Ask a Japanologist
This is Asia
Exploring the Contrast between East Asian and Indo-Western Ways of Thinking
Why does East Asian common sense often seem like the opposite of Western thought?
Asia houses over half of humanity in its bewildering variegation. Therefore, as intercultural communication becomes global, there is a need to outline in broad strokes the sometimes disorienting contrast between East Asian and Western societies.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, Peking Man appeared. Cro-Magnon humans were later able to walk across to what is now the archipelago of Japan. After that, Mongoloid peoples crossed to Alaska and became the Inuit. Others became the American Indians and continued as far as South America. Peruvian Indians of the Andes are said to resemble Tibetans, while the inside of a North American teepee bears a striking resemblance to that of a Mongolian yurt.
Two cradles of civilization formed along the rivers of Asia, in China and the Indus Valley, from which came the words Hindu and India. From 2,600 B.C. a combination of Aryans and indigenous Dravidians produced cities and, before long, developed yoga and meditation. In the 20th Century, with the analysis of Sanskrit, linguists finally realized that Western languages had to be called Indo-European.
Moreover, according to Hajime Nakamura in Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples, Indian thought is highly abstract like Western thought, whereas thinking becomes concretistic in China, and most of all in Japan. Therefore, when Zen Buddhism reached a peak in Japan, the haiku poet Basho expressed the enlightenment experience as a frog jumping into a pond with a splash. The frog sits still as if meditating, then more than just reflecting on the pond, the subject or observer merges with the object, and the splash is that great realization. This is just as profound as the Indian Upanishads that led to Buddhism, but not at all abstract. A big difference in common sense then remains today in the depth that Indians and Westerners find in language compared to the less important role of verbal communication in Japan. While Westerners may see material things as surfaces, Japanese people tend to use language as a mask, finding more meaning in the symbolism of non-verbal behavior such as balancing the mutual exchange of goods and favors.
Among the various cultures of Asia and the Pacific, differences in climate and ways of sustenance have also resulted in common sense that contrasts with Western thought. Southeast Asia is hot and humid, with lush vegetation, and Pacific peoples have enjoyed a relaxed pace in that setting. Whereas in northern Asia the ever-changing weather and extreme temperatures could have contributed to a sort of work ethic.
Furthermore, two main approaches to agriculture in Asia were both effective, but have had very different consequences psychologically. The hotter regions supported gardening around individual family dwellings, which tended to reinforce geographical isolation or independence. However, rice came to provide a steadier staple food that could be preserved. This could be the main reason why rice-growing areas of Asia have maintained the largest populations along with a distinct way of thinking. For rice production is a complex process that rewards communities where everyone conforms to the demands of the current seasonal stage. In the long run these communities with a tighter social organization tended to become more powerful politically than areas where sustenance was more independent.
At times the horse-riding cultures practicing animal husbandry, such as the Mongols of Central Asia, were stronger militarily. But in the long run the rice-growing countries of Northeast Asia have prevailed politically. By contrast, particularly in United States history, there was a wide frontier that rewarded self-reliance. But in Asia, thousands of years of historical experience have indicated rather that collectivism prevails over individualism. There has often been intolerance of dissent or differences, but everyday standards of cooperation in East Asia point to a social organization that has much to teach the rest of the world.
At least 2,300 years ago, Japan was transformed from a New Stone Age culture as waves of settlers from the Asian mainland brought rice agriculture and metalworking techniques. The transition was not sudden or forced, as evidenced by the Japanese language being a hybrid that maintains an indigenous core. This shows that the Asian Mainlanders exercised speech accommodation, and both sides adjusted to each other’s culture. Thus, Japan also became a rice culture, but the widening Japan Sea was treacherous enough so that Japan, unlike most Asian countries, spent centuries at a time in splendid isolation, never conquered or colonized. Twice Kublai Khan’s navy was thwarted by typhoons called “kamikaze” or winds of the gods, which reinforced a Japanese sense of being collectively special. Recently Europeans have started calling suicide bombers kamikaze, a misappropriation when one considers the historical depth and emotional impact of the original Japanese term.
As another dividend of relative peace in their tight social organization, Japan was able to build on Chinese aesthetics, and Japanese cultural artifacts are very well preserved. The Buddhist temple Horyuji in Nara, including the world’s oldest wooden building, displays a “Mona Lisa of the Orient.” This Buddha of the Future, Miroku or Maitreya in Sanskrit, is in fine condition, yet it was sculpted in the 6th Century.
Since then, periods of foreign borrowing have alternated with long periods of national isolationism, a mentality that still remains. Nowadays the pattern of borrowing and adapting things continues, particularly from the U.S. since its generous treatment of Japan after World War II. In the 1970s and 80s Japan’s economic success revived old notions of Western technology with an exclusively Japanese spirit. Then since the post-War generation did so much for the sake of their children, there is a new generation that seems too complacent to rebuild the economy in leaner times, let alone communicate in foreign languages.
Thus, Japan now ranks highly in the number of Internet users, with Twitter most popular, but relatively few Japanese are communicating with the outside world in this global age. Facebook seems to be the main platform when they do have foreign contacts. The language barrier will continue to be the most intransigent obstacle to intercultural communication, although English literacy is not so difficult for the general public as speaking in a foreign language.
Despite Kipling’s “never the twain shall meet,” intercultural communication and acculturation between East and West are quite possible. Most of the crossing has been from the Eastern side, by studying English and other foreign languages, for which Westerners should be grateful. Ultimately, even contrasting cultures can be united within oneself, which this author calls East-West biculturalism. Like bilingualism, biculturalism is a matter of degree, but every increment of progress by individuals contributes to building a bridge of goodwill across cultures. The Pacific Ocean forms the widest geographical barrier, while East and West may also represent the deepest cultural differences on earth. But bicultural children of international families are living symbols that cultural differences can be reconciled. The Pacific can be crossed virtually, and no cultural gulf is too wide to be bridged by human understanding.
For more on these issues, see the author’s Asian studies/Japan and bilingualism/biculturalism publications at his Website or at Academia Edu.
