Education About Asia: Online Archives

A Tribute to Judith Ames It is with some regret, but enormous gratitude, that I share the news that Judith Ames, who almost certainly holds the record for the most number of words published in EAA, recently informed me that she decided to retire as the columnist for “Web Gleanings.” Back in 1995 when I posted announcements for EAA editors, Judith, who previously was associated with the Japan Society in New York and has worked, among other endeavors, as an editorial and computer consultant, ...

Web Gleanings: Traditional and Contemporary Asia: Numbers, Symbols, and Colors

ASIA Meaning of the Flags of Asia From the Nomad Revelations blog, graphics for the flags of all Asian countries are presented in alphabetical order. The graphics are accompanied by descriptions and the symbolic meaning of the flags. Symbols in Asian Art This is a collection of blog posts from the Daruma Museum. These posts focus on symbols in Asian art. There are reviews of books about symbols, as well as articles, including a lengthy one by Dr. Ilana Singer titled “Decorative Motifs in J...

Columns, Resources, Web Gleanings

Web Gleanings: Sports, Culture, and Asia

GENERAL Sports Across Asia: Politics, Cultures, and Identities URL: http://tinyurl.com/z5yf6d3 This entry in Routledge’s Research in Sport, Culture, and Society series, edited by Katrin Bromber, Birgit Krawietz, and Joseph Maguire, was published in 2013. As is the case with all books featured by Google Books, only portions of this book are provided. The Introduction and the first article are presented with only a few pages omitted. The first article looks at the globalization of sports wi...

Columns, Resources, Web Gleanings

Web Gleanings: Major Universities in Asia

For those who wish to study at a university in Asia, there are thousands of choices. To narrow the choices, it is helpful to consult with sites that rate the universities on a number of factors. Below are several important evaluation sites: A) Best Global Universities in Asia Source: US News and World Report URL: http://tinyurl.com/jap4d6x B) QS University Rankings: Asia 2015 Source: Top Universities URL: http://tinyurl.com/j4tgchc C) Asia University Rankings 2015 Source: Time...

Web Gleanings: India: Past, Present, and Future

INDIA: PAST Indian History URL: http://tinyurl.com/m79fltp This is the first page of many devoted to the history of India. The history begins with the Indus Valley civilization and continues chronologically on succeeding pages of the site. It is a bit tedious to navigate this history section, as one must click continuously to travel through time periods. The links are at the bottom of each page. Internet Indian History Sourcebook URL: http://tinyurl.com/opg7ods This compendium of prima...

Columns, Web Gleanings

Web Gleanings: Asia: Biographies and Personal Stories, Part II

JAPAN Portal Japan/Selected Biographies URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Japan/Selected_biography This page presents fourteen biographies of a variety of people associated with Japan, including some Japanese citizens. Many of them are from the arts and most of them were born in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Each short biography is linked to a longer and more detailed one in the Wikipedia archives on the site. Japan: Peeps at History URL: http://tinyurl.com/ngrnmuk This...

Columns, Web Gleanings

Web Gleanings: Southeast Asia in the Humanities and Social Science Curricula

SOUTHEAST ASIA Map of Southeast Asia This map gives the reader an idea of the complicated geography of Southeast Asian countries. Each country is shown with a different color, making it easy to identify them. Ancient Lights: The Geography and Cultures of Southeast Asia (video)

Web Gleanings: Asia: Biographies and Personal Stories, Part 1

JAPAN Emperor Hirohito Biography (video) URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LDU33-SzQQ Produced by the BBC, the almost-50-minute video focuses on the lifeof Hirohito during the years of World War II. The cinematic footage is interspersed with comments by scholars and others, including Professor Carol Gluck and the granddaughter of Tōjō. Andō Hiroshige Biography URL: http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/main/biography.htm In this brief biography of Hiroshige, the essential facts of...

Web Gleanings: Maritime Asia

MARITIME ASIA Asian Bodies of Water URL: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Asia-lakes.html This is a simple way for younger students to become familiar with the seas and oceans of the Asian continent. There are check boxes for selecting the location of a specific body of water; or one can also click on a map, and the sea or ocean will be identified with an accompanying descriptive blurb. Maritime Asia URL: http://maritimeasia.ws/index.html This site has a number of links on the left side...

