A PUBLICATION OF THE ASIAN EDUCATIONAL MEDIA SERVICE Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies ✦ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign A E M S Vol. 1, No. 1 News and Reviews Spring 1998 The first chal- Teaching with Film: A New Textbook lenge in doing the >> by Karl G. Heider textbook was deciding which few years ago I began to write an introducto- little or no time for introduction, films to use. I first A ry cultural anthropology textbook which uses contextualization, and analysis. thought I would films to introduce cultural anthropology. It is The videotape revolution, even have only five focus called Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology as it has debased the visual quality cultures, and use Through Film (1997). Each chapter is built around of films, has opened new possi- only films on those one or two ethnographic bilities. 16mm projectors are five, thus achieving a films, and the book is sold to disappearing fast, but most certain redundancy, essay students shrink-wrapped instructors have access to VCRs, letting students soak with two videocassettes con- or even video projectors in class- up only what they taining short clips from each film. That amounts rooms, and many colleges have could understand to 21 clips for 17 chapters. This allows students expanded their reserve reading rather than a sprin- to do their homework—reading the chapters, rooms to include reserve video kling of dozens of viewing the clips—before class, and allows the viewing facilities, and it looks as if virtually all stu- exotic cultures. That instructor to use the class time for discussion and dents have easy access to VCRs where they live. didn’t work. Still, I concentrate on those five: lecture. Of course, the full films can also be I had already been experimenting with showing Japan, Bali (plus Malaysia), Dani (Irian Jaya/New screened in class, or made available as outside in class only short clips from ethnographic films, Guinea), Yanomamo (Venezuela), and !Kung viewing. I had been using film extensively in and in many films I could find a 10-minute section (Kalahari). I tried to choose films with good teaching anthropology for a long time, but I have which contains enough rich materials to make the ethnographic literature directly supporting them. become less and less enthusiastic about turning point of the class. (Of course, for some sorts of And of course, I was looking for films which were entire sessions over to a long film which leaves courses one would need to show the entire film.) continued on page 2 Contents Welcome . 2 How to Contact AEMS . 2 “Teaching with Film: A New Textbook” by Karl G. Heider . 1 “Japanese Wartime Film at the National Archives” by Roger W. Purdy . 9 Reviews of films and videos: The Spirit of Hiroshima . 3 Silk and Steel: New Roles for Indonesian Women. 4 China News Stories . 5 Occupied Japan: An Experiment in Democracy . 6 The Gate of Heavenly Peace . 7 Hello Photo . 8 Puja: Hindu Expressions of Devotion . 8 – Osaka Story . 10 Pins and Noodles . 11 From the documentary Hello Photo. See review page 8. Guide to Distributors . 12 Asian Educational Media Service The Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) is a pro- Welcome gram of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From the Center Director: Outreach is a central mission of the AEMS offers information about where to find audio- Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana- visual media resources for teaching and learning about Champaign. The Center provides various forms of services to help Asia, and advice about which ones may best suit your instructors in educational institutions from elementary schools to colleges needs. In addition to AEMS News and Reviews, in teaching about Asia. These include Center-organized training workshops published twice a year, services include a free call-in/ on Asia, a summer workshop on China for secondary school teachers, write-in service and a Web site. To add your name to participation in teacher-training sessions at national professional education- our mailing list, request additional copies of the al meetings, and development of curriculum units on Asia for use in social newsletter to use in workshops or to share with your studies classes. colleagues, or ask for help in locating resources, please contact us. To further increase our outreach activities and support the work of AEMS is made possible by generous support from George T. Yu teachers, with the support of the Freeman Foundation, the Center has The Freeman Foundation. Additional funding in established a new program, the Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS). 