A lecturer at one of the nation’s top-ranked universities has been causing a frenzy on campus by using Japanese comic books to teach theories of international politics and economics.
In the course entitled “Using Comics to Explore Japan” at National Chengchi University, Tsai Zheng-jia (蔡增家) teaches 120 students about Japanese politics and economics using slides featuring black and white comic strips.
Due to the course’s popularity, students wishing to get a seat in the classroom have to compete with more than 1,000 peers to sign up for the elective course.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
One student only succeeded in registering for the course in his senior year after having been unable to do so for the first three years.
Each class begins with students giving presentations on current affairs from Japan, during which Tsai elaborates on certain points to better inform his students’ about one of the nation’s major allies.
Speaking about his reasons for starting the course, Tsai said that as a specialist in Japan’s political and economic system, as well as international finance, he had attempted in the past to offer courses relevant to his areas of expertise. However, none were well received by students.
“I had a course on Japan’s politics and economy, but less than 20 students took it each semester,” Tsai said, adding that he was disheartened by the course’s unpopularity.
Tsai then thought of his favorite childhood pastime — Japanese manga — and decided to use comics in the classroom to motivate students.
Tsai began the “Using Comics to Explore Japan” course in 2007 and has since sought to teach students about Japan’s politics, educational system and foreign policy through a number of famous Japanese comic books, such as Sanctuary, Kachou Kousaku Shima and Dragon Zakura, among others.
Saying that Japan is one of a few nations that could be understood using comic books, Tsai said that although there are various genres of Japanese manga, several are educational and oriented toward current affairs.
Tsai added that about 13 manga series feature in his four-month course and there are more than 70 comic books listed as reference materials.
However, it is not as easy to pass the course as it might seem.
Tsai conducts a roll call at the beginning of each class, after which students have to offer in-depth analysis of the plots and characters.
Despite the relatively heavy demands of the course, Tsai’s methods have greatly enhanced students’ knowledge and learning.
“Some of the theories that used to be Greek to me when they were in textbooks suddenly make sense now when they are illustrated in comic books,” Tsai quoted one of his students as saying.
Chu Yuan-ting (朱原廷), a junior studying public finance, hailed Tsai’s course, saying that the weekly presentations by students contributed to the lively atmosphere of the course.
“The course has also influenced my choice of comic books. Among Tsai’s recommended books, I found The Star of Prefectural Government particularly interesting and learned that bureaucratic corruption is not only common in Taiwan, but also in Japan,” Chu said.
Tseng Yi-an (曾怡安), a freshman in the Department of Political Science, said she was one of the lucky few that managed to sign up for the course in her freshman year.
“Tsai always teaches in a lighthearted and amusing manner. His lectures and teaching aids have not only allowed me to better grasp Japan’s political and economic system, but have also encouraged me to keep abreast of international news,” Tseng said.
In light of the course’s success, Tsai recently applied similar teaching techniques to a new course, “Movies and International Relations,” which is also extremely popular among students.
In an effort to draw students’ attention toward international relations and shake off stereotypes created by Hollywood movies, Tsai screens an array of international and alternative movies in the class.
“The purpose of teaching is to pass on knowledge to future generations and the key to fulfilling that purpose lies in the tools employed in teaching,” Tsai said.
“Whatever approaches educators use, they must attract students’ attention, before they can eventually instill knowledge in them,” he added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater