On February 12, 2016, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and Stanford Live (in collaboration with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia) co-hosted a teacher professional development seminar that focused on the Silk Road. The seminar was held just prior to a Stanford Live performance by the Silk Road Ensemble at Stanford Bing Concert Hall on February 24, 2016 and a student matinee on February 25, 2016. Made up of performers and composers from more than 20 countries, the Silk Road Ensemble was formed under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma in 2000.

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Jonas Edman (SPICE) and Ben Frandzel (Stanford Live) organized the day-long seminar. The morning featured a two-part lecture by Professor Emeritus Albert E. Dien, Stanford University. Part one focused on a general overview of the history and geography of the Silk Road and part two focused on a specific introduction to the religions along the Silk Road. Dr. Dien highlighted religion as an example of the many ways that the Silk Road helped to facilitate cultural exchange for millennia, resulting in the tremendous diversity one witnesses today in the region.

The afternoon featured a presentation and performance by composer and santur player Faraz Minooei, and a curriculum demonstration by SPICE staff. Minooei gave an overview of how the Silk Road played a role in the transmission of musical tradition, and also shared his personal story from his birth and childhood in Tehran, his immigrant experience in the United States, and his musical discoveries along the way. In particular, he shared his reflections on his deep spiritual desire to study music, seeing music as an “unexplainable souvenir from the eternal truth.”

Reflecting on Minooei’s presentation, Frandzel commented, “Faraz’s presentation really embodied the ways in which the Silk Road’s tradition of cultural exchange is a living story that continues to this day. His performances of Persian classical music and of his own compositions were entrancing, ear-opening experiences. As Faraz discussed his background and the musical forms that feed into his current work, his personal history and music seemed to encapsulate, in a fast-moving way, the kinds of cultural mixing that would have happened along the historic Silk Road. In our teacher workshops, we aim to provide teachers with arts-based teaching tools, and also to provide a larger social and cultural context for the art forms under discussion. The wonderful opportunity to partner with SPICE on the workshop, and the presence of this fascinating and brilliant musician, made this so much more possible.”

The curriculum demonstration was led by Rylan Sekiguchi, Naomi Funahashi, and Johanna Wee, who introduced both print- and web-based materials from the curriculum unit, Along the Silk Road, which were developed in collaboration with the Silk Road Ensemble and Dr. Dien. The 20 teachers in attendance interactively engaged with the materials and each received a complimentary copy of the curriculum unit as well as a large wall map of the Silk Road. The development of such materials has been a hallmark of SPICE for 40 years. The materials help to make content from teacher professional development seminars accessible to students.

Following the seminar, Edman reflected, “It is always such a pleasure to share with teachers the curriculum we produce here at SPICE. And to be able to collaborate with Stanford Live on a professional development workshop in conjunction with the Silk Road Ensemble’s visit to Stanford was a wonderful opportunity and experience. The Silk Road—with its themes of cross-cultural communication, exchange, and understanding—seems like an ideal topic for middle school students trying to understand today’s globalized world. We hope the speakers and pedagogical strategies and materials shared at the workshop will help teachers bring the topic to life in the classroom!”

My daughter, Emily, was teaching English at a middle school in Asahi City, Chiba Prefecture, on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program when the 2011 Tohoku earthquake struck on March 11, 2011. Tohoku is a region in the northeast portion of the island of Honshu, the largest island in Japan. Though Asahi City, a coastal city, is not in the Tohoku region, it was still heavily damaged by the resulting tsunami. Several of Emily’s students lost their homes. She was emotionally shaken, of course, but was fortunate not to sustain any injuries.

With the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami approaching, I have been reflecting upon the tremendous anxiety that I felt that day about Emily’s safety, my wife’s family in Tohoku, and the people of Japan in general. My reflections deepened last week while observing the interaction of SPICE’s Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP) students (American high school students studying about Japan) with SPICE’s Stanford e-Japan students (Japanese high school students studying about the United States) in an informal online “social hour.” The RSP and Stanford e-Japan are distance-learning courses that are offered by SPICE.

