This week, we got around to talking about the indigenous peoples of Japan.
Concepts that we touched on:
- “Assimilation”
- “History is written by the winners,” and therefore
- “Losers are depicted by the winners.”
- “ethnic groups”
- “minorities”
In the first half of the class, we watched a movie – 『もののけ姫』(Princess Mononoke) – which was the most popular movie in Japan until Titanic came out afterwards. It was also the most expensive animated movie to make, up until its release date (2004), at a production cost of about $20 million.
I introduced the movie by talking about the setting – Muromachi Period (1336-1573), roughly contemporary with the Ming Dynasty and the arrival of C. Columbus in what is now known as the Caribbean. The main character of the movie is an Emishi prince, from a clan of natives who have continued to resist the Japanese Shogunal government. (Historians say that the Emishi natives were all assimilated by 1300.) The main character of the movie is based on a historical figure, Ashitakahiko.
The Emishi were descdendants of the peoples who developed Jomon pottery. (I had already explained to my class that the first pottery developed in the world was developed by the people living in what is now known as Japan.)
Then I said that the depiction of Ashitaka (the main character) in the movie should not be taken to be an accurate depiction of what Emishi people looked like in the 1300s.
Then I passed around two books that I own on the Ainu, a different ethnic group of native peoples in Japan. I talked about the depiction (images) of the Ainu in the books as being drawn by the Japanese who had conquered their lands. Therefore, the images should be considered as drawn with extreme bias.
Student Response
The students responded with some answers that were pretty astute – they were also pretty engaged. I noticed though that it was the Asian kids and the Black kids in the front who were most engaged… I’ll have to deconstruct that later.* When I asked “What is assimilation?” a young Asian woman answered “Fitting in!” So we talked about whether fitting in was about minorities fitting into majorities or if it was possible for a minority with lots of power to force a majority to assimilate.
For “ethnic group,” I got 3 answers as to what makes a group of people a distinct ethnic group: culture, religion, and language. SO SMART! I thought I was going to get something like “they look different” or I thought that they were going to ask me what was the difference between race and ethnicity.
When we looked at the pictures of the Ainu drawn by 15th and 14th century Japanese, the students were like “Ewwwww they look so ugly!” and one of my students asked “So why do they have to draw them so ugly?” and so we talked about that…(This is where the “History is written by the victors” part comes in.)
My biggest frustration is that I had stood and talked in the front of the room the whole time. I should have tried to move around more… And I want to try to move THEM around more.
Concepts that we touched on:
- “Assimilation”
- “History is written by the winners,” and therefore
- “Losers are depicted by the winners.”
- “ethnic groups”
- “minorities”
In the first half of the class, we watched a movie – 『もののけ姫』(Princess Mononoke) – which was the most popular movie in Japan until Titanic came out afterwards. It was also the most expensive animated movie to make, up until its release date (2004), at a production cost of about $20 million.
I introduced the movie by talking about the setting – Muromachi Period (1336-1573), roughly contemporary with the Ming Dynasty and the arrival of C. Columbus in what is now known as the Caribbean. The main character of the movie is an Emishi prince, from a clan of natives who have continued to resist the Japanese Shogunal government. (Historians say that the Emishi natives were all assimilated by 1300.) The main character of the movie is based on a historical figure, Ashitakahiko.
The Emishi were descdendants of the peoples who developed Jomon pottery. (I had already explained to my class that the first pottery developed in the world was developed by the people living in what is now known as Japan.)
Then I said that the depiction of Ashitaka (the main character) in the movie should not be taken to be an accurate depiction of what Emishi people looked like in the 1300s.
Then I passed around two books that I own on the Ainu, a different ethnic group of native peoples in Japan. I talked about the depiction (images) of the Ainu in the books as being drawn by the Japanese who had conquered their lands. Therefore, the images should be considered as drawn with extreme bias.
Student Response
The students responded with some answers that were pretty astute – they were also pretty engaged. I noticed though that it was the Asian kids and the Black kids in the front who were most engaged… I’ll have to deconstruct that later.* When I asked “What is assimilation?” a young Asian woman answered “Fitting in!” So we talked about whether fitting in was about minorities fitting into majorities or if it was possible for a minority with lots of power to force a majority to assimilate.
For “ethnic group,” I got 3 answers as to what makes a group of people a distinct ethnic group: culture, religion, and language. SO SMART! I thought I was going to get something like “they look different” or I thought that they were going to ask me what was the difference between race and ethnicity.
When we looked at the pictures of the Ainu drawn by 15th and 14th century Japanese, the students were like “Ewwwww they look so ugly!” and one of my students asked “So why do they have to draw them so ugly?” and so we talked about that…(This is where the “History is written by the victors” part comes in.)
My biggest frustration is that I had stood and talked in the front of the room the whole time. I should have tried to move around more… And I want to try to move THEM around more.
Comments
B. i agree with giselle, ur classes are damn deep. when i was teaching in china i felt my class was functional in terms of learning and practicing language, but i could not engage them on issues like race/ethnicity.
i guess the questions i asked were too opened ended, like what do you think of this, or what do you think of that, rather than having something specific enough for them to react to, as you did.