Acting Asian:Contradictions in a Globalizing World
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A A A A A CTING ASIAN CTING ASIAN CTING ASIAN CTING ASIAN CTING ASIAN Contradictions in a Globalizing World World in a Globalizing Contradictions AAACTINGCTINGCTING ASIANASIANASIAN Contradictions in a International House of Japan Globalizing World and Japan Foundation A A A A A SIA SIA SIA SIA SIA L L L L L EADERSHIP EADERSHIP EADERSHIP EADERSHIP EADERSHIP F F F F F ELL ELL ELL ELL ELL O O O O O ASIA LEADERSHIP FELLOW PROGRAM W W W W W P P P P P 2004 R R R R R OGRAM OGRAM OGRAM OGRAM OGRAM 2004 2004 2004 2004 2004 AAACTINGCTINGCTING ASIANASIANASIAN Contradictions in a Globalizing World ASIA LEADERSHIP FELLOW PROGRAM 2004 Acting Asian Published by International House of Japan and Japan Foundation Copyright © 2005 International House of Japan 5-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan 106-0032 Telephone: 81.3.3470 3211 Fax: 81.3.3470 3170 Email: [email protected] URL: www.i-house.or.jp Edited by Myra Theresa Torralba Cover and book design by Jo B. Pantorillo Printed in the Philippines CONTENTS Introduction Acting Asian, v New Paradigms Gross National Happiness, 3 Kinley Dorji Evaluating Growth in Japan, 17 Takayoshi Kusago Contradictions English, Education, and Filipino Identity, 35 Karina Africa Bolasco Radical Islam and the Consolidation of Democracy in Indonesia, 43 Jamhari Learning a Trade for Life? Commercialized Craft and Child Labor in a Northern Vietnamese Village, 63 Nguyen Van Chinh Defining Asia Theater Herstory: Changing Roles of Chinese Women On and Offstage, 93 Faye Chunfang Fei Crafting a Philippine Culture Index: Cultural Education and Identity Building in a Multiethnic Society, 100 Karina Africa Bolasco Acting Asian in a Globalizing World: A Feminist Perspective from Sri Lanka, 115 Sepali Kottegoda Personal Takes Impressions of a Culture, 127 Kinley Dorji Rice Are Us: Some Unfinished Musings on Asian Identity, 133 Faye Chunfang Fei When Public Intellectuals Come Together, 141 Karina Africa Bolasco The Fellowship: ALFP Activities 2004 On Japan’s Minorities, 149 On Education, 153 On Media and the Arts, 155 On Business, 160 On Civil Society, 162 On Nationalism, Politics, and Religion, 167 On Democracy, 174 On Peace/Security, 179 On Public Intellectuals, 182 Mayuko Sasanuma Perspectives from Japan Why New Competence: A Hidden Inequality in the Education Reform of 1992, 189 Takehiko Kariya The Way We Love (to Hate) the United States: The Loci of America in Japan Today, 203 Yasushi Watanabe The ALFP 2004 Fellows, 215 INTRODUCTION The 2004 Fellowship may be just another round of the Asia Leadership Fellow Program of the International House of Japan and Japan Foundation, not any different or special. Once more, another group of so-called public intellectuals from Asia explores “Identity, Security and Democracy,” such a broad and complex theme that two months of intense probing and exchange hardly scratched its surface. But the fellows from seven countries: Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines, felt privileged to have been selected to take part in a program given to countless rich and varied opportunities for really significant cultural and intellectual exchange. Here in this book that tries to, but only almost, document what transpired, formally and informally, the fellows share their papers, clustered into sections. “New Paradigms” has what we consider important papers because they speak of shifts in mindsets and introduce new development paradigms. Journalist Kinley Dorji’s account of their King’s use of Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product as a framework for Bhutan’s national development as they shift from a monarchy to a democracy is a fascinating story of a small country located between the giants, India and China, determining the direction of its own growth, carefully making sure they faithfully preserve their identity, culture and physical resources as they modernize into a state. Takayoshi Kusago, an economist by training, similarly questions the appropriateness and accuracy of existing economic measures and indicators of progress adopted by the United Nations Development Program when they dismally fail to tell the state of the mind, heart and soul of people in these countries, particularly in his own Japan. In the section, “Contradictions,” three papers show how old tensions generated by colonialism and anti-colonialism resurrect and morph into scarier forms because of globalization and resistance to it. As a publisher automatically involved in cultural education, I discuss how terribly confused the issue of English has now become in the Philippines—from the time the American Thomasite teachers struggled to introduce it in public schools to how now the young desperately learn to speak it with an American accent to be able to get into high-paying jobs in call centers outsourced by US firms. Jamhari, anthropologist at National Islam University, focuses on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia and how historically it