East Asian identity

East Asian identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an East Asian person and as relating to being East Asian. It has been discussed in media and academic publications in personal, cultural, economic and political terms.

Components[edit]

East Asian identity may consist of several interconnected parts, some or all of which may constitute an individual's identity:

Background[edit]

East Asian identity has been described in scholarly works and research as an emergent identity, in economic, intellectual and cultural terms.[2] Political scientist Glenn Hook has suggested that Japan emerged as the regional leader, in economic terms, in presenting an East Asian identity during the 1980s in G7 meetings, and proceeding to consciously present a cultural East Asian identity at the 1993 Tokyo G7 summit.[3]

Joshua Kurlantzick, a journalist and a CFR Fellow for Southeast Asia, in 2006 suggested that East Asian citizens were culturally building a "common East Asian identity".[4] A multitude of factors have been cited as contributing towards the regional identity:

It concerns a sense of an East Asian identity that people of East Asia may have. Such an identity may be fostered through growing interactions among the people and civil society organizations in the region and through ideas, values, and norms thereby promoted and shared. An East Asian community may thus be recognized, supported, and developed by East Asians.[1]

The 1997 Asian financial crisis is widely cited as centralizing phenomenon in the advancement of the identity.[5] In economist Richard Baldwin's co-edited East Asian Economic Regionalism, the crisis was identified as trigger point for solidifying a growing East Asian identity.[6] This concept has been widely researched across media and academic publications.[7][8]

Dr. Melissa Curley of The University of Queensland has proposed that mutual suspicion, particularly between the region's two largest powers (China and Japan), constitutes the most significant hurdle to the development of East Asian identity.[9] Although acknowledging its emergence, academics Roger Goodman and Gordon White have theorized how a common East Asian identity risks obscuring non-marginal differences between societies in the region.[10]

In 2014, research conducted by the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, proposed how the ASEM forum (an annual Asia-Europe conference) was linked with the building of the regional identity.[11] Historian Arif Dirlik had theorized in this vein, that dialogue with the Western world was significant in the identity development of East Asia. [12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Motohide Saji (2009). "On an East Asian Community, or Kant's Cosmopolitan Right Reconsidered". In Nam-Kook Kim (ed.). Globalization and Regional Integration in Europe and Asia. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 978-1315585116. )
  2. ^ Kazuko Mori; Kenichiro Hirano, eds. (2007). "Remapping East Asia as an International Society". A New East Asia: Toward A Regional Community. National University of Singapore Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-9971693824. Korean economists and social scientists are endeavoring to promote regional cooperation and the formation of a regional community through various forums and conferences, and to emphasize the importance of East Asian identity and solidarity among Asian intellectuals.)
  3. ^ Glenn Hook (2001). "Japan-Global Institutions". Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security. Routledge. p. 354. ISBN 978-0415240970. Miki's opportunity to promote North-South issues and Japan's East Asian identity at this first summit ... this trend of Japan promoting East Asian regional issues developed further under Prime Minister Zenkō Suzuki ... Japan's embrace of this new East Asian identity can be seen in Miyazawa attempting to give the 1993 Tokyo G7 summit an East Asian feel)
  4. ^ Joshua Kurlantzick (December 24, 2006). "An East Asian identity emerges". The Mercury News. Outside the rarefied air of a summit banquet table, everyday citizens, too, are building a common East Asian identity, reflected in film, television and music. It's an identity that has grown out of greater economic integration in the region
  5. ^ Chia Slow Yue; Mari Pangestu (2013). "Rise of East Asian regionalism". In Christopher Findlay; Hadi Soesastro (eds.). Reshaping the Asia Pacific Economic Order. Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 978-0415651479. The recent shift in East Asia from market-driven regionalisation to regionalism is partly a search for an East Asian identity and new forms of regional cooperation after the financial crisis, and partly an attempt to catch up with the rest of the world.)
  6. ^ Choong Yong Ahn; Richard E. Baldwin; Inkyo Cheong, eds. (2005). "Preface". East Asian Economic Regionalism: Feasibilities and Challenges. Springer Publishing. p. vii. ISBN 978-0387243306. The Asian financial crisis triggered a rising sense of East Asian identity, and in November 1999, the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, and Korea) Summit released the Joint Statement on East Asian Cooperation)
  7. ^ "Volume 17". East Asian Review. Seoul, Korea: Institute for East Asian Studies. 2005. p. 19. The East Asian financial crisis has accelerated arguments on East Asian identity.)
  8. ^ Barry Wain (May 19, 2000). "Building an East Asian Identity". The Wall Street Journal.
  9. ^ Melissa Curley (2006). "Regionalism and Community Building in East Asia". Advancing East Asian Regionalism. Routledge. p. vii. ISBN 978-0415546874. The diversity among the countries of the region - in terms of culture and worldview ... militate against the development of a common or collective East Asian identity. Furthermore, mutual suspicion and occasional hostilities still characterise relations among countries of the region, most importantly between its two great powers - Japan and China.)
  10. ^ Roger Goodman; Gordon White (1998). "Welfare Orientalism and the search for an East Asian welfare model". In Huck-Ju Kwon (ed.). The East Asian Welfare Model: Welfare Orientalism and the State. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415172103. They tend to homogenise regions and societies, positing some basic 'East Asian' identity common to the region and some ahred consensus underlying social diversity. This may obscure non-marginal differences between societies)
  11. ^ Evi Fitriani (2014). "ASEM and the Development of an Asian Regional Identity". Southeast Asians and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM): State's Interests and Institution's Longevity. ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. p. 15. ISBN 978-9814459501. Linking ASEM with the process of constructing an East Asian identity is one of the salient views gleaned from the interview data of this thesis. The data also reveal ASEAN countries' "achievement" to incorporate the big states in the Northeast Asian countries)
  12. ^ Arif Dirlik (2003). "Culture Against History? The Politics of East Asian Identity (1999)". In Ali Mirsepassi; Amrita Basu; Frederick Weaver (eds.). Localizing Knowledge in a Globalizing World: Recasting the Area Studies Debate. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0815629825. I take up some problems that pertain to the question of an East Asian identity in its relationship to the idea of "the West." I do so by making a brief detour through changes over the past three decades in attitudes toward culture in the definition of identity.)
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