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Asiacentrism

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Asiacentrism (also Asiacentricity) is an ethnocentric perspective that regards Asia to be either superior, central, or unique relative to other regions. This ideological stance can take the form of ascribing to Asia significance or supremacy at the cost of the rest of the world.[1] The concept arose in the context of a projected Asian Century, the expected economic and cultural dominance of Asia (primarily China) in the 21st century, in the 1990s.

Asian American studies

Paul Wong, Meera Manvi, and Takeo Hirota Wong proposed "Asiacentrism" in the 1995 special issue of Amerasia Journal on "Thinking Theory in Asian American Studies." They envisioned Asiacentrism both as a critique of hegemonic Eurocentrism in theory building in the humanities and social sciences and as a post-Orientalist epistemological paradigm in Asian American Studies. There is a need to tap into Asian traditions of thought for analyzing Asian American behaviors and for advancing global knowledge in the human interest. The objective of an Asiacentric paradigm is not to recast and reiterate such antitheses as “static Asia” vs. “dynamic Europe” and the “mystic East” vs. the “scientific West,” but to explore a common core of Asian worldviews and values that overlap in their influence on particular regions, nations, and communities. In their view, Asiacentrism may be able to offer an alternative Asian perspective grounded in an awareness of the dynamics of a postcolonial world.[2]: 137–147 

It is possible to argue that Asian American Studies has, since its inception, permitted itself to be conceptually incarcerated in a hegemonic Eurocentric culture and world view. Not only is the English language serving as the lingua franca of Asian American Studies, but it is easily evident that many scholars in Asian American Studies do not regard the acquisition of at least one Asian language, as a second language, an important part of their training, thereby curtailing their communicative and research competence with the majority of Asian Americans, whose primary language is not English. While much scholarship has been devoted to "... present voices from our (Asian American) past which were never silent, but often ignored, minimalized, and marginalized by traditional historical accounts of the United States," there has been no serious attempt to contextualize this scholarship in what may be termed the "deep structure" of a shared Asiacentric perspective.[2]: 140 

Wong, Manvi, and Wong also submitted that Asiacentrism can be a paradigmatic way of integrating Asian American Studies and Asian Studies by acknowledging the colonial histories, recognizing the common interests, and recovering the cultural roots. They stressed that Asian American Studies should play an important role in decolonizing Asian Studies by interrogating its Eurocentric legacies.

Scholars committed to the development of an Asiacentric paradigm face a challenge no less daunting than the Afrocentrists. The Euro-American colonial history in Asia has obviously left a deep imprint on Asian Studies Scholarship…. In theorizing about Asian cultures and societies, the Eurocentric view has only been subjected to serious critiques in recent decades. By proposing the development of an Asiacentric perspective, we are consciously suggesting that Asian American Studies also has a role to play in a field of Asian Studies stripped of its colonial legacy. Interestingly, the Pan-Africanists have always recognized the common interests and the unity of African American Studies and African Studies in decolonization and the recovery of roots.[2]: 145–146 

Communication studies

Yoshitaka Miike, Professor of Intercultural Communication at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Past Chair of the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the National Communication Association, is considered as the founding theorist of Asiacentricity in the discipline of communication.[3][4][5][6][7][8] He was inspired by Molefi Kete Asante, who is one of the early pioneers in the fields of intercultural and interracial communication.[9]: 3  Asante’s Afrocentric idea[10][11][12] as well as Wong, Manvi, and Wong’s Asiacentric reflection led Miike to coin the term Asiacentricity and outline an Asiacentric project in culture and communication studies in 2003.[13] He was later influenced by Maulana Karenga’s Kawaida philosophy,[14][15][16] which emphasizes the role of culture for self-understanding and self-assertion and the importance of ethics for human freedom and flourishing.[9]: 5 

Miike defined Asiacentricity as "the self-conscious act of centering Asian languages, religions/philosophies, histories, and aesthetics when addressing Asian people and phenomena." According to him, Asiacentricity "insists on revivifying and revitalizing diverse Asian cultural traditions as theoretical resources in order to capture Asians as subjects and actors of their own cultural realities rather than objects and spectators in the lived experiences of others."[17]

Simply put, Asiacentricity is the idea of centering, not marginalizing, Asian languages, religions/philosophies, and histories in theory-making and storytelling about Asian communicative life. Asiacentricity aims to encourage careful and critical engagements of Asian communicators with their own cultural traditions for self-understanding, self-expression, communal development, and cross-cultural dialogue. Intraculturally, it helps Asians embrace the positive elements of their cultural heritage and transform negative practices according to their ethical ideals. Interculturally, it helps Asians find "a place to stand," so to speak, and provides the basis of equality and mutuality in the global community.[18]

