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Asia Literate Schooling in
the Asian Century

Globalization, migration, transnational movements and the development of the

tiger economies of Asia have led education leaders and policy-makers around the
world but particularly in Australia, the USA, Canada and New Zealand to view
schools as key sites for developing ‘globally competent’, ‘Asia literate’ citizens
who have the capabilities to live, work and interact with the peoples, cultures
and societies of Asia. In what has been dubbed the ‘Asian Century’, nations are
increasingly seeking to transform their schooling policies, curricula and teaching
workforces to engage with the growing influence of the peoples, cultures and
societies both within and beyond Asia.
This is the first book to subject to critical scrutiny and analysis the concepts,
policies and practices of schooling involved in building intercultural relations
with the diverse contemporary manifestations of ‘Asia’. It brings into dialogue
scholars who are at the forefront of current thinking, policy and practice on Asia-
related schooling, and contributes to a broader, international debate about the
future shape of intercultural schooling in a global world. Asia Literate Schooling
in the Asian Century offers chapters on:

• Learning Asia: in search of a new narrative

• Asia literacy as experiential learning
• Professional standards and ethics in teaching Asia literacy
• The feasibility of implementing cross-curricular studies of Asia
• Deparochialising education and the Asian priority: a curriculum (re)imagination.

This book will appeal to scholars and practitioners in education, and is suitable
as a reference for teacher education courses. It will also interest scholars specialis-
ing in Asian Studies.
Christine Halse is Professor and Chair of Education at Deakin University, Australia.
Routledge Series on Schools and Schooling in Asia
Series editor: Kerry J. Kennedy

Minority Students in East Asia

Government Policies, School Practices and Teacher Responses
Edited by JoAnn Phillion, Ming Tak Hue and Yuxiang Wang

A Chinese Perspective on Teaching and Learning

Edited by Betty C. Eng

Language, Culture, and Identity Among Minority Students in China

The Case of the Hui
By Yuxiang Wang

Citizenship Education in China

Preparing Citizens for the “Chinese Century”
Edited by Kerry J. Kennedy, Gregory P. Fairbrother, and Zhenzhou Zhao

Asia’s High Performing Education Systems

The Case of Hong Kong
Edited by Colin Marsh and John Chi-Kin Lee

Asia Literate Schooling in the Asian Century

Edited by Christine Halse
Asia Literate Schooling in
the Asian Century

Edited by Christine Halse

First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2015 Christine Halse
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-415-73853-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-81512-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents

List of tables vii

Series editor’s note viii
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors x
Foreword xiv
KO I CH I I WAB U CHI

Introduction: (re)thinking Asia literacy 1

C H RI S TI N E HA L S E

PART 1
Positioning Asia literacy and schooling 11

1 What makes Asia literacy a ‘wicked policy problem’? 13

C H RI S TI N E HA L S E

2 The time has come: histories of Asia literacy 29

D AVI D WAL KER

3 The concept of Tianxia and its impact on Chinese

discourses on the West 44
RU I YAN G

4 Learning Asia: in search of a new narrative 56

FAZAL RIZVI

PART 2
Asia literacy and the teaching profession 71

5 Assessing Asia literacy in Australian teachers 73

D I AN N E TO E
vi Contents
6 Asia literacy as experiential learning 89
J U L I E D Y ER

7 Professional standards and ethics in teaching Asia literacy 103

AL EX KO S TO GRIZ

PART 3
Asia in/through the school curriculum 117

8 China’s English: lessons for Asia literacy 119

B O B AD AM SO N

9 The feasibility of implementing cross-curricular

studies of Asia 133
AN N E CL O ONA N

10 Asia and the autobiographical picture book 151

E L I ZAB ETH BU L L EN A ND T RIS H L U NT

PART 4
Reimagining Asia literacy and schooling 167

11 Deparochialising education and the Asian priority:

a curriculum (re)imagination 169
AARO N KO H

12 Asia engagement beyond binaries and boundaries: towards

a re-theorisation of Asia, community and curriculum 182
M I CH I KO WEINMA NN

13 Australia’s self-identity and three modes of imagining

Asia: a critical perspective on ‘Asia literacy’ 197
C H EN G XI N PA N

Index 211
Tables

5.1 Characteristics of teachers participating in the Teacher Asia

Literacy Survey 76
5.2 Characteristics of the schools where teachers participated in the
Teacher Asia Literacy Survey 76
5.3 Teacher Asia Literacy Survey participating teachers’ experience in
and initial teacher education about Asia 77
5.4 Teacher Asia Literacy Survey participating teachers’ professional
knowledge and current level of Asia literacy 80
5.5 Teacher Asia Literacy Survey self-assessed professional knowledge
by Asian language teachers and non-Asian language teachers 81
5.6 Teacher Asia Literacy Survey cultural education experience and
overall level of asia literacy 84
9.1 Extract from Year 8 ‘MasterChef’ unit planning document 143
9.2 Assessment criteria for Indonesian language use in ‘MasterChef’
cooking activity 146
12.1 Organising ideas (OI) of the cross-curricular priority ‘Asia and
Australia’s Engagement with Asia’ in the national curriculum 185
Series editor’s note

The so called ‘Asian century’ provides opportunities and challenges both for the
people of Asia as well as in the West. The success of many of Asia’s young people
in schooling often leads educators in the West to try and emulate Asian school
practices. Yet these practices are culturally embedded. One of the key issues to
be taken on by this series, therefore, is to provide Western policy-makers and
academics with insights into these culturally embedded practices in order to assist
better understanding of them outside of specific cultural contexts.
There is vast diversity as well as disparities within Asia. This is a fundamental
issue and for that reason it will be addressed in this series by making these diver-
sities and disparities the subject of investigation. The ‘tiger’ economies initially
grabbed most of the media attention on Asian development and more recently
China has become the centre of attention. Yet there are also very poor countries
in the region and their education systems seem unable to be transformed to meet
new challenges. Pakistan is a case in point. Thus the whole of Asia will be seen as
important for this series in order to address not only questions relevant to devel-
oped countries but also to developing countries. In other words, the series will
take a ‘whole of Asia’ approach.
Asia can no longer be considered in isolation. It is as subject to the forces of
globalization, migration and transnational movements as other regions of the
world. Yet the diversity of cultures, religions and social practices in Asia means
that responses to these forces are not predictable. This series, therefore, is inter-
ested to identify the ways tradition and modernity interact to produce distinctive
contexts for schools and schooling in an area of the world that impacts across the
globe.
Against this background, I am pleased to welcome this book to the Routledge
Series on Schools and Schooling in Asia.
Kerry J. Kennedy
Series Editor
Routledge Series on Schools and Schooling in Asia
Acknowledgements

The work of transforming an idea into a book always involves many more people
than can ever be acknowledged. Opening thanks, however, must go to the con-
tributors who found time in their busy schedules amid a myriad of other compet-
ing commitments to put their expertise, intellectual resources and scholarship
to the task of reimagining what Asia literacy schooling might be in the ‘Asian
Century’. Any book also has silent contributors. This is particularly the case here
because many of the chapters are based on research with students, teachers and
principals. Invariably, it is a condition of such research that participants remain
anonymous but this in no way limits the gratitude felt for their generosity in
contributing time and expertise which has enabled the research discussed in vari-
ous chapters that follow. Sincere thanks also to Professor Kerry Kennedy, editor
of the Routledge Series on Schools and Schooling in Asia, who encouraged the
book’s development from the outset; Kathe Kirby, Kurt Mullane and colleagues
at the Asia Education Foundation in Australia, who have worked for decades to
advance the cause of Asia literacy schooling; Stephen McLaren, for again put-
ting his proofreading and editing skills to work; Christina Low and the Rout-
ledge team, for their support and encouragement throughout; and the wonderful
Trevor McCandless, whose tireless organisation, gracious manner and refreshing
sense of humour were decisive in bringing this book to fruition.
Contributors

Bob Adamson is Professor of Curriculum Studies and Head of the Department

of International Education and Lifelong Learning at Hong Kong Institute of
Education. He is an honorary professor at four universities in ethnic minor-
ity regions and a consultant to the People’s Education Press in the Ministry
of Education in the PRC. Email: badamson@ied.edu.hk
Elizabeth Bullen is a senior lecturer at Deakin University. Her research is inter-
disciplinary, synthesising approaches from literary and cultural studies and
the social sciences, and draws on a background of research in education.
Her major publications are Consuming Children: Education, Entertainment,
Advertising, 2001 and Haunting the Knowledge Economy, 2006. Her current
research focuses on the intersections of class, gender and consumerism in
popular culture texts for young adults. She has won Visiting Scholar awards to
the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, McGill University,
and the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University,
and is a member of the Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention.
Email: elizabeth.bullen@deakin.edu.au
Anne Cloonan is a senior lecturer and coordinator of the Language and Lit-
eracy Education Teaching and Research Group at Deakin University. She has
a preference for working in partnerships of collaborative inquiry with teach-
ers, students and parents. Her projects include the impact of professional
learning on literacy teachers and learners, literacy education in innovative
learning environments, Asia-literate teaching, intercultural understanding in
schools and creative connections between home and school learning. She
recently co-authored a chapter on supporting intercultural engagement in
literacy education in Becoming a Teacher of Language and Literacy. Email:
anne.cloonan@deakin.edu.au
Julie Dyer is Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Cultural Ambassador in the
Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. Her teacher education
research is in internationalisation, globalisation and indigenous studies, with
a focus on pre-service teachers’ learning across various sites. She has exten-
sive experience of leading teacher study tours to countries in Asia and in
 Contributors xi
developing global experiences for pre-service teachers. She is Vice President
of the Social and Citizenship Education Association of Australia. Email:
julie.dyer@deakin.edu.au
Christine Halse is Professor and Chair of Education at Deakin University,
Melbourne, Australia. Her research has focused on issues of culture, diver-
sity and the implications for education policy, practice and curriculum. She
has published extensively on the topic of Asia literacy in education policy and
practice and is the former president of the Asia-Pacific Education Research
Association and the Australian Association for Research in Education. She is
lead author of the national report Asia Literacy and the Australian Teaching
Workforce (2013), Melbourne: AITSL. Email: c.halse@deakin.edu.au
Aaron Koh is Associate Professor in the Division of English Language & Lit-
erature at the Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Edu-
cation. He previously taught at Monash University and the Hong Kong
Institute of Education. He does inter- and trans-disciplinary research in the
areas of Global Studies in Education and Cultural Studies in Education. He
is the co-founding editor of the Springer Book Series Cultural Studies and
Transdisciplinarity in Education and is co-editing two books titled Criti-
cal Studies in Singapore Education: Unfolding History, Culture and Politics
and Elite Schools: Multiple Geographies of Privilege (Routledge). Email: aaron.
koh@nie.edu.sg
Alex Kostogriz is Professor of Education at the Australian Catholic University.
His research interests span language and literacy learning, teacher education,
critical multiculturalism and globalisation. He has published extensively on
teacher ethics and professionalism and on the preparation of teachers for work
in socially and culturally diverse schools. Email: alex.kostogriz@acu.edu.au
Trish Lunt has been teaching children’s literature criticism at Deakin Uni-
versity for ten years. Her scholarly interests include the merging of cultural
geographies with narrative analysis, representations of diversity and indige-
neity, and the embeddness of cultural consciousness in texts for child and
young adult readers. She has published articles regarding spatiality and
transculturalism in multicultural and Indigenous Australian picture books.
Trish is a peer reviewer for the International Journal of Multicultural Edu-
cation. She is in the final stages of a PhD on spatial constructions of power
in contemporary Australian picture books that focus on asylum seekers, refu-
gees and migrants. Email: trish.lunt@deakin.edu.au
Chengxin Pan is a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sci-
ences and a member of the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation at Dea-
kin University. He has held visiting positions at the University of Melbourne,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Peking University,
and is on the editorial board of the International Relations Classics Series
(World Affairs Press, Beijing). His expertise is in politics and international
xii Contributors
relations, particularly in relation to China and Northeast Asia. His research
interests include theorising China’s rise and deconstructing Western repre-
sentations of China, especially in the American and Australian foreign policy
contexts. As exemplified by his book Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global
Politics, as well as in numerous journal articles and book chapters, his work
calls for dialogue and critical self-reflection on Western knowledge of China
as a means to improve cross-cultural literacies. Email: chengxin.pan@deakin.
edu.au
Fazal Rizvi is a professor in Global Studies in Education at the University
of Melbourne. He has written extensively on questions of racism and mul-
ticultural education, Australia-Asia relations, models of educational policy
research, theories of globalisation and international education and contem-
porary youth cultures. He is a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences
in Australia and a board member of the Asia Education Foundation. Email:
frizvi@unimelb.edu.au
Dianne Toe is the deputy head of the School of Education at Deakin Uni-
versity. Her background is in psychology and education. Dianne’s research
interests revolve around her work in initial teacher education (ITE), with a
view to supporting the development of reflective practitioners. She is cur-
rently exploring ways to support ITE students to integrate their under-
standing and knowledge of the three cross-curriculum priorities within the
Australian curriculum (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and
cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and sustainability). Her
research uses empirical methodologies to investigate educational outcomes
for children and young people learning in inclusive settings. Dianne is a
co-author of the DEEWR report Asia Literacy and the Australian Teaching
Workforce (Halse et al. 2013). She led the quantitative research methods on
this project, developing a statistically robust teacher and principal survey and
analysing the findings. Email: dtoe@deakin.edu.au
David Walker is Alfred Deakin Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin Uni-
versity. He is a leading cultural historian with a special interest in the history
of Australian representations of Asia. His influential book, Anxious Nation:
Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850 to 1939 (1999) won the Ernest Scott
Prize for History in 2001. He is co-editor with Agnieszka Sobocinska of
Australia’s Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century (2012). Asian themes
also appear in his recent book Not Dark Yet: A Personal History (2011). Pro-
fessor Walker is a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In February 2013 he took
up a new position as the inaugural BHP Billiton Chair of Australian Studies
at Peking University. Email: david.walker@deakin.edu.au
Michiko Weinmann is a lecturer in Languages Other than English and Co-
Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Languages (CTaLL) in
the School of Education, Deakin University. Her research focuses on the
 Contributors xiii
interface of language, culture and identity. Her specific interests are bilin-
gual and intercultural education, and the interplay of language, culture and
identity in popular media. She contributed to the 2013 national report Asia
Literacy and the Australian Teaching Workforce. Her current research inves-
tigates how Melbourne secondary teachers practise religious dimensions of
Asia literacy, and the interplay of investment and interculturality of inter-
national students in secondary schools. Email: michiko.weinmann@deakin.
edu.au
Rui Yang is Professor of Education at the University of Hong Kong. His aca-
demic career spans over 25 years in China, Australia and Hong Kong, with
a particular interest in cross-culturalism in education policy, higher educa-
tion and the sociology of education. He also has a track record in research
at the interface of Chinese and Western traditions in education. After nearly
a decade of teaching and research at Shantou University in Guangdong, he
received a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2001. Appearing mainly in
the primary journals and handbooks in higher education studies and com-
parative and international education, his publications continue to attract
international interest and comment. His current interest is focused on com-
parative and global studies in education policy and higher education inter-
nationalisation. Email: yangrui@hku.hk
Foreword

