Resources

Objective: Students gain an appreciation and understanding of art and culture, and build language skills by reading; developing scripts; making choices about gesture, voice, and expression; and performing traditional stories alongside art objects in the Asian Art Museum’s collection galleries.

Duration: One class period over the course of 1 week

The region bordering the Yellow River, which runs more than 3,400 miles from the Himalayan Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, has long been considered the cradle of Chinese civilization. These vast, fertile plains encouraged the rise of agriculture and the development of neolithic cultures (New Stone Age, roughly 6000-2000 BCE). Archeological discoveries made over the past few decades have revealed that early societies also flourished to the south, along the Yangzi River, as well as sites in the far northeast. These finds indicate that Chinese civilization arose through the gradual blending of several regional cultures.

The Himalayas are the highest mountain ranges in the world, and from them flow the major rivers of Asia. Learn more.

Only in the past sixty years has “Southeast Asia” been used to refer to the region comprising modern-day Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines. Learn more.

Iran’s rich history stretches back to about 8000 BCE, when the first settlements appeared in western Iran and the Caspian sea. 

Students demonstrate mastery of narrative content and develop vocabulary by supplying words deleted from a text of “The Monkey King” story and through an expository writing activity summarizing the “Monkey King” story. Includes a shadow puppet extension activity.

The Arabic saying, “Purity of writing is purity of the soul” vividly describes the status of the master calligrapher in Islamic society. It was believed that only a person of spiritual devotion and clear thought could achieve the skill required for this supreme art.