Borrowing from Daisetz Suzuki's words, Miike stated that Asiacentricity is essentially "the idea of being deep and open," that is, the idea of being rooted in our own culture and, at the same time, open to other cultures.[19] He differentiated Asiacentricity as a particularist position from Asiacentrism as a universalist ideology and maintained that Asiacentricity is a legitimate culture-centric approach to cultural Asia and people of Asian descent, while Asiacentrism is an ethnocentric approach to non-Asian worlds and people of non-Asian heritage. In Miike’s conceptualization, therefore, Asiacentrists are not cultural chauvinists and separatists.[20]

Asiacentricity is neither a hegemonic Asiacentrism nor an Asian version of ethnocentric Eurocentrism. Asiacentricity does not present the Asian worldview as the only universal frame of reference and impose it on non-Asians. Hence, Asiacentrists should be alert to Park's (2001) warning: "An idea is not good merely because it is old or because it is new. It is not necessarily good because it is an Eastern idea or a Western idea, or just because it is ours" (p. 8). Asiacentrists thus should not deny the value of other non-Asiacentric perspectives on Asians. Nevertheless, they must reject the hegemonic ideology that non-Asiacentric theoretical standpoints are superior to Asiacentric ones and therefore can grossly neglect the latter in the discussion and discourse surrounding Asian people and phenomena. They must reject the hegemonic ideology that the Asian version of humanity can be judged solely from the Eurocentric vision of humanity.[21]

Miike identified six dimensions of Asiacentricity: (1) an assertion of Asians as subjects and agents; (2) the centrality of the collective and humanistic interests of Asia and Asians in the process of knowledge reconstruction about the Asian world; (3) the placement of Asian cultural values and ideals at the center of inquiry into Asian thought and action; (4) the groundedness in Asian historical experiences; (5) an Asian theoretical orientation to data; and (6) an Asian ethical critique and corrective of the dislocation and displacement of Asian people and phenomena.[22]: 4 

In Miike’s comprehensive outline, Asiacentricity (1) generates theoretical knowledge that corresponds to Asian communication discourse, (2) focuses on the multiplicity and complexity of Asian communicative experience, (3) reflexively constitutes and critically transforms Asian communication discourse, (4) theorizes how common aspects of humanity are expressed and understood in Asian cultural particularities, and (5) critiques Eurocentric biases in theory and research and helps Asian researchers overcome academic dependency.[22]: 5–7 

Miike's contention is that there has been the established hierarchical relationship between "Western theories" and "non-Western texts" in Eurocentric scholarship, where non-Western cultures remain as peripheral targets of data analysis and rhetorical criticism and fail to emerge as central resources of theoretical insight and humanistic inspiration. Miike thus insisted that Asiacentric scholarship reconsider Asian cultures as "theories for knowledge reconstruction," not as "texts for knowledge deconstruction." Such an Asiacentric approach, according to him, would make it possible for both Asian and non-Asian researchers to theorize as Asians speak in Asian languages, as Asians are influenced by Asian religious-philosophical worldviews, as Asians struggle to live in Asian historical experiences, and as Asians feel ethically good and aesthetically beautiful.[23]

For the purpose of elucidating the psychology of Asian communicators and enunciating the dynamics of Asian communication, therefore, Asiacentrists ought to revalorize (a) Asian words as key concepts and their etymologies as cultural outlooks and instructive insights, (b) Asian religious-philosophical teachings as behavioral principles and codes of ethics, (c) Asian histories as multiple layers of contextualization and recurrent patterns of continuity and change, and (d) Asian aesthetics as analytical frameworks for space-time arrangement, nonverbal performance, and emotional pleasure.[24]

Miike also synthesized a large body of literature in the field of Asian communication theory while paying homage to such pioneers as Anantha Babbili, Guo-Ming Chen, Godwin C. Chu, Wimal Dissanayake,[25] D. Shelton A. Gunaratne, Satoshi Ishii, Young Yun Kim, D. Lawrence Kincaid,[26] Hamid Mowlana, Louis Nordstrom,[27] Robert T. Oliver, Tulsi B. Saral, Robert Shuter, K. S. Sitaram, William J. Starosta, Majid Tehranian, Muneo Yoshikawa, and June Ock Yum.[28] He urged Asiacentric research to overcome "comparative Eurocentrism" and direct more attention to common insights gained from non-Eurocentric comparisons.[29] In his opinion, five types of alternative non-Eurocentric comparisons can enlarge the theoretical horizons of Asian communication research: (1) continent-diaspora comparisons; (2) within-region comparisons; (3) between-region comparisons; (4) diachronic comparisons; and (5) co-cultural domestic comparisons.[30]

