Hey class,
Nice work with the Japan book...On Wednesday we will discuss current issues in East Asia and review for your (short) unit test for Friday.
For tonight, watch the following videos about East Asia.
Reflect upon what you watched. Respond to your peers' posts if you want. Be ready to discuss on Wednesday.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Peace!
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15 comments:
The videos i watched were very good,The video about the Japanese people not accepting foreigners is very interesting because from what i saw, is that there were very few non Japanese people in Japan. The amount of black people and others is very low so i was wondering if they had some form of racism going on. The video about China and Taiwan, i have my own hunch that China is trying to take over the whole word very slowly but yea. The main video was the one were Japan is going to be a robotic nation pretty soon, because after seeing all the inventions that are out it seems like they are beyond their time, and the people and government are so influenced by animation and manga that it seems like they are forming their own lives to have robots preform daily life chores that those incapable cannot do. The robots seem so real that its astonishing, that its kind of scary, you cant help but think of a doomsday where all the robots go against the flesh, and attack, then theres one robot that supposed to save a guy from the doomsday and he goes back in time to save the guy from the doomsday buit the guy falls in love, and the robot says astallavista baby!!!
Video 1: I think it's completely unfair that these migrant workers are one of the main components in China's rapid development, yet they are neglected and are known by China's people as "dust". I also think this video shows how communism is a bad thing for the people in China. These migrant work harder and longer than many people in China, but they are paid minimum wage, and sometimes, the money is not enough to support them. People in China should have greater respect for these workers who constantly move around China just trying to make a living for themselves. Also, the government should improve its economy in rural areas in China so that Beijing does not have an overflow of these immigrants. I think its crazy that when an immigrant moves to the city, they lose their rights to housing, education, and healthcare, which are very important things for all people. Basically, I think what this video shows is that China stresses the point that they are helping the people, but in reality, they are neglecting one of the most important groups.
Video 2: It's cool that Japan has a whole hip-hop scene, even though the movement of hip-hop is quite recent there. Still, I think that they have a long way to go before hip-hop starts becoming a regular part of everyday life in Japan, just like it is in the US. I also think it's cool that Japanese hip-hop even exists because of the fact that it is hard to write rhymes in Japanese due to the complex words of the language. I really liked the one thing that the rapper said at the beginning about hip-hop being used as a message to the youth and the minorities in society. Too often, hip-hop just talks about money and girls and violence. There are some artists that have deeper lyrics, but the majority of popular rap these days focuses on those things. I also noticed that in some of the videos of Japanese hip-hop songs, American words were mixed in with Japanese ones. I think this spread of English to Japanese hip-hop is very good because it can connect America and Japan and maybe even cause some Japanese hip-hop songs to eventually become popular in the United States. As another rapper said, hip-hop is universal.
Video 3: Wow, that video completely surprised me! In the beginning I thought that one woman was a regular woman, but then the guy said, "She's fidgeting just like a human would." Also, the detail that Japan's population would drop from 127 million to 44 million is just amazing to think about for me. I mean, that's like a massacre! But I guess that it does make sense because China has a higher population of old people than young ones and the low birth rate in Japan is not helping out the situation. Also, I thought it was funny when the guy asked the sex expert why people in Japan aren't having sex and he said, "They're tired from work." I think to keep the birth rate under control, the women should have sex with the hosts haha Anyways, it is drastic measure to take, along with paying people to have kids, but introducing robots to the Japanese society will help make Japan run more smoothly and will make it a very innovative nation that has the interest of the whole world. As for the idea of robots taking over the world, Woody, that remains to be seen. Maybe Japan will be the first country that that will happen in.
