Education About Asia: Online Archives

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Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I hope readers prosper and are at peace during all of 2023. The winter issue is a landmark of sorts; the first non-thematic issue since 2004. A series of nonthematic issues should offer an interesting variety of articles and essays while supplementing and updating our substantial existing collections of special sections.

EAA Interview

An EAA Interview with the 2022 Franklin R. Buchanan Prizewinners: Anne Prescott, Yurika Kurakata, and John Frank for Walking the Tokaido: A Multi-Disciplinary Experience in History and Culture

by Lucien Ellington

This is our twenty-sixth consecutive interview with the winners of the Franklin R. Buchanan Prize, awarded annually to recognize an outstanding pedagogical, instructional, or curriculum publication on Asia designed for K–12 and college undergraduate instructors and students. This year’s winners are Anne Prescott, Yurika Kurakata, John Frank, and Arlene Kowal for Walking the Tōkaidō: A Multi-Disciplinary Experience in History and Culture (https://tinyurl.com/y3cc5nr3).

Our Story: A History of the World, An EAA Interview with coauthors Michio Yamasaki, Edward O’Mahony, and Angelica McDonough

by Lucien Ellington

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Editor’s Introduction: Erroneous predictions of the textbook’s demise have occurred for decades, but textbooks remain a major pedagogical tool, even though they are often ineffectual. This excerpt from a 2004 world history textbook study is still, for the most part, accurate today: World history textbooks have abandoned narrative for a broken format of competing instructio...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

Editor's Message I hope readers where fall weather is present are taking time to get outside. Our fall special section “Teaching Asia in Middle Schools” has been an especially gratifying project. High school and undergraduate instructors (two essays are specifically intended for post-middle school educators), and international readers should all find parts of the issue interesting and useful, but US educational demographics were the major incentive for the creation of the issue. Nationally,...

Facts About Asia

Facts About Asia: The Elephant in the Classroom: The US Literacy Crisis and Asian Studies

by James A. Tucker, Lucien Ellington

Editor’s Note: Professor James Tucker, the McKee Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, coauthored this column. Professor Tucker is a national leader in research in teaching and outreach for the study of dyslexia and related exceptional-learning conditions. He has held various positions in a long and illustrious career, including Director of the Bureau of Special Education, Pennsylvania Department of Education and has extensive national and international consulting ...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I hope many readers are enjoying the end of spring terms. The theme of this issue is part two of the special section “Asia in World History: Comparisons, Connections, and Conflicts” and authors of thematic articles and essays address a variety of topics that chronologically range from the beginning of the sixteenth century CE to the present. Zhuqing Li in “Sisters and Enemies: A True Story of Two Sisters” offers a compelling tale about two of the author’s aunts from an educated family ...

Facts About Asia

Facts About Asia: Rome and the Indian Subcontinent: A Forgotten Story of Impactful Economic Interactions?

by Lucien Ellington

Editor’s Note: Richard Davis’s AAS Key Issues in Asian Studies volume—Global India circa 100 CE: South Asia in Early World History—inspired me to incorporate part of his work and draw upon other sources as well in the following essay. Richard deserves the credit for stimulating my interest in this topic, but none of the blame for any errors I might have committed paraphrasing excerpts from Richard’s volume or working with additional sources. “The quest for India is a moving force of...

EAA Interview

The Bering Land Bridge Theory: An EAA Interview with Professor Morgan Smith

by Lucien Ellington

Morgan Smith is an Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Texas A&M University, where he studied in the Center for the Study of the First Americans. Prior to this, he worked for the Southeast Archaeological Center of the National Park Service in the section 106 compliance division. He has over a decade of experience in underwater and terrestrial archaeology. He has directed multiple full-scale geoarchaeological ...

Feature Article

A Brief Interview with Udan Fernando

by Lucien Ellington, Udan Fernando

Udan Fernando obtained his PhD from the University of Amsterdam. He currently functions as an Independent Researcher from Sri Lanka and Singapore. Until March 2020, he was Executive Director of the Center for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), a Sri Lankan think-tank. Throughout his career, as Head of the Development Commission of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (1989–1995), Executive Director of Paltra (gte) Ltd (1996–2001), Guest Researcher at University of Amsterdam (2002–20...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I hope readers are anticipating an improved summer 2021 relative to what many experienced last year. As this issue goes to press, the magnitude of India’s COVID-19 crisis became apparent. Our thoughts and prayers go to the Indian nation. This issue’s special section is “Asia’s Environments: National, Regional, and Global Perspectives.” In contemplating what might be the most useful approach to this topic, a reoccurring thought became my conceptual foundation for this issue’s theme...