Asiacentric studies of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia are underrepresented in the current literature. These regions are at the crossroads of Asian civilizations, offering rich historical insights into Asian intercultural exchanges and multicultural co-existence. Future theorizing and research on South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia from Asiacentric vantage points will not only enhance an understanding of cultural dynamics in these areas but also enunciate Asian models of intercultural dialogue and multicultural society.[17]

Miike recently applied Asiacentricity and formulated five principles of intercultural communication ethics: (1) the principle of recognition and respect; (2) the principle of reaffirmation and renewal; (3) the principle of identification and indebtedness; (4) the principle of ecology and sustainability; and (5) the principle of rootedness and openness.[31] He reiterated that "Asiacentricity does not implicitly suggest that non-Asiacentric standpoints are always incompatible with, or different from, Asiacentric viewpoints," and noted that "the five ethical principles from the ideas and insights rooted in Asian cultural traditions and leave open the possibility that [his] Asiacentric perspective may converge to, and diverge from, other Asiacentric and non-Asiacentric ones."[32]

Asiacentric feminism

Jing Yin, Professor of International Communication at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, explored the possibility of constructing an Asiacentric feminist theory in the 2009 special issue of the Journal of Multicultural Discourses on "New Frontiers in Asian Communication Theory." She argued that Eurocentric feminism often reduces the richness and complexities of non-Western cultural traditions to gender oppression alone. She postulated that the Asiacentric feminist approach commends the complementarity of genders, embraces the harmony of the individual and the community, and endorses the dialectics of rights and responsibilities.[33]: 75–88 

Western feminists often presume that non-Western cultures are primary source of repression. Attention is often paid to particular cultural practices that are deemed unusually brutal and inhumane, such as the veil in the Arab world, foot binding in feudal China, and sati (widow cremation) in India. Although there is no denying that these practices are suppressive, the equation of gender oppression in non-Western cultures with those cultures themselves is problematic... . Rather than viewing non-Western cultures completely oppressive, a more productive way of conceptualizing non-Western feminism movements may lie in a thorough re-intervention into, and refinement of, those non-Western cultural traditions in dynamic and complex relations with other cultures.[33]: 75–76 

Yin observed that theorizing in Eurocentric feminism including postmodern and postcolonial feminism is a continuation of, rather than a rupture with, individualist assumptions and rights consciousness. The Eurocentric ontology based on individualism prevents a non-anthropocentric theorization of rights in which the individual embraces and strengthens interdependent relationships with other beings and nature because rights is narrowly conceived in terms of individual choices of employment, political participation, and personal recognition.[33]: 77–78 

According to Yin, Asiacentric feminism does not ignore the contributions of Western feminisms, but Eurocentric feminism should not be the only viable way for women’s emancipation and empowerment regardless of cultural locations and contexts because, if she or he is displaced from one’s own cultural roots, a person loses sight of where she or her is currently situated and thus finds it difficult to achieve the desired destination.

Yin asserted that the Asiacentric feminist project should be a political project of human freedom and flourishing based on a vision of holistic humanism with deep sensitivity to women's conditions in Asian cultures. Special attention should be given to (1) interpersonal and group communication and family and social relationships among Asian women in domestic spaces and (2) all female performing arts in Asia and domestic work as creative expressions of Asian women's experiences.[33]: 84–85 

Asante on Asiacentricity

Asante made positive comments on the Asiacentric efforts of both Wong, Manvi, and Wong in the 1990s and Miike and Yin in the 2000s. In the revised edition of The Afrocentric Idea, referring to Wong, Manvi, and Wong, Asante wrote: "I have been very gratified that educators were quick to see its [the Afrocentric idea's] implications for developing curricula that can empower students of all cultures; one group of scholars even proposes using it to develop an 'Asiacentric' perspective for Asian American Studies."[34]

As for Miike and Yin, in An Afrocentric Manifesto, Asante remarked: "The original work of Yoshitaka Miike on Asiacentric communication is instructive. Miike, alongside Jing Yin, has articulated a view of Asian culture that seeks to liberate the discourse around Asian communication ideas and rhetorical concepts away from being forced into the straitjacket of Western ideas. This is a remarkable undertaking that will have far-reaching effect on the course of social science and humanities discussions about culture."[35]

