GLOBAL ASIA: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
12
LESSON FIVE
3.
Have students organize a book club or documentary club. Ask each student to come to class with an idea for a book or documentary
about the challenges and opportunities facing Asia today. Encourage them to talk to the school or city librarian for ideas. This book or
documentary club could take one of many forms:
a.
The whole class could read one book or watch one documentary; one or two students could lead the book or documentary
discussion with prepared questions focusing on the theme of Asian growth and change.
b.
Several small groups could read different books and/or watch different documentaries, with the discussions led by one or two
students in each group; later, each group could give a small report about their book or film.
c. Students could organize a book or documentary club for an afterschool event that includes the whole school and/or students
interested in world issues. Here are a few books and films to add to the students’ list. Note: View or read for age-appropriate
content before distribution to students.
Book (China, nonfiction): “Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China’s Great Urban Migration” (Michelle Loyalka)
Book (China, nonfiction): “China Airborne” (James Fallows)
Book (Pakistan, fiction): “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia” (Mohsin Hamid)
Book (Myanmar, nonfiction): “The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi”
Film (Myanmar, nonfiction): “The Lady”
Film (India, nonfiction): “Mumbai Traffic”
Film (China, nonfiction): “When China Met Africa”
Film (Japan, nonfiction): “Light Up Nippon” E-Book (Indonesia, nonfiction): “Letters of a Javanese Princess” (Raden Adjeng Kartini):
4.
What do you think Asia’s future might look like? How might its past impact its future? Encourage students who are interested in this
topic to break it down — take one country (for example, India), one topic (education, pollution, health, rich-poor gap, etc.) and one
year (for instance, 2020) and consider exploring some of these activities: (1) Develop teams to debate specific countries and topics that
they are interested in. (2) Interview classmates and/or family members to record their reflections on the future of Asia in general or one
country in particular. (3) Discuss who might be the future movers and shakers in Asia.
Share with students this Asia Society website:
. They may want to find out more
about these Asia game changers: Each year, the Asia Game Changer Awards are bestowed upon individuals, organizations and movements
that have inspired, enlightened and shown true leadership in areas that reflect Asia Society’s core pillars of policy and business, arts and
culture, and education. The following are our 2014 awardees: Shigeru Ban, Madhav Chavan, Illac Diaz, Fashion Girls for Humanity, Jack
Ma, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Saad Mohseni, Jacqueline Novogratz, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Playing for Change, Pawan Sinha, Malala
Yousafzai and Zhang Minxuan. If there are students who are particularly interested in any of these individuals, encourage them to try to
contact them directly with relevant inquiries.
Continue learning and teaching about Asia with “Exploring Asia,” a project of the Asia and Global Studies outreach centers in the Henry M.
Jackson School of International Studies.
The centers sponsoring “Exploring Asia” in the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies are:
• East Asia Center
• East Asia Resource Center
• The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies
• Center for Global Studies
• South Asia Center
• Southeast Asia Center
Photo credits: Angkor Wat Temple, by Kim Seng, royalstockphoto.com; Genghis Khan Statue by Francois Philipp, Creative Commons; Fort William Calcutta, 1735,
by Elisha Kirkall, British Library, Wikipedia Commons; Astana at Dusk, by Alex J. Butler, Creative Commons.
