Year of the Snake

Last January I posted a list of resources on teaching Chinese New Year, so here's an update on websites and listings.

• Chinese New Year -- or Lunar New Year? The Wikipedia article Chinese New Year is long and detailed,  with history and many customs. Here's a sampling to browse through:

•  A quick rundown of the history of "Spring Festival" as defined by Chinese governments over the last century by Jeremiah Jenne:  Why do we call it “Spring Festival”?

• Colorful links on celebration of Lunar New Year around the world, collected by University of Southern California: US-China Institute Happy New Years! 

• A teacher for an American study abroad group in Beijing gives you an idea of how some Chinese celebrate:  Staying Safe During Spring Festival: A Teacher’s Advice to his Students 
   
• The new Council on Foreign Relation blog, Asia Unbound, has an insightful piece on the need for reform in policies in the countryside: Tim Hanstad: A Prosperous New Year for China’s Farmers

• A few stories from Hong Kong, again, some of them a little wild: Year of the Snake Draws Hisses  

• Happy New Year of the Snake  Harvard-Yenching Library posts a bunch of snake images from around the world, including a wonderful Japanese Snake Charmer with a flute: 
 

 

• One more, from the History in the Headlines China Series (lots of other postings), by Jesse Greenspan, a nicely done set of basic information, especially useful about how the celebration has changed -- today's youth would rather text and play video games:  8 Things You Should Know About Chinese New Year

The Nail House and China's Construction Bubble

For insight -- literally "sight into" -- China's construction bubble, see the story in the British paper, the Daily Mail last November," Won't sell up? Enjoy living in the middle of a motorway! Road is built around a house after elderly Chinese couple refuse to move" (click the link).

It's got a series of photos which tell both of the construction boom and of the stubbornness of some people in resisting it.

Confucius in the Headlines? Well, Almost

I've posted a piece at Frog in a Well called Ungraded Love or Double Standards? Stanley Fish, Stephen Asma, and Confucius which comments on a few recent op-ed articles in the NY Times. I point out that the arguments have much in common with the arguments Confucius and his critics had.

I'd like to get your comments and thought there.

Dragons in the News: Is a Long a Dragon?

I've published some thoughts at FROG IN A WELL on the differences between Western dragons and Chinese long, which is often simply translated as "dragon." Here's the link:  Dragons in the News: Is a Long a Dragon?

See for yourself and leave me a comment there.

Chinese New Year/ Spring Festival Teaching Resources

This is a list of websites with background and teaching material. Please add new ones in your comments:

• Well organized group of links; lessons and worksheets; other links http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/chinesenewyear.php

• Teacher vision: extensive links to Chinese culture sites and activities http://www.teachervision.fen.com/chinese-new-year/china/6603.html

• Extensive and well organized crafts and activities for elementary aged children http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/

• Unit Plan: "Chinese Inventions and the Chinese New Year” http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=20

• Extensive listing of links to teacher resources for Chinese Culture and New Year (Utah Education Network) http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=5279#teacher

• A-Z Teacher Stuff http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Chinese_New_Year/index.shtml

•  http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4324

• Sites and Links http://www.thecanadianteacher.com/archives/318

Names and Dates In English and Chinese

Names and Dates In English and Chinese:
I recently discovered Beijing Time Machine, run by Jared Hall. His recent piece Time over Place: Naming Historical Events in Chinese (ironically, it is not dated), is a striking and useful observation:

In English, we generally recall important turning points in terms of where they unfolded. Simple place names conjure up entire historical epochs. “Pearl Harbor” marks the American entrance into the Second World War and the global struggle against fascism. “Bandung,” the conference in of newly independent African and Asian nations that pledged to stand together in 1955 against imperialism and Cold War division. And then, of course, there is “Tian’anmen.” It is doubtful that mention of the square here in China would, by itself, raise any eyebrows. But try “6-4″ (六四) and you are can expect quite a different reaction.

There is also a useful chart of name years in the sixty year cycle, which you can download to put on your desk calendar or refrigerator door.

Year of the Hare... um.. Rabbit?

I've posted Year of the Hare... um.. Rabbit? at Frog In a Well.

