Life and Death in the Garden

Sex, Drugs, Cops, and Robbers in Wartime China

Kathryn Meyer

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781442223530
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

This compelling book provides a rare glimpse into the heart of wartime China. Kathryn Meyer draws us into the perilous world of the Garden of Grand Vision, a ramshackle structure where a floating population of thousands found shelter from the freezing Siberian winter. They had come to the northern city of Harbin to find opportunity or to escape the turmoil of China in civil war. Instead they found despair. As the author vividly describes, corpses littered the halls waiting for the daily offal truck to cart the bodies away, vermin infested the walls, and relief came in the form of addiction. Yet the Garden also supported a vibrant informal economy. Rag pickers and thieves recycled everything from rat pelts to cigarette butts. Prostitutes entertained clients in the building's halls and back alleys.

These people lived at the very bottom of Chinese society, yet rumors that Chinese spies hid among the residents concerned the Japanese authorities. For this population lived in Manchukuo, the first Japanese conquest in what became the Second World War. Thus, three Japanese police officers were dispatched into the underworld of occupied China to investigate crime and vice in the Harbin slums while their military leaders dragged Japan deeper into the Pacific War. While following these policemen, the reader discovers a remarkable and unexpected view of World War II in East Asia. Instead of recounting battles and military strategy, this book explores the margins of a violent and entrepreneurial society, the struggles of an occupying police force to maintain order, and the underbelly of Japanese espionage. Drawing on the author's years of rediscovering the historical trail in Manchuria and research based on top-secret Japanese military documents and Chinese memoirs, this book offers a unique and powerful social and cultural history of a forgotten world.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Chapter 1: Using This Book as a Handbook
• Chapter 2: Why Many Attempts Have Been Inadequate
• Chapter 3: You’re Not Alone
• Chapter 4: When Should You Call It a “Discipline Problem”?
• Chapter 5: From the Horse’s Mouth
• Chapter 6: From Outside Your Classroom
• Chapter 7: From the Environment of Your Classroom
• Chapter 8: From the Interactions between You and Your Students
• Chapter 9: From the Delivery of Your Lesson Plan
• Chapter 10: Dealing with Those That Are Somewhat Out of Your Hands
• Chapter 11: Repairing Your Student-Teacher Interactions
• Chapter 12: Preventing Your Rules from Falling Apart and Growing Healthy Students
• Chapter 13: Specifics
• Chapter 14: Repairing the Delivery of Your Lesson Plan
• Chapter 15: The Substitute Teacher
• Chapter 16: Epilogue: “You Matter!”
• Appendix A: A Questionnaire for Your Staff
• Appendix B: Individual Training DVD That Demonstrates the Ineffective and Effective Teacher, Cued to This Book
• Appendix C: Legal Parameters
• Appendix D: “Am I Going to Have a Lot of Discipline Problems?”
• Appendix E: An Indexed Inventory of the Sources of Disruptive Behavior and Remedies
• Appendix F: A Checklist for Student Teachers and New Teachers
• Appendix G: Online Help for Your Education Concerns
• Appendix H: Using Technology in Education
• Appendix I: Guidelines for Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences
• Appendix J: Glossaries for Student Street Language and Technical Terms Used in Schools
• About the Author