Asia, a civilisation in the making (Yamazaki 1996)
East Asia, The Pacific and the modern age
The remarkable rise of East Asia in recent decades has fostered a civilisation very different from the west, posing dangers for international relations. However, at no time in history has an Asian or Eastern Civilisation arisen over and above the many national and ethnic civilisations and cultures found in the vast region.
Much of the writing from the West is economically or military alarmist, going do far to link East Asian civilisation with Islamic civilisation to make common cause against Western power and values. Don't all subscribe to a shared system of democracy or capitalism . Such integration in the region requires a binding force capable of overriding the logically incompatible value systems the people of the region espouse. The force behind convergence today is modernity
Ambiguous Asia
Today Asia refers to a sweeping stretch of land and sea from the middle east to the South Pacific islands, an area to broad to make any sense as a geographical unit. Countries exploit the confusion over the regions boundaries for political purposes. Australia organised Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation includes the US, Canada and Chile but the East Asian Economic Caucus by the Malaysians denies them membership
Is East Asia a geographical area, an agglomeration of ethnic populations or a civilisation in the making. The West lack of economic growth is no more- Asian nations growing vigorously whilst being flushed with Western and Japanese capital and technology supplying the world with its own products and creating its own markets, they have been long last integrated into the economic system
Civilisation as Umbrella
There has never been an Asian sphere of civilisation, no Western civilisation, only the individual national and ethnic cultures and civilisations in the region.
The dominant force in the West has been Christianity, fusing the Judaic and Hellenic traditions constituted a unified sphere of civilisation. Latin's status eroded over time allowing local vernaculars to assert themselves as national languages. Rise of duality in rule and civilisation marked the beginning of Western civilisation. Under the umbrella of the Roman empire, unifying Christian civilisation and set out to spread this "world civilisation" emcompassing national and ethnic civilisations and culture aliens between one another.
Asia has never had a comparable superstructure of civilisation. Asians lack an experience of political unification like the West's roman empire, nor do they posess common traditions in language, currency, law, roads etc. No fundamental similarity in mores, manners, or customs.
Chinese and Barbarians
Some would say Chinese civilisation is the basis of Asian civilisation, but the Chinese empire differed greatly from the Roman. Homogeneous empire of the Han failed to bring under control the Mongolians, Vietnamese, Koreans or Japanese.
Chinese were allergic to outside cultural influences, reluctant to credit alien contributions to the development of their culture. German directions have impressed and moved Englishman with their production of Shakespeare, but Japanese work has never had an impact on Chinese practitioners of the art.
The Han preserved exclusivity of their civilisation for 4,000 years, a badge of their identity
Buddhist civilisation failed to become Asia's world civilisation- spread to China, East Asia, South Asia but was emaciated in China and Korea under the Confucian onslaught. Very difficult for any civilisation without an ethnic proprietor to attain dominance on Asian soil.
Didn't think Chinese was a supranational world civilisation, only a living national civilisation, Asia had no dual structure of rule and language unlike the Arab civilisation, placed on the same level as Western civilisation
Morning in Asia
Modern Western Civilisation has brought the world umbrella to Asia for the firs time, and a dual structure of civilisation is now taking shape in Asia
The whole fabric of society has been modernised, formation of nation states under the rule of law and legitimate institutions, secularisation of ethics and mores, rise of industry and the growth of Market economies. A middle class arises that favours democratic development, human rights and fair trial, when it comes to most rights almost all the countries of the region now speak the same language as the west. Cars, towers, the metric system, electrical appliances, tv, all countries bar N Korea going through this process during the last Century, nothing comparable occured in African, the Middle East or Russia.
The business of religion
Asia has never joined the establishment of fundamentalism. Religions developing elsewhere have slacken when they arrived in East Asia.
During middle ages, Europeans and Asians both believed in ascetic reunification of the world, by 16th C comemrce and its profits were seen as legitimate in Japan and China, hard work and thrift became the ethos, known as "secular asceticism", no eating without producing, everyone on the same road, hard work and frugality were the virtues. Open and fair dealing with customers and suppliers became a transcendental passage to heaven. Gained a reputation for honesty and trustworthiness, lived frugally etc. East Asians nurtured religious tolerance. When Western civilisation encountered East Asia, it found civilisations which it has a strong affinity
Culture and civilisation
Culture is a way of life, a conventional order, physically acquired and rooted in subliminal consciousness, in contrast civilisation is a recognised ideational order. Gray area between them- handiness with machines part of culture, mechanised industry is an aspect of civilisation. Cultures die, there sphere of dominance is limited, civilisations becone widespread, but they may be deliberately abandoned.
Constant mistaken notion that civilisations can be the property of an ethnic groups and a culture can be as universal and expansive as a civilisation
The rule of culture extends at most from the family, village to the tribe and nation, a civilisation in contrast encompasses different tribes and nations and creates a world.
People of East Asia are said to partake of modern western civilsiation at the topmost stratum of their world, to retain their national civilisations and nation states in the middle stratum and preserve their traditional culture in their day to day lives. Under modernisation, traditional ethnic cultures are being revived with new elements of universality. Korean agarian folk music known as samulnori attracts percussion aficionados worldwide in the jazz influences version popularised by the musician Kim Deoksoo. traditionalists decry the changes, depicting them as impositions from abroad or trappings of a borrowed civilisation, however civilisation does not belong to any one group but to all
The modern mode
Modern civilisation originated int eh west but it is not an evolutionary phase of western civilisation, modernisation began in the 12th century with the rejection of western civilisation in a 800yr long progressive denial
Western cultures have transformed themselves as rapidly as Asian ones- American puritanism has decliend to the point homosexuality is widely tolerated French cuisine is cutting down on fat and alcohol, British abandoned their shilling foo the rational decimal system
Modernity doesnt necessarily have to be progressive, modernity casts a glance back and extrapolates in different directions
Modernity today is at the topmost stratum of its "world", the most positive outcome for Asia would be an orderly, widely agreed framework encompassing a well-regulated market, human rights, and democratic principles. Seems reasonable to take the entire pacific basin as the sphere of the emerging civilisation. It incorporates industrial and communications technologies, and will have to collaborate with the atlantic sphere of civilisation, sharing the experience.