Education About Asia: Online Archives

Welcome to the EAA open access archives. Browse and download over 1,500 articles — feature articles, lesson plans, interviews, classroom resources, and book and film reviews — from twenty-four years of Education About Asia.

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New to EAA? View 40 archive articles, handpicked by EAA Editor, Lucien Ellington, which provide a good overview of EAA.

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Feature Article, Special Segment on Japanese Noh Theater

Cutting-Edge Samurai Theater: Noh Then, Noh Now, Noh Tomorrow

by Matthew R. Dubroff

Noh is the sung, danced, masked dramatic form of Japan. The performers depict stories where the shite, the main masked actor, interacts with the waki, a side actor, and the kyogen, an interlude performer. A Noh stage is a roofed pavilion (even indoors) that has an entry bridgeway and a back wall with a painted pine tree. The orchestra consists of two or three drummers and a flute player at the back of the stage in full view during performance, along with an eight-member chorus that sits to the s...

Book Review, Resources

Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House, and the Two Koreas

by Reviewed by Michael J. Seth

Donald Gregg had a remarkably long career spanning almost six decades, most of it connected with Asia. He served as a CIA officer in Japan, Việt Nam, and Burma, and was the CIA station chief in Seoul from 1973 to 1975. From 1989 to 1993, he was the US ambassador to South Korea. After retiring from government service, he headed the Korea Society in New York and made six trips to North Korea to promote better relations with that country. In between, he served on the National Security Council. Du...

Editor's Message

Editor’s Message

by Lucien Ellington

I sincerely thank authors, contributors, and referees for their valuable work on the spring issue special section, “Asia in Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and Undergraduate Honors Courses.” Every effort has been made to publish a special section particularly appropriate for the kind of courses that almost certainly contain a disproportionate share of future leaders. As readers will see, many of the articles in this issue have an interdisciplinary focus, or are app...

Course Syllabi, Online Supplement

“Teaching Multiple Asias: Confessions of a Europeanist Teaching World History” Syllabus

by Alexander Maxwell

Editor’s Note: The syllabus that follows complements “Teaching Multiple Asias: Confessions of a Europeanist Teaching World History” by Alexander Maxwell from the EAA spring 2016 issue (vol. 21, no. 1, p. 58-60). If you have any questions about the readings and course materials listed in the syllabus, you may contact Alexander Maxwell at Alexander.Maxwell@vuw.ac.nz. Global History: Commodities & Ideologies Course Content This course addresses two themes in global history: commodit...

Course Syllabi, Online Supplement

“Ancient Chinese Science and the Teaching of Physics” Syllabus

by Matthew Marone

Editor’s Note: The syllabus that follows complements “Ancient Chinese Science and the Teaching of Physics” by Matthew Marone from the EAA spring 2016 issue (vol. 21, no. 1, p. 20-26). If you have any questions about the readings and course materials listed in the syllabus, you may contact Matthew Marone at marone_mj@mercer.edu. PHY 108 Ancient Chinese Science and Technology 中国古代科学技术 Zhōng Guó Gǔ Dài Kē Xué Jī Shù “It is well to observe the force and virtue an...

Course Syllabi, Online Supplement

“Shadow R & J and The Girl Who Flew: Introducing Asia through Theater in an Interdisciplinary Honors Program” Syllabus

by Adam D. Frank

Editor’s Note: The syllabus that follows complements “Shadow R & J and The Girl Who Flew: Introducing Asia through Theater in an Interdisciplinary Honors Program” by Adam Frank from the online supplements of the EAA spring 2016 issue (vol. 21, no. 1). The syllabus is for a course taught for the first time in spring 2016 and doesn't fully reflect how the course ended up being organized. Two 10-15 minute plays, The Girl Who Flew and Call to Arms were organized. While Call to Arms was or...

Online Supplement

“Shadow R & J” and “The Girl Who Flew”: Introducing Asia through Theater in an Interdisciplinary Honors Program

by Adam D. Frank

Readers of Education About Asia who have no background in Asian theater should take heart that they, too, can incorporate Asian theater as a tool for teaching about Asia. The caveat is that when one adopts a form of theater that traditionally takes decades to master, one must openly embrace ignorance, value hybridity, and measure success not in terms of whether students have rendered a style authentically, but whether they have captured some spirit of a particular style in order to tell the stor...

Course Syllabi, Online Supplement

“Cutting-Edge Samurai Theatre: Noh Then, Noh Now, Noh Tomorrow” by Matthew R. Dubroff and “In the Noh: Using Samurai Theater in the History Classroom” by Eric G. Dinmore Syllabi

by Eric G. Dinmore, Matthew R. Dubroff

Editor’s Note: The syllabi that follow complement “Cutting-Edge Samurai Theatre: Noh Then, Noh Now, Noh Tomorrow” by Matthew R. Dubroff and “In the Noh: Using Samurai Theater in the History Classroom” by Eric G. Dinmore from the EAA spring 2016 issue (vol. 21, no. 1, p. 34-40). If you have any questions about the readings and course materials listed in the syllabi, you may contact Matthew R. Dubroff at mdubroff@hsc.edu or Eric G. Dinmore at edinmore@hsc.edu. HONS 101.01 – Samurai C...

