Pan-Asianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pan-Asianism is an ideology that Asian countries and peoples share similar values and similar histories and should be united politically or culturally.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
[edit] Pan-Asianism in Japan
Pan-Asian thought in Japan began to develop in the late nineteenth century and were spurned on particularly following the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, (1904 - 1905). This created interest from Abanindranath Tagore, Sun Yat-Sen and Sri Aurobindo.
The Japanese Pan-Asianist Okakura Kakuzo coined the phrase "Asia is One" in his book The Ideals of the East, (1904):
- ASIA is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese with its communism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all the great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the Particular, and to search out the means, not the end, of life.
In this Okakura was utilising the Japanese concept of sangoku, which existed in Japanese culture before the concept of Asia became popularised. Sangoku literally means the three counties Honshū (the largest island of Japan), To (China) and Tenjiku (India).
The growing official interest in broader Asian concerns was shown in the establishment of facilities for Indian Studies. In 1899 Tokyo Imperial University set up a chair in Sanskrit and Pali, with a further chair in Comparative religion being set up in 1903. In this environment, a number of Indian students came to Japan in the early twentieth century, founding the Oriental Youngmen's Association in 1900. Their anti-British political activity caused consternation to the Indian Government, following a report in the London Spectator.
Sun Yat-Sen in 1925 and Lee Kuan Yew in the 1990s both argue that the political models and ideologies of Europe lack values and concepts found in Asian societies and philosophies. Some proponents argue that these values are better for all human societies. Some would argue that they are better or more suited for Asian societies. European values such as individual rights and freedoms would not be suited for Asian societies in this extreme formulation of Pan-Asianism.
In the 1930s and 1940s this ideology was used by the Japanese government as part of a propaganda campaign against European (and U.S.) imperialism, in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
During the Cold War Pan-Asianism took a back seat. Several countries like India, Cambodia and Indonesia advocated for greater ties with the rest of the developing world within and beyond Asia, while others were economically and politically more orientated towards either one of the superpowers. However ASEAN emerged in 1967, providing a framework for cooperation in South-East Asia.
The idea of Asian values is somewhat of a resurgence of Pan-Asianism. One foremost enthusiast of the idea of Asian values is the former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.
Articles that mention Pan-Asianism include:
[edit] Pan-Asian activists and theorists
[edit] China
- Sun Yat-Sen, the Chinese Nationalist Leader 1866-1925
[edit] India
- Rabindranath Tagore Bengali artist, 1861-1941
[edit] Japan
[edit] See also
- East Asia Summit, which has been proposed as a possible vehicle for an East Asian Community and East Asian Free Trade Agreement involving 16 "asian" nations (including China, India, South Korea and Japan, the ASEAN countries and also Australia and New Zealand
