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Asian Identities
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Father Goose's Nursery Previous posts: In my father's house, there are many rooms.
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This essay was written as a message for the delegates of the annual Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations conference which brings together delegates from universities all over the world to speak about a theme relevant to Asia. The theme for this particular conference was Asian identities.
Over the past few years, it has become fashionable to say that identities have no sui generis existence but are only produced and reproduced by people. As we go through another HPAIR conference, I wonder if an “Asian identity” is only kept alive by events like these which bring “Asians” and “non-Asians” together to talk about the future of “Asia”.
I also wonder who participates in the production and reproduction of an “Asian identity”. One social theory states that globalization is a phenomenon that has the most impact on (and is perpetuated by) the cosmopolitan classes in society, i.e. the elite of our societies. A slum dweller in Manila, much less a farmer in a provincial municipality will feel less of the impact of globalization (much less feel the need to discuss the concept of an “Asian identity”) than students in Universities or members of (an increasingly globalized) civil society.
The foreign nature of concepts like “Asian identity” imposed by the cosmopolitan classes may account for the recent rejection of a “European” Constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands. I wonder if this will be the same fate of attempts to espouse “regional cooperation” in Asia.
When we speak of “Asia” and “Asian identities”, it is important that we be conscious of who we are that are engaged in this discussion, what (and who) these concepts really are for and what impact our discussions may have (if any) on those who will not be able to participate in the discourse.
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Contact me at [email protected] |
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