This kit contains projects and activities to acquaint elementary students with the rich culture of China. Students may listen to an audiotape that features songs, stories, an interview with a child, and a mini-lesson on the Chinese language. The book is filled with background information on China, recipes, games, poems, folk stories, craft…

This teacher's guide contains six lessons, including eight folktales, for using folktales from Japan and China in the elementary classroom. Specific objectives, materials, background notes, discussion questions, follow-up activities and a bibliography also are included. Each lesson takes approximately 1-3 class periods but are flexible for use.…

This document is a revised version of a teaching unit originally published in 1980 and designed to familiarize both elementary and secondary students with the Chinese language and thus lessen the strangeness often attached to it. The goal is not that students "learn Chinese;" rather the hope is that, through a series of exercises that…

This workbook is divided into 17 topical sections containing student readings and classroom activities designed to supplement standard textbook presentations and to bring China "alive" for students. The organization of the materials and the background notes for teachers stress central themes that are distinctive and recurrent in Chinese…

This play, intended for middle school and high school students, uses the historical events of the Macartney mission to China from 1792-94 to illustrate the problems that can occur when different cultures interact. The play describes the first major encounter in which government officials representative of the European Enlightenment come face to…

These lessons were developed by participants in a 1986 Fulbright Group Project Abroad sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. The lessons were developed cooperatively and are aimed at the middle school student. Lessons include: (1) "The Qin Dynasty" (Marte…

Explains how a world civilization course at Butler University (Indiana) was significantly enhanced after a geographic perspective was used to introduce students to various cultures. Describes the units on China and pre-revolutionary Russia. Outcomes included a better understanding and appreciation for geography by both students and teachers. (GG)

This unit addresses the questions of how and why people create order in a world whose randomness and order are for individuals to interpret. This unit uses the Han Dynasty of China as an example of one country's attempt to create such order and unite China successfully for over 400 years. The activities in this unit examine order in politics, in…

This unit introduces students to the diversity of rice culture and rice-based farming systems in Asia and the Pacific. Students examine issues related to the needs of the future global population. Six rice-producing countries are under study: Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, and Thailand. The lessons include: (1) "Rice in…

This paper traces the development of modern secular Tibetan education from the time of exile in India in the 1960's when the Communist Chinese occupied the country. A brief overview of the monastic education is presented as a way to provide a context to the importance of integrating Tibetan culture in the school curriculum. The rationale for a…

In spring 1989, the United States watched intently as televised reports relayed the events unfolding in Beijing's (China) Tiananmen Square. This concern for a people whose culture and political institutions are significantly different reflects a continuing and compelling interest in China. Although historians and journalists in the United States…

This curriculum unit is part one of a three-part series. The unit introduces students to policy options for U.S. and Japanese relations with China at the beginning of the 21st century. By identifying and examining these options, students gain an awareness of U.S., Japanese, and Chinese perspectives on political, economic, and security issues.…

This teaching package describes the education and lifestyle of the Chinese literati, popular from the Ming to the Qing dynasties (1368-1911). It consists of four lesson plans and a teacher's guide to a slide set. The latter illustrates painting formats popular during the late Ming period (1573-1644), hanging scrolls, handscrolls, the album leaf,…

This paper presents an overview of three countries, China, Japan, and Korea, in the northeastern Asia region and provides a bibliography of children's literature from the area in the appendix. The document advocates that the global interdependence of societies necessitates an understanding of the cultures with which people must interrelate.…