National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) & University of Kentucky Asia Center

Spring 2010 – “Teaching About Asia” – For Grades K-12 Teachers

Time/Place: Tuesday 5:30-8:30PM

Eastern Kentucky University- Richmond, KY Perkins Building Room 214

Instructor: Dr. Doug Slaymaker, Associate Professor of Japanese, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

dslaym.ncta@spamex.com

Blackboard access: https://elearning.uky.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp

This 30-hour seminar is designed to provide teachers with useful background for bringing East Asia into their classrooms. Covering the sweep of East Asian history, it introduces China, Japan, and Korea in a way designed to help teachers make these countries come alive over their long histories. During the ten three-hour classes, we will examine East Asia through readings, videos, curriculum materials, discussion, and group planning. Guest speakers will bring their expertise to the seminar.

Course Goals:

· To examine the cultures and societies of China, Korea, and Japan from a multi-disciplinary perspective. We will build on the history of these countries to consider geography, cultural products (arts), folk traditions, political traditions, and recent social/political/cultural developments.

· To develop a better understanding of the common images of Asia, as well as common misconceptions and stereotypes. The first step to overcoming stereotypes is to gain a better understanding at how they have evolved. The present “Western” understanding of Asia is the product of hundreds of years of awkward and problematic encounters, fraught with stereotype and laden with political and cultural baggage. We will ask how these longstanding ways of interpreting Asia continue to inform us today.

· To recognize how past traditions continue to underlie contemporary patterns and events in East Asia. We will examine how contemporary China, Korea, and Japan continue to be informed by their respective traditions.

· To find reliable, engaging, and stimulating materials and prepare ourselves to teach them. We will locate and evaluate teaching resources, ranging from scholarly book resources to Internet resources to resources in the local community. We will confront and discuss the challenges of incorporating fiction, film, poetry, popular culture, and museum displays into our teaching lessons.

· To share our respective knowledge and insights about East Asia within this group and within the regional and national NCTA network. We hope that your experience with NCTA will bring you into a lasting relationship with other Asia specialists and with the broader NCTA family.

Background: The Asia Center at the University of Kentucky organizes this seminar on behalf of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), a national initiative supported by the Freeman Foundation of Stowe, Vermont. For more information see www.uky.edu/centers/asia. You may contact the Asia Center at Asia Center- University of Kentucky, 304 Bradley Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0058, tel: 859-257-7858  fax: 859-323-1026

National NCTA Requirements: For you to receive your stipend, further money for school curriculum materials, eligibility for future travel tours, and other benefits, you will:

· Attend at least 30 hours of class.

· Complete recommended reading assignments before class.

· Participate in discussion and group activities each week.

· Submit a Teaching Implementation Plan (TIP) made up of three individual lesson plans, one each for Korea, China, and Japan.

· Attend the post-seminar follow-up event, within one year following our seminar. You will be notified of the time/place of this event.

· Submit to the Asia Center-University of Kentucky office an evaluation of how your TIP was used in class.

Structure: We will be covering a number of topics during this seminar. Each day will generally begin with a presentation from the Instructor on the major themes, issues, and topics for the day. This may include visual material, such as maps or a Power-Point outline. Most days will also include presentations by guest presenters. There are expected reading for each session; you will be asked to comment on and assess the readings. We will also share developments in the local and national news that are Asia-related; to that end, please bring an Asia-related item from the news to each class. We will take a short break at the mid-point of the three-hour session. Please keep your cell phone off during class, and use the break to make or receive any necessary personal calls.

The books below will be distributed at the first meeting. You will also receive scanned articles.

Books:

Cumings, Bruce. Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History. Norton, 1997.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History Of China. Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, et al. East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Wadsworth Publishing; 2 edition, 2009.

Jiang, Ji-Li. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. HarperTrophy, 1998.

Kim, Richard. Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood. University of California Press, 1998.

Varley, H. Paul. Japanese Culture. 4th edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Class Schedule

1/19/10 Session 1 Outline of the course; Asian Beginnings

A. Introductions (to NCTA, instructor, Course, Participants, Asia)

B. Guest Speaker: Professor Jeff Richey (Berea College) on "Cosmos and Community in Chinese and Japanese Religions”

“Traditional/Mythic History of China” and “Major Documented Periods in Chinese History,” in Joseph A. Adler, Chinese Religious Traditions (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002), 8-9.

Stephen F. Teiser, “Introduction: The Spirits of Chinese Religion,” in Religions of China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 3-37.

“Timeline,” in Michiko Yusa, Japanese Religious Traditions (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002), 9-11.

H. Byron Earhart, “Introduction” and “Persistent Themes in Japanese Religious History,” in Earhart, Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity, 3rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1982), 1-18.

1/26/10 Session 2 Early China

A. Backgrounds to the study of Asia

Said, "My Thesis" "Introduction to Orientalism"

Ebrey, East Asia, chapts 1-5, 8, 12.

B. Guest Speaker: Professor Rob Foster (Berea College) on “Silk road Civilizations”

"Nun's Tale", Monk's Tale" for discussion in second part with Rob Foster from Berea.

2/2 Session 3 Early Japan

Guest Speaker: Professor Michael Rich (Georgetown College)

Ebrey, East Asia, chapts 7, 9, 11, 13

Be prepared for an initial discussion about your TIPS

2/9 Session 4 Korea

Guest Speaker: Professor Carol Medlicott (Northern Kentucky University)

“Nationhood in Divided Korea”

Ebrey, et al. East Asia, chapts 6, 10, 15, 21, 23, 29

2/16 Session 5 Drama in Asia

Guest Speaker: Professor Bob Haven (University of Kentucky)

2/23 Session 6 Twentieth-century China

Guest Speaker: Professor Matt Wells (University of Kentucky)

Guest Speaker: Dr. Huajing Maske (University of Kentucky)

Ebrey, et al. East Asia, chapts 25, 27, 28

3/2 Session 7 Twentieth-Century Japan

Guest Speaker: Professor Marro Inoue (University of Kentucky)

Ebrey, et al. East Asia, chapts 19, 20, 22, 30

3/9 Session 8 Art in Asia

Submit one complete TIP

3/16 Session 9 East Asia Today

Guest Speaker: Professor Zixue Tai (University of Kentucky)

3/16 (UK Spring Break)

3/23 no seminar

3/30 Session 10 East Asia Today

Guest Speaker: Professor Seungahn Nah (University of Kentucky)

Presentation of TIPS

4/6 Session 11 East Asia Today

Presentation of TIPS and wrap-up