Video 4: If I was in Taiwan at this time, I would agree with the people of Taiwan too. China has never helped out Taiwan and has even threatened to blow it to bits if it even tries to become independent. But now all of a sudden they want to negotiate business ties?? To what, rip off money from Taiwan?? The business deals probably never did benefit Taiwan at all. China should just accept the fact that Taiwan will never belong to them and just move on. They want to negotiate business, what about negotiating making Taiwan its own independent country and removing the hundreds of missiles aimed at them across the Taiwan Strait?? China has always been mistrustful and greedy, and it will not grant Taiwan independence, yet Taiwan tries to be nice to them by holding the conference in a building with Chinese-style architecture. Taiwan shouldn't do anything for China after what China has threatened to do to them.
About the first video, it doesn't really surprise me that immigrants in China are treated really unjustly. I knew about how hard many people in China work for very little money, so it isn't surprising that the immigrants would be neglected. This situation is very similar to others around the world. For example, here in Senegal many people who have jobs which don't give them that much are from Guinea Conakry. Many guards, maids, and vendors are Guinean and do not earn as much. This is not as bad as in China but it is similar.
I also found the video on Hip Hop in Japan interesting. It was good to see these Japanese point of view on Hip Hop and on why they do it.
I really liked the video on Japan. It was very informative. I didn't know that there was not much immigration. I also wasn't aware that people aren't having as many kids as before to the point that schools and universities don't have as many students. I also didn't know that technology in Japan was that advanced to the point that they were making robots that are so close to humans.
I understand the people of Taiwan. It is normal that they wouldn't trust China's motives knowing that China considers Taiwan part of China.
the videos were very interesting. what really intresed me was that the japanese wont except immagrants because they would raise the crime rate of japan, talk about racism. also another thing that intressts me was the video of the migrants. Its funny how they were all women, so does this mean women make up 40% of the japanese economy? the video of japanese hip hop was very cool, though they may not rhyme sometimes, they usually have good causes behin their lyrics, unlike the rappers of today. and for taiwan i see no reason for them to accept the chinese. they have done nothing for them except ruin their lives, fight the power!
DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ DJ
asia= :D
i had no idea that Japans population was in such trouble, taking such hard hits... maybe they already have some secret 'love-robot' that is more fun than their real wife/husband.. :O about that racism thing..
yeh, immigration is kinda controversial, ofcourse everyone (even the conservatives) would like to give everyone equal oppertunities, but if ur stuck with the illusion that all immigrants do is lower GNI (gdp and whatever not), raise crime-rates and whatever not they've thought of, than where would we end up as a whole, as the human population... i am sorry to admit that this is a big problem in the Netherlands aswel... The Moroccan and east-european populations are moving in to find work... and this immigrant racism thing is sorta preventing them from getting a job, and we have a policy in the netherlands that when your unemployed, you get paid by the government so you can feed yourself, keep your house, kep ur PC and whatever not, while sum sorta socialworker helps you find a job (which often, they dont get (and if they do, its like garbage man or somethin)) so the fact that these people r living off of tax money makes the locals mad...back to asia,,,, I WANT A CLONE_ROBOT OF ME :D :D :D:D :D i wouldnt like one as a teacher tho...
oh and on china, i would be horribly ashamed if my country were having massive military parades displaying their missiles and what not, i see it more as diplomatic weakness rather than some sort of power, if u c what im sayin.
........conservatives dont value equality the same way as socialists.... always vote left if you value equality!.......
East-asians r known to work really hard, often too hard where work comes be4 family. I knew this family whos father worked in japan while the mother worked in malaysia and they had a nanny to watch over the kids (also in malaysia). its crazy, i couldnt do without my parents more than a month (i can survive, i wud just be miserable most of the time). I think Hip-Hop is bad... bad music and often (NOT ALWAYS) also a bad influence (0fc there r tons aswel that r a good influence), i do, however, think its interesting how they say that there is a mutual respect among hip-hop and its like a global sub-culture. I have alot more to say but ima lzy bum so ill talk in class... i hope u dont give us a long blog assignment like this ever again cuz it takes all of my connection to buffer the videos (and no one in my house can than use the internet cuz its too darn slow), but atleast the video's u chose r interesting... and blogging is always better than questions from the book nd stuff like htat.
