Globalization and "Asian Values": Teaching and Theorizing Asian American Literature

College Literature, Winter 2005 by Shu, Yuan

Since the 1990s, the discourse of "Asian values" has taken a dramatic turn and started serving a different purpose. On one hand, "Asian values," which have now been used interchangeably with "Asian differences," become a ready weapon for Asian political leaders to deflect Western criticism of human rights abuse in Asia. On the other hand, "Asian values" have equally been promoted as an effective panacea to address the problems of "Western decadence" that are exemplified by drug abuse and inefficiency of the welfare system. The major sponsor of "Asian differences" at present turns out ironically to be the Chinese government. The late president Jiang Ze-ming has repeatedly talked about the necessity of ruling China by "virtue," by which he means the patriarchal values of Confucianism rather than the bankrupt communist ideology, and called on the West to respect "different" notions of human rights in the Asian context. Jiang's resort to Confucian values has been welcomed and even supported by leaders in Southeast Asian countries. On different occasions, Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad have both endorsed "Asian differences" and reiterated humorously that they are interested in trading with the West economically but not trading in their own "Asian values" culturally. These "Asian values," critiques Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and professor of law at the National University of Singapore, have not only been employed by the political elites in many Asian countries as an effective shield to protect their own interests and nepotism, but they have also been preached to the general public as a guarantor for good governance, political stability, and economic growth, conditions that Western democracy and human rights cannot immediately deliver or preserve in Asian cultures and societies (2002, 11).

Appropriated differently at different historical moments, "Asian values" have highlighted important issues in modern Asian history and culture. Firstly, as "Asian values" were invented in the absence of the Western colonial powers, they were meant to substitute the colonial discourse and eventually to be incorporated into the discourse of modernity that had always privileged as well as been determined by Western capitalism. Secondly, since "Asian values" gained currency upon the emergence of the Asian economic power, they were not related to any Asian tradition in an essential way, but rather, were reflective of the interaction between global capitalism and Asian condition that should merit our further investigation and theorization. Finally, if "Asian values" do boost a sense of ethnic pride and national confidence among Asian nation-states, in what ways should these values be considered as alternative, supplement, or resistance to Western capitalism? It is precisely in this sense that we should turn to the contexts of American political culture and Asian American cultural production and examine the ways in which these values have been appropriated and negotiated.