A Side Note and a Note on the Side

It’s my vacation period.  A break from 4 hours of class in Korean. I’ve got some stuff on the docket I want to write about here and over at PC.  I’ll get to it in due time.  I’m going to catch up on my sleep and cash in my “earned laziness” chips.

I did, however, want to note something that I’ve been thinking more about lately:  the rise of China and alternative worldviews.

I’m obviously more aware of China now than I was while living in the United States.  China is just a short plane ride to the east.  However, another reason why I’m probably more aware of China is the rise in Chinese power and influence.  I suppose that China isn’t all that more powerful now than it was 2 years ago, but the reality of a world divided between Chinese ideas and American ideas seems more palpable in the post financial crisis world.  China is moving towards a more definitive stance regarding the east Asian regional balance of power and seems to be positioning itself to take a more assertive role in global politics than it ever has.  America, in the meantime, is in no position to directly challenge China; it’s no longer in vogue, politically, to confront China on matters such as Human Rights, Tibet, or other issues politically sensitive to China.  There seems to be a shift in the global balance of power; or, if not a shift, a shuffling of the cards.  China isn’t likely to play soft-spoken developing giant anymore.  It’s high time to exchange some of its latent power in for the real stuff.

Amongst other things, this got me thinking about how differently the Asian view of things is from the Western, particularly American view.  The notion of inalienable (God-given) rights, private property, and certain political rights is seen through a fundamentally different lens out east.  Or, look at it this way.  Among the great struggles of  man – good/evil, reason/unreason, right/wrong, better/worse, etc there is a certain way that societies define and give answers to these struggles.  Deconstruction notwithstanding, there is a supposed solution to resolve these dichotomies.  The question I have is, how does the “East” approach these problems?  Does the East even perceive the dichotomies like this?  Do they even perceive dichotomies?

It was to answer questions like these that I decided to stay in Asia.  Disappointingly, I must say I’m not sure how to even start an answer to questions such as these.  I can talk, briefly, about the notion of “Asian Values” (as discussed by Amartya Sen and Francis Fukuyama), but it’s nowhere near a definitive answer.  When reading through some of the literature I’m making my way through I make notes on the side that read:  and in Asia…?