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David Golombek\\
21F.030\\
Journal \#10\\\\
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This course has changed some of my opinions about Asian Culture, but
not many.  It has certainly enhanced my knowledge about the details of
the many different peoples that make up Asian society, and the
cultures of many of the countries within Asia.  I still see Asian
culture as being very family oriented, strongly religious in areas,
and highly concerned with its food.  But some areas, such as the
gender roles in different countries, and details of the wedding
ceremonies, and the relation between Yin and Yang and Hot and Cold
were new to me, and have tied together many previously separated
points of knowledge.  Overall, the class allowed me to take my many
fragmented memories and recollections from other history classes and my
travels, and tie them all together into a much more cohesive whole.

Long ago, in elementary school, I had a very strong grasp on Asian
history, from my classes in Hong Kong and reading a lot on my own.
But many years without refreshing these memories had dulled my
recollection, and the class did an excellent job of bringing them back
to the forefront, and adding a lot of new information to them.  It has
also updated a lot of my thoughts on the differences in Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean cultures, especially with regards to Korea.
Having dated a Korean girl for several years during elementary school
and junior high, I thought my knowledge of their culture was at least
decent, but the pictures and views I've seen presented in this class
have changed them.  A lot of this was because her view was based on
memories of when she was a child in Korea, which is the same time I
visited Seoul, both over a decade out of date, and both were
essentially children viewing a culture, which leads to some degree of
skew.  

I am skeptical of the notion of a ``East Asian Culture'' because there
are simply too many differences between the many countries of East
Asia.  Even now with Hong Kong returned to China, there is still a
separate Hong Kong culture, as well as Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese,
and Vietnamese cultures.  Although the genetic roots of many of the
people are the same, and some of the languages are similar or the
same, the people are too separate, with different heritages,
preconceptions, memories, and outlooks.  Even were China to re-acquire
Taiwan, as some expect it will, Taiwanese culture will not quickly go
away, for these are things that take generations to change.  Asia
simply has too many inhabitants to ever be truly unified; China can't
even get a single national language, and it's culture varies
tremendously from south to north and the coastal cities to the inner
plains.  There are many strong ties between Asian countries,
especially religion, but nationalistic ties are too strong to keep
this from ever truly uniting people.  Nonetheless, we are likely to
see the Pan-Asain Co-Prosperity Sphere actually come into effect, as
the business needs of the countries come into synchronization and they
realize the power of a large trading block, especially as China
reaches fuller economic maturity.

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