * Samurai
 * Artisans
 * Farmers
 * Merchants
 * American Comm Matthew Perry arrived in 1867 to open Japan up to trade with the West
 * Meiji Restoration
 * restored imperial rule
 * Eventually, facism appealed to the asian powers, and by the 1900's, Japan aligned itself with facist Italy and Nazi Germany
 * Shinto became the state religion; it is based on a system of folk beliefs

Week 9 April 7, 2009

To begin class tonight, Professor James Turnure brought in a fabulous set of slides picturing Chinese art across the thousands of years of China's existence. Some of the notes I have from class include the following. During the second half of class, two Montoursville High School teachers spoke with us about their experiences in the East Asia Seminar and their recent travel to Japan. These women had gorgeous pictures and surely had an enlightening experience! They have inspired me to apply for the same program to travel abroad to Japan (or anywhere in East Asia) next year!
 * Neolithic Period- Chinese foung agriculture and began to settle down, thus beginning the artistic period
 * PanShan style- wheel-thrown pottery
 * Shang Dynasty art was small but spectacular; 3-D; bronze cast
 * Shang Burial was 43' below ground, looked like an inverted pyramid with stairways down to center
 * Chin Dynasty had famous burial with over 7,000 terra cotta army men and horses buried with ruler & saw completion of 1,500 miles of the Great Wall
 * Han Period buried rulers in suits of jade
 * Chinese Painting
 * Hand Scroll (paper glued to silk)
 * Vertical Scroll = High Distance Landscape
 * Fan Painting (screen painting)
 * Ku Kai Chih was the earliest painter, but the problem is we don't know what his originals look like, because everyone copied this original form
 * Sung Dynasty- the handscroll was at its peak
 * The Chinese also had woodblock paints with up to 30 woodblocks put together with different colors on each

Week 10 April 14, 2009

Our final evening together in the seminar. Professor Wei Ge opened up our evening with a lecture on "Coping with the Global Crisis: The Case of China." How pertinent his message is right now in the current world-wide economic crisis. In the end, I considered hiring him as my personal economic advisor! Nonetheless, here is a bit of what I heard: And to bring our seminar to a close, Professor Xing Fan spoke with us about Chinese and Japanese theatre. I very much enjoyed the clips she showed us to exhibit the different types of theatre as outlined in her handout. She shared with us Kun Opera, Beijing Opera, Japanese No, and Kabuki. I think that the Beijing Opera is my favorite with the fantastic costumes and painted faces along with its beat.
 * There is a Global Economic Downturn
 * started with turbulence in housing market
 * turned into high unemployment and lower income/wealth
 * weakened confidence has now led to political and social instability all over
 * This was triggered and spread by
 * housing market issues (big pressure)
 * unsound policy in response
 * intensified problems with fall of Wall Street
 * Impacts around the world vary significantly
 * Impact on Chinese Economy
 * deceleration of economic growth over all (trade is going down)
 * this spreads to the foreign firms with investments in China (perpetuating the problem)
 * Policy Responses
 * goal is to stimulate domestic demand while paving a way for longer-term growth
 * mix of policies that emphasize productive growth in the long run
 * so far, there have been favorable (though early) responses
 * high savings make current plan sustainable