‘Asia literacy’ has attracted renewed attention in Australia since late 2012 and
the publication of the White Paper Australia in the Asian Century by the then
government. This policy paper emphasized the significance of enhancing Asia
literacy so as to ‘seize the opportunities that will flow from the Asian century’
and the implementation of the cross-curriculum priority area of ‘Asia and Aus-
tralia’s engagement with Asia’, as well as Asian languages education in Australian
schools.
An apparent problem with the notion of Asia literacy is an underlying
assumption that dichotomizes Asia and Australia and this has been the subject
of much criticism. However, Asia literacy is not something we should read-
ily dismiss or reject. Learning the languages of Asia and about the histories,
societies and cultures of various Asian countries, as well as advancing student
exchange programs, are welcome educational ambitions. All would contribute
greatly to the de-Westernization of knowledge formation and the cultivation
of a cosmopolitan worldview. It is because of this radical potential that Asia lit-
eracy does matter but that also makes critical interrogation necessary for achiev-
ing its full potential.
Yet what Asia-related learning means and how it might be taught and culti-
vated in schools is not a simple question if we seek to go beyond the hitherto
dominant polarity of Australia and Asia. Even though the idea of Asia literacy has
been discussed in Australia for at least fifty years, it is still a matter that is unre-
solved and the subject of argument. For these reasons, Asia Literate Schooling in
the Asian Century is a long-awaited book. It seriously tackles the core issues of Asia
literacy. From multilateral and inter-disciplinary perspectives, its thirteen chapters
comprehensively scrutinize the conceptual and operational problematics of Asia
literacy schooling, and present constructive ideas for moving forward by strongly
integrating critique with practicality.
Asia literacy represents a lingering and historically constituted Orientalist desire
to know and control the Asian Other in Australia. Conceived both as menace and
opportunity, ‘Asia’ has been the implicit, significant Other in the construction of
the Australian national identity and even discussing Asian literacy presumes and
reproduces a totalized understanding of ‘Asia’. Currently, the overt increase in
economic power of many Asian countries has foregrounded an instrumentalist
 Foreword xv
rationale for Australia to exploit to the maximum the opportunities of the Asian
century because, unlike other Western countries, Australia is luckily located adja-
cent to Asia. Hitherto, the dominant conception of Australia’s relationship with
Asia can be explicated in a double sense of ‘in but not of’. On the one hand, Aus-
tralia is geographically located on the periphery of the Asian (and Pacific) region,
and this gives Australia an advantage as well as a sense of threat. However, Great
Britain’s social and cultural legacy and Australia’s durable identification with the
West discourages the development of a sense of regional belonging because Asia
has always been clearly perceived as the demarcated Other.
The pursuit by governments of closer engagement with Asia in Australia has
often been accompanied by a reminder that ‘Australia is not, and can never be, an
Asian nation’, as Prime Minister Paul Keating stated in 1993, or that ‘Australia
does not need to choose between its history [and culture] and its geography’,
according to the 1997 Foreign Policy White Paper during John Howard’s prime
ministership. Yet, in addition to its economic partnerships, significant parts of
Australian society are dominated by the cultural influences of Asian countries and
the noticeable presence of migrants and diaspora from the region, even though
such ‘Asian’ presence is not generally conceived as part of Australian society.
Thus, the conception of ‘Australia being in but not of Asia’ works in tandem with
a conception of ‘Asia being in but not of Australia’. The interplay of both ‘in but
not of’ imaginations constructs an Asia-Australia binary that disregards the socio-
cultural diversity and complexity within both Asia and Australia.
The lack of attention to the internal diversity of the region and countries of
Asia, as well as their mutual contamination, highlights another lack – a lack of
knowledge about ‘Asia’ in the Australian discourse of Asia literacy. To take advan-
tage of the opportunities offered by ‘Asia’, as many chapters in Asia Literate
Schooling in the Asian Century eloquently tell readers, a lack of Asia literacy is to
be lamented and how this lack might be addressed has been a driving force of
Asia literacy policy discussions. Yet it is also unclear whether and in what sense
people in Australia and elsewhere are to be considered Asia illiterate. As this vol-
ume also discusses, it is questionable whether Asia literacy has been regarded as
a serious educational project given the substantial and continuing gap between
policy discussions and schooling. A lack of knowledge perceived as such is, it can
be argued, the sort of lack that can never be completely filled, or that even filling
this gap is actually considered a vital issue. Rather, the public attention on the
lack of literacy about Asia itself functions as a desiring machine that generates
the instrumentalist objectification of ‘Asia’. It masks the fundamental question of
the (im)possibility of knowing about ‘Asia’ to further suppress the complicated
reality of both the internal diversity within Asia and Australia and the existing
mutual engagements and cross-fertilizations between Australia and Asia.
A clearly demarcated dichotomy between Australia and Asia is conceptually and
epistemologically problematic. It also does not match the material realities and
mundane experiences of contemporary Australian society either, as has become
increasingly evident as a result of intensifying cross-border mobility and intercon-
nections as a result of the processes of globalization. This is why the discourse
xvi Foreword
of Asia literacy in the second decade of twenty-first century offers us the radical
potential to displace the ‘in but not of’ imagination that has deeply haunted the
project of Asia literacy. Mundane experiences testify to how people’s border-
crossing practices are constructing ‘Asia’ as part of everyday life in Australia –
physically, imaginatively and virtually. Already existing interconnections and
exchanges between Asian countries and Australia reveal that Australia is already
substantially situated as part of trans-Asian flows, networks and commons. This
necessitates the promotion of cross-regional conversations about globally shared
issues that include environmental risks, the violence of global capital, the rise of
various kinds of cultural nationalisms and jingoisms, migration and multicultural
questions. It thus requires us to pay more attention to a hitherto neglected issue
in the discourse of Asia literacy, namely critical engagement with the question
of multiculturalism within Australia. It is often pointed out that, being a mul-
ticultural society, the Australian populace is already Asia literate because of the
presence of so many migrants from Asian regions. Such a view tends to perceive
people with a heritage from Asian regions as useful human resources with which
to enhance Asia literacy in Australia. This is yet another instance of instrumental-
ism in the recognition of ‘Asia’ within Australia that merely keeps the dichoto-
mized conception of ‘us’ and ‘them’ intact.
In contrast, Asia literacy as a radial cosmopolitan project aspires to promote a
rethinking of hitherto dominant conceptions of self and (Asian) Other located
both inside and outside of Australia, and the entangled relationship between the
two. This does not just mean the expansion of knowledge of Asian histories, cul-
tures and societies or the acknowledgement of the presence of people with Asian
backgrounds and their contribution to Australia. We need to go beyond a pre-
defined framework of knowing about ‘us’ and ‘them’ and reflexively rethink why
and how ‘us’ has been perceived in a particular way that does not embrace ‘them’
as being with or part of ‘us’. Critical examination of the history of Asia literacy,
which has played an important role in the construction of exclusive national
identity in Australia, elucidates what is yet unknown about ‘us’ as well as about
‘them’. Asia literacy is inevitably a matter of Australia literacy.
The time has come to make Asia literacy a project that re-imagines Australia
in an inclusive way in terms of its mutual engagement with other Asian countries
and its own composition as a society. To pursue the radical potential of Asia liter-
acy, however, critical interrogation of conceptual and representational issues will
not suffice. It must be accompanied by social praxis that constructively translates
critical knowledge into the actual practices of schools and schooling in relation to
the curriculum, subject content, teacher training and professional learning. These
difficult pedagogical questions need to be tackled seriously if we are to critically
engage Asia literacy as an on-going innovative learning process. And this learning
process is not limited to school education; how to advance and associate it to a
wider social learning process is a further challenge ahead.
Thus, Asia Literate Schooling in the Asian Century is really groundbreaking. In
addition to its conceptual problematic of the history of the Asia literacy discourse,
this book critically examines the gap between policy discussions, implementation
 Foreword xvii
in schools and the challenge of teaching about ‘Asia and Australia’s engage-
ment with Asia’ in classrooms in an interrelated manner. Offering an historically
nuanced comprehensive examination of ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions about
Asia literacy in Australia, the thirteen chapters guide readers to ponder ways to
make the covert, complicated reality of Asian-Australian relationships extend
beyond the dominant conception of an Asia-Australia binary on which discussion
of Asia literacy has hitherto been founded and reproduced. By taking literacy as
social practice, as Christine Halse writes in the Introduction, this volume reminds
us that literacy is not just a matter of the acquisition of knowledge – no matter
how sophisticated and complicated – but is concerned, more significantly, with
leaning how to advance a reflexive and open dialogue with oneself, as well with
others, in an age of global interconnection. The critical and constructive insights
presented by all chapters of Asia Literate Schooling in the Asian Century have
universal relevance for the advancement of a locally, nationally and regionally
contextualized cosmopolitan outlook and praxis.
Professor Koichi Iwabuchi
Monash Asia Institute, Monash University,
Melbourne Australia
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
(Re)thinking Asia literacy
Christine Halse

This book addresses three fundamental questions confronting contemporary edu-

cation: What does Asia literacy schooling mean? Why is it important? How might
or ought schools do Asia literacy? While many of the chapters in this collection
draw on experiences in Australia, schools and schooling systems internationally
face similar concerns. The growing impact of globalisation and transnational migra-
tion, as well as the geo-political and geo-economic influence of countries in Asia,
has prompted political leaders, policy-makers, curriculum designers, school leaders,
teachers and communities to look to schools as key sites for developing ‘Asia liter-
ate’ and ‘globally competent’ citizens who have the capacities and capabilities to
live, work and interact in and with the peoples, cultures and societies of Asia.
This seemingly straightforward aspiration raises profound challenges because
Asia literacy has always been a deeply problematic idea, intellectually, politically
and in practical terms. In countries like Australia, for example, Asia literacy is con-
sidered a desirable but deficit national attribute and therefore a problem requir-
ing a policy solution. Yet any straightforward solution in relation to schooling has
been stymied by a messy entanglement of constantly changing ideologies, social,
cultural, economic and political conditions combined with the biographies of
different policy actors, thereby making Asia literacy schooling a ‘wicked policy
problem’ (see Christine Halse, Chapter 1).
How can schools and schooling systems navigate these complex social condi-
tions? In the era dubbed the ‘Asian Century’, this book takes up the timely and
necessary task of subjecting the concept, policy and practice of teaching Asia
literacy, to critical scrutiny and analysis. Its aims are to think anew about what
Asia literacy means in the 21st century and the implications for schooling and
the nurturing of productive, intercultural relations with societies, cultures and
peoples in/from/with Asia.

What is Asia literacy?

Yet even the title of this book is provocative because Asia literacy is a slippery
notion that:

. . . is ambiguous about what is meant by ‘Asia’: a location, a geographical for-

mation, or an ethnic, cultural, or a linguistic identity? It is ambiguous about
2 Christine Halse
the purposes and effects of Asia literacy: a means for facilitating intercultural/
cross-cultural understanding and communication; a strategy for building
regional and global harmony; a skill-set to enable the national workforce to
access the wealth and opportunities within Asia; a label that erases the diver-
sity within and across multiple cultures and societies into a single, homog-
enized entity; or a construct that differentiates ‘us’ from ‘them’ and thereby
perpetuates Orientalist notions of Asia as exotic, foreign, and ‘Other’ to
Australia?
(Halse, 2015)

Conflating ‘Asia’ with ‘literacy’ implies a specific meaning of literacy beyond

simplistic notions of the ability to comprehend, communicate and express oneself,
or the mastery of specific knowledge or skills. Rather, Asia literacy invokes a more
nuanced notion of literacy as social practice – a flexible group of skills, strategies,
and communication practices rooted in cultural knowledge that enables individu-
als to recognise and use modes of interaction appropriate to specific social and
cultural situations and contexts.
Its exact origins are shadowy but the term ‘Asia literacy’ was reportedly devel-
oped in 1988 during discussions within the Asian Studies Council in Australia
(FitzGerald 1997, p. 94). It made its first published appearance in the National
Strategy for the Study of Asia in Australia (1988), developed for the Asian Stud-
ies Council by a committee chaired by Dr Stephen FitzGerald, Australia’s first
Ambassador to Beijing. The National Strategy argued that ‘Asia-related skills’
should play:

