Education About Asia: Online Archives

Asian Factoids 1:1

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Are You Paying Attention?

Approximate percentage of time educational researchers estimate 1st and 5th grade Beijing and Chicago students are paying attention to the teacher.

BEIJING           CHICAGO

1st grade                  82%           60%

5th grade             82%           55%

Approximate percentage lessons in which the teacher did not provide feedback to Beijing and Chicago children concerning their seatwork.

BEIJING        CHICAGO

1st grade                   25%          37%

5th grade             18%          48%

Source: Data from Harold W. Stevens and Shinying Lee, “The East Asian Version of Whole-Class TeachinR.” Educational Policy (June 1995).

Individual Incomes in China

Sources of individual income in China’s major cities:

  • 32% of the average income of employees, in both state and non-state sectors, are from sources other than regular salaries.
  • People make money through moon­lighting, investment in the stock market, and other means.

Source: Baokan Wenzhai. (March 23, 1995).

Image of wave motif
Wave motif, Xuan de period of the Ming dynasty. Dover Publications, Treasury of Chinese Design Motifs by Joseph D’Addetta

Hong Kong and the U.S.

  • Area of the world that is home to the largest American Chamber of Commerce outside of the U.S.        Hong Kong
  • Approximate number of American businesses in Hong Kong         Over 1,000
  • S. annual trade surplus with Hong Kong Approx.             $2 billion

Source; America’s Stake in Hong Kong (The Heritage Foundation, October 2. 1995).

Asia and the Global Village

If we shrink the earth’s population down to a village of one hundred people but keep all existing human ratios the same, there would be:

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 Western Hemisphere

people (North and South America)

8       Africans

Other Characteristics of the Global Village:

70 of the hundred people would be non-white

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

80 would live in substandard housing 70 would be non-Christian

1 would have a university education

Source: Asia/Link: A Newsletter fin. Teachers (University of Pittsburgh, February 1995).

Asia Economic Notes

Asia’s share of the World’s Gross National Product:

1960 – 4 percent

1990 – 25 percent

2000 – 33 percent (projected)

U.S. Pacific Trade

1984 – U.S. trade across the Pacific surpassed U.S. trade across the Atlantic.

1994 – One-third of U.S. exports were to East Asia. U.S. merchandise trade to APEC countries constituted 60% of total U.S. exports. More than 80% of the $154 billion U.S. global trade deficit was with APEC countries, mostly Japan and China.

Source: The Japanese Times Weekly International Edition (November 13-29. 1995).

U.S. and Vietnamese MIA Statistics

Missing in Action

United States                 2,202

Vietnam                       300,000′

This number includes both People’s Liberation Armed Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam for the years 1954-75.

Source: Z Magazine (October 1995).

Women’s Average Wages in Manufacturing as Percentage of Men’s (1990)

Germany 73
Hong Kong 69
Japan 43
Singapore 55
South Korea 50
Sri Lanka 88
U.S. 68

Source: “The World’s Women 1995: Trends and Statistics,” United Nations (New York: United Nations Publications, 1995).