EAA Interview, Resources

An EAA Interview with the 2020 Franklin R. Buchanan Prizewinners: Gary Marcuse, Jason A. Carbine, and Rebecca Overmyer-Velázquez for The Global Environmental Justice Collection (Focus on Asia/ Spotlight on North America)

by Lucien Ellington

[caption id="attachment_12198" align="alignleft" width="268"] Gary Marcuse.[/caption] This is our twenty-fourth consecutive interview with the winner of the recipient of the Franklin R. Buchanan Prize. This year’s winners are Gary Marcuse, Jason A. Carbine, and Rebecca Overmyer-Velázquez for The Global Environmental Justice Collection (Focus on Asia/Spotlight on North America) at http://globalenvironmentaljustice.com. The documentaries in the collection were selected by faculty from Whittier...

EAA Interview, Resources

Teaching About Asia in a Time of Pandemic: A Conversation with David Kenley

by Lucien Ellington

In the spring of 2020, educators suddenly found themselves teaching remotely as they and their students began a multiweek period of pandemic-induced isolation. As weeks turned to months, administrators announced that students would not return to campus until the following school year and perhaps even longer. Teachers quickly scrambled to design new pedagogical approaches suitable to a socially distanced education. Teaching About Asia in a Time of Pandemic presents many lessons learned by educato...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I wish all EAA readers who are fortunate enough to have the chance, a joyous, peaceful, and reflective holiday season. The special section “Teaching Asia’s Giants: India” commences with four solicited essays that build upon, beginning with Carol Gluck’s original essay “Top Ten Things to Know About Japan in the late 1990s,” a number of “Top Ten Things” essays we’ve published throughout the years. At the risk of using a term that has reached the point it perhaps has no...

Facts About Asia, Resources

Vigil: HONG KONG IN CRISIS An Interview with Jeffrey Wasserstrom

by Lucien Ellington

Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of five previous books, including China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (coauthored by Maura Elizabeth Cunningham) and Eight Juxtapositions: China through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo. In his latest book, Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink, Professor Wasserstrom combines his extensive knowledge of Hong Kong from the ground up with a broader unders...

EAA Interview, Resources

Eurasia and Teaching World History: A Short Conversation with Professor Xinru Liu

by Lucien Ellington

XINRU LIU (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Professor Emeritus of early Indian History and World History at the College of New Jersey. She is the author of Ancient India and Ancient China, Trade, and Religious Exchanges, AD 1–600; Silk and Religion, an Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People, AD 600–1200; Connections across Eurasia, Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads, coauthored with Lynda Norene Shaffer; A Social History of Ancient India...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

Given COVID-19, I hope and pray that readers and their families are safe in every respect. This issue’s special section is “Asian Philosophies and Religions.” In light of the tumultuous last few months, many educators and their students might be particularly interested in this issue’s content. On a more positive note, our spring issue marks the 25th anniversary of EAA’s inaugural issue! Korea is the focus of the first two feature articles: Don Baker’s “Religious Diversit...

Feature Article

An EAA Interview with the 2019 Franklin R. Buchanan Prizewinner Michael A. Fuller for An Introduction to Chinese Poetry: From the Canon of Poetry to the Lyrics of the Song Dynasty

by Lucien Ellington

This is our twenty-third consecutive interview with the recipient of the AAS Franklin R. Buchanan Prize. This year’s winner is Michael A. Fuller, who is the author of An Introduction to Chinese Poetry: From the Canon of Poetry to the Lyrics of the Song Dynasty. The textbook for learning classical Chinese poetry moves beyond the traditional anthology of poems translated into English and instead brings readers―including those with no knowledge of Chinese―as close as possible to the texture o...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I hope EAA readers are having a pleasant fall. This issue’s special section is “Entrepreneurship in Asia.” Merriam-Webster’s definition of entrepreneur—”a person who organizes and operates a business, or businesses taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so”—is technically correct in my opinion, but reveals nothing about the hard work, creativity, and incredible perseverance of successful entrepreneurs. Innovative entrepreneurs have always existed in Asia, bu...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I hope readers look forward to engaging in creative, interesting, and exciting summer changes of paces from the usual routines of fall and spring terms. In our nonthematic first feature article, “The Journey to the West: A Platform for Learning about China Past and Present,” Jianfen Wang and Gordon Gray offer readers the chance to use this classic work in better understanding how Chinese political elites, ordinary people, and shapers of popular culture have reacted to the novel th...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

We hope readers are enjoying the holiday season and may 2018 be a prosperous and happy year for all! This issue of EAA includes the special section “Demographics, Social Policy, and Asia (Part I)” as well as an ample amount of non-thematic articles, essays, and reviews. Most readers who have Asian studies backgrounds are aware that Wm. Theodore de Bary, an internationally famous scholar, former President of AAS, and a dedicated and effective proponent of integrating the study of Asia into su...

New to EAA?

Before viewing the full archives, view Editor’s Choice Articles, handpicked by EAA Editor, Lucien Ellington, which provide a good overview of EAA and introduction for new readers.