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Are You Paying Attention?

Approximate percentage time educational researchers estimate First and Fifth Grade Beijing and Chicago students are paying attention to their teacher:

Source: Data from Harold W. Stevens and Shinying Lee, "The East Asian Version of Whole-Class Teaching," Educational Policy (June 1995)

Asia and the Global Village

If we shrink the earth's population down to a village of one hundred people but keep all existing human ratios the same, there would be:

57 Asians; 21 Europeans; 14 Western Hemisphere (North and South America); 8 Africans

Other characteristics of the "Global Village"

70 of the 100 people would be non-white; 70 would be unable to read; 50 would suffer from malnutrition; 80 would live in substandard housing; 70 would be non-Christian; 1 would have a university education

Source: Asia/Link: A Newsletter for Teachers (University of Pittsburgh, February 1995).

Asia Economic Notes

Asia's share of the World Gross National Product

1960 — 4 percent
1990 — 25 percent
2000 — 33 percent (projected)

U.S.-Pacific Trade

1984 — U.S. trade across the Pacific surpassed U.S. trade across the Atlantic
1994 — One-third of U.S. exports were to East Asia. U.S. merchandise trade to APEC countries constituted 60% of total U.S. exports. More than 80% of the $154 billion U.S. global trade deficit was with APEC countries, mostly Japan and China.

Source: The Japanese Times Weekly International Edition (November, 1995).

MYTH: Everyone in China Speaks the Same Language

TRUTH: Chinese speak many dialects, sometimes making communication difficult. Although the Chinese have shared the same written language for more than 2,000 years, they have often spoken different dialects. Some are as different from each other as Spanish is from French.

Source: East Asian Connection, vol. VIII, no.3, February 1998. Indiana University, Memorial Hall West 207, Bloomington, IN 47405.

North Korea Political Longevity

Kim Il Sung ruled North Korea almost single-handedly for forty-nine years, from 1945–1994.

Source: Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader by Dae-Sook Suh (Columbia University Press, 1988).

Encouraging Statistics on U.S.-Japan Relations

In a 1998 Gallup Poll commissioned by Japan’s Foreign Ministry, a record 60 percent of ordinary Americans said they trust Japan as an ally, and 83 percent supported the continuation of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. In the same poll, 87 percent of opinion leaders and intellectuals said they trust Japan as an ally, while 91 percent supported the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. However, 47 percent of ordinary U.S. citizens had no opinion one way or the other.

Source: "A Show of Hands Across the Water," Japan Times Weekly International Edition, May 18–24, 1998, pg. 20.

Toys "R" Us: Japan

Toys "R" Us opened its first store in 1989. Thanks in part to the relaxation of the Large-Scale Retail Store Law, Toys "R" Us now has fifty-one stores and is the leader in the Japanese toy industry.

Source: "American Retailing in Japan," Asia Pacific Economic Review. March/April 1998, pg. 18.

U.S.- Japanese Study Abroad Deficit

Approximately twenty-four Japanese students study in American educational institutions for every one American who studies in Japan.

Source: "Rethinking Perspectives on Educational Exchanges with Japan," Journal of Studies in International Education, Spring 1997, pg. 79.

Japan’s Aging Population

As of June 1, 1997, according to the Japanese Government’s Management and Coordination Agency, the number of elderly Japanese has surpassed the number of children for the first time. Nationally, the agency reported 50,000 more Japanese over the age of 65 than children under 15.

Source: Japan Now, Embassy of Japan, August 8, 1997, pg. 4.

Hong Kong’s Role in the Chinese and World Economy

Hong Kong accounts for about 60 percent of China’s foreign direct investment.
Hong Kong is responsible for 33 percent of China’s foreign exchange.
Hong Kong is the fifth largest banking center in the world.

Source: Michael Size, "After the Handover: Hong Kong’s Role in the Asia Pacific." Harvard Asia Pacific Review, Winter 1997-98, pg. 54.

Languages Spoken in India

Seventeen recognized by the Indian constitution.
Thirty-five languages spoken by more than one million people.

Source: Shashi Tharoor, "E Pluribus, India: Is Indian Modernity Working?" Foreign Affairs, January/February 1998, pg.129.

Factoids on the Indian Classic, The Ramayana

There are seventeen Ramayanas adapted from Valmiki’s original, not only in the various Indian languages and dialects, but in Buddhist and Jain versions also.
The Ramayana traveled abroad with Southern Indian maritime empires and took root in Southeast Asia in modified forms.
The Ramayana contains 24,000 verses.

Source: Lakshmi Lal, "The Ramayana Today," Harvard Asia Pacific Review, Winter 1997-98. pg. 78.

To Get Rich is Glorious

Percentage of China’s urban households owning:

Source: China: The Consumer Revolution by Li Conghua (1997)

China’s exports of manufactured goods (in $ billion)

Source: China Statistical Yearbook, 1996

Evidence for growing Chinese beliefs in capitalism and individual rights

In a 1993 poll of 5,455 respondents in six provinces, 78 percent agreed with the statement, "Private property is sacred and must not be violated," and 77 percent disagreed with the statement, "In a lawsuit involving an individual and a collective entity, the judgment should favor the latter." When asked "whether the police could continue to detain a person for the sake of public safety even though they were unable to determine his guilt," 47 percent opposed detention, and only 28 percent supported it.

As reported in Minxin Pei’s "Is China Democratizing?," Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb, 1998.

"In Buddha We Trust"

Tricycle is the first American Buddhist magazine to bluntly target a general readership. Readership has surged from an expected 5,000 when it debuted in 1991 to some 55,000 today. Firm figures are difficult to find, but University of Washington scholar Peter Moran, who is preparing a doctoral thesis on Western Buddhism, estimates that at least a million native-born Americans have converted to Buddhism, most of them in the last ten years.

The Pluralism Project, a Harvard-based group that studies religious diversity in the United States, cites strong anecdotal evidence that ordinary Americans from all walks of life are embracing the Buddhist truth, or dharma. "Our database shows over 1,000 Buddhist centers in the United States, and that’s not even a complete list," says project manager Ellie Pierce.

Source: Far Eastern Review, October 30, 1997.

Women in Japanese Business

Women account for only 0.18 percent of executives at major Japanese companies, according to the results of a recent survey by Tokyo-based publishing company Toyo Keiza Shinposha. The company polled 44,925 executives at 2,413 major companies, including 2,356 listed ones. A total of eighty-two female executives worked in seventy-six of the companies at the end of July, a rate of one woman for every 550 executives, the survey found. The number of female executives doubled from 1988 when the publishing company conducted its first survey. The average age of the women was 56.4, the survey found. Female executives worked mainly in such industries as retailing, services, textiles, and wholesaling, it added. About half were relatives or family members of a founder or major shareholder. The survey found four female presidents, but all were related to founders of the companies. Only twenty-nine women were promoted from the rank-and-file, the survey found.

Source: Japan Times, September 22-28, 1997