Education About Asia: Online Archives

Browse and download over 1,500 articles — feature articles, lesson plans, interviews, classroom resources, and book and film reviews — from Education About Asia (EAA)!

Sign up for the EAA Digest E-Newsletter and receive monthly updates and announcements from the EAA editor. Subscribe

Help us do more

by supporting EAA through print subscriptions and donations.

How to use the EAA Online Search Engine

PLEASE NOTE: All article and essay illustrations, including many images and graphics necessary for understanding the content, may be viewed in the PDF.

  1. 1

    Use the dropdown menus

    to search by author, geographic location, article type, and academic field

  2. 2

    Enter keywords

    to search the full text of articles (where search terms may not appear in the article title, eg.)

  3. 3

    View an article

    by clicking on its title. To view the original print version of the article, select “PDF”

Search for Articles

(culture, history, art, marriage, etc...)

NOTE: Archive articles may be downloaded and reproduced for personal or classroom use only.

Essay, Resources

Education in Asian Languages

by Linda H. Chance

Scratch any Asian Studies specialist from whatever discipline, and you may find a person whose most revealing insights came through an encounter with language. No amount of lecturing on Asian specificities and differences can equal the impact of learning negation, the colors, orthography, or politeness strategies in another language. All across the curriculum in the English-speaking world, more awareness of Asia and more facility with foreign language are being called for as we face the twenty-f...

Essay, Resources

Experiencing and Teaching the Geography of Nepal

by Barbara Brower, Gwenda Rice, Teresa Bulman

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION AND GOALS In summer 1997, thirteen elementary and secondary school teachers from Oregon participated in a month-long geography field program in Nepal. The “Teachers’ Workshop in Nepal” (TWIN Project), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, through Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad and by the Oregon Geographic Alliance (OGA), Portland State University (PSU), and the Himalayan Research Bulletin, was developed and implemented by faculty at PSU, Western Oregon Univ...

Essay, Resources

Using Material Culture to Impart a Sense of Place

by Stephen F. Cunha

INTRODUCTION The ongoing struggle to procure the latest technology in our classrooms and the globalization of our curricula are two omnipresent themes in American education today. Many believe they are interdependent in that our World Wide Web, CD ROM, and other electronic connections are prerequisite to linking multiculturalism across the curriculum. While few people, including this author, downplay the benefits of electronic learning, even the best interactive multimedia limit students to...

Book Review Essay, Resources

About Face: Performing Race in Fashion and Theater

by Laurie Baker

By Dorinne Kondo NEW YORK, NY, ROUTLEDGE PRESS, 1997 260 PAGES +REFERENCES + INDEX Dorinne Kondo, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, has published a collection of eight provocative essays about race, ethnicity, and gender issues. Although I was initially put off by the feminist-political agenda that Ms. Kondo espouses, there is enough rational and interesting academic research here to recommend it for a class in either ethnic ...

Film Review Essay, Resources

Fear and Hope in Cambodia

by John Marston

BY ISABELLE ABRIC WRITTEN AND NARRATED BY WILLIAM SHAWCROSS PRODUCED BY THE UNITED NATIONS FIRST RUN/ICARUS FILMS 153 WAVERLY PLACE NEW YORK, NY 10014 212-727-1711 1993. 59 MINUTES. COLOR Fear and Hope in Cambodia documents in video the 1992–93 period of the United Nations presence in Cambodia—the UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) period. The video film is a solid document of a significant moment in Cambodian history and a clear and effective narrative of event...

Facts About Asia, Resources

Asian Factiods

by

Debunking the Myths Myth: Everyone in China speaks the same language. Truth: Chinese speak many dialects, sometimes making communication difficult. Although the Chinese have shared the same written language for more than 2,000 years, they have often spoken different dialects. Some are as different from each other as Spanish is from French. Source: East Asian Connection, vol. VIII, no. 3, February 1998. Indiana University, Memorial Hall West 207, Bloomington, IN 47405. Pillars of Corpor...

Book Review, Resources

Buddhism in Practice

by William B. Huntley

EDITED BY DONALD S. LOPEZ PRINCETON: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1995 XVI + 608 PAGES Many new and some surprising English translations of texts have been collected in an anthology by Donald Lopez with thirty-nine contributors. In all there are forty-eight texts with extensive introductions. The impression gleaned from the variety reveals Buddhism as quite a varied and complex tradition. Like an all-star professional athletic team, the contributors to this volume bring credentials as world...

Film Review Essay, Resources

Puja: Hindu Expressions of Devotion

by Keith Snodgrass

PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED BY THE ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 202-357-4880 1996. VHS VIDEO. 20 MINUTES This video is part of a larger packet the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution has produced in conjunction with the exhibit of the same title. The packet also includes a teacher’s guide with reproducible handouts and Indian pop-art posters of various Hindu deities. The materials in the teacher’s packet are also available on a Web site, http:// www.s...

Book Review, Resources

Indonesia

by Thomas Bibler

By Bruce Grant MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS, THIRD EDITION, 1996 248 PAGES “Contemporary history is hard to write with assurance.” This is the opening statement in Bruce Grant’s chapter on “future” in Indonesia . Recent events in that country would certainly support Grant’s assertion. The book was first published in 1964 and this edition, while extensively revised, retains the readability and sympathy for its subject that made the original version a success. Although Indonesia is...

Book Review, Resources

Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History

by Mary Connor

By Bruce Cumings NEW YORK: W. W. NORTON, 1997 495 PAGES + BIBLIOGRAPHY + INDEX Here’s a big book that could be as important for understanding Korea as Reischauer’s was for revealing Japan. Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History will become an essential resource for high school and college libraries and a requisite for those who teach Asian Studies. This valuable text was authored by Bruce Cumings, a Northwestern University professor and one of America’s leading Korea scholars. A...

