First stop, China!
Your first destination will be Asia's most populous country, China!
Complete the puzzle and learn something about the most ancient forms of the Chinese writing system.
- Which pictograms did you guess right away?
- Which ones did you find more difficult?
- Which pictograms resemble the pictograms for the same object in other ancient writing systems?
- The Chinese writing system has changed considerably over the many hundreds of years since the symbols in this quiz were used. While many of the words represented here are now very different, you may still recognize a few of them. Look at the two modern characters here: (Ri- sun) and (wang- king). Can you guess what words these characters represent?
Japan, Here we come!
Your next destination is the island nation of Japan. Fly across the sea of Japan to the capital city of Tokyo to see what life is like for Japanese teenagers.
- Read the essay and answer the following questions:
- What is a rakugo-ka?
- What is a nazo-nazo??
On to Korea!
Jump back across the sea of Japan to the country of Korea, where you will take a quick trip back in time to the 14th century.
- What was King Sejong the Great's biggest achievement?
- Your answer should look like this!
Then on to India!
Fly across the continent to the South Asian country of India. This country has more than one billion people and is one of the most culturally diverse nations on earth.
- When did the following events take place in Indian history?
- The Gupta Period
- The Mughal Period
- Indian Independence from British colonial rule
- What is the capital of Thailand?
- With how many countries does Thailand share a border, and what are they?
- Thailand also has a very long coastline. With which bodies of water does Thailand share that coast?
Asia and America!
Now zoom in a little closer to home! Take a trip through the history of some of the Asian American communities here in the United States.
- What is a "paper son"?
- What are "picture brides" and "picture husbands"?
- How many Chinese women lived in the US in 1900? How many men?
- Where is there a large community of Cambodians and Cambodian-Americans?
- In the upper right corner of the page you will see links to photographs from several countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, South India, Laos, and Sri Lanka. Choose one of these countries. Look through the list of photographs for that country and write down as much information about what you see as you can find. For example, what do the photographs tell you about religion in that country? Or farming? Or transportation?
- Next, find the country on one of the maps available from AskAsia.
- o Now that you have virtually visited your final destination, write a virtual postcard home describing the country you have "visited." Try to give a description of everything you have seen, beginning with where it is situated, that describes everything you have learned from the photographs.