Teaching the death of Mao Zedong
If you ever have to teach about the end of Maoism, Ai Qing‘s poem “On the Crest of a Wave” is a good thing to use. Ai was one of China’s...
Category: 1970s
The American Geographical Society’s China
In a recent posting, I took a look at the Taiwan volume in an old series of colorful books called the “Around the World Program” published by the Am...
Iron Man Wang
For your teaching pleasure, here is the story of Iron Man Wang, from China Reconstructs, Sept, 1977. I have a pile of old 70’s Chinese propaganda magazine...
1945-1950/1960s/1970s/1980s/Colonial/Current/Recent Events/Imperialism/Japan/Korea/Korea-Japan/North Korea/US-Korea
“North Korea: Hangover of the 20th Century”
Missouri Southern State, Pittsburg State’s rival/sister school across the state line in Joplin, does “international semesters” in the Fall, an...
Who will Xi Jinping be?
If you have been following the Olympics (which I mostly have not) you probably watched the closing ceremonies, and saw Japan’s Prime Minister Abe zip thro...
Things I don’t know about Korea, part 3
One of the things that I noticed about the materials I used last time I taught Korean history1 is that the texts I chose for my course did not mention, much les...
Politics of Health / Medicine, post 1945
I’ve been thinking again about the broader issue of beginning to approach the South Korean post-colonial state and post-1945 medicine, recognizing the imm...
Nuclear Power in Korea / Domestic and International
Just a quick note, even as the Japan situation continues to unfold, to recall that (1) the current ROK government wants to prioritize nuclear exports in the com...
North Korean Propoganda Posters
Thanks to Adam at Mutantfrog for pointing me to these North Korean Propoganda posters. I think this is my favorite but the whole group is worth a look.
“Prosthetic Memories”
Seungsook Moon at Japan Focus has an interesting historiographical essay about the contested life and legacy of Park Chung Hee, who led Korea through the 60s an...
North Korea’s engagement with the world
I remember the shocked look on my students’ faces fifteen years ago when I told them that we actually had no idea how decisions were made or leaders picke...
KTX female attendants – “contingent labour” fights back
There was a time in Korean labour movement history in the 1970s when it were the female workers who actually led the most militant part of the struggle. The rea...
Kim Hwanp’yo and his “Ssalpap chŏnchaeng”
Several days ago, I was happy to be presented a newly published book by the publishers who had also earlier printed two of my own books – that is, by Seou...
The Marijuana Crisis of ’75
I’ve been dipping into an excellent book on the history of Korean popular music now and then (이혜숙 & 손우석 – 한국대중음악사) and came across a fascinatin...