Background Reading on Asia

We've compiled resources to help you cut through the stereotypes surrounding North Korea and more deeply examine the country, its people, and the complexities of its politics and nuclear program.

It may sound incredible, but China’s formal education system—the oldest in the world—was established nearly two millennia ago.

Hint: It was invented to fit a language that previously used a borrowed writing system.

Museum resources and educational resources that help students develop visual literacy and a better understanding of the world.

A case for practicing calligraphy from one learner's perspective.

How Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism complement one another. Read on to learn about the "fourth teaching."

A tour de force essay written by Dr. Roddham Narasimha.

Includes case studies on Ralph Waldo Emerson, T.S. Eliot, Herman Hesse, and The Beatles. A must-read!

On Islam and the use of geometric patterns.

International dispute over history textbooks in East Asia.

Microfinance enables people to escape a cycle of poverty by giving them loans to start a trade or business and savings accounts to accrue interest.

How the development of writing, paper, the printing press, and internet continues to change China.