Today is October 10, which is both an important day in Chinese history and also means that I am late in getting in my book orders for Spring. In the past I have always been way too late with syllabus blogging, so that while I get some useful suggestions it is too late to act on them. So while it may\u00a0 be too late to get my book orders in on time, I am going to ask if anyone has some advice on<\/p>\n
1. Using (or replacing) these books<\/p>\n
2. Things to go with them<\/p>\n
This class is ASIA 200, Introduction to Asian Studies a class required for all of our 50-odd Asian Studies majors and one of our recruiting tools. The class is built around a series of readings that expose students to different disciplinary traditions and parts of Asia. The point is not to teach them the entire History, Anthropology,Literature etc. of China, Japan, Iran, Indonesia etc.1<\/a><\/sup> but to expose them to a lot of stuff they they would enjoy reading2<\/a><\/sup> and I would like teaching.<\/p>\n My current ideas are<\/p>\n Journalism\/India<\/strong><\/p>\n Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity<\/i>. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, 2013.<\/p>\n I always do a journalism book to start with, in part because they are supposed to be approachable and easy to get into, but also because as budding Asianists the students need to learn why they should be sceptical of books written by people who parachute into a society AND how much they can learn from a good journalist\/travel book. I will probably pair this with some stuff from Luyendijk, Joris. People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East<\/i>. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2009. Or maybe dump this and go back to Speed Tribes<\/em>?<\/p>\n Novel\/Indonesia<\/strong><\/p>\n although I did have one student walk out on the first day when I explained we would not be doing that ↩<\/a><\/p><\/li>