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The article examines the experiences of Chinese PhD students doing research in China Studies as well as the experiences of their supervisors who supervise their research in Australian universities. By conducting semi-structured interviews with both PhD students and their supervisors, we aim to understand the expectations, concerns and challenges of both students and supervisors involved in the PhD journey. We found that the main concerns and challenges of students lie in the tight timeframe of scholarship, their 'ideological dissonance' and their relations with supervisors. The supervisors hope their Chinese students could improve academic writing skills, critical thinking skills and social skills in order to well accommodate the research culture in Australia and successfully complete their PhD research. Our findings could help Australian universities to better understand the cultural and educational challenges of Chinese PhD students and to further build up the quality for research training to attract more international research students from China and elsewhere.

International relations is often confusing for students. IR theories are introduced as parsimonious and elegant and then systematically challenged as students learn more about detailed events. There are rules, there are norms, and states follow them until they don't. East Asia increases these challenges because it often undermines IR theory. Simulations can provide a key means of grounding students studying international relations because they apply IR theory to real-world examples--something especially important in a large lecture course. While simulations are effective tools, they often rely on strong institutional arrangements around which the rules of simulations are based. This presents a challenge for studying foreign relations in regions like East Asia, which have weaker multilateral institutions and thus no obvious template for a simulation. To overcome the challenges of weak institutionalization and subject-matter difficulty, we present two alternative models of simulations tested in a large lecture course on transpacific relations. The consensus model simulates what an international summit looks like in a weakly institutionalized environment maximizing the realism of the experience for students. The cooperation model captures the motivations of states to seek international cooperation despite the complications faced in international relations, maximizing the spirit of urgency that animates weakly institutionalized environments. We provide detailed instructions and materials to adapt these models to similar courses.

Drawing on a recent collaborative and interdisciplinary study of East Asian Images of Japan, this article discusses contemporary Chinese portrayals of Japan, their political context, and their significance for Sino-Japanese relations. It questions some widely-held assumptions concerning the extent of "thought control" in an authoritarian state, the nature of popular protest, and the relationship between official propaganda and popular lived experience. While the main focus is on portrayals of Japan in mainland China, for comparative purposes some reference is made to Hong Kong and Taiwan. The latter part of the article also features a brief discussion of images of China in Japan, especially relating to the Second World War. This reflects particularly on the role of museums as vehicles for "peace education," focusing on two key institutions in Kyushu. China's "bases for patriotic education" and Japan's "peace museums" ostensibly embody radically different institutional missions. However while Japan's memorials to the war evince greater diversity, in harping on national victimhood and obscuring the reasons for war key sites of "peace education" arguably deliver a message that is just as nationalistic as that conveyed by their Chinese counterparts. The article concludes by arguing that, notwithstanding its "totalitarian" facade, China's social and political fragility in fact limits the scope for the authorities there to moderate anti-Japanese public discourse. In democratic Japan, by contrast, a more honest and open engagement with the national past is--or should be--far more achievable. For both moral and political reasons, scholars and educationalists in Japan therefore urgently need to consider their role in improving Sino-Japanese relations, not least through more forceful engagement in public debate over the socialization of the young.

Asia today is the center of tremendous growth. With the continued rise of China and the influential roles of Japan and South Korea in international affairs, it is no wonder that the 21st century has been dubbed the Asian century. Outside of these influential political actors, one also see the growing political significance of Southeast Asia in world affairs, led by the city-state of Singapore and by Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim state. While there is much to be hopeful for across the region, potential conflicts are also latent, from disputed islands off the eastern shores of the Asian continent to the unresolved strategic challenge on the Korean Peninsula. Asia, truly, is a central region of international affairs today, politically and militarily. California State University, San Bernardino offers three major courses related to Asian cultures and one elective, "East Asian Politics" (PSCI 305). The course is one of the elective political science courses within the subfield of comparative politics. It has been taught three times at CSUSB, with approximately 35 students per course. Approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, including history, geography, and politics, the seminar offers an introductory overview of East Asian politics, focusing on significant countries in the region, analyzing domestic and foreign politics, and examining the policies and actions of nation-states within the region. Countries of study include Japan, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Singapore, North Korea, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This article provides an overview of the course.

Background: In PISA 2009, seven East Asian countries rank high among the 65 participating countries, but some of the differences among the seven countries are small to be of substantive meaning. Aims: This paper is an attempt to fine tune the comparisons for better understanding of the situation in East Asian. Sample: Data of the seven East Asian countries were pulled from the PISA 2009 report and re-analyzed. Method: Pair-wise comparisons were made by way of effect size on Reading, Mathematics, and Science. Results: The overall patterns of differences show that Shanghai-China is definitely ahead of all the others. Korea, Hong Kong-China, and Singapore are similar in performance and form a cluster. Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Macao-China are similar and form another cluster at the lower end of achievement. Conclusion: Instead of ranking the seven countries with seven different ranks, it is more meaningful to cluster them into three groups to avoid spurious precision. In other words, league tables should not differentiate where there are no meaningful differences. (Contains 4 tables.)

This study surveys the history of English language and the roles of English language education in Asian context. Through the historical survey on English dispersal in Asian countries, the first section of this study traces the dispersal of English from the 18th century and the development of English in Asian countries. The second section of this study explains the development and characteristics of English language education policies in Asian countries. These countries belong to the expanding circle according to Kachru's model, and in the expanding circle, English plays a very important role as a tool for interaction among nonnative speakers. This section surveys and compares the developmental characteristics of English language education in Asian countries. The third section emphasizes the important role of English education and the future of English language education in Asian countries. Also this section focuses on the characteristics of English as an International language, and emphasizes the role of English as a tool for inter-cultural communication in the world. The purpose of English language education in the Asian context is to cultivate young people who are well equipped with English capabilities and their own professional abilities. (Contains 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

This paper examines the current stage of development of blended learning in higher education in China, South Korea and Japan, with a comparison to the city state of Singapore. It is noted that blended learning and e-learning are introduced at institutes of higher learning in these countries with varying degrees of success. A review of existing literature showed that there are a host of key issues and challenges which hampers higher education institutes in Asia from harnessing the full potential of blended learning. In China, for example, while blended learning was well-received, the dominance of traditional teaching methods goes against the conditions required for mainstreaming e-Learning. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)

China's dramatic economic rise has tended to overshadow other wider perspectives on the developing China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) relationship, including in higher education. The article examines contemporary relations between China and ASEAN, set against the longer term development of cultural and trade relations. It is argued that, notwithstanding current territorial disputes, and a history of discrimination against ethnic Chinese in several parts of ASEAN, prospects for a deepening of relations in higher education remain strong. Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam are selected as three instances of the developing relationship in higher education and some of the links traced, with the former assessed as best placed to take advantage of its China relations in higher education. The developing sense of regionalism is seen as likely to further enhance China-ASEAN relations in higher education.

China is becoming an increasingly important actor in global governance. This paper contends that China participates by promoting its own global governance concepts on the one hand and by complying with the established global norms on the other. The paper introduces several key global governance concepts of the Chinese government and argues that they are likely to persist due to their roots in traditional Chinese Daoist and Confucian philosophies. It then focuses on China's initiatives in education--the creation of Confucius Institutes and China's involvement in United Nations (UN) educational initiatives--as examples of the Chinese approach. Finally, the paper discusses China's educational profile in relation to its broader role in global governance.

This paper analyses how countries in UNICEF's East Asia and Pacific Region (EAPR) have engaged in the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) process. ELDS has been developed by the governments of Cambodia, China, Fiji, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam over the last 3 years with technical and financial support from UNICEF. The ELDS process allowed each country to define its own domain framework, using terminology and defining dimensions and domains in ways that reflected national perspectives and culture while ensuring holistic child development. No two national frameworks are exactly the same, yet they all include aspects of physical development, socio-emotional development, cognitive development and language development. Moral-spiritual and cultural development, creativity and approaches towards learning were also included by some countries. Regarding the purpose and objectives for undertaking the ELDS process, there were also commonalities and differences between countries. ELDS is being applied as the basis for curriculum revision, for instructional improvement and teacher training, for programme evaluation, for parenting education, for public advocacy and for national alignment of standards. Lessons learned in terms of factors for success include the need for conceptual clarity on holistic child development and ELDS processes amongst key stakeholders and decision makers from the outset, the necessity of national leadership and shared stakeholder responsibility, and the importance of technical assistance, follow-up and exchange between countries. Looking to the future, recommendations are made to use advanced countries to support countries just starting the process, to hold a follow-up regional workshop on application and use of ELDS, to develop publications, studies and reports on using ELDS in Asian countries, and to develop a more standardized Asian ELDS model based on validated indicators from the region, to allow countries to use Asian validated standards for specific purposes or research. (Contains 3 tables and 1 footnote.)

This article is written in line with the debate on internationalisation in higher education, especially taking into consideration the connections between the rise of East Asia and the need to internationalise the universities in the West. The author focuses specifically on his professional experience as a member of the Expanding East Asian Studies programme at Columbia University (from now on ExEAS) in 2003-2004. He briefly illustrates his contribution to ExEAS and focuses on the ways this specific endeavour forced him to rethink critically his previous experience as researcher and instructor of East Asia-related disciplines. Through this article, he aims to problematise some of the established categories with which East Asian studies is often approached, and he points out the need to reconsider the shifting points of dialogue, rethinking the reductionist ways in which China and Japan are often constructed within the Western academy. (Contains 17 notes.)

In many countries today, public higher education operates within some form of market framework, typically a government-regulated quasi-market. However, having created a market environment, how should the government agencies involved act when they wish to use higher education to achieve a particular policy goal? This paper considers the impact on the English higher education market of an initiative by the national funding agency to expand Chinese studies. It is argued that, in an already competitive market, this intervention led to the misallocation of resources because it encouraged universities to expand provision in ways that they would not otherwise have done. As a result, although some effective new provision resulted, excess capacity was created overall. It can be argued that the collective understanding of the universities about this specific market was more accurate than that of an expert committee advising on national provision. The paper suggests how intervention might have been more effectively arranged.

Focusing on academic libraries in North America, this article describes the selection and acquisition of library materials for Chinese Studies from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It provides an historical overview of the Chinese book publishing and exporting practice, identifies and evaluates current online and printed resources for selection and methods of acquisition, and discusses the problems commonly faced by academic libraries. It also addresses the current state of book publishing and book exporting operations as they respond to China's new status as a member of the World Trade Organization and what this means to libraries in North America.

One year ago the Bay Area China Education Project (BAYCEP) was begun by specialists in Asian Studies from Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. The purposes of BAYCEP are to develop a series of programs which will encourage the use of China-related materials in elementary and secondary schools and improve the methods and content of precollegiate teaching about China. BAYCEP staff members work as consultants to Bay Area elementary or secondary teachers who request their help. In addition to consulting, BAYCEP staff develop materials useful to teachers; two available products are an annotated bibliography (ED 092 469) of easily available materials on China and a short unit entitled Misunderstanding China (ED 092 421), focusing on the dispelling of stereotypes. The unit is highly adaptable and can be modified to meet the requirements of almost any classroom situation. For teachers who wish more indepth background preparation on China, BAYCEP conducts workshops in both content and additional teaching techniques. While BAYCEP is currently focusing on China, the associates hope to expand their services on other countries, with the next concentration to be Japan. (Author/JR)