-DJ
Video 1: I think that the first video sort of shows us the result of China moving away from a communist & socialist/command economy and more towards a capatalist economy. Because of this, the social classes will become more divided at first but then as you get used to this type of economy, it will get less and less seperated. But i think that in all countries migrant workers are discriminated against. They are seen as competition and a threat to the locals. In the United States, the Mexican migrant workers are a target to the lower class uneducated Americans because they are seen as competition to get jobs at like construction sites or being a janitor. They also are discriminated againse because many Americans belived that they went into the United States illegaly.
Video 2: I think that hip hop in Japan is just like any other hip hop but is a Japanese version, i like how the one rapper said that "there is no ghetto in Tokyo" but he said that Japan didnt copy American hip hop, but they created their own hip hop to match the Japanese culture and struggles.
Video 3: I think that Japan brought the problem with not having enough people upon itself. Not only the fact that the Japanese aren't having enough sex, but i think that with not marrying outside their race and not many immigrants coming into the countries also hurts their population as well. If the Japanese could marry or at least have sex with people of other races, then i think that that will help population growth. I thought that the lady who was naturally Korean but who was born and raised in Japan, i thought it was unfair about what the government did to her. I think that she should have all the rights that a Japanese citizen should have, i even see her as more Japanese than Korean, like a Japanese with Korean heritage. I also think its unfair that in order for her to become a citizen with full rights that she has to give up her Korean name. I think that the Japanese are a bit racist. I think that the robot idea is stupid. It will make the population problem even worse and it will take jobs away from the immigrants.
Video 4: I would agree with the Taiwan side of this video. I wouldn't trust the Chinese after they have missiles pointed at their country and the bitter history between the two countries.
It's very sad and disturbing to realize the conditions many Chinese, 40% of that humongous population, live in. The annual income of 650pounds came more as a shock to me than before after having begun my economics project. It seems to be impossible living standards for us living in our society. That many people of the workforce essential to China's booming economy live such crappy lives really should embarrass the Chinese government. These workers do the work and the rich just keep getting richer off of it it seems. The government truly should learn to appreciate and value these workers and give back to them, as they form the backbone of the economy.
The Hip-hop video gave us an insight of some reasons of singing hip-hop music in Japan, and explains the difference between America and Japan in terms of struggle and life, which are themes found in the lyrics.
The robot video was very interesting and had a lot of information and things to think about, because it was long. I used to wonder what form of discrimination there was between what ethnic groups in Japan existed when I first read about it in our textbook i think, and this video explained that to me. I never really had an image of discrimination in Japan before. It seems to be kind of similar to the immigrant worker treatment in China. I find it interesting that Japanese society easily accepts the integration of humanoid robots. In most cultures, I think, we find it uncomfortable to interact with inanimate humanoids or place our trust in machines. An example is that many people are unwilling to have cars that drive automatically by themselves because they don't want to entrust their lives on their car. This video reminded me of the very unique culture Japan has.
The video about Taiwan and China makes me wonder what the deals may look like, and i doubt that they will benefit the Taiwanese over the long term at all if Taiwan becomes a part of China. China could probably reverse past deals and policies to fit their own needs once they control Taiwan again. After seeing all the inhumane things China has done recently to get what they want has destroyed China's image and trust internationally (and probably nationally too).
I also hate Current. It was a pain loading the videos and for the 25min one I accidentally somehow was able to cancel everything that loaded after like 20minutes of waiting by starting the video again from the beginning.
The videos were very good. It was interesting and quite depressing to see the living conditions of Chinese.
Something that is also interesting is that the Japanese don't want any immigrants in their country because for them, they think they would raise the amount of crimes in Japan. This idea is quite similar to the United States one after the 9-11. Racism or not, it's all about safety and keeping the country on the right track. Although, it's true that there are not a lot of black people living in Japan.
