Asiacentrism (also Asiacentricity) is an
ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of ...
and
economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
perspective that regards
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
to be either superior, central, or unique relative to other regions. This ideological stance may take the form of ascribing to Asia significance or supremacy at the cost of the rest of the world.
The concept arose in the context of a projected
Asian Century
The Asian Century is the projected 21st-century dominance of Asian politics and culture, assuming certain demographic and economic trends persist. The concept of Asian Century parallels the characterisation of the 19th century as Britain's Imp ...
, the expected economic and cultural dominance of Asia (primarily
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) in the 21st century, in the 1990s.
In 1902, Chinese scholar
Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啓超 ; Wade–Giles, Wade-Giles: ''Liang2 Chʻi3-chʻao1''; Yale romanization of Cantonese, Yale: ''Lèuhng Kái-chīu'') (February 23, 1873 – January 19, 1929) was a Chinese politician, social and political act ...
remarked that Asia is "immeasurably vast and mighty", compared to a "shallow and small" Europe, as he predicted Asia to regain a powerful position in the world.
Some commentators have cited the effective response to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
The COVID-19 pandemic began in Asia in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has spread widely through the continent. As of , at least one case of COVID-19 had been reported in every country in Asia except Turkmenistan.
The Asian countries with the highe ...
as a sign of superiority of Asia. Indian commentator
Parag Khanna
Parag Khanna (born 27 July 1977 in Kanpur) is an Indian American specialist in geopolitics and globalization. He is the managing partner of FutureMap, and former managing partner of Hybrid Reality as well as Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum.
Early lif ...
and UK politician
David Howell noted that Asian societies evolved to
technocratic
Technocracy is a form of government in which the decision-maker or makers are selected based on their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts wi ...
governments which would be better at problem solving and provide more stability.
Economics
![2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/2010.09.27-LSE-Research-Danny.Quah-Map.png)
It is projected that the world's economic center of gravity will move back to Asia, between India and China by 2050, spurred by the economic growth of East Asian economies. Historically, the economic center of gravity is estimated to have been in what is nowadays northern
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
in the 11th century, having moved west until the 1980s.
The combined
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often ...
of Asia is also projected to surpass that of the rest of the world around 2020, a position which the continent had lost in the 19th century.
Asian American studies
Paul Wong, Meera Manvi, and Takeo Hirota Wong proposed "Asiacentrism" in the 1995 special issue of ''
Amerasia Journal
''Amerasia Journal'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1971 that covers Pacific Islander and Asian American studies . The journal regularly publishes special issues addressing a particular theme.
History
The Amerasia jo ...
'' on "Thinking Theory in Asian American Studies." They envisioned Asiacentrism both as a critique of hegemonic
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism)
is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...
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 is 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
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
world.
[
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.
]
Communication studies
Yoshitaka Miike, Professor of Intercultural Communication at the University of Hawaii at Hilo
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
, is considered as the founding theorist of Asiacentricity in the discipline of communication. He was inspired by Molefi Kete Asante
Molefi Kete Asante ( ; born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professor ...
, who is one of the early pioneers in the fields of intercultural and interracial communication.[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.] Asante's Afrocentric idea 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. He was later influenced by Maulana Karenga
Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett, July 14, 1941), previously known as Ron Karenga, is an American activist, author, and professor of Africana studies, best known as the creator of the pan-African and African-American holi ...
’s ''Kawaida
Africana philosophy is the work of philosophers of African descent and others whose work deals with the subject matter of the African diaspora. The name does not refer to a particular philosophy, philosophical system, method, or tradition. Rather ...
'' philosophy, which emphasizes the role of culture for self-understanding and self-assertion and the importance of ethics for human freedom and flourishing.[
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."][Yoshitaka Miike, "Asiacentricity," ''Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue'', No. 24, July 21, 2014, Washington, DC: Center for Intercultural Dialogue.]
Borrowing from Daisetz Suzuki
, self-rendered in 1894 as "Daisetz", was a Japanese-American Buddhist monk, essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, and writer. He was a scholar and author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in s ...
'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. 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.
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.[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.]
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.[
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.
Miike also synthesized a large body of literature in the field of Asian communication theory while paying homage to such pioneers as ]Anantha Babbili
Anantha S. Babbili is Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi where he served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Education
Babbili received a B.S. in Biological Sciences ...
, Guo-Ming Chen, Godwin C. Chu, Wimal Dissanayake, D. Shelton A. Gunaratne
Dhavalasri Shelton Abeywickreme Gunaratne (Sinhala language, Sinhala: ධවලෂ්රි ෂෙල්ටන් අබේවික්රම ගුණරත්න; 22 January 1940 – 8 March 2019) was a professor of mass communications ...
, Satoshi Ishii, Young Yun Kim, D. Lawrence Kincaid, Hamid Mowlana
Hamid Mowlana ( fa, حمید مولانا , Hamid Molana, born in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan, Imperial State of Iran) is an Iranian-American author and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations in the School of International S ...
, Louis Nordstrom, Robert T. Oliver
Robert Tarbell Oliver (July 7, 1909 – May 29, 2000) was an American writer, lecturer, and an authority on public speaking, argumentation and debate, and Asian rhetorical traditions.
Biography
Oliver was born in Sweet Home, Oregon. He graduated ...
, Tulsi B. Saral, Robert Shuter, K. S. Sitaram, William J. Starosta, Majid Tehranian, Muneo Yoshikawa
Muneo Jay Yoshikawa (吉川 宗男) is a Japanese professor, author, researcher and consultant in the fields of intercultural communication, human development, human resource management, and leadership.
Career
Muneo Yoshikawa was born in Tokyo i ...
, and June Ock Yum. He urged Asiacentric research to overcome "comparative Eurocentrism" and direct more attention to common insights gained from non-Eurocentric comparisons. 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.[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.]
See also
* Asian Century
The Asian Century is the projected 21st-century dominance of Asian politics and culture, assuming certain demographic and economic trends persist. The concept of Asian Century parallels the characterisation of the 19th century as Britain's Imp ...
*Pan-Asianism
file:Asia satellite orthographic.jpg , Satellite photograph of Asia in orthographic projection.
Pan-Asianism (''also known as Asianism or Greater Asianism'') is an ideology aimed at creating a political and economic unity among Asian people, Asian ...
*Asian pride
Asian pride is a term which encourages Asian people to celebrate their ethnicity and culture. It also has various origins and interpretations.
International usage
Asian pride is a broad term that can cover several topics. Within the international ...
*Culture of Asia
The culture of Asia encompasses the collective and diverse customs and traditions of art, architecture, music, literature, lifestyle, philosophy, politics and religion that have been practiced and maintained by the numerous ethnic groups o ...
*East Asian cultural sphere
The East Asian cultural sphere, also known as the Sinosphere, the Sinic world, the Sinitic world, the Chinese cultural sphere, the Chinese character sphere encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically ...
*Pacific Century
The Pacific Century (and the associated term Asia-Pacific Century) is a term that has been used to describe the 21