Further reading

  • Miike, Y. (2006). Non-Western theory in Western research? An Asiacentric agenda for Asian communication studies. The Review of Communication, 6(1/2), 4–31. doi:10.1080/15358590600763243
  • Miike, Y. (2007). An Asiacentric reflection on Eurocentric bias in communication theory. Communication Monographs, 74(2), 272–278. doi:10.1080/03637750701390093
  • Miike, Y. (2008). Toward an alternative metatheory of human communication: An Asiacentric vision. In M. K. Asante, Y. Miike, & J. Yin (Eds.), The global intercultural communication reader (pp. 57–72). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Miike, Y. (2010). An anatomy of Eurocentrism in communication scholarship: The role of Asiacentricity in de-Westernizing theory and research. China Media Research, 6(1), 1–11.
  • Miike, Y. (2010). Culture as text and culture as theory: Asiacentricity and its raison d’être in intercultural communication research. In T. K. Nakayama & R. T. Halualani (Eds.), The handbook of critical intercultural communication (pp. 190–215). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Miike, Y. (2012). "Harmony without uniformity": An Asiacentric worldview and its communicative implications. In L. A. Samovar, R. E. Porter, & E. R. McDaniel (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (13th ed., pp. 65–80). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
  • Miike, Y. (2014). The Asiacentric turn in Asian communication studies: Shifting paradigms and changing perspectives. In M. K. Asante, Y. Miike, & J. Yin (Eds.), The global intercultural communication reader (2nd ed., pp. 111–133). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Miike, Y. (2017). Between conflict and harmony in the human family: Asiacentricity and its ethical imperative for intercultural communication. In X. Dai & G.-M. Chen (Eds.), Conflict management and intercultural communication: The art of intercultural harmony (pp. 38–65). London, UK: Routledge.
  • Miike, Y., & Yin, J. (2015). Asiacentricity and shapes of the future: Envisioning the field of intercultural communication in the globalization era. In L. A. Samovar, R. E. Porter, E. R. McDaniel, & C. S. Roy (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (14th ed., pp. 449–465). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
  • Wong, P., Manvi, M., & Wong, T. H. (1995). Asiacentrism and Asian American Studies? Amerasia Journal, 21(1/2), 137–147.
  • Yin, J. (2009). Negotiating the center: Towards an Asiacentric feminist communication theory. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 4(1), 75–88. doi:10.1080/17447140802651660