I've included links to reliable and colorful sites. One of my favorites is to postage stamps around the world showing the Chinese New Year Rabbit.

But I still haven't seen an explanation  of the raging controversy, "rabbit" vs. "hare"

Chinese Characters and Japanese Kanji

Chinese characters are known in Chinese as Hanzi -- "Han" as in Han dynasty, "zi" means "written character. And in Japanese "Hanzi" is pronounced "Kanji."

You can find links to websites which I have come across on my Delicious listing: Chayford Chinese.characters. Unfortunately the links appear in the order in which I added them, so it's hard to tell which are useful for you.

As is often the frustrating case, the Wikipedia article "Chinese Character" is too long and wooly, but full of detailed information and good illustrations.

But there is a recent series of three posting on the blog "Seeing Red in China" by "Tom" -- whoever he is, he's good at explaining things clearly in an informal way, with good visuals:

• "It's Easy to Learn Chinese -- Really" Explains some of the basic principles of Chinese language.
• "Why 10,000 Characters is Easier Than It Seems" Shows how characters are not random strokes but built up from known elements.
• "Compound Words, More of a Puzzle Than a Problem." Most words in modern Chinese are formed by putting two or more characters together.

From time to time I'll add some more -- maybe you have suggestions.

Selected Links on President Hu's Visit

Kelly McKee of Lake Forest High, who participated in the NCTA seminar in 2004 and has been active ever since, has selected useful links which covered President Hu's visit and showed how US-China relations have evolved. Thanks Kelly!

• Nicholas Kristoff, “Rise of the Chinese Cheneys,” NY Times (January 20, 2010). A rundown on the "security dilemma," that is, the danger of distrust in China feeding distrust in the US, creating an unnecessary confrontation.

• James Warren, “Chinese President’s Visit Proclaims a Rising Chicago,” NY Times (January 20, 2011).

• China State Visits: A Look Back At 30 Years Of U.S. Relations With China (Photos)(Huffington Post (January 20, 2011)

• Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “China in 2010: A 13-Link Retrospective Huffington Post (January 13, 2011). Wasserstrom lists and briefly describes articles on the big social and political issues of 2010.

Two more:

• Article about Hu at Payton, President Hu Visits Asia Society School, from the Asia Society website (January 21, 2010).
• A video of Hu at Payton from Hanban, the agency in China which oversees overseas activities.

Year of the Hare... um.. Rabbit?

February third is the Lunar New Year, celebrated in East Asia as the New Year or Spring Festival.

The Reuters article "Chinese Ready for Upheaval, Sex in Year of the Rabbit" is a lively explanation that each year in the Chinese system has its own character. Since the Year of the Rabbit is full of motion and excess, the article predicts lots of sex scandals. Since both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were born in rabbit years, the article says they would be well advised not to tie the knot next year.

The Wikipedia article "Lunar New Year" leads to articles on holidays observed according to lunar systems, including Rosh Hashanah. The Chinese New Year article is long and full of more details than most of us would need, but the principal menace to humanity is that following the links will take you to so many fascinating places that the rest of the morning is shot.

Traditionally New Year lasted for fifteen days, ending with the Lantern Festival. When I lived in Taiwan my landlord explained that New Year is when the rice bin gets emptier and the outhouse get fuller.


But I'm still not sure why it's "rabbit" and not "hare."

Spring NCTA Seminar

Friends --

We are now recruiting for another National Consortium for Teaching About Asia Seminar.

We will meet Wednesdays 6:00-9:00 January 12 to March 23, with March 30 as a backup in case of weather cancellation.

The East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University, Bloomington, organizes this seminar on behalf of the National Consortium on Teaching about Asia (NCTA), a national initiative supported by the Freeman Foundation of Stowe, Vermont. This year we are again hosted by the Confucius Institute, Chicago.

For more information, see the Indiana University East Asian Studies Center Center’s website:

http://www.iub.edu/~easc/outreach/educators/seminar/index.shtml

All Look Same?

The edgy blog, All Look Same: The Difference is in the Eye of the Beholder, runs commentary on cultural and current issues.