Stanford e-Japan instructor Waka Brown and RSP instructor Naomi Funahashi organized the social hour to help to build bridges between youth in Japan and the United States. During the latter part of the social hour, RSP student, David Jaffe (Mesa, Arizona), posed the question, “How is 3.11 remembered today?” Among the many Stanford e-Japan students who spoke was Minoru Takeuchi (Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture), who stated, “When the earthquake happened, I was an elementary school student (12 years old). I still remember very well… at that time, I was in school. Some students were very afraid and crying… Maybe after the earthquake, many Japanese noticed the importance of working together, the preciousness that they could meet their friends…” The Japanese students’ sharing of their experiences related to 3.11 extended the social hour far beyond the hour, and the gratitude expressed by the American students to their counterparts in Japan flowed for many minutes in a text-chat box.

Observing the students was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career at SPICE. The Japanese students’ remembrances of 3.11 brought back poignant and difficult memories for me but also provided me with hopeful thoughts on the future of the U.S.–Japan relationship as I witnessed students from across the Pacific forming budding friendships and discussing topics of mutual relevance.
 

Resources for the classroom
 

My hope is that teachers will carve out some time in their curriculum to engage their students in a study of 3.11 as well as its legacies. The study of natural hazards ought to be a core part of school curriculum. SPICE has undertaken many curricular projects related to 3.11. I would recommend that teachers show the film, After the Darkness, which was produced by Risa Morimoto and Funahashi. After the Darkness is a documentary film that touches upon the events of the disaster itself but also focuses on the experiences of two survivors in particular. It is accompanied with free curricular lessons that are accessible to students of various ages. I also recommend a lecture by Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto, Stanford University, on “Japan’s Geological Factors,” which is accompanied by a free lesson plan. Another recommended curricular unit is SPICE’s Examining Long-term Radiation Effects, which was produced prior to 3.11 but can help students understand the radiation-related concerns following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. In addition, the film, Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story, is about one of two American JET Program teachers who lost their lives during 3.11. SPICE developed a teacher’s guide for the film that can be freely downloaded from the Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story website. Lastly, I recommend the use of the films from the 113 Project in classrooms. Earlier this week, I moderated a panel discussion that included Wesley Julian (director of the 113 Project), Andy Anderson (father of Taylor Anderson and board member of the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund) as well as other Americans and Japanese who continue to contribute to relief efforts in the Tohoku region.

Stanford experts from the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) spoke with media in Asia and the United States about the dynamics on the Korean Peninsula following recent provocations by North Korea; a roundup of those citations is below.

The United Nations imposed a new set of sanctions against North Korea on March 2 in response to the country’s fourth nuclear test in January and subsequent rocket launch in February of this year. Shorenstein APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin offered his view in an interview with Dong-a Ilbo:

“The new sanctions are unprecedentedly strong and comprehensive, but the dominant view is pessimistic,” he said, emphasizing that the sanctions’ effectiveness stands largely on the shoulders of China, which is North Korea’s largest trading partner.

“Only if China doesn't fizzle out after a few months – but continuously enforces the sanctions – will we see any meaningful effect,” he said.

Shin also called upon South Korea to play a leadership role in dealing with North Korea because the United States has only limited interest in solving the nuclear problem, and China, will not change its approach and continue to move according to its own interests.

Shin relayed a similar message in an interview with Maeil Shinmun last December. South Korea must break from its own perception that it is the “balancer” between China and the United States. South Korea, often described as a “shrimp among whales,” should instead strive to play a larger role as a “dolphin,” he said.

Furthermore, Shin told Maeil that the U.S.-Korea relationship and the U.S.-China relationship are very different from each other, and should be viewed as they are. He pointed out that the U.S.-Korea relationship is an alliance where the two countries act accordingly as one body, whereas the China-Korea relationship is a strategic partnership insofar as the two countries cooperate on selective issues of mutual interest.

In a separate interview with the Associated Press, David Straub, associate director of the Korea Program, was asked about the possibility of peace talks with North Korea as an alternative to or parallel with the U.N. sanctions. Straub said “it would not make sense” and that “there is no support for such an approach in Washington” because of the strategic partnership between China and North Korea. He also told Voice of America that the new sanctions will significantly increase the political, diplomatic, and psychological pressures on North Korea's leaders to rethink their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In a recent op-ed piece in The Washington Post, FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond and Peter Ackerman, chairman of Level the Playing Field, highlight  the need to ease restrictions that disincentivize third party candidates from running in US presidential elections: "It would be great if Bloomberg decided to run and give the American voter a nonpartisan choice for president in 2016. But what about 2020 and beyond? We think serious and compelling independent candidates would be willing to run for president if they could count on a fair fight between them and the major party nominees."