1998–99 will be provided by The Japan Foundation The new service provides an annotated, searchable database of audio-visual media materials on Asia on a Center for Global Partnership. Web site; in addition, AEMS also maintains a free phone service to answer queries and a video collec- For more information, contact: tion on Asia for browsing. It is the goal of AEMS to provide a comprehensive and informative database AEMS, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies of educational media materials on Asia which will assist instructors in their classroom teaching. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I have been an avid user of videos in my contemporary Chinese politics class. For example, the two 230 International Studies Building, MC-483 videos on China, China in Revolution 1911–1949 and The Mao Years 1949–1976, serve as excellent 910 South Fifth Street Champaign, IL 61820 introductions to China’s turbulent political developments from the early 1900s through the Cultural Revolution. Through the use of contemporary news films and interviews with individuals who experi- Telephone: 1-888-828-AEMS (1-888-828-2367) or 217-265-0640 enced firsthand the revolution, these videos bring to life the tumultuous years. “A picture is worth a Fax: 217-265-0641 thousand words” is nowhere better demonstrated than in these videos. E-mail: [email protected] I invite you to use AEMS as a resource to assist you in teaching about Asia. Please tell us about edu- Web: http://www.aems.uiuc.edu cational videos on Asia which you have found useful but are not included in our listing. We want to be Advisory Board the best and most comprehensive educational audio-visual database provider on Asia. Caroline Bailey, Program Associate, Asian Educational Media Service Burnill Clark, President and C.E.O., KCTS Television From the Program Director: “Upgrades.” When the agent at the air- Richard Gordon, Executive Producer, Long Bow line counter offers you an upgrade it means you get a more comfortable seat Group, Inc. on the plane and more personal attention from the cabin crew. When the Peter Grilli, Executive Director, Donald Keene Center for agent at the computer shop offers to sell you an upgrade it seems to mean: Japanese Culture, Columbia University “We think we finally fixed that little problem with the system—at your Karl G. Heider, Professor of Anthropology, University expense, of course.” of South Carolina Many of us think that the Internet needs an upgrade in both senses. We Laurel Kendall, Curator, Asian Ethnographic Collections, American Museum of Natural History; Adjunct want a more comfortable seat and a more user-friendly way to travel so that Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University cruising through mountains of infinite information does not demand infi- Marianna McJimsey, Executive Director of nite amounts of patience. Now in the late Nineties, people are talking about ASIANetwork, Inc.; Lecturer in History/Social David W. Plath a Second Web, and academic organizations are beginning to offer ratings of Studies Education, The Colorado College ’Net sites that are proving useful and reliable. Sharon Wheaton, C.E.O., E.T. Interactive Multimedia Diana Marston Wood, Associate Director, Asian Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh Textbook teaching a wide variety of other courses on Asia Editorial Board (Faculty and staff of the University continued from page 1 and interested in this general approach, let me of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.) briefly describe the Asian films: Nancy Abelmann, Associate Professor of Anthropology didactic, conveying textbook-like information • The Goddess and the Computer is Stephen and East Asian Languages and Cultures rather than being more evocative and impression- Lansing’s film about the Balinese irrigation sys- Clark E. Cunningham, Professor Emeritus of istic. These last two criteria eliminated many of tems backed up by his books and articles (1991, Anthropology the best recent ethnographic films, and often 1993, 1995). I use it for the Introductory Chapter Roberta H. Gumport, Assistant Director and Outreach Coordinator of the Center for East Asian favored old standards. I tried to choose films rep- to give a picture of anthropological research which and Pacific Studies resenting different culture types and different is both theoretical and applied. Jacquetta Hill, Professor of Anthropology and of world areas, but a disproportionate number of • Releasing the Spirits is a film by Timothy Educational Psychology the films chosen show Asian cultures (Japan, Asch about a group cremation ceremony in a Blair Kling, Professor of History Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Balinese village. It is supported by Lansing’s gener- George T. Yu, Professor of Political Science and Director Guinea). Readers who are interested in a cultural al book on Bali (1995) and it features a woman, of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies anthropology textbook can request a copy from Jero Tapakan, who is described in other films and Allyn & Bacon. But for most readers, who are in the book by Linda Connor et al. (1986). I use Staff it for the chapter on ritual.