. . . a central and proper role in the conduct of Australia’s economic, politi-

cal and strategic relations with its Asian neighbours by 2010. This would
necessitate that most Australians be ‘Asia literate’. By this we mean that Aus-
tralians have some understanding of Asian history, culture, geography and
economies, are comfortable with Asians in the work environment and that
knowledge of an Asian language is unexceptional.
(p. 32)

Although similar terms can be found around the world, the etymology of Asia
literacy testifies to its distinctly Australian origins. There are reasons for this.
Australia’s complex relationship with Asia is ingrained in the nation’s histori-
cal consciousness and imprinted on its present. On the one hand, Australia is
geographically located on the periphery of Asia but has a colonial past shaped by
British cultural, social and political traditions. These conditions have contributed
to a history of internal and external tension in relation to Asia and its peoples,
ranging from the anti-Asian race riots on the gold fields during the 1860s, the
White Australia policy during much of the 20th century through to contempo-
rary diplomatic strains around refugees fleeing in boats through Asia to Australia.
On the other hand, Australia’s political, economic and educational history has
been marked by policies designed to strengthen ties with countries in Asia, at the
 Introduction 3
same time as the demographic presence of Asia in the Australian population has
increased. Australia is a predominantly migrant nation, nearly 50% of Australia’s
population were born overseas or have at least one parent who was born overseas.
Of this group, 33% were born in Asia, with the majority of these born in China or
India. These dynamics have contributed to a national concern with Asia literacy
in school curriculum policy, although this has invariably been constrained to the
teaching and learning of Asian languages and studies of Asia. Nevertheless, Austra-
lia’s activity in Asia literacy schooling is internationally recognised. It was recently
noted in the report Canada’s Asia Challenge: Creating Competence for the Next
Generation of Canadians (Mulroney & De Silva 2013) that Australia ‘has been
experimenting with building Asia competence longer than any other comparable
country, and that it has developed the most comprehensive program for address-
ing the challenges of doing so’ (p. 25).
Asia literacy ‘is not an elegant term’ but it was coined to provide ‘an unthreat-
ening and accessible’ mode of communicating ‘the intellectual uses of the study of
Asia’ and how this was integral to the nation’s identity (FitzGerald 1997, p. 79).
The matter of national identity has been central to the shaping of relations with
Asia. David Walker (Chapter 2) demonstrates how these dynamics have played
out. Taking us through a broad sweep of Australian history, he illustrates how the
challenges of knowing Asia and Asia literacy have kindled questions about ‘the
character of the Australian people’ and the Australian nation. Further, these ques-
tions have changed – often dramatically – as each generation has rediscovered a
different Asia as it has reframed its understandings of Asia in terms of its own
local, domestic concerns and conditions.
Despite such challenges, the term ‘Asia literacy’ has survived the decades,
because it offers a convenient shorthand for the complex amalgam of knowl-
edges, skills and intercultural capacities involved in knowing, understanding and
interacting with the societies, cultures and peoples in/from/with Asia. Nev-
ertheless, words can be inadequate descriptors of complex ideas. One of the
limitations of ‘Asia literacy’, for instance, is that the term implies a false notion
of Asia as a constant, uniform geographical space unchanged by time. There is
no question that Asia is the world’s largest and most diverse continent. Bounded
by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south, Turkey to the
west, and stretching north to the Russian Federation and the Arctic Ocean, it
comprises 30% of the globe’s total land mass. It is connected to Africa by the
Isthmus of Suez and shares a border with Europe along the Ural Mountains and
the Caspian Sea.
Yet the boundaries of the Asian continent have never been fixed in stone or
frozen in time. Furthermore, within this geographically vast domain are a shifting
number of societies and nation-states, each with ethnically diverse populations,
and borders that change repeatedly as a result of military conquests, indepen-
dence movements, new political formations, and the migration of populations
due to war, famine and economic conditions. Both within and across these
nation-states are to be found histories, languages, religions, cultures, social con-
ditions, economies and modes of political, legal and social organisation that are
4 Christine Halse
as diverse as their geographical surroundings and that exist in a state of perpetual
reconfiguration as local and global conditions, interconnections and their inter-
actions also change.
Such diversity poses the question of ‘what’ is the Asia meant in the term Asia
literacy? In attending to this question the contributors to this book do not, of
course, limit their thinking to notions of geography. International travel, migra-
tion, the transnational flow of peoples and the swelling Asian diasporas around
the world, the global circulation of knowledge and ideas, customs, cultural arte-
facts, local national traditions and popular cultures, means that Asia is no lon-
ger ‘out there’ or ‘over there’ as a concrete, geographical space external to and
separate from our daily lives. In a multicultural, technologically interconnected,
global world, Asia is ubiquitous. It permeates our everyday lives in countless, and
often unnoticed ways. It is this dynamic that is referenced in the rubric in/from/
with Asia and the logic behind the contributions in this collection, in reimagining
and reconstituting Asia as a more complex idea and place.

Why the Asian Century?

The West has always been fascinated in and seduced by Asia, but also fearful of
it. Asia’s allure ignited and sustained the practices that Edward Said discusses in
Orientalism (1978): Western scholars’ appropriation of the languages, history
and culture of the Orient and their construction of its history and identity as
exotic, weak and inscrutable is in contrast to their constructions of the West as
normative, strong, rational, culturally and politically superior. Several contribu-
tors note the persistence of Orientalism in the history, politics and policy of Asia
literacy schooling, but Rui Yang (Chapter 3), presents a different perspective.
He describes the value system of Tianxia, the traditional Sinocentric worldview
where all-under-heaven is placed within in a centre/periphery relationship, and
traces how Tianxia has shaped the people of China’s shifting perceptions of them-
selves and the West throughout history. However, Tianxia has been challenged
by Western influence, particularly with respect to education. As modern develop-
ment has thrust China onto centre stage, it has produced battles for hegemony in
Chinese political and intellectual circles between ‘Western and Chinese cultures’,
resulting in ‘paradoxes in almost every major social domain’. As Rui Yang empha-
sises, such contradictions heighten the challenges for the West in articulating and
enacting Asia literacy schooling.
While the rhetoric of the ‘Asian Century’ implies that these challenges are
now urgent, the idea of the ‘Asian Century’ is not new. The term was first used
during the 15th and 16th centuries to describe Asia after the expansion of the
European spice trade into the region; it was used widely during the late 19th and
early 20th centuries to describe the growth and emergence of Japan on the world
stage (Wilkins 2010). It was during the 1980s however that the label ‘Asian
Century’ gained particular currency and traction. In 1985, for instance, a United
States Congress Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations reported
that trade across the Pacific had exceeded trade across the Atlantic and that Asia
 Introduction 5
leaders had begun ‘talking about a coming leap that would propel them into an
“Asian century”’ (USA Congress 1985, p. 541). Reporting on a meeting with
the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi at around the same time, the Chinese
leader Deng Xiaoping observed that ‘people have been saying that the next cen-
tury will be the century of Asia and the Pacific’ (Deng 1993, p. 281).

Why now?
Yet there are indeed persuasive reasons for regarding the 21st century as the
‘Asian Century’. In many respects the ‘global center of gravity’ (Wilkins 2010,
p. 382) has shifted to the transpacific region, and Asia in particular. In an era
where statistics equate to significance, the numbers speak loudly. The Asian con-
tinent is home to seven of the planet’s ten most populated countries, including
its most populous nations, China and India. It is also home to nearly two thirds
of the world’s population (4.3 billion people) and by 2050, the total popula-
tion of Asia is estimated to increase to more than five billion (Asia Development
Bank 2011).
Asia is also an economic powerhouse. Led by the seven economies of China,
India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, the Asia-Pacific is the
world’s largest trading region. In 2012, Asia managed 37% of the world’s mer-
chandise exports and 36% of the imports, surpassing Europe in size. Based on
current trends, it is estimated that in twenty years ‘Asia’s economy will be larger
than that of the United States and European Union combined’ (IMF 2011) and
‘will account for almost 53% of global GDP growth’ by 2050 (Asian Develop-
ment Bank 2011, p. 11). Assuming that this trajectory is sustained, the per capita
income in Asia will rise sixfold to be equivalent to that of Europe today (Asian
Development Bank 2011, p. 1). Because economic power generates geo-political
and military influence, Asia’s economic growth is reconfiguring regional and
global political, military and strategic relations and compelling other nations and
powers to come to terms with a changing world order.

Asia literacy beyond national self-interest?

