Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 114

Asia in AP, IB, and Undergraduate Honors Courses
Screen capture from The Sunflower Revolt: Protests in Taiwan. Screen capture from China Issues Warning Over Hong Kong ‘Illegal’ Protests.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/jt5s7e7. Source: BBC News at http://tinyurl.com/jbfdev6.
Watch the video on the recent Sunflower Student Movement and note the government’s response. How
does this illustrate both the state of democracy in Taiwan today and fears about its future?
Finally, watch the BBC video on recent democracy protests in Hong Kong and consider how it compares
to those in Tiananmen in 1989. Interested readers can consider the question of “What is the relationship
between prodemocracy movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and what role does China play in each?”
Through reading the 2014 Economist article available below, what future do you see for Hong Kong—closer
to China or closer to Taiwan?
“我們的1990” (Wild Lily Student Movement). YouTube video, 4:41. Posted by “Docunion.” July 13, 2015.
http://tinyurl.com/zyxqmse.
“The Sunflower Revolt: Protests in Taiwan.” YouTube video, 6:25. Posted by “VICE News.” April 12, 2014.
http://tinyurl.com/jt5s7e7.
Liu, Jiuliana. “China Issues Warning Over Hong Kong ‘Illegal’ Protests.” BBC News. October, 2 2014.
http://tinyurl.com/jbfdev6.
“Told You So: The Protests In Hong Kong Fuel Taiwan’s Distrust of China.” The Economist. November 4, 2014.
http://tinyurl.com/lcjnlsu.
Conclusion
Consider the evolution of Asia’s authoritarian regimes either into democracy (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea,
Indonesia), communism (China, North Korea, Việt Nam, Laos, Cambodia), or other alternatives. How do
these countries compare today in terms of prosperity and global engagement? What accounts for their dif-
ferent trajectories?
Returning to our main question—is Western-style democracy appropriate for Asia?—consider the ev-
idence presented here, as well as the observations of Kim Dae-jung, who after decades of advocating de-
mocracy at his own peril, was finally elected president of South Korea. He offers a brief and accessible retort
to those who argue that democracy is at odds with Asian culture in “Is Culture Destiny? The Myth of Asia’s
Anti-Democratic Values.”
Dae-jung, Kim. “Is Culture Destiny? The Myth of Asia’s Anti-Democratic Values” Foreign Affairs 73, no. 6 (1994):
189–194. Also available at http://tinyurl.com/jeqg4ff. n
NOTES
CLAYTON D. BROWN is an
Assistant Professor of History
and Asian Studies at Utah State
University, where he teaches
courses on Modern China, the
Great Leap Forward, and the
Cultural Revolution, as well as
Asian and World History.
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1. As workshop director, I would like to acknowledge the Ione S. Bennion Foundation and the Mountain West Center for Re-
gional Studies for making the workshop possible. Workshop presenters included Wesley Sasaki-Uemura of the University of
Utah; Kirk Larsen and Chad Emmett of Brigham Young University (BYU); Ravi Gupta, Li Guo, Danielle Ross, and R. Edward
Glatfelter of Utah State University (USU); and J. Spencer Clark of the USU College of Education, who assisted with curriculum
development. Details on the workshop are available at http://mountainwest.usu.edu/bennionsummer.aspx.
2. See the “Freedom in the World 2016” report by Freedom House available at http://tinyurl.com/jjawg7m.
3. Robert Deliege, “Caste, Class, and Untouchability,” in A Companion to the Anthropology of India, ed. Isabelle Clark-Deces
(London: Blackwell, 2011), 45–61.
4. John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York: Dower and Company, 1999).
5. See chapter 12 in Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Environmental Context of Global Power, ed. Ian Jared Miller, Julia Adeney Thom-
as, and Brett L. Walker (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press).
6. See Katsuya Hirano, “Fukushima and the Crisis of Democracy: Interview with Murakami Tatsuya” from The Asia-Pacific
Journal 13, issue 20, no.1 (2015) at http://tinyurl.com/h2vlgt9.
7. Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2015).
8. Lydia He Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, and Dorothy Ko, eds. The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 50–71.
Education About ASIA
Volume 21, Number 1
Spring 2016
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