Web Gleanings: Experiences in Asia –Travel Journals and Blogs

JAPAN A Life in Japan (Video) URL: http://www.alifeinjapan.com/ This documentary is almost one hour and twenty minutes long. It can be downloaded to one’s computer or watched on the Web page in a variety of formats, including English (with or without subtitles), Japanese, and Swedish. Several people from different countries respond on screen to questions – like “What is your purpose in coming to Japan?” posed by the filmmaker. It is interesting to hear the responses which, in some c...

Web Gleanings: Central Asia

CENTRAL ASIA AND THE SILK ROADS Silk Road Foundation URL: http://tiny.cc/u5go5w For anyone who wants information and historical facts about the Silk Roads, this is a good resource. There are historical chronologies and short biographies of those who traveled the Silk Roads, dating back to 959 BC, timelines, the history of silk, and maps. Silk Road URL: http://tiny.cc/jxj46w Produced by Jeffrey Hays, this site is rich in resources. There are details about the routes, the products, Samar...

Web Gleanings: Tips for Searching Asia

We have all heard the expression “Google it.” Indeed, when most of us are looking for information on the Internet, that is precisely what we do: We enter search terms in Google and hope for the best. However, there are tips and tools that can help you become a more skilled Internet searcher, and this article includes examples that give you tools to understand options, focus your search, and improve your results. Google is the most popular search engine, and its features will be the focus her...

Web Gleanings: Asian Visual and Performing Arts, Part II

VISUAL ARTS ASIA, GENERAL. Art of Asia Home Page. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston has a noteworthy collection of Asian art. Their site has hundreds of images from the collection. The focus is Chinese and Japanese works of art, including paintings and prints. The images are easily accessible through the links at the bottom of the home page.

Web Gleanings: U.S., Asia, and the World: 1914–2012

ASIA, GENERAL American Economic Relations with Asia URL: http://bit.ly/SAfZBP In this article written by Marcus Noland for the Asian Economic Review in 2009, the author discusses the necessity of shared prosperity for Asia and the US. He looks at the current global financial crisis and long-term challenges. The Globalist URL: http://bit.ly/PU9qql There are few discussions on the Internet about Asia and Latin America. “Changing Asian and Latin American Relations” focuses on re...

Web Gleanings: Afghanistan

Afghanistan Afghanistan Online URL: http://www.afghan-web.com/ This site is updated each day, yielding a great deal of information about present-day Afghanistan. On the left side of the home page are numerous links to topics ranging from cooking to geography to languages. The section on the environment is quite extensive, as are the links to biographies and photos. Afghanland URL: http://www.afghanland.com/home/home.html There are many links on this site, some more useful than others. ...

Web Gleanings: Asian Visual and Performing Arts–Part I

VISUAL ARTS Asia, General The Art of Asia URL: http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/introduction/ The collections of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese works of art have been added to this site, produced by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. From this introductory page, one can access the collections by culture, period, or themes. There are thousands of objects, including 368 ukiyo-e and an extensive guide to Chinese ceramics. South and Southeast Asian Art URL: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah...

Web Gleanings: Food, Culture and Asia

ASIA, GENERAL The Rhythm of Rice Production URL: http://on.natgeo.com/rewF5U The National Geographic Society, in its Xpeditions section, provides this lesson plan for young elementary school students about the importance of rice in the economy and culture of Asia. A link to a handout is also available. Food Timeline: Asian-American Cuisine URL: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodasian.html Short overviews of the history of Asian food in America are accompanied by reviews and quotes from per...

Web Gleanings: US, Asia, and the World: 1620–1914

[caption id="attachment_13584" align="aligncenter" width="424"] Image from the Library of Congress, A Wider World, II: How Rome Went to China web page at http://tiny.cc/a3p1i.[/caption] ASIA East is East, West is West: the origin of medical missions to Asia URL: http://thailand.digitaljournals.org/index.php/ABM/article/view/1092/1232 Richard V. Lee wrote this article in 2009 for the journal Asian Biomedicine. The article traces the history of Western medical missions beginning in the thir...

Web Gleanings: Teaching the Geographies of Asia

Asia URL: http://continents.pppst.com/asia.html One can keep busy for days simply exploring the links on this site. For the most part, these are links to PowerPoint presentations by teachers. Some presentations are more detailed than others. The links are grouped by geographic region in Asia: Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, etc., and by Asian country. HowStuffWorks: Geography of Asia URL: http://geography.howstuffworks.com/asia/geography-of-asia.htm The Discovery Company p...

Web Gleanings: Korean Contemporary and Popular Culture