Book Review, Resources

The River Dragon Has Come!: The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China’s Yangtze River and Its People

by Edward Rhoads

EDITED BY JOHN G. THIBODEAU AND PHILIP B. WILLIAMS, WITH A FOREWORD BY AUDREY RONNING TOPPING TRANSLATED BY YI MING ARMONK, NEW YORK, AND LONDON, ENGLAND: M. E. SHARPE, 1998. XXIX + 240 PAGES Reviewed by Edward Rhoads China’s Three Gorges Dam will be, when completed in 2003, the world’s largest. In an era when large dams are widely regarded as environmentally insensitive, it has drawn opposition not only abroad but also within China. Leading the opposition in China is the investigative ...

Book Review, Resources

San’ya Blues: Laboring Life in Tokyo

by David W. Blaylock

My first thought was that I could use this book in my upper division Japanese History course. However, selections from this book could be used in Asian Civilization and Culture surveys, sociology classes, or in high school courses. I recommend that teachers read this book for a more complete picture of Japanese society.

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

Chinese Art and Architecture and Japanese Art and Architecture

by Ann W. Norton

Chinese Art and Architecture Written and Narrated by Ronald M. Bernier Edited by Ann Campbell 1987. 55 MINUTES (GRADES 5–12); 99 MINUTES (GRADES 9–ADULT) CD ROM PROGRAM (GRADES 5–12) Japanese Art and Architecture Written and Narrated by Ronald M. Bernier Edited by Ann Campbell 1991. 75 MINUTES (GRADES 5–12); 140 MINUTES (GRADES 9–ADULT) ALARION PRESS, INC. P.O. BOX 1882 BOULDER, CO 80306-1882 1-800-523-9177 WWW.ALARION.COM Reviewed by Ann W. Norton These splendid multicu...

Film Review Essay, Resources

Indonesia: Riding the Tiger

by Roger Paget

Kings and Coolies (52 Min.) Freedom or Death (55 Min.) The New Order (53 Min.) PRODUCED BY CHRISTINE OLSEN DIRECTED BY CURTIS LEVY FILMS FOR THE HUMANITIES & SCIENCES PO BOX 2053 PRINCETON, NJ 08543-2053 1997. VHS. COLOR/BLACK & WHITE This is a stunning three part video triptych of twentieth-century Indonesia . Kings and Coolies, the first panel, captures the special stamp of Dutch colonialism as it gave way inexorably to the forces of nationalism. In the second panel lies Freedom...

Essay, Resources

Developing a Resource Guide ASIA IN CONNECTICUT: A Catalogue of Asian Resources in Connecticut and Environs

by Bruce J. Esposito, Colleen A. Kelly

SECOND EDITION WEST HARTFORD, CT: UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD, 1996 WWW.ASIACT.COM By Colleen A. Kelly and Bruce J. Esposito Asia in Connecticut was developed as a resource guide for educators at all academic levels. The first edition of this directory, originally published by the University of Connecticut, appeared in 1980.1 The second edition is completely revised to reflect current technologies and methodologies in research and communication. It was designed as a user friendly reference for As...

Book Review, Resources

The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature

by Rusell Kirkland

VICTOR MAIR, ED. NEW YORK: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1995 (PAPER, 1996) XXXVII + 1325 PAGES This fine anthology by a first-rate scholar may soon become standard fare in courses in Chinese or Asian literature. Indeed, Mair states that the book is directed to teachers and students (xxxvi). There have been several comparable anthologies, most dominated by poetry. This wide-ranging work extends to many genres, and has thus been precedented only by Cyril Birch’s aging two-volume Anthology of Ch...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

The Eyes of the Empress Women in China’s Tang Dynasty

by Helen Finken

By Lyn Reese WOMEN IN THE WORLD CURRICULUM RESOURCE PROJECT 1030 SPRUCE STREET BERKELEY, CA, 94707 510-524-0304 1996. 58 PAGES, PAPERBACK Reviewed by Helen Finken The Eyes of the Empress guides secondary students in examining the diverse roles of women during China’s Tang Dynasty (618–906 C.E.). A wide variety of resources are provided which highlight women’s significant contributions to the cultural and political life of the period. An analysis of the role of Confucian ideology in ...

Feature Article

What’s So Bad About THE GOOD EARTH?

by Charles W. Hayford

“I wish Pearl Buck was alive and walk into my restaurant so I can cut out her heart and liver. That’s how much I hate that movie,” says a character in Frank Chin’s otherwise delightful Donald Duk.(note 1) The 1937 movie to which Chin’s character objected did not feature any Chinese actors, but appeared to speak for China. Many in 1930s China objected to its unromantic description of village life and its inclusion of sex. Recently, Pulitzer award winning author Edmund White, following...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

China: Understanding Its Past

by Greg Levitt

By Eileen H. Tamura, Linda K. Menton, Noren W. Lush, and Francis K. C. Tsui HONOLULU: UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS, 1998 CURRICULUM RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GROUP 776 UNIVERSITY AVENUE HONOLULU, HI 96822 262 PAGES This textbook is written to be used as a supplement to a middle/high school World History course or as a semester standalone course on China. In this capacity it offers the non-China specialist teacher an excellent representation of important documents, events, and people to provid...

Film Review Essay, Resources

The Spirit of Hiroshima

by David G. Goodman

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY GEOFFREY POISTER DISTRIBUTED BY NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION 346 NINTH STREET, SECOND FL. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103 (415) 552-9550 FAX: (415) 863-7428 1996. VHS VIDEO. 56 MINUTES. Reviewed by David G. Goodman The Spirit of Hiroshima is an introduction to the issues surrounding the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and to the attempts by Japanese in that city today to make its legacy meaningful to themselves and to future generations. It is a wel...

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.