Such developments have prompted nation-states to question and seek to address
their expertise and capacity to develop long-term relationships with Asia. In many
countries around the world, Asia literacy has a strong lineage and presence in
school curriculum policy. In the USA in 2010, for example, President Obama
launched ‘a national effort designed to increase dramatically the number and
diversify the composition of American students studying in China’ to 100,000
by the end of 2014 (USA Department of State 2014). This initiative builds on
the work of various organisations. For instance, since 1956, the Asia Society has
sought to promote ‘mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships’ (Asia
Society 2014) by building global leadership, global competence and competency-
based education, and by providing resources for teachers. Similarly, since its for-
mation in 1998, the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTASIA)
6 Christine Halse
has sought ‘to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in
elementary and secondary schools nationwide’ (NCTASIA 2014).
Canada recently established a formal ‘National Conversation on Asia’ to
develop a national economic strategy and to strengthen cultural and educational
ties with Asia (Barton, Roy & Simpson 2012). This initiative is supported by
a new National Centre on Contemporary Asia, with the intent to increase the
number of primary and secondary students participating in exchange programs,
in language immersion courses and in internships. At the same time, a national
policy statement has been published with a view to increasing Canada’s ‘Asia
capability’ by teaching ‘strategically important Asian languages’, incorporating
Asia content in the K-12 curriculum and promoting on-the-ground experience
in Asia through study abroad (Mulroney & De Silva 2013, p. 6).
In New Zealand, the national curriculum identifies ‘Asia Knowledge’ as a pri-
ority area ‘for integrated learning and as a context for the future-focused themes’
to help meet the nation’s third goal of education: to develop young people who
are knowledgeable, skilled and able ‘to compete successfully in the modern, ever-
changing world’ (Ministry of Education 2014). The New Zealand Ministry of
Education is developing support materials to help schools become more ‘Asia
aware’, to teach Mandarin language, and to up-skill teachers, building on twenty
years of work by the Asia New Zealand Foundation in ‘building New Zealanders’
knowledge and understanding of Asia’ and developing more ‘Asia-aware’ schools
and students (Asia New Zealand Foundation 2014).
Such initiatives are invariably seen as a ‘good thing’. However, as several con-
tributors observe, when Asia literacy is tied to the economic, political and stra-
tegic self-interests of individual nations, Asian societies tend to be represented
‘in terms of various stereotypes, whose differences from us must be understood,
managed and exploited’ and, in doing so, masks the powerful ‘possibilities of
intercultural relations’ (Rizvi, Chapter 4). Fazal Rizvi cautions against such
positioning because it reifies cultures into fixed and immutable opposites, and
demonstrates that today’s fluid, rapidly changing world carries a multiplicity of
intercultural connections that demand a new narrative for Asia literacy and Asia
literacy schooling.

Asia literacy and the teaching profession?

At the chalk-face, teachers carry the burden of navigating and developing any
new narrative of Asia literacy. In recognition of this social reality, several con-
tributors discuss what Asia literacy schooling means for teachers and the teaching
profession. Dianne Toe (Chapter 5), for instance, reports on the development,
and findings, of a national study of Asia literacy amongst Australian primary and
secondary school teachers. The study identified the key predictors of the ‘Asia
literate teacher’ as being not merely a deep knowledge of relevant content, peda-
gogy and teaching resources, but also generosity in sharing expertise with col-
leagues and the wider community. Amongst the other findings reported are the
importance of personal experience and connections in developing and identity as
 Introduction 7
an Asia literate teacher, for teachers of Asia languages are a significant ‘catalyst for
facilitating broad engagement with Asia in their schools’. However, only a minor-
ity of teachers do any Asia-related study during their initial teacher education –
this raises questions about the teaching profession’s preparedness for Asia literacy
in the Asian Century.
Julie Dyer (Chapter 6) extends the discussion of the role of personal expe-
rience in the formation of teachers’ understandings of Asia, and examines the
relationship between such learning and teaching practice. Drawing on case stud-
ies of two very different teachers in very different school settings, she illustrates
some of the complexities faced by teachers in gaining experience and confidence
in teaching Asia literacy. Such expertise intersects with the situatedness of the
school, and its relationship to teacher reflection and collegial dialogue in com-
munities of practice.
Ethics lies at the heart of all teaching practice, but especially when complex
intersections between culture, difference and identity are involved. Alex Kos-
togriz (Chapter 7) discusses the ethics of professional practice in relation to Asia
literacy and knowing the ‘Other’. He contextualises his discussion in relation
to the politics of economicism in educational policy and the standards-based
accountability of teachers. These dual trends, he argues, erase the possibility for
teachers to respond to the ethics of teaching Asia literacy. He proposes that an
ethics of hospitality is integral to ‘professional identity and good teaching’ in rela-
tion to Asia literacy schooling.

Asia literacy in/though the school curriculum?

The nature of the complexities involved in Asia literacy schooling suggests the
need for specific pedagogical practices. Three different contributors look at this
question, from different disciplinary perspectives. Bob Adamson (Chapter 8)
takes up the question of language learning. Countries like Australia have had lim-
ited success in improving the number and proficiency of students learning Asia
languages. China has had the same problem with English language learning, even
though English is increasingly required to access higher education, and for social
and economic mobility. In response, China has experimented with the use of
trilingual education, using different pedagogical approaches. Adamson describes
four models of trilingual education in four different settings, showing that the
experiences of China offer innovative insights that address the problem of foreign
language learning.
In many countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, a cross-
curricular approach to teaching Asia literacy is recommended. Yet, as Anne Cloonan
(Chapter 9) demonstrates, cross-curricular teaching is often poorly understood and
under-theorised. It involves a continuum of pedagogical strategies that even highly
motivated, knowledgeable and experienced teachers can struggle to implement.
She provides an overview of the theories and forms of cross-curricularity, and uses
a case approach to illustrate the complexity but also the contextual affordances of
implementing various cross-curricular approaches to Asia literacy.
8 Christine Halse
Pedagogical possibilities and idealistic curriculum goals can be thwarted by
teaching resources. Elizabeth Bullen and Trish Lunt (Chapter 10) are concerned
with the quality of narrative picture books about the peoples and countries of
Asia. Drawing on the theories and methods of literacy criticism, they analyse an
apparently innocuous children’s picture book about a cultural insider’s view of
Asia and Australia. They show how the pictorial language, the hidden assump-
tions and assertions, the very silences of the narrative work to consolidate, rather
than undermine, paternalistic and racialised stereotypes. They discuss the peda-
gogical strategies that teachers can use to facilitate Asia literacy even when con-
fronted with problematic texts and teaching resources.

Reimagining Asia literacy and schooling?

The various challenges inherent in current notions of Asia literacy and Asia lit-
eracy practice traversed in this collection, combined with the social reality of
a cosmopolitan, globalised world, provoke us to think anew about the ‘what’,
‘where’ and ‘how’ of Asia literacy schooling. The final three contributing authors
address these questions through a focus on the different arenas and formations
of community, on the implications for cultural identities and schooling practice.
Chengxin Pan (Chapter 13), for instance, shows how preunderstandings of Asia,
as an absence, threat or opportunity, have characterised and limited Australia’s
capacity to see and relate to Asia as a complex, heterogeneous place and idea. Such
preunderstandings, he argues, are inextricably entwined with Australia’s under-
standing of its own identity as simple, fixed and homogenous. He argues that a
stance of self-reflexivity is required to change the nation’s identity and psyche,
to make genuine Asia literacy schooling possible. One educational strategy for
accomplishing this goal, he proposes, is through different modes of engagement
with local Asian communities and Asian students.
Aaron Koh (Chapter 11) also considers the role of community, but in a very
different way. He presents the case for deparochialising the national imagina-
tion and its schooling by ‘looking in’ as well as ‘looking out’ to different Asian
communities, and by constructing new intercultural communities to erase the
historical divisions between cultures and nations. He proposes developing new
architectures for school curricula and illustrates how this might work through the
use of popular culture and new media platforms to create new politico-cultural
spaces, where young people can connect and realise an intercultural affinity by
working collaboratively on issues of shared social concern.
Michiko Weinmann (Chapter 12) agrees that defining communities in terms
of specific, pre-existing spatial or cultural identities perpetuates the dualism
between Asia and Australia, but extends the argument in new directions by draw-
ing on critical theories in geography. She proposes that ‘community’ needs to
be rethought as interconnected, intercultural spaces of social relations. School
curriculum, she argues, works against this agenda because its content and funda-
mental purpose is the construction and reproduction of the homogenous nation-
state. To overcome ways of teaching and learning about the Other constrained
 Introduction 9
by binaries and boundaries, she proposes that schools participate in new forms
of community engagement that assert the relationality and ‘glocal’ character of
communities, and that will develop new ‘Asiascapes’.

Conclusion
The authors of these chapters are all esteemed experts in their fields. Individu-
ally and collectively, they take a critical stance in examining the meaning, history,
practice and possibilities of Asia literacy schooling. While two of the chapters
focus particularly on China, the clear theme across the book is that ‘Asia’ is not
a synonym for a specific country or even a narrowly defined geographical area,
and that Asia literacy involves attending to the multiple imaginings and manifes-
tations of ‘Asia’ across time and space. Contributors bring different disciplinary
perspectives and lenses to this task and the important work of reframing our
understanding of how schooling can engage with the peoples, cultures and soci-
eties in/from/with Asia, and what must be done for schooling to contribute to
the multi-faceted, elusive educational ideal of Asia literacy in an ‘Asian Century’.
They share the common agenda of broadening cultural and intellectual horizons,
and their thinking and writing provides a vital contribution to the broadening
conversation about the place of intercultural relations in the future of schooling
internationally, in today’s global world.

