EASC Express

Resources to support teaching about modern Chinese history available

Professor at Dakota State University and author of Modern Chinese History, David Kenley, in conjunction with the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University, led and facilitated the NCTA Workshop: "Take & Go Into the Classroom: Modern Chinese History" on Tuesday, January 30th. Prof. Kenley’s book, Modern Chinese History, is a 100-page synopsis of Chinese history through a modern-day lens, focusing on the twin themes of cosmopolitanism and exceptionalism present in China, both historically and present-day.

After delivering a brief synopsis of his book and the process of writing it, Kenley, alongside the workshop participants, explored their individual teaching methods pertaining to Chinese culture and history, while offering advice and ideas to one another on teaching Chinese studies in the classroom.

The resources from the “Take & Go” series are compatible with social studies, language arts, science, visual arts, and other classes with the goal to provide educators with opportunities to use the resources either as stand-alone or cross-curricular learning opportunities.

Resources for Kenley’s book, such as pre-constructed lesson plans and study guides, are available on the EASC website.

Ildong Joe to present on musical tech, 1980-1990s K-pop on March 8

Abstract: In this presentation, Joe argues that the process of globalization of popular music is a cultural process involving hierarchical struggle, competition, and dynamics among people with different habitus of different sounds, through interviews and participant observations with musicians who have been working in the Korean popular music recording scene in 1980’s to 1990’s. Examining modern popular music with questions like what is the technical basis needed to implement the styles and forms of contemporary Korean popular music and what is the tension and dynamics between technologies and culture is needed. In modern popular music, particular sound/timbre/rhythm texture is one of the most important things. Especially in a globalized modern world where it is common to experience music through recorded sound, the change of sound adjusted in the process of recording (mixing and mastering) is enough to change the like or dislike of the music. Therefore, Joe examines how the importance of sound through the interviews of Korean musicians who had experienced the limitations to follow the rhythms and timbres (which is not marked on the music scores) of American/Western popular cultures. Even new technologies and machines, which overcome the difference of rhythms and senses of sound, have been introduced to musical industry all around the world, but the reason why these techniques are used is also cultural.

James Lin to present on Taiwan's agrarian development on March 25

Abstract: In 1959, Taiwan dispatched its first overseas agricultural assistance mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Consisting of highly decorated agricultural scientists and young farmers recruited from rural Taiwan, the Taiwanese development teams established demonstration plots featuring selected high yielding crops and taught Vietnamese rural farmers modern methods of planting and cultivation. In the decades following, Taiwan sent development missions to over three dozen nations and all corners of the Global South. Facing possible expulsion from the international system, Taiwan turned to international development diplomacy, leveraging its success in cultivating a productive agricultural economy at home. Couched in a discourse of scientific modernity, postcolonial solidarity, and economic power, Taiwanese missions during the Cold War articulated a Taiwanese model for the world. What began as diplomatic initiatives coalesced into a sociotechnical imaginary placing Taiwan in the global vanguard of development, shaping Taiwanese identity at home and entrenching the authoritarian hold of Taiwan’s Kuomintang regime.

Sung-Ock Sohn to present on service-learning in Korean on March 26

Abstract: This presentation discusses the implementation and effects of community service-learning (SL) in the pedagogical context of Korean as a Second/Foreign Language (KSL) at higher institutions in N. America. Specifically, I address the following two questions. 1) How does service-learning help students in Korean classes make connections between their knowledge acquired from class setting and their use of the language in authentic setting? 2) In what ways does service-learning enhance Korean language learners’ socio-cultural awareness and foster their cultural identity? Community-engaged research/teaching encompasses collaborative research or creative work with community partners that addresses social inequalities or public issues. We are particularly interested in seeing applications for community-engaged work in the Los Angeles area, though proposals for work anywhere in the US or globally will be given full consideration. Over the past two decades, an increasing number of higher institutes in North America has incorporated service-learning into academic contexts in a wide range of disciplines, such as intercultural communication, societal inequities, civic engagement in international and domestic contexts, etc.

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