I am delighted to share the inaugural open-access, online-only issue of Education About Asia with you!
This issue includes a special section on Japanese monsters/yōkai in addition to several non-thematic feature articles, teaching resources, and new multimedia content.
As part of our increased emphasis on practical materials immediately applicable to classroom use, you will find a pedagogical resource component—such as lesson plans, suggestions for class activities, and assessment strategies—included in almost all the feature and resource articles. In addition, many authors have included short videos introducing themselves and their articles. It is our hope that these videos will help readers recognize and connect with human content experts in an age where AI-generated information from uncertain sources and of uncertain quality proliferates. For an outline of my vision for the future direction of Education About Asia, please see my initial Editor’s Message from July 2025.
Due to the abundance of content and announcements in this issue, I am breaking this message into sections.
Feature Articles & Teaching Resources
The special section begins with “Monster Pedagogy: Sources and Strategies for Unleashing Yōkai in Your Classroom,” in which Mindy Landeck shares her masterfully designed creative assignments that harness the contemporary cultural fascination with yōkai to engage students (and boost enrollment!). This resource also includes a bibliography of recommended scholarly and creative resources on Japanese monsters and folklore for classroom use.
In our first feature article, “Teaching Gojira: Godzilla in Japanese History, Folklore, Culture, and Film,” leading academic expert and superfan, William M. Tsutsui, provides an introductory overview of the Godzilla film franchise, situating each film in its unique context of global politics and nuclear traumas. This article also includes five spectacular lesson plans for introducing Godzilla in the classroom, each complete with objectives, discussion questions, materials, and a bibliography of instructor resources.
Next, Michael Dylan Foster brings his extensive expertise and ethnographic research to bear in his feature article, “Folklore, Popular Culture, and Hometown Yōkai in the Twenty-First Century.” A fantastic overview to assign as required reading for secondary or postsecondary students, this article introduces yōkai to non-specialist readers and explores what they can teach us about the distinction between “folklore” and “popular culture.”
The next two articles trace the cultural representation of yōkai from medieval to contemporary Japan. Ann Marie Davis’s “From Bestiaries to Pokédexes: Ordering the Otherworldly in Japan’s Monster Traditions” illuminates how yōkai have been reimagined to meet shifting cultural demands across time, while popular writer and translator Zack Davisson emphasizes how artistic stewards of yōkai have flexibly adapted to new storytelling media in “The Persistence of Yōkai.”
The final two articles in the special section analyze the appearance of Japanese monsters and yōkai in contemporary multimedia representations. Rachael Hutchinson’s “Japanese Monsters and Yōkai in Videogames” provides an overview of monsters that appear in popular game franchises, illuminating how many of them relate to Japanese folklore. Joyce Boss’ “Yōkai and ‘Old Japan’ in Lore, Art, and Film: Studying Japan through Studying Yōkai” examines how contemporary films deploy yōkai to evoke the cultural imagination of a bygone “traditional Japan.”
This issue also features two resources tailored specifically for middle and high school classroom use. Edward O’Mahony’s feature article, “An Introduction to Ancient Indian Political and Social Thought (c. 1500 BCE–550 CE),” is an accessible primer on key political philosophies in ancient India that includes modified versions for middle and high school, creative lesson plans, and a multiple-choice assessment based on the text. Ei Thin Zar and Jennifer Otting’s resource article, “The Teaching of Civil Disobedience through Letters from Burma’s/Myanmar’s Generation Z” offers a comprehensive lesson plan targeting eighth and ninth grade. This resource includes an original fictional story introducing Myanmar’s 2021 military coup and suggested classroom activities designed around real letters from Burmese students describing their experiences of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
These are followed by three additional teaching resources for undergraduate or high school instructors and students. Mark Baker’s “Sources for Teaching China after Mao” provides a useful list of suggested survey texts and primary sources for teaching the past fifty years of Chinese history, with an emphasis on resources that enhance our understanding of social history and lived individual experiences. Yunxin Li’s “Teaching Premodern Asian History through Material Culture” describes five strategies for teaching about premodern Asia using material culture at the secondary and post-secondary level, with a plethora of linked and indexed resources for instructors. In “Ten Things to Know About K-Pop,” Wonseok Lee and Rita Rongyi Lin dive into K-pop history, industry trends, and fandom in a succinct resource that is sure to be of interest to the many students with the viral hit “Golden” in their Spotify Wrapped.
Finally, Nancy Hope introduces the annual Freeman Book Awards, which honor quality literature for children and young adults that enhance understanding of East and Southeast Asia.
Lucien Ellington Tribute Video
To honor the legacy of Lucien Ellington, founding Editor of Education About Asia, this issue includes tribute videos featuring many of Lucien's friends and colleagues. You may choose to watch the edited version or the full-length version.
Asian Studies Beyond the Academy
As Area Studies departments and Title VI Centers across the country grapple with decreasing enrollments, dramatic budget cuts, and even permanent closures, it is more important than ever that we are able to articulate the value of Asian Studies education as it relates to job preparation. As a part of this effort, Education About Asia is launching a new video series, “Asian Studies Beyond the Academy,” featuring interviews with leaders in the corporate, non-profit, and government sectors about how the study of Asia has informed their career development.
For our first feature, I interviewed Jeff Guyton, Representative Director and CFO of Mazda Japan, who holds a BA in Asian Studies from Wittenberg University and an MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan.
Future Issues
If you are interested in contributing to future issues of Education About Asia or proposing a special section, please e-mail a 250-word abstract and author bio to EAAeditor@asianstudies.org. We particularly welcome authors interested in contributing manuscripts to an upcoming special section on Teaching Chinese Communism.
Education About Asia for All
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the public launch of our grassroots fundraising campaign, “Education About Asia for All.” This campaign supports Education About Asia’s open-access, subscription-free model by subsidizing the journal’s editorial, production, and promotion costs. Thanks to the generosity of our campaign’s lead donors, we have already raised close to $40,000 of our initial $50,000 target. You can support our mission and help us meet our goal by contributing to the Lucien Ellington Fund for Education About Asia. All donors will be entered into a drawing for the chance to win Godzilla-themed prizes or a full set of AAS Key Issues in Asian Studies books.
A Note of Gratitude
Education About Asia would not be possible without the dedication and support of our incredible community. First, the journal’s open-access online relaunch has been made possible thanks to a substantial grant from the Freeman Foundation and the remarkable generosity of our individual donors. In addition, this issue was also made possible thanks to the service of the EAA Editorial Board, the EAA Fundraising Committee, and our EAA Peer Reviewers. We also thank the AAS Board of Directors for their ongoing commitment to the journal’s mission.
Sincerely,
Elise Huerta