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2014, <http://asia-knowledge.tki.org.nz/>.
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Another random document with
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which overpass the bounds of instinct, and approach closely to those
of reason.
From its scent and by its quick strong vision the bear apprehends
the position of the seal. Then it throws itself prone upon the ice, and
profiting by inequalities which are invisible to human eyes, gradually
steals upon its destined victim by a soft and scarcely perceptible
movement of the hind feet. To hide its black muzzle, it constantly
uses its fore feet; and thus, only the dingy white of its coat being
visible, it is scarcely to be distinguished from the general mass of the
floe. Patiently it draws nearer and nearer; the seal, mistaking it for
one of its own congeners, or else yielding to a fatal curiosity,
delaying until its assailant, with one spring, is upon it.
Yet, as the old adage says, there is many a slip; and even in
these circumstances the bear does not always secure its feast. It is
disappointed sometimes just as the prey seems within its grasp; and
how keen the disappointment is can be appreciated only, we are
told, by hapless Arctic travellers, “who have been hours crawling up,
dreaming of delicious seal’s fry and overflowing fuel bags, and seen
the prey pop down a hole when within a hundred yards of it.” The
great muscular power of the seal frequently enables it to fling itself
into the water in spite of the bear’s efforts to hold it on the floe; Bruin,
however, retains his grip, for his diving powers are not much inferior
to those of the seal, and down they go together! Sometimes the bear
proves victorious, owing to mortal injuries inflicted upon the seal
before it reaches the water; sometimes it may be seen reappearing
at another hole in the floe, or clambering up another loose piece of
ice, apparently much mortified by its want of success.
 BEAR CATCHING A SEAL.
As we have said, the bear dives well, and is nearly as much at
home in the water as upon the ice. If it catches sight of a seal upon a
drifting floe, it will slide quietly into the sea, swim with only the tip of
its nose above the water, and, diving under the floe, reach the very
spot which the hapless seal has regarded as an oasis of safety. It is
this stratagem of its enemy which has taught the seal to watch its
hole so warily. Even on extensive ice-fields fast to the land, where
the bear cannot conceal its approach by taking advantage of
hummocks or other inequalities, the seal is not safe; for then Bruin
drops down a hole, and swims along under the ice-crust until it
reaches the one where the poor seal is all unwittingly enjoying its
last rays of sunshine.
The bear’s season of plenty begins with the coming of the spring.
In February and March the seal is giving birth to her young, who are
born blind and helpless, and for ten days are unable to take to the
water. The poor mothers use every effort to protect them, but, in
spite of their affectionate exertions, a perfect massacre of the
innocents takes place, in which, not improbably, the Arctic wolf is not
less guilty than the Arctic bear.
Voracity, however, frequently proves its own Nemesis, and the
bear, in its eager pursuit of prey, often involves itself in serious
disaster. The seal instinctively breeds as close as possible to the
open water. But the ice-floes, during the early equinoctial gales, will
sometimes break up and drift away in the form of pack-ice; a matter
of indifference, says Osborn, to the seal, but a question of life and
death to the bear. Borne afar on their little islets of ice, rocked by
tempestuous waters, buffeted by icy gales, numbers of these
castaways are lost along the whole area of the Polar Sea. It is said
that when the gales blow down from the north, bears are sometimes
stranded in such numbers on the shores of Iceland as to endanger
the safety of the flocks and herds of the Icelandic peasants; and they
have been known to reach the coasts of Norway.
Bears drifting about at a considerable distance from the land are
often enough seen by the whalers. They have been discovered fully
sixty miles from shore, in Davis Strait, without any ice in sight, and
utterly exhausted by long swimming. It is thus that Nature checks
their too rapid increase; for beyond the possibility of the wolf hunting
it in packs and destroying the cubs, there seems no other limitation
of their numbers. The Eskimos are too few, and too badly provided
with weapons, to slaughter them very extensively. Wherever seals
abound, so do bears; in Barrow Strait and in the Queen’s Channel
they have been seen in very numerous troops. The Danes assert
that they are plentiful about the northern settlement of Upernavik in
Greenland, for nine months in the year; and from the united
testimony of the natives inhabiting the north-eastern portion of Baffin
Bay, and that of Dr. Kane, who wintered in Smith Sound, it is evident
that they are plentiful about the polynias, or open pools, formed there
by the action of the tides.
In the summer months, when the bear is loaded with fat, it is
easily hunted down, for then it can neither move swiftly nor run long;
but in deep winter its voracity and its great strength render it a
formidable enemy to uncivilized and unarmed man. Usually it avoids
coming into contact with our British seamen, though instances are on
record of fiercely contested engagements, in which Bruin has with
difficulty been defeated.
It is folly, says Sherard Osborn, to talk of the Polar bear
hibernating: whatever bears may do on the American continent,
there is only one Arctic navigator who ever saw a bear’s nest! Bears
were seen at all points visited by our sailors in the course of
M’Clure’s expedition; at all times and in all temperatures; males or
females, and sometimes females with their cubs. In mid-winter, as
well as in midsummer, they evidently frequented spots where tides or
currents occasioned either water to constantly exist, or only allowed
such a thin coating of ice to form that the seal or walrus could easily
break through.
That the Polar bear does not willingly attack man, except when
hotly pursued or when suffering from extreme want, is asserted by
several good authorities, and confirmed by an experience which Dr.
Hayes relates. He was strolling one day along the shore, and
observing with much interest the effect of the recent spring-tides
upon the ice-foot, when, rounding a point of land, he suddenly found
himself confronted in the full moonlight by an enormous bear. It had
just sprung down from the land-ice, and met Dr. Hayes at full trot, so
that they caught sight of each other, man and brute, at the same
moment. Being without a rifle or other means of defence, Dr. Hayes
suddenly wheeled towards his ship, with much the same reflections,
probably, about discretion and valour as occurred to old Jack Falstaff
when the Douglas set upon him; but discovering, after a few lengthy
strides, that he was not “gobbled up,” he looked back over his
shoulder, when, to his gratification as well as surprise, he saw the
bear speeding towards the open water with a celerity which left no
doubt as to the state of its mind. It would be difficult to determine
which, on this occasion, was the more frightened, the bear or Dr.
Hayes!

A curious illustration of the combined voracity and epicureanism

of Bruin is recorded by Dr. Kane. A cache, or depôt of provisions,
which had been constructed by one of his exploring parties with
great care, and was intended to supply them with stores on their
return journey, they found completely destroyed. It had been built,
with every possible precaution, of rocks brought together by heavy
labour, and adjusted in the most skilful manner. So far as the means
of the builders permitted, the entire construction was most effective
and resisting. Yet these “tigers of the ice” seemed to have scarcely
encountered an obstacle. Not a morsel of pemmican (preserved
meat) remained, except in the iron cases, which, being round, with
conical ends, defied both claw and teeth. These they had rolled and
pawed in every direction,—tossing them about like footballs,
although upwards of eighty pounds in weight. An alcohol-case,
strongly iron-bound, was dashed into small fragments; and a tin can
of liquor twisted almost into a ball. The bears’ strong claws had
perforated the metal, and torn it up as with a chisel.
 BEARS DESTROYING A CACHE.
But the burglars were too dainty for salt meats. For ground coffee
they had evidently a relish; old canvas was also a favourite,—de
gustibus non est disputandum; even the flag which had been reared
“to take possession” of the icy wilderness, was gnawed down to the
very staff. It seemed that the bears had enjoyed a regular frolic;
rolling the bread-barrels over the ice-foot and into the broken outside
ice; and finding themselves unable to masticate the heavy India-
rubber cloth, they had amused themselves by tying it up in
unimaginable hard knots.

The she-bear displays a strong affection for her young, which she
will not desert even in the extremity of peril. The explorer already
quoted furnishes an interesting narrative of a pursuit of mother and
cub, in which the former’s maternal qualities were touchingly
exhibited.
On the appearance of the hunting party and their dogs, the bear
fled; but the little one being unable either to keep ahead of the dogs
or to maintain the same rate of speed as its mother, the latter turned
back, and, putting her head under its haunches, threw it some
distance forward. The cub being thus safe for the moment, she
would wheel round and face the dogs, so as to give it a chance to
run away; but it always stopped where it had alighted, until its mother
came up, and gave it another forward impulse; it seemed to expect
her aid, and would not go forward without it. Sometimes the mother
would run a few yards in advance, as if to coax her cub up to her,
and when the dogs approached she would turn fiercely upon them,
and drive them back. Then, as they dodged her blows, she would
rejoin the cub, and push it on,—sometimes putting her head under it,
sometimes seizing it in her mouth by the nape of its neck.

FIGHT WITH A WHITE BEAR.