One of its intriguing features is The Exam Room, a test for the ability to tell if something is Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. There are pictures from New York street scenes, traditional architecture, travel photos, food, and some others, asking you to say which is which.

Try it!

Happy Tiger!

All around Asia it is "Chinese" New Year -- well, lunar new year. By the workings of the lunar calendar, 2010 has a double whammy: Chinese New Year on Saturday the 13th, then Valentine's Day on Sunday!

The US-China Institute of the University of Southern California puts out Talking Points, which pulls together background informati0n on breaking news, as well as information on art shows, talks, and other events in LA and around the country.

The Feb 10-24 issue has a great collection of New Year's postage stamps from all over the world, mostly, Asia which is colorful and also shows different styles.

If you're already nostalgic for last year, there is also a link to Year of the Ox stamps.

Browsing through earlier posts on this blog, I found a Scholastic Instructor page on Chinese New Year. There are pdf "reproducibles for calligraphy and other activities.

China Rising? The Dragon Wakes Again

"Beware of China, for when the dragon wakes she will shake the world." Napoleon? That's what we're told, but actually there's no evidence that he ever said it.

But over the last decade a lot of "China Rising" talk has been going around, getting more intense in the last couple of years.

History News Network has a collection of recent posts gathered from the internet, "HNN Hot Topics: China Rising."

China Beat, our second most favorite blog (after this one) has run a powerful set of pieces on "Big China" books, that is, books that loudly hail or bemoan China's rise or menace. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, has roundup, "Six Takes on Martin Jacques," a follow up to his piece in Time Magazine online blog (Feb 8, 2010), "Big China Books: Enough of the Big Picture." Jeff skewers the Olympic scale conclusion jumping in a gaggle of these books, especially Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World : The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.

Another recent well informed and provocative piece is Richard Rigby's "The Challenge of China" at East Asia Forum.

Japan In the Modern World: Visualizing Cultures

Japan: Black Ships, The Meiji Nation, and Imperialism

Doubleclick the image to go to a set of slides showing Western influence in Japan from the 1850s to the 1920s.

Many more images are available at the MIT site, Visualizing Cultures (click to go to the site).

This is a full strength public education project covering a wide range of topics in modern Japanese history. "Black Ships and Samurai," for instance, shows how the American Admiral Perry looked at Japan and how Japanese looked at him. Other topics include Japan's efforts to "throw off Asia," that is, to Westernize, and "Ground Zero 1945." Each has a scholarly essay and a wonderful set of images.

Wikipedia for Teachers and Students?

I've posted pieces on China Beat, Living with Wikipedia: It's Here to Stay, with Pt II, How to Improve Wikipedia, supplemented by Living with Wikipedia (China Beat) on Frog in a Well, which has further links and thoughts.

If you have ideas on the (ab)use of Wikipedia in the classroom, please add your comments at Frog or China Beat.

News Articles

In the right hand column of this page is "News Stories," which links to stories I have chosen for current interest.

Below that is a link to my Del.icio.us site, which has many more items -- but you have to work a bit to locate them. Look for the "tags," click the one you want, then you will get a list of the items I have marked.

China Beat: Five Sites for Lesson Plans and Teaching Materials

The new blog "China Beat" offers a range of opinion pieces on news, history, culture, and anything else that comes to their minds. The contributors are Los Angeles area scholars and graduate students.

The April 25 post is very useful "Five Sites for Lesson Plans and Teaching Materials" It lists and briefly describes the major national sites.

National Geographic China Issue

The June issue of National Geographic is a rich presentation of China -- pictures, feature stories... the whole nine yards.

National Geographic website has these features, plus a bunch of links to earlier articles, maps, puzzles, the whole ninety yards.

China and Tibet

The hot item in the headlines these days is the debate over Tibet, with demonstrations in Lhasa, Nepal, and Congress. The box to the right of this posting, "News Articles," has links to recent articles.

The box below has links and tags to the Del.icio.us social sharing website. You can 1) click the links in the box to go to an article or 2) go to the Del.icio.us site by clicking "My Del.icio.us." There you will have access to the several thousand websites and articles linked there; they are tagged by subject. In this case, try "Tibet."