Defining East Asia: Confucianism, Isolationism, and Pan-Asianism

As products of the American education system, largely an extension of old-school Western thought, we have been conditioned to view East Asia as something distinctly "other" and foreign. We have defined it's culture in terms of how it differs from our own. We envision a yin and yang relationship; where Westerners value individuality and self-worth, those in the East stress the importance of filial piety and deference to authority.

But a truer reading and definition of East Asia would understand that the region should not simply be constructed in terms of being an antithesis to the West, but rather as a region that developed mostly on it's own, it's distance from the much-heralded classical Western civilizations of Greece and Rome ensuring that it would become an area unique to the world. It is also a region defined by as many commonalities between nations as differences, though a number of overarching themes exist including the long-entrenched and perhaps even subconscious adherence to Confucianism.

The idea of East Asia as being a unit (or being "one") is largely derived from Western notions about the otherness of the region, and that The Orient (or The East) is fundamentally and directly opposed to Europe and The West. Whether or not East Asia is exactly opposite of Europe (and enclaves of European civilization such as the United States and Australia) is up for debate, though a defining feature of the area is that it developed and evolved mostly free from Western contact. It is an area that also resisted outright colonization during Europe's imperialist age, which sets it apart from Africa and Latin America, two other lands that saw civilizations rise outside of the boundaries of Europe. Kakuzo Okakura reflects this concept of East Asianness as having innate "non-Western" qualities when he says that, by virtue of it's isolationist policies and island geography, "it is in Japan alone that the historic wealth of Asiatic culture can be consecutively studied" .

This implication of an Asiatic or pan-Asian culture is not meant to overlook the myriad of differences in language, ethnicity, art, etc that characterize East Asia, but rather to highlight the things that the people of the region largely have in common. These are things that are distinctly Asian, and have essentially no Western influence like Confucianism and Buddhism. With these two Asian philosophies come the notions of filial piety, the importance of relationships (like the Five Bonds), and the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. Martin Lewis and Karen Wigen also write that many East Asian scholars have "often seen some merit in emphasizing their commonalities" , while noting that even "nationalist intellectuals have found ways to privilege their own country while articulating a basis for pan-Asian unity".

In short, to strictly define East Asia is a difficult and perhaps even impossible task. Linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences extend back for millennia. That being said, the cross-cultural importance of morality systems like Confucianism and Buddhism, as well as the growing belief and pride in a pan-Asian culture (which sees itself as being a completely separate entity from the West) have given the area a more defining feature. East Asia is therefore a land that is home to a number of long-standing civilizations which were able to flourish and expand with minor interference and input from the West; not only that but China and Japan, in particular, are two of the few non-Western nations that are currently able to rival the United States and Europe for economic and cultural dominance.

SOURCES

¹ Kakuzo, Okakura. The Ideals of the East. Rutland, VT & Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Publishers, 1970. 7.

² Lewis, Martin and Karen Wigen. The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. 70.