History They Don't Teach You In Class

by debaird™

The place Vietnam sounds interesting to many. This is a place is situated on the southeast corner of the Indo-china peninsula in South East Asia. It has China as its neighbor in the north, Laos in the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest and the South China Sea.

In Vietnam, it is referred to as the East Sea. Therefore, if you want to discover Vietnam you should definitely take out time and visit this wonderful land having rich history and exotic culture.

Today Vietnam is the land of opportunities. It has joined the bandwagon of India and China to be the latest Asian country to wake up from its sleep. It is also a place for tourist interest. From breathe taking landscapes, to a fantastic coastline this place is a tourist delight. Now most places of tourist interest are either hilly mountains or costal locations.

Now if you travel to Vietnam you will find that this place is blessed with both.

Its cities are very much similar to any Asian country where you the population density are very high. Now if you want respite from buzzing motorbikes you could head straight for this place  where you will find Vietnamese woman looking after there agricultural land and children riding buffaloes.  

If you are a bit adventurous you could straight head for Phu Quoc Islands to have a first hand experience of costal Vietnam. You will not regret to discover Vietnam. The stunning white beaches are ready to welcome you on your arrival to this magnificent place. If you are near the eastern coast, you could visit Mui Ne beach. This place is also a visitor’s delight as you will be in love with this place. A visit to the old imperial capital of Hue will give you an inside account of the culture and history of this beautiful place.

Understanding Vietnam

The American experience in Vietnam divided us as a nation and eroded our confidence in both the morality and the effectiveness of our foreign policy. Yet our understanding of this tragic episode remains superficial because, then and now, we have never grasped the passionate commitment with which the Vietnamese clung to and fought over their own competing visions of what Vietnam was and what it might become. To understand the war, we must understand the Vietnamese, their culture, and their ways o

List Price: $ 20.76

Price:

by Chris Devers

The 21st century Hollywood should be seeing more of Asian-themed films. This is not to clearly mention an understatement that Asian films has went on unnoticed for several years in the United States but slowly at present Asian film making has finally attracted the credit it deserves in mainstream media.

Kudos should go to the predecessors of Asian film making and for their incessant hard work in getting Western film outfits to look at the East for some film making lessons. Thanks to them, the new generation of Asian film makers and actors has found the industry to be more open to Asian stories and roles.

The works of Ang Lee, Ken Watanabe, Jackie Chan and John Woo should be recognized for paving the way for the Western market to adapt some very Asian aspect in film making—its loyalty to art and storytelling.

Asian films are not just about promoting the actors who lent their faces to the characters, which in most cases are what Hollywood films are all about.

In Asia, first comes the story and how it weaves many other facets of art—dance, poetry, songs and martial arts.

Asian movies are usually elaborate in detail because every piece of it is important to bring to life a beautiful story. Remember the production design for Memoirs of a Geisha? Nothing was compromised in the case of the set design, costumes and acting. Because of this, it became one of those films that outdone the book version. 

While most Asian movies are known to be intricate, there are many who also rely on the effortlessness of how the stories are being told. One of the world’s scariest movies to date, The Ring, held a pretty simple plot—the ghosts of a past that continues to hound the future.

The original Sassy Girl movie may seem like a light comedy at the first look but deep into the movie, you see a simple love story made poignant by the easy way the actors portrayed their parts.

Both of these movies have Hollywood adaptations and the adaptations clearly did not do justice to the original stories. One of the underlying reasons behind this is because both movies, when made in its original sense, have relied heavily on some cultural oddities that made the film sensible.

Worthy of mention are also some Hollywood films that refused to take on true Asian actors to portray the roles of Asian characters for fear that the market will refuse to see them. What tops the list would be the movie 21. But the backlash that 21 received has become an eye opener to American production houses.

So if there is so much that Hollywood can learn from Asian moviemakers, it would have to be the fact that nothing else breaks the movie for its unfaithfulness to a culture Asian or not. If the story will call for it—character, location, culture, costumes or traditions—better deliver whatever comes close to authenticity.  Besides, it is never a good idea to shortchange the moviegoer.

China and Japan in the Late Meiji Period: China Policy and the Japanese Discourse on National Identity, 1895-1904 (Routledge/Leiden Series in Modern East Asian Politics and History)

Demonstrates the close relation between Japans changing international status and the thought process behind this by focusing on the public discussion on China and China politics during the interwar years 1895-1904.Demonstrates the close relation between Japans changing international status and the thought process behind this by focusing on the public discussion on China and China politics during the interwar years 1895-1904.

List Price: $ 150.00

Price:

Find More East Asian History Articles