SGH

2015/12/12

SGH　The Third Session of Asian studies with Asia Pacific University

　“Asian Studies” of the JB course is collaborated with Asia Pacific University(APU). We invite a professor from the university and he or she teaches a lesson for 2 hours at our school. One or two weeks later we had a satellite class with the university for 2 hours.

　The teacher of the third collaborated class in this school year was Professor Iguchi of Asia Pacific Studies at APU. Her research field is “Area studies and history of thought” and her research area is Malaysia. Her class at the university is Multicultural Studies so this time we asked her to teach Multicultural Studies with the semiotics method.

Lesson content———————————

3rd and 4th period on November 13th
　Professor Iguchi taught a lesson on understanding E.Said’s Orientalism and the effects the front cover of some travel guidebooks have on us. The image towards the country (both of positive and negative side) of writers or purchasers is shown in a travel guidebooks and we can see Orientalism.
　An assignment for our students was to choose a travel guidebook and study and examine the elements, the meaning, and the influence of Orientalism.

3rd and 4th period on December 4th
　Our students made a presentation during these periods. Students were divided into 8 groups and each group made a presentation for 5 minutes.

1.Vietnam : Analyzed the image of Vietnam = red
2.Philippines : Analyzed why scenery is used a lot and not people
3.Egypt : Analyzed the reason why the image of Christianity is not included and only cultural assets are used in the guidebook.
4.Republic of Korea : Used a travel guidebook from Japan and analyzed the different images toward the Republic of Korea, European countries, and the United States of America.
5.Singapore : Analyzed the traditions and modern times used.
6.Maldives : Analyzed that only resort areas are used.
7.Dubai : Analyzed why modern architecture is used on the front page.
8.Myanmar (Burma) : Analyzed the similar image which other countries in South East Asia use. (Especially, Thailand)

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　It was very difficult for high school students to understand everything about Orientalism of E.Said but they could understand it viscerally with travel guidebooks. We recognized it might degrade the understanding of other cultures because Orientalism infiltrates us so that we have prejudice and bias from the action of Orientalism.