See also

References

  1. ^ Asiacentrism and Asian American Studies? - Retrieved 23 July 2013.[unreliable source?] Thomas Wier - Dept. of Linguistics[unreliable source?]
  2. ^ a b c Paul Wong, Meera Manvi, and Takeo Hirota Wong, "Asiacentrism and Asian American Studies?," in Michael Omi and Dana Takagi (Eds.), Thinking Theory in Asian American Studies (Special Issue), Amerasia Journal, Vol. 21, Nos. 1/2, 1995.
  3. ^ Shelton A. Gunaratne, "Excursus: Intercultural Asiacentricity," in Shelton A. Gunaratne, The Dao of the Press: An Humanocentric Theory, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2005, pp. 132–135.
  4. ^ Robert T. Craig and Heidi L. Muller, "Non-Western Traditions," in Robert T. Craig and Heidi L. Muller (Eds.), Theorizing Communication: Readings across Traditions, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 2007, pp. 500–501.
  5. ^ Stephen W. Littlejohn, Karen A. Foss, and John G. Oetzel, Theories of Human Communication (11th Ed.), Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2017, p. 422.
  6. ^ Guo-Ming Chen, "Asian Communication Studies: What and Where to Now," The Review of Communication, Vol. 6, No. 4, October 2006, p. 296.
  7. ^ Robert Shuter, "Robert T. Oliver: Trailblazer in Intercultural Communication," China Media Research, Vol. 7, No. 2, April 2011, p. 123.
  8. ^ Mei Zhang, "Recent Studies in East Asian Communication," Journal of Multicultural Discourses, Vol. 7, No. 3, November 2012, p. 264.
  9. ^ a b Molefi Kete Asante and Yoshitaka Miike, "Paradigmatic Issues in Intercultural Communication Studies: An Afrocentric-Asiacentric Dialogue," China Media Research, Vol. 9, No. 3, July 2013, p. 3.
  10. ^ Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentricity: Imagination and Action (Dissenting Knowledges Pamphlet Series, No. 12), Penang, Malaysia: Multiversity & Citizens International, 2013, pp. 24–58.
  11. ^ Molefi Kete Asante, African Pyramids of Knowledge: Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Africology, Brooklyn, NY: Universal Write, 2015.
  12. ^ Molefi Kete Asante, "Afrocentricity: Toward a Critical Bibliography of a Concept," in Molefi Kete Asante and Clyde Ledbetter (Eds.), Contemporary Critical Thought in Africology and Africana Studies, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016, pp. 31–61.
  13. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Beyond Eurocentrism in the Intercultural Field: Searching for an Asiacentric Paradigm," in William J. Starosta and Guo-Ming Chen (Eds.), Ferment in the Intercultural Field: Axiology/Value/Praxis (International and Intercultural Communication Annual, Vol. 26), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003, pp. 243–276.
  14. ^ Maulana Karenga, Kawaida: A Communitarian African Philosophy, Los Angeles, CA: University of Sankore Press, 1997.
  15. ^ Maulana Karenga, "Philosophy in the African Tradition of Resistance: Issues of Human Freedom and Human Flourishing," in Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon (Eds.), Not Only the Master's Tools: African-American Studies in Theory and Practice, Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2006, pp. 243–271.
  16. ^ Maulana Karenga, Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle: African American, Pan-African, and Global Issues, Los Angeles, CA: University of Sankore Press, 2008, pp. 3–12.
  17. ^ a b Yoshitaka Miike, "Asiacentricity," Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, No. 24, July 21, 2014, Washington, DC: Center for Intercultural Dialogue.
  18. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Cultural Traditions and Communication Theory: Clarifying the Asiacentric Paradigm," China Media Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, July 2012, p. 3.
  19. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Asiacentricity: The Idea of Being Deep and Open," in Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, Catherine Nickerson, and Brigitte Planken, Business Discourse (2nd Ed.), Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 57–58.
  20. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Asiacentricity," in Young Yun Kim (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication (Vol. 1), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2018, pp. 39–46.
  21. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Rethinking Humanity, Culture, and Communication: Asiacentric Critiques and Contributions," Human Communication: A Journal of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association, Vol. 7, No. 1, Winter 2004, p. 73.
  22. ^ a b Yoshitaka Miike, "An Anatomy of Eurocentrism in Communication Scholarship: The Role of Asiacentricity in De-Westernizing Theory and Research," China Media Research, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2010.
  23. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "The Asiacentric Turn in Asian Communication Studies: Shifting Paradigms and Changing Perspectives," in Molefi Kete Asante, Yoshitaka Miike, and Jing Yin (Eds.), The Global Intercultural Communication Reader (2nd Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2014, pp. 116–117.
  24. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Asiacentricity," in Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Robert T. Craig (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (Vol. 1), West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2016, p. 128.
  25. ^ Wimal Dissanayake (Ed.), Communication Theory: The Asian Perspective, Singapore: Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Center, 1988.
  26. ^ D. Lawrence Kincaid (Ed.), Communication Theory: Eastern and Western Perspectives, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1987.
  27. ^ Louis Nordstrom (Ed.), "Communication: East and West" (Special Issue), Communication, Vol. 8, No. 1, August 1983, pp. 1–132.
  28. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Non-Western Theories of Communication: Indigenous Ideas and Insights," in Ling Chen (Ed.), Intercultural Communication (Handbooks of Communication Science, Vol. 9), Boston, MA: De Gruyter Mouton, 2017, pp. 67-97.
  29. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Culture as Text and Culture as Theory: Asiacentricity and Its Raison D’être in Intercultural Communication Research," in Thomas K. Nakayama and Rona Tamiko Halualani (Eds.), The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pp. 195–196.
  30. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Asian Communication Studies at the Crossroads: A View to the Future from an Asiacentric Framework," Journal of Content, Community, and Communication, Vol. 3, June 2016, pp. 3–4.
  31. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Between Conflict and Harmony in the Human Family: Asiacentricity and Its Ethical Imperative for Intercultural Communication," in Xiaodong Dai and Guo-Ming Chen (Eds.), Conflict Management and Intercultural Communication: The Art of Intercultural Harmony, London, UK: Routledge, 2017, pp. 45–57.
  32. ^ Yoshitaka Miike, "Between Conflict and Harmony in the Human Family: Asiacentricity and Its Ethical Imperative for Intercultural Communication," in Xiaodong Dai and Guo-Ming Chen (Eds.), Conflict Management and Intercultural Communication: The Art of Intercultural Harmony, London, UK: Routledge, 2017, p. 47.
  33. ^ a b c d Jing Yin, "Negotiating the Center: Towards an Asiacentric Feminist Communication Theory," in Yoshitaka Miike (Ed.), New Frontiers in Asian Communication Theory (Special Issue), Journal of Multicultural Discourses, Vol. 4, No. 1, March 2009.
  34. ^ Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentric Idea (Rev. Ed.), Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1998, p. ix.
  35. ^ Molefi Kete Asante, An Afrocentric Manifesto: Toward an African Renaissance, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2007, p. 8.
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