 For some time she conducted her retreat with equal skill and
celerity, leaving the two hunters far in the rear. They had sighted her
on the land-ice; but she led the dogs in-shore, up a small stony
valley which penetrated into the interior. After going a mile and a
half, however, her pace slackened, and, the little one being spent,
she soon came to a halt, evidently determined not to desert it.
At this moment the men were only half a mile behind; and,
running at full speed, they soon reached the spot where the dogs
were holding her at bay. The fight then grew desperate. The mother
never moved more than two yards ahead, constantly and
affectionately looking at her cub. When the dogs drew near, she sat
upon her haunches, and taking the little one between her hind legs,
she fought her assailants with her paws, roaring so loudly that she
could have been heard a mile off. She would stretch her neck and
snap desperately at the nearest dog with her shining teeth, whirling
her paws like the sails of a windmill. If she missed her aim, not
daring to pursue one dog lest the others should pounce upon her
cub, she uttered a deep howl of baffled rage, and on she went,
pawing and snapping, and facing the ring, grinning at them with
wide-opened jaws.
When the hunters came up, the little one apparently had
recovered its strength a little, for it was able to turn round with its
dam, however quickly she moved, so as always to keep in front of
her belly. Meantime the dogs were actively jumping about the she-
bear, tormenting her like so many gadflies; indeed, it was difficult to
fire at her without running the risk of killing the dogs. But Hans, one
of the hunters, resting on his elbow, took a quiet, steady aim, and
shot her through the head. She dropped at once, and rolled over
dead, without moving a muscle.
Immediately the dogs sprang towards her; but the cub jumped
upon her body and reared up, for the first time growling hoarsely.
They seemed quite afraid of the little creature, she fought so actively,
and made so much noise; and, while tearing mouthfuls of hair from
the dead mother, they would spring aside the minute the cub turned
towards them. The men drove the dogs off for a time, but were
compelled to shoot the cub at last, as she would not quit the body.
 A still more stirring episode is recorded by Dr. Kane, which will
fitly conclude our account of the Polar bear.
“Nannook! nannook!” (A bear! a bear!) With this welcome shout,
Hans and Morton, two of his attendants, roused Dr. Kane one fine
Saturday morning.
To the scandal of his domestic regulations, the guns were all
impracticable. While the men were loading and capping anew, Dr.
Kane seized his pillow-companion six-shooter, and ran on deck, to
discover a medium-sized bear, with a four-months’ cub, in active
warfare with the dogs. They were hanging on her skirts, and she,
with remarkable alertness, was picking out one victim after another,
snatching him by the nape of the neck, and flinging him many feet, or
rather yards, by a scarcely perceptible movement of her head.
Tudea, the best dog, was already hors de combat; he had been
tossed twice. Jenny, another of the pack, made an extraordinary
somerset of nearly fifty feet, and alighted senseless. Old Whitey, a
veteran combatant, stanch, but not “bear-wise,” had been foremost
in the battle; soon he lay yelping, helplessly, on the snow.
It seemed as if the battle were at an end; and nannook certainly
thought so, for she turned aside to the beef-barrels, and began with
the utmost composure to turn them over, and nose out their fatness.
A bear more innocent of fear does not figure in the old, old stories of
Barents and the Spitzbergen explorers.
Dr. Kane now lodged a pistol-ball in the side of the cub. At once
the mother placed her little one between her hind legs, and, shoving
it along, made her way to the rear of the store or “beef-house.” As
she went she received a rifle-shot, but scarcely seemed to notice it.
By the unaided efforts of her fore arms she tore down the barrels of
frozen beef which made the triple walls of the store-house, mounted
the rubbish, and snatching up a half barrel of herrings, carried it
down in her teeth, and prepared to slip away. It was obviously time to
arrest her movements. Going up within half pistol-range, Dr. Kane
gave her six buck-shot. She dropped, but instantly rose, and getting
her cub into its former position, away she sped!
And this time she would undoubtedly have effected her escape,
but for the admirable tactics of Dr. Kane’s canine Eskimo allies. The
Smith Sound dogs, he says, are educated more thoroughly than any
of their more southern brethren. Next to the seal and the walrus, the
bear supplies the staple diet of the tribes of the North, and, except
the fox, furnishes the most important element of their wardrobe.
Unlike the dogs Dr. Kane had brought with him from Baffin Bay, the
Smith Sound dogs were trained, not to attack, but to embarrass.
They revolved in circles round the perplexed bear, and when
pursued would keep ahead with regulated gait, their comrades
accomplishing a diversion at the critical moment by a nip at the
nannook’s hind-quarters. This was done in the most systematic
manner possible, and with a truly wonderful composure. “I have seen
bear-dogs elsewhere,” says Dr. Kane, “that had been drilled to
relieve each other in the mêlée, and avoid the direct assault; but
here, two dogs, without even a demonstration of attack, would put
themselves before the path of the animal, and retreating right and
left, lead him into a profitless pursuit that checked his advance
completely.”
The unfortunate animal was still fighting, and still retreating,
embarrassed by the dogs, yet affectionately carrying along her
wounded cub, and though wounded, bleeding, and fatigued, gaining
ground upon her pursuers, when Hans and Dr. Kane secured the
victory, such as it was, for their own side, by delivering a couple of
rifle-balls. She staggered in front of her young one, confronted her
assailants in death-like defiance, and did not sink until pierced by six
more bullets.
When her body was skinned, no fewer than nine balls were
discovered. She proved to be of medium size, very lean, and without
a particle of food in her stomach. Hunger, probably, had stimulated
her courage to desperation. The net weight of the cleansed carcass
was 300 pounds; that of the entire animal, 650 pounds; her length,
only 7 feet 8 inches.
 It is said that bears in this lean condition are more palatable and
wholesome than when fat; and that the impregnation of fatty oil
through the cellular tissues makes a well-fed bear nearly uneatable.
The flesh of a famished beast, though less nutritious as body-fuel or
as a stimulating diet, is rather sweet and tender than otherwise.
Moral: starve your bear before you eat him!
The little cub was larger than the qualifying adjective would imply.
She was taller than a dog, and her weight 114 lbs. She sprang upon
the corpse of her slaughtered mother, and rent the air with woful
lamentations. All efforts to noose her she repelled with singular
ferocity; but at last, being completely muzzled with a line fastened by
a running knot between her jaws and the back of her head, she was
dragged off to the brig amid the uproar of the dogs.
Dr. Kane asserts that during this fight, and the compulsory
somersets which it involved, not a dog suffered seriously. He
expected, from his knowledge of the hugging propensity of the
plantigrades, that the animal would rear, or it she did not rear, would
at least use her fore arms; but she invariably seized the dogs with
her teeth, and after disposing of them for a time, refrained from
following up her advantage,—probably because she had her cub to
take care of. The Eskimos state that this is the habit of the hunted
bear. One of the Smith Sound dogs made no exertion whatever
when he was seized, but allowed himself to be flung, with all his
muscles relaxed, a really fearful distance; the next instant he rose
and renewed the attack. According to the Eskimos, the dogs soon
learn this “possum-playing” habit.
It would seem that the higher the latitude, the more ferocious the
bear, or that he increases in ferocity as he recedes from the usual
hunting-fields.
At Oominak, one winter day, an Eskimo and his son were nearly
killed by a bear that had housed himself in an iceberg. They attacked
him with the lance, but he boldly turned on them, and handled them
severely before they could make their escape.
The continued hostility of man, however, has had, in Dr. Kane’s
opinion, a modifying influence upon the ursine character in South
Greenland; at all events, the bears of that region never attack, and
even in self-defence seldom inflict injury upon, the hunters. Many
instances have occurred where they have defended themselves, and
even charged after having been wounded, but in none of them was
life lost.
A stout Eskimo, an assistant to a Danish cooper of Upernavik,
fired at a she-bear, and the animal closed at the instant of receiving
the ball. The man had the presence of mind to fling himself prone on
the ground, extending his arm to protect his head, and afterwards
lying perfectly motionless. The beast was deceived. She gave the
arm a bite or two, but finding her enemy did not stir, she retired a few
paces, and sat upon her haunches to watch. But her watch was not
as wary as it should have been, for the hunter dexterously reloaded
his rifle, and slew her with the second shot.

It has been pointed out that in approaching the bear the hunters
should take advantage of the cover afforded by the inequalities of
the frozen surface, such as its ridges and hillocks. These vary in
height, from ten feet to a hundred, and frequently are packed so
closely together as to leave scarcely a yard of level surface. It is in
such a region that the Polar bear exhibits his utmost speed, and in
such a region his pursuit is attended with no slight difficulty.

And after the day’s labour comes the night’s rest; but what a
night! We know what night is in these temperate climes, or in the
genial southern lands; a night of stars, with a deep blue sky
overspreading the happy earth like a dome of sapphire: a night of
brightness and serene glory, when the moon is high in the heaven,
and its soft radiance seems to touch tree and stream, hill and vale,
with a tint of silver; a night of storm, when the clouds hang low and
heavily, and the rain descends, and a wailing rushing wind loses
itself in the recesses of the shuddering woods; we know what night
is, in these temperate regions, under all its various aspects,—now
mild and beautiful, now gloomy and sad, now grand and
tempestuous; the long dark night of winter with its frosty airs, and its
drooping shadows thrown back by the dead surface of the snow; the
brief bright night of summer, which forms so short a pause between
the evening of one day and the morning of another, that it seems
intended only to afford the busy earth a breathing-time;—but we can
form no idea of what an Arctic Night is, in all its mystery,
magnificence, and wonder. Strange stars light up the heavens; the
forms of earth are strange; all is unfamiliar, and almost unintelligible.
 STALKING A BEAR.
It is not that the Arctic night makes a heavy demand on our
physical faculties. Against its rigour man is able to defend himself;
but it is less easy to provide against its strain on the moral and
intellectual faculties. The darkness which clothes Nature for so long
a period reveals to the senses of the European explorer what is
virtually a new world, and the senses do not well adapt themselves
to that world. The cheering influences of the rising sun, which invite
to labour; the soothing influences of the evening twilight, which
beguile to rest; that quick change from day to night, and night to day,
which so lightens the burden of existence in our temperate clime to
mind and soul and body, kindling the hope and renewing the
courage,—all these are wanting in the Polar world, and man suffers
and languishes accordingly. The grandeur of Nature, says Dr. Hayes,
ceases to give delight to the dulled sympathies, and the heart longs
continually for new associations, new hopes, new objects, new
sources of interest and pleasure. The solitude is so dark and drear
as to oppress the understanding; the imagination is haunted by the
desolation which everywhere prevails; and the silence is so absolute
as to become a terror.
The lover of Nature will, of course, find much that is attractive in
the Arctic night; in the mysterious coruscations of the aurora, in the
flow of the moonlight over the hills and icebergs, in the keen
clearness of the starlight, in the sublimity of the mountains and the
glaciers, in the awful wildness of the storms; but it must be owned
that they speak a language which is rough, rugged, and severe.
All things seem built up on a colossal scale in the Arctic world.
Colossal are those dark and tempest-beaten cliffs which oppose
their grim rampart to the ceaseless roll and rush of the ice-clad
waters. Colossal are those mountain-peaks which raise their crests,
white with unnumbered winters, into the very heavens. Colossal are
those huge ice-rivers, those glaciers, which, born long ago in the
depths of the far-off valleys, have gradually moved their ponderous
masses down to the ocean’s brink. Colossal are those floating
islands of ice, which, outrivalling the puny architecture of man, his
temples, palaces, and pyramids, drift away into the wide waste of
waters, as if abandoned by the Hand that called them into existence.
Colossal is that vast sheet of frozen, frosty snow, shimmering with a
crystalline lustre, which covers the icy plains for countless leagues,
and stretches away, perhaps, to the very border of the sea that is
supposed to encircle the unattained Pole.
In Dr. Hayes’ account of his voyage of discovery towards the
North Pole occurs a fine passage descriptive of the various phases
of the Arctic night. “I have gone out often,” he says, “into its
darkness, and viewed Nature under different aspects. I have rejoiced
with her in her strength, and communed with her in her repose. I
have seen the wild burst of her anger, have watched her sportive
play, and have beheld her robed in silence. I have walked abroad in
the darkness when the winds were roaring through the hills and
crashing over the plain. I have strolled along the beach when the
only sound that broke the stillness was the dull creaking of the ice-
floes, as they rose and fell lazily with the tide. I have wandered far
out upon the frozen sea, and listened to the voice of the icebergs
bewailing their imprisonment; along the glacier, where forms and
falls the avalanche; upon the hill-top, where the drifting snow,
coursing over the rocks, sung its plaintive song; and again, I have
wandered away to some distant valley where all these sounds were
hushed, and the air was still and solemn as the tomb.”
Whoever has been overtaken by a winter night, when crossing
some snowy plain, or making his way over the hills and through the
valleys, in the deep drifts, and with the icicles pendent from the
leafless boughs, and the white mantle overspreading every object
dimly discernible in the darkness, will have felt the awe and mystery
of the silence that then and there prevails. Both the sky above and
the earth beneath reveal only an endless and unfathomable quiet.
This, too, is the peculiar characteristic of the Arctic night. Evidence
there is none of life or motion. No footfall of living thing breaks on the
longing ear. No cry of bird enlivens the scene; there is no tree,
among the branches of which the wind may sigh and moan. And
hence it is that one who had travelled much, and seen many
dangers, and witnessed Nature in many phases, was led to say that
he had seen no expression on the face of Nature so filled with terror
as the silence of the Arctic night.
But by degrees the darkness grows less intense, and the coming
of the day is announced by the prevalence of a kind of twilight, which
increases more and more rapidly as winter passes into spring. There
are signs that Nature is awakening once more to life and motion. The
foxes come out upon the hill side, both blue and white, and gallop
hither and thither in search of food,—following in the track of the
bear, to feed on the refuse which the “tiger of the ice” throws aside.
The walrus and the seal come more frequently to land; and the latter
begins to assemble on the ice-floes, and select its breeding-places.
At length, early in February, broad daylight comes at noon, and then
the weary explorer rejoices to know that the end is near. Flocks of
speckled birds arrive, and shelter themselves under the lee of the
shore; chiefly dove-kies, as they are called in Southern Greenland—
the Uria grylle of the naturalist. At last, on the 18th or 19th of
February, the sun once more makes its appearance above the
southern horizon, and is welcomed as one welcomes a friend who
has been long lost, and is found again. Upon the crests of the hills
light clouds are floating lazily, and through these the glorious orb is
pouring a stream of golden fire, and all the southern sky quivers, as
it were, with the shooting, shifting splendours of the coming day.
Presently a soft bright ray breaks through the vaporous haze,
kindling it into a purple sea, and touches the silvery summits of the
lofty icebergs until they seem like domes and pinnacles of flame.
Nearer and nearer comes that auspicious ray, and widens as it
comes; and that purple sea enlarges in every direction; and those
domes and pinnacles of flame multiply in quick succession as they
feel the passage of the quickening light; and the dark red cliffs are
warmed with an indescribable glow; and a mysterious change
passes over the face of the ocean; and all Nature acknowledges the
presence of the sun!
“The parent of light and life everywhere,” says Dr. Hayes, “he is
the same within these solitudes. The germ awaits him here as in the
Orient; but there it rests only through the short hours of a summer
night, while here it reposes for months under a sheet of snows. But
after a while the bright sun will tear this sheet asunder, and will
tumble it in gushing fountains to the sea, and will kiss the cold earth,
and give it warmth and life; and the flowers will bud and bloom, and
will turn their tiny faces smilingly and gratefully up to him, as he
wanders over these ancient hills in the long summer. The very
glaciers will weep tears of joy at his coming. The ice will loose its iron
grip upon the waters, and will let the wild waves play in freedom. The
reindeer will skip gleefully over the mountains to welcome his return,
and will look longingly to him for the green pastures. The sea-fowls,
knowing that he will give them a resting-place for their feet on the
rocky islands, will come to seek the moss-beds which he spreads for
their nests; and the sparrows will come on his life-giving rays, and
will sing their love-songs through the endless day.”
With the sun return the Arctic birds, and before we quit the realm
of waters we propose to glance at a few of those which frequent the
cliffs and shores during the brief Polar summer.
 Among the first-comers is the dove-kie or black guillemot (Uria
grylle), which migrates to the temperate climates on the approach of
winter, visiting Labrador, Norway, Scotland, and even descending as
far south as Yorkshire. In fact, we know of no better place where to
observe its habits than along the immense range of perpendicular
cliffs stretching from Flamborough Head to Filey Bay. Here, on the
bare ledges of this colossal ocean-wall, the guillemot lays its eggs,
but without the protection of a nest; some of them parallel with the
edge of the shelf, others nearly so, and others with their blunt and
sharp ends indiscriminately pointing to the sea. They are not affixed
to the rock by any glutinous matter, or any foreign substance
whatever. You may see as many as nine or ten, or sometimes
twelve, old guillemots in a line, so near to each other that their wings
almost touch. The eggs vary greatly in size and shape and colour.
Some are large, others small; some exceedingly sharp at one end,
others rotund and globular. It is said that, if undisturbed, the
guillemot never lays more than one egg; but if that be taken away,
she will lay another, and so on. But Audubon asserts that he has
seen these birds sitting on as many as three eggs at a time.
 SEA-BIRDS IN THE POLAR REGIONS.
The black guillemot differs from the foolish guillemot (Uria troile)
only in the colour of its plumage, which, with the exception of a large
white patch on the coverts of each wing, is black, silky, and glossy;
the feathers appearing to be all unwebbed, like silky filaments or fine
hair. The bill, in all the species, is slender, strong, and pointed; the
upper mandible bending slightly near the end, and the base covered
with soft short feathers. The food of the guillemot consists of fish and
other marine products.

The Alcidæ, or auks, are also included amongst the Arctic birds.
The little auk (Arctica alca) frequents the countries stretching
northwards from our latitudes to the regions of perpetual ice, and is
found in the Polar Regions both of the Old World and the New. Here,
indeed, they congregate in almost innumerable flocks. At early morn
they sally forth to get their breakfast, which consists of different
varieties of marine invertebrates, chiefly crustaceans, with which the
Arctic waters teem. Then they return to the shore in immense
swarms. It would be impossible, says an Arctic voyager, to convey
an adequate idea of the numbers of these birds which swarmed
around him. The slope on both sides of the valley in which he had
pitched his camp rose at an angle of about forty-five degrees to a
distance of from 300 to 500 feet, where it met the cliffs, which stood
about 700 feet higher. These hill-sides are composed of the loose
rocks detached from the cliffs by the action of the frost. The birds
crawl among these rocks, winding far in through narrow places, and
there deposit their eggs and hatch their young, secure from their
great enemy, the Arctic fox.