always clashed with democratic values but notes and remains hopeful that Islam and democracy have a symbiotic relationship in Indonesia: the successful 2004 presidential election illustrates how “Islam helps Indonesian Moslems participate in the political process and support democracy.” Nguyen Van Chinh , senior lecturer at the Vietnam National University, examines the severe exploitation of child labor at the site of the economic tension triggered by Vietnam’s fast growing- wood carving industry that services globalization. In “Defining Asia,” Faye Chungfang Fei, artist-scholar, reexamines “the evolving and changing identities of women as characters, performers, playwrights, directors, and producers in the history of Chinese theater” and how on and offstage, “women were excluded from public life…deprived of political identity and economic security.” My paper on crafting a Philippine culture index that should spin off into a culture curriculum for basic education argues for its urgency so as to decolonize education and instill in the young a sense of pride and nation in our own heritage and history. Sepali Kottegoda, feminist, explores how “in our quest to preserve our ‘Asian cultures’ [we] also defend those oppressive patriarchal structures which, for example, result in girl children being discriminated against in terms of access to food or education…” and why “women continue to be seen as the ‘signifier’ of cultural identity.” In “Personal Takes,” Kinley, Faye and I share our informal impressions of the Japanese culture and the value of the program. Mayuko Sasanuma, the able program staff of International House, competently summarized all the activities the Fellows went through, whether these were sessions with Japanese scholars, NGO workers, government officials, or artists, or these were trips or visits to other parts of Japan. While we have been vastly enriched by our stay in Japan, we are likewise honored in this book by the contributions of two respected Japanese scholars: Takehiko Kariya who questions the new education reform in Japan and Yasushi Watanabe who analyzes Japan’s love- hate relationship with the United States. Finally, a word on the title of this Report. Acting Asian: Contradictions in a Globalizing World was the title of our public symposium that traditionally culminates every fellowship, allowing fellows to engage the Japanese public in some form of conversation. The group decided that while this title sufficiently addressed the issue of identity, it also explored economic and political tensions wrought by globalization. We deemed it a most suitable name for this record of our fellowship. Karina Africa Bolasco New Paradigms 1 GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS Kinley Dorji Gross National Happiness (GNH) is not about the concept of happi- ness. It is a guiding principle for change; it sets the quality of aspirations for development or progress as conceived deep in the folds of the Himalayas, in a kingdom that has been shrouded in mystery for centuries. As mystical as this might sound, however, GNH is a reasoned and pragmatic attempt to find a wholesome and stable course for change in today’s increasingly turbu- lent world. For the people of Bhutan, it is a Buddhist-inspired path to a nation’s growth by ensuring individual and collective happiness. On November 11, 2005, at Waseda University in Tokyo, I presented a review of GNH, a concept increasingly gaining popularity among politi- cians, development workers, and economists, and seeing growing discourse within the intellectual community. One Japanese member of the audience pointed out that, today, if you asked a Japanese youth what was the most important thing in life he would say “money.” With such values he asked if I thought the Japanese people could ever be happy. While my ten-week visit to Japan through the Asia Leadership Fellow Program (ALFP) gave me an insight into Japanese society, enough for me to learn that a growing number of Japanese people are agonizing over, and some grappling with, social, economic, and political problems, I do not know enough to come up with a substantive answer. But the question was a stark reminder to me that GNH, a notion that was, in fact, conceived as a response to just such a trend, is well worth serious thought. The premise For readers not familiar with Bhutan, I present here a brief back- ground and the perspective from which I write this paper. After centuries of self-imposed isolation, Bhutan opened up to the world in 1961. What we saw frightened us. Humanity had gone through much but for this paper I shall look at two immediate issues that confronted us: the survival of the human identity as nation-states and the development process. The Bhutanese view of the world over the past four decades has shown us that survival will continue to be a priority, particularly for small countries, and that human progress must lead to GNH. In the past Bhutan chose to keep the world out, fearful it would readily 3 be swallowed up, an oft-perceived threat small countries suffered from.