INTRODUCTION:
This is a class in the history of modern Asia, largely covering the period from the mid-19th century in China and Japan, with much attention paid to the U.S. as an actor in that history. We will focus to a considerable extent upon the affects of modernization upon gender roles in China and Japan.

APPROACH:
This class will be somewhat different in that it will have a strong distributed (meaning communications between several sites via electronic means) element; some of us (volunteers only!) will be working with students who are in an English class in the People's Republic of China.

The Chinese students are Sophomore English majors at Wenzhou Medical College. I taught them during December-January and they expressed a strong wish to work with American students. (To see the e-materials for that class go to: http://mcel.pacificu.edu/mcel/barlow/wenzhou/index.html) This class is my attempt to do so. Their teacher is Professor Yang. They are somewhat more limited in their Internet access than American students, though this is changing very rapidly, and of course they are forced to operate in their second language, English.

The Forest Grove group must be aware that although this class is about 20% of their overall work-load, for Chinese students, any one class is probably more like 10%, and they are not really being graded for work done in this class. They are studying English and view this more as an opportunity to interact with American, Japanese, and Taiwanese than as an opportunity to learn history. They will not be doing most of the assignments. They are driven largely by their need to prepare for standardized exams that take days to complete. Their participation thus will be a lot more informal and they will not be expected to engage in the same depth as Pacific University students. The Chinese students should be regarded more as a learning resource than as class-mates.

It will probably take us a week or so to synchronize schedules, and it is difficult to predict how the process will work as this is, so far as I know, the first attempt to do this sort of thing. As our class here will usually have several Japanese students in it, and probably one or two Taiwanese students as well, this will be an interesting and challenging opportunity to examine historical issues affecting all groups, sometimes in a very personal or emotional manner. We will as a group set some guide lines for how to proceed with a minimum of conflict, and a maximum of learning opportunities.

GUIDELINES for Electronic Communications:
1.Students must at all times be courteous with each other. No "flaming". Failure to observe this rule will result in being barred from the BBS.

2. As we are more interested in communication than in meeting traditional standards, we will use e-mail conventions in which spelling and formatting do not really count unless a specific assignment calls for them to do so.

3. Students do not "own" the sins of their ancestors and should never be charged with them in any personal fashion. We are in all cases representatives of new generations and should be assumed to be individuals with our own opinions and personal history. We may or may not support particular historical actions of our respective peoples or governments and should never be assumed to do so. Violation of these standards may also result in being barred from the BBS. That is, to cite only a few possible examples:

• American students are not responsible for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or for the Korean war, etc.
  
• Chinese students are not responsible for the excesses of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Korean war, the "occupation" of Tibet, they do not threaten to invade Taiwan, etc.
  
• Japanese students are not responsible for Pearl Harbor or the Nanjing "Incident/Massacre", etc.
  
• Taiwanese students do not personally threaten the unity of China, etc.
  

4. Until we get to know each other a bit, we should confine our discussions to topics specifically assigned on the BBS and not engage in side-bar conversations and arguments unless asked to do so by the Professors.

5. If students wish to share private email and engage in out-of-class email discussions they may do so, but there must be no harassment, cyber-stalking, etc. Such discussions are purely voluntary and should be broken off immediately if either correspondent experiences discomfort.

• Always remember that electronic communications create a false sense of intimacy and a feeling of close relationships. However, you are always engaging with your personal image of the electronic "other" as much as with the reality of that person.

6. Others to be added as suggested by either faculty or students.

Assigned Readings:
• Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual.
• Hart-Landsberg Korea: Division, Reunification, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Monthly Review Press ISBN 0-85345-927-4
• Pa Chin, Family. (cheapest paperback available, please!) Li Fei-kan Pa Chin, Sidney Shapiro (Translator), Li Fei-kan/Pa Chin
• Dower, John W. War Without Mercy. Pantheon, paperback ISBN 0-394-75172-8
• Schirokauer, Conrad. A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilization. ISBN 0-15-505569-0 HBJ

Contact:
Email: barlowj@pacificu.edu
Room 336 Marsh Hall
Office Hours: MWF 10-11:00 in Marsh Office

Classes:
History 112 Modern East Asia Marsh 216 MWF 9:00-9:50
History 214 History in an Electronic Environment, Marsh LL 15 1:00-1:50
HPER 150: Self-Defense for Women . PACS, Wrestling Room, Th 6:30-8:30
NOTE: If you are viewing this in hard copy, it is found at: http://mcel.pacificu.edu/history/dept/courses/bar/sp04/H112/index.html