Meet the Hong Kong Protesters and Their Families

Culture Hacks: Deciphering Differences in American, Chinese, and Japanese Thinking

Richard Conrad is an American fluent in Chinese and Japanese. He lives in Asia with his family. For 16 years, he worked for a large U.S. money management firm researching, analyzing, and investing in Chinese and Japanese equities. In this book, he analyzes the role of Asian cultures as they influence economics, business, and trade....

How India Is Rewriting History To Encourage Hindu Nationalism

Onthemedia.org: "The Indian government has revoked autonomy for the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. This week, a close look at how Hindu nationalists are rewriting Indian history in the world's largest democracy. Producer Asthaa Chaturvedi [@Pasthaaa] examines the ways Hindu nationalists have sought to rewrite history in and outside the classroom in an effort to glorify...

India’s Mughal Empire Still Influences Hindus’ Concept of Imperialism

"Mughal" is the Persian word for Mongol. The Mughals continue to shape how Indians see themselves today. Hindu nationalists take pride in how India threw off the shackles of imperialism, not just British imperialism which began in the mid-1700s and lasted until the 1940s, but Muslim Mughal "imperialism" from the 1500s through the mid-1800s. The...

The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain James Cook, in Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii

I classified Hawaii as part of the Americas, and I suppose it is today, culturally. Photos and slideshows of my son Matthew's adventures there. But originally, Hawaii was part of the Asian Pacific Oceania, more kin to the Polynesians and even the Indonesians than to the East Coast of the United States. Captain James Cook...

2,000 Years of Chinese History! The Mandate of Heaven and Confucius

John Green of Crash Course introduces you "to quite a lot of Chinese history by discussing the complicated relationship between the Confucian scholars who wrote Chinese history and the emperors (and empress) who made it.Included is a brief introduction to all the dynasties in Chinese history and an introduction to Confucius and the Confucian emphasis...

Japan’s Aristocracy in Middle Ages Gave Rights and Autonomy to Women

John Green of Crash Course explains the middle ages and the lives of the aristocracy in Japan. The lives of women were much better than in Europe at the time -- there were laws against men beating their wives and aristocratic women were allowed to be educated in art, literature and things that would make...

Cambodia Has Made Great Strides Against Poverty, But Corruption May Hamper Growth

Nearly half of Cambodians lived in dire poverty in 2007. Just seven years later, due to major foreign investments in construction, garment-making, hotels, especially by China, and widespread use of the American dollar, the percentage declined to 14 percent. But "economic progress has been accompanied by political repression," the Economist reports. The main opposition party...

India Faces Divisions Over Hindu Fundamentalism, Ethnic Diversity and Tolerance

India is more polarized than at any time since independence from Britain in 1947, The Economist reports.  An eye-popping 900 million voters were eligible; about 67 percent participated in the general elections in the world's largest democracy. Narendra Modi of the BJP, first elected in 2014, and a staunch Hindu nationalist, won a commanding victory against...

Honor and Shame in Western and Eastern Cultures Are Handled Differently

One cultural generalization is that Western and Eastern, or Asian. perspectives on honor, shame, guilt, innocence and fear are different. Westerners tend to believe in transparency, full disclosure, publicly reporting on conflicts, and "telling it like it is," even if embarrassment is the result. Honesty is a high value in Western cultures. It is the...