Online Supplement

Lesson Plan: “On Leaving Asia” Primary Source Document

by Aaron Pickering, Fukuzawa Yukichi

Editor’s Note: The following primary source accompanies “Lesson Plan: On Leaving Asia” by Aaron Pickering from the spring 2016 issue (vol. 21, no. 1, p. 66-67). Datsu-A Ron “On Leaving Asia”—from the Jiji shinpō newspaper, March 16, 1885 (Published anonymously but generally attributed to Fukuzawa Yukichi) International communication has become so convenient these days that once the wind of Western civilization blows to the East, every blade of grass and every tree in the East ...

Course Syllabi, Online Supplement

Walk Like a Samurai Using Japanese: Performing and Martial Arts to Teach Historical Inquiry Syllabus

by Tim Cooper

Editor’s Note: The syllabus that follows complements “Walk Like a Samurai: Using Japanese Performing and Martial Arts to Teach Historical Inquiry” by Tim Cooper from the EAA spring 2016 issue (vol. 21, no. 1, p. 41-43). If you have any questions about the readings and course materials listed in the syllabus, you may contact Tim Cooper at tcooper@siena.edu. Course Description HIST401: Traditional Japan This course will introduce students to the history of Japan from earliest times to ...

Book Review, Resources

Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back

by Daniel A. Métraux (Reviewer)

Deep in the western suburbs of Tokyo in the city of Kodaira lies Tsuda College, a private school of about 2,500 students where, since its founding in 1900, female students have received a broad education in the liberal arts and languages. It is a beautiful, leafy campus with an abundance of impressive trees and flowers. It is a rare treat to visit in late March or early April, when the cherry trees are in full bloom. My own school, Mary Baldwin University, has a long tradition of receiving excha...

Feature Article

Democracy in Asia

by Clayton D. Brown

In June 2015, Utah State University hosted a graduate-level workshop for teachers on “Democracy in Asia: A Universal or American System?”1 Eight Asia specialists from three universities convened to share their expertise with local educators. Recognizing that a brief article cannot do justice to a weeklong workshop, we are still committed to extending the fruits of that local outreach to a broader community. What follows are a few highlights from each workshop session, including suggested sou...

Book Review, Resources

Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities

by Robert André LaFleur (Reviewer)

Is Confucianism a religion? In one way or another, this question has been asked for as long as Westerners have tried to make sense of China—from the earliest translations done by the Jesuits half a millennium ago right up until the present. It can even be argued quite persuasively that thinkers from China and its East Asian neighbors have asked a similar kind of question almost since Confucius’s Analects began to be distributed in the centuries after the sage’s death. The broader matter th...

Columns, Resources, Web Gleanings

Major Universities in Asia

by Judith S. Ames

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...

Feature Article

Kim Dae-jung’s Cyberinfrastructure Legacy

by Hang Ryeol Na

In the Western Pacific region, there are typically four stages in the development of a tropical cyclone, classified by their maximum sustained wind speed—typhoon, severe tropical storm, tropical storm, and tropical depression in the descending order of wind speed.1 On November 1, 1991, for example, a tropical depression was identified in the western Pacific Ocean with estimated winds of forty-five kilometers per hour (km/h) (thirty miles per hour [mph]). Three days later, it was upgraded to a ...

Feature Article, Special Segment on Japanese Noh Theater

Walk Like a Samurai: Using Japanese Performing and Martial Arts to Teach Historical Inquiry

by Tim Cooper

The Need for Historical Inquiry In his Winter 2010 EAA article, “Can Samurai Teach Critical Thinking? Primary Sources in the Classroom,” Ethan Segal offers several constructive methods to help students discern truth from fiction regarding the historical samurai. Woodblock prints of Saigō Takamori garbed in Western military uniform; images from the Mongol Invasion Scrolls depicting the disorderly chaos of samurai warfare; and the historical fiction of The Tale of the Heike, which for centur...

Feature Article, Special Segment on Japanese Noh Theater

In the Noh: Using Samurai Theater in the History Classroom

by Eric G. Dinmore

I teach Japanese and East Asian history at a 240-year-old, all-male liberal arts college known as an institution where the Old South lives on and students revere Virginia’s military heritage. Unsurprisingly, one of the most popular seminar topics I have offered over my nine-year career at Hampden-Sydney College has been Warrior Culture in Japanese History. As I developed my approach to the topic, I profited from reading Ethan Segal’s Winter 2010 article in this journal, “Can Samurai Teach ...

Feature Article

Indonesia, Asia, and the World: An Interview with Leonard C. Sebastian

by Lucien Ellington

Leonard C. Sebastian is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Indonesia Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). He received his PhD from the Australian National University in 1997. Dr. Sebastian is author of Realpolitik Ideology: Indonesia’s Use of Military Force (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006) and has been published in a number of journals, including The Journal of Strategic Studies, Indonesia, Defense & Security Analysis, the Cambridge Revie...

Feature Article

Ancient Chinese Science and the Teaching of Physics

by Matthew Marone

The scientific accomplishments of ancient China provide an exciting foundation for the teaching of introductory physics. Traditional physics classes are almost always taught from a Eurocentric point of view that rarely exposes students to the scientific accomplishments of other cultures. At Mercer University, I am experimenting with a new method of teaching physics that infuses Chinese culture, while at the same time, exposes our students to the principles and practice of modern experimental sci...

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