China | FSI

Authors

Johanna Wee

Date

Wed, 08/09/2006 - 12:00

Paragraphs

Chicago Tribune article features Yo Yo Ma's introduction of 91�Թ� Silk Road curriculum to Chicago public schools. 91�Թ� director Gary Mukai, who helped design the curriculum, is quoted.

Yo-Yo Ma sat on the edge of the small stage at the Art Institute, his cello resting across his lap.

"See this fingerboard?" the acclaimed cellist asked the audience. "It is made out of ebony, which comes from Africa."

"The red varnish," he said, massaging the body of the instrument, "comes from as far away as Malaysia."

"The hair on the bow comes from Mongolia and the wood of the bow can be found only in Brazil," he said.

Ma's multicultural cello seemed the perfect metaphor for his most recent endeavor: bringing the rich artistic and cultural history of the Silk Road to Chicago Public Schools students.

The Silk Road, the ancient network of trade routes that crisscrossed Eurasia through the 1500s, served as the main conduit for the cultural exchange of goods, art and music. And when Ma sat down and played a soulful partita by Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun, he showed that cultural exchange enriches the world.

"This is a global instrument," he said. "And by bringing the world together ... beautiful music can be made."

Ma was in town Monday as part of Silk Road Chicago, a yearlong citywide celebration inspired by the art, music and culture along the historic road that stretched from Japan and China through central Asia and into the Mediterranean. The Chicago series is part of the larger Silk Road Project, a multiyear, multicity odyssey created by Ma.

Specifically, Ma spent the day helping introduce a new Silk Road school curriculum to Chicago Public Schools teachers.

Through a collaboration with the Art Institute, 80 Chicago teachers will spend the week discovering the Silk Road and learning how best to explain its importance to students.

"It's sometimes difficult to get students to engage in something that seems so far removed from their lives," explained Gary Mukai, from 91�Թ�, who helped develop the Silk Road curriculum. "We hope we can help students make a link to their own lives by engaging them musically, mathematically and artistically in the Silk Road history."

Through the lesson plan, students can trace the history of Asia and the West through the important innovations that migrated along the Silk Road. Students will learn that gunpowder, the magnetic compass, lacquer crafts and, of course, silk, flowed from East and West and back.

Musical forms and instruments also traveled the Silk Road, as string, wind and percussion instruments from the East and the West influenced each other. Cymbals were introduced into China from India. The Chinese gongs traveled to Europe. And the Persian mizmar, a reed instrument, seems to have been the ancestor of the European oboe and clarinet.

Ma implored the teachers to reach out to students and help create a "spark" that will open their minds to the "amazing cultures around them."

"As teachers, you are incredible guides into a world that you can make a most exciting place," he said.

The Silk Road is a metaphor that "joins us together not only in material things but in spiritual ways," he said. "You can translate that to your students."

Don Gibson, a music teacher from Dyett High School on the South Side, said the Silk Road will help him incorporate history lessons into his music courses.

"Through the Silk Road music lessons, I can broaden their understanding of cultures and the history of those cultures," Gibson said. "To be inspired by the music, sometimes, you have to know its history."

READER CONNECTION
Would you like to learn more about the Silk Road Chicago events? Visit the .

All News button

This set includes Islamic Civilization and the Arts, An Introduction to Japanese Buddhist Art, and Religions and Philosophies in China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.

This curriculum unit introduces students to the first 2,500 years of Chinese history and offers students an in-depth view of Chinese civilization from the nascent years of the Shang Dynasty through the golden age of the Tang Dynasty.

616 Jane Stanford Way
Encina Hall, C332
Stanford, CA 94305-6060

(650) 725-1486

rybo@stanford.edu

rylan_sekiguchi.jpg

Rylan Sekiguchi is Manager of Curriculum and Instructional Design at the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�). Prior to joining 91�Թ� in 2005, he worked as a teacher at Revolution Prep in San Francisco.

Rylan’s professional interests lie in curriculum design, global education, education technology, student motivation and learning, and mindset science. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Symbolic Systems at 91�Թ�.

He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen curriculum units for 91�Թ�, including , , , and . His writings have appeared in publications of the National Council for History Education and the Association for Asian Studies.

Rylan has also been actively engaged in media-related work for 91�Թ�. In addition to serving as producer for two films—My Cambodia and My Cambodian America—he has developed several web-based lessons and materials, including

In 2010, 2015, and 2021, Rylan received the Franklin Buchanan Prize, which is awarded annually by the Association for Asian Studies to honor an outstanding curriculum publication on Asia at any educational level, elementary through university.

Rylan has presented teacher seminars across the country at venues such as the World Affairs Council, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and for organizations such as the National Council for the Social Studies, the International Baccalaureate Organization, the African Studies Association, and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. He has also conducted presentations internationally for the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines; for the European Council of International Schools in Spain, France, and Portugal; and at Yonsei University in South Korea.

Manager of Curriculum and Instructional Design

Instructor, Stanford e-Hiroshima

Manager, Stanford SEAS Hawaii

The Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1976) was a decade of enormous change and upheaval with a lasting impact on the country, its citizens, and the world. China's Cultural Revolution teaches students about the social, cultural, educational, political, and economic changes through hands-on activities requiring critical thinking skills.

This unit introduces students to a variety of art forms that flourished during the Edo period. This unit will feature Japanese feudal art from the Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute at the Clark Center, Hanford, California.

This unit introduces students to expressions of Buddhism in art in the Japanese context. Lessons on art history, Buddhism, religious institutions, and curatorial practices encourage students to see objects in new ways and to realize that looking and displaying can shape our understanding of the world in significant ways. This unit features art of Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute of Japanese Art at the Clark Center, Hanford, California.

An Introduction to Sovereignty: A Case Study of Taiwan examines the key issue of sovereignty and provides an in-depth look at the unique status of Taiwan among the nations of the world.

In this unit the geographic distribution of China's ethnic groups will be introduced, as well as the cultural and linguistic features of China's major ethnic groups. Focusing on the Hui, Tibetans, Mongols, and the Miao, topics such as ethnogenesis, sovereignty, assimilation, and stereotypes and representation are addressed.

This unit introduces students to the topics of diasporas, migration, and the role and experience of diasporic communities in the United States. Students learn about five diasporas in the United States-the Armenian, Chinese, Cuban, Irish, and Yoruban- from their development as diasporas to their contemporary identities, roles, and remaining homeland ties.

Subscribe to China