I feel like China is trying to take over the whole world. I don't think Taiwan should accept Chinese in their country because they only brought bad things in the Taiwains lives.
The video about the Japanese hiphop singers was very good. It was quite funny but I am sure that the songs have great meanings and that they touch a lot of people which then make a huge public and fans.
The videos are interesting and fun to watch. I didn't know that there are that many imigrants in china and thatthey were treatet so unjustly.This makes China a bit unsympathic. Also because there arew in general only a few imigrants In addition the amount of black people is very low and like woody said, it also seems to me as if there was some kind of racism going on.On the other side how The country is acting towards migrants is nothing new. For example the Turky people in Germany have in generel a lower income than German people. And we have a lot of Turkey people in Germany. Is it fair is it not fair? I don''t think its fair when u analyse the orginal reasons why the people from other countries are living there. Because in most cases there are some good reasons. For example the Turkies are all living in Germany because the country needed labors after world war 2. Now there are so many that it starts getting ennoying. BUt for them its like there home. So you cant just sent them to tehre country, because they see it as there home.
The video of Hip-Hop in Japan was for my opnion pretty cool and also interesting specially to get to know their pint of view of Hip-Hop and what it means to them.
In contrast to China, Japan doesnt have a lot of immigration, which kind of surprised me.I also didnt know that the Japanes are so developed in tecnology things.That they're creating roboters that are almost compareable with humans is awesome.
Video clip 1
This video was concentrated on Chinese migrant. They are here in their million living on the ‘fringes’ of china’s societies. They are the people who china depends on for its rapid development. They come to china to try and get jobs to earn money, other come ‘simply to survive’. In Beijing they are called ‘dust’. They are forced to migrate to china due to the poverty in their rural areas. The thing is when rural migrants mice to the city they lose the right they previously had when living in the rural areas. Their rights to education healthcare and houses and yet even with these disadvantages they still flock here. They make up well over 40% of the work force.
Video clip 2
This video was centered on hip hop in Japan. Disbelief has been a factor in the music industry in Japan. Many people think that the languages in Japan would mesh well with hip hop or that it would be difficult to get the word sin hip hop to rhyme. People in Japan however listen to hip hop because of its rhythm and how it sounds. But some people also believe it could be used to send a message to the youth. There are no ghettos in Japan so the rappers in Japan mainly focus on their society and also sharing events that happened to them with their listeners. They believe that hip hop is no just about the words. Even if you can’t understand what the person is saying due to linguistical differences you should still believe to get a rough idea by the tone of the rapper’s voice, the beat that they use ant the vibe that ‘t they send out. Hip hop doesn’t have to sound good. It just has to get your opinions out there and into the world.
Video clip 3
In this video I mainly concentrated on the parts that I found interesting such as the fact that the populace shall collapse in 100 years by two thirds. One of the highest drops in civilization. This is due to the fact that people aren’t having children.34% of couples aren’t having sex. It said that Japan has one of the lowest sex rates in the world. Some factors that could contribute to this could be the fact that both genders are too enveloped in their career to have sex. Women aren’t settling down as much due to the fact that once that occurs their possibilities of getting a job are limited. This had lead to high rates of single women. The government has gotten so worried about this that it pays couples to have kids.
Video clip 4:
Beijing sent a senior negotiator across the Taiwan Strait has caused protests in Taipei. These talks are said to be purely business related but the people in Taiwan think otherwise. Some protesters are even going on hunger-strike and they accuse their president of not caring about their interests; he in return states that he will not agree to any decision in which Taiwan will not benefit. People believe that china only once to forge business deals so that they can once again gain control over Taiwan. China has even gone so far as to get missiles that are pointing towards the Taiwan Strait. This is supposed to be a warning that if Taiwan tries to achieve independence china would take back Taiwan by force. People in Taiwan believe that if china really wants peaceful negotiations they should first remove their missiles.
Like akhokem said it wasn't a big surprise to me that china had low wadge hard working immigrants. In a country that massive, there is a need for those people that too the smallest of the jobs and it is a real shame that they are looked down on in that way.
The Hip-Hop is really good i think, because its new its still about deep serious thing like most of rap songs back in the day, so what worries me is if in 10 years, japanese rap is going to sound like flo'rida.
I had already heard about the low birth rate in japan, but it was new to me that the reason people didn't have sex is because they were too tired from work. I understand this because i already heard about how the japanese population is hard-workin to the extreme.
In the last video about Taiwan and China, i was appaled to see how badly the Chinese Government treated the freedom of taiwan. but lately i've been tired of all these political oppresion and all dat, its like china is pickin on taiwan just because it can, a bit pointless and honestly tiring.
-JORGE CHE TOLEDO-
Comrades,
firstly, i completely agree with DJ saying to vote left if u respect liberty (that guy learns quick :P) and second...WAT THE HECK??!!! ok, let me see, china can't have missiles pointing against a rebel island but the US can have them pointing to russia (alhtough they say they are defense missiles)?!! anywayz..
i find quite interesting the nature of the supposedly native people..if immigrant workers are oppressed having low salaries and working on crappy jobs they can stay and are considered as advantageous, but if those same workers decide to improve their status, they are discrimated against and blamed for all the crimes in a country. this shows how people nowadays focus on their interests alone
about the robo nation video, i didn't know that japan was struggling that much..i knew that japanese and asian ppl were puritan in nature but not that puritan!
finally, i thought that the hip hop music (that is crap anywayz) sounds wierd in japanese..it a sorta mix between asian and english languages
MERCI, by the socialist communist leninist anarchist antiyank antinationalist antipatriotic trotskist marxist ..ist..ist..ist
wow all these videos were very interesting. haha I was amused at one of the rappers who was sitting in the stairs behind another rapper who was speaking. And for like a long time he's just behind there not moving and his hat is hiding his head and he looks unconscious. In that second video however i kind of understood their point because they were talking about how rap can be used to send a message to the youth and other people in rural areas and areas that aren't very rich. In the first video i understood that everybody was working very well but i was not too surprised at it because most of the asian people i know are hard workers. In the third video i was very interested because i couldn't beleive that they paid couples to have sex and that there were men that were paid to just intertain women and get them to buy drinks. In the last video however shocked me that China even expected anything from Taiwan after all the things it put Taiwan through.
I was not at all surprised by the first video. Outsiders and low-class workers are treated like scum almost everywhere in the world, but people just don't hide it as much in China (seeing as they openly call the migrants dust). I was a bit shocked by the policy which took away crucial rights of migrant, but at the same time, i think the government is simply trying to discourage migrating workers, and make them stay in the rural areas so cities don't overcrowd. I still find it unjust though, there are other ways to fix the problem.
As much as i dislike most hip-hop out there, i thought this stuff was pretty cool (even though i couldn't understand anything except for the occasional english word). I agree that hip-hop is universal, but i think that that counts for all music. I mean, rock did not originate in Japan, but it is absolutely HUGE there, and have even created a sub-genre in rock which is listened to across the globe.
Wow, that third video is really interesting! I don't really know what to say :P it was long, and addressed many issues in japan. I had no idea about the Brazilian Japanese immigrant group... thats quite interesting.
I am not surprised the Taiwanese are so hostile towards China. Afterall, China hasn't been very friendly towards Taiwan...
lol i love woody's ideas on the manga stuff incfluencing robotic lifestyles. And to respond to leo's claim that communism is bad for the people of china because these workers cannot survive off their minimum wage, the same thing happens all over the world, people with the hardest jobs with longest hours are usually paid the least and struggle to get by, even when working several jobs, but i agree that china is neglecting one of their most important work groups.
*for woodys idea i meant how the manga will lead to the world being taken over by robots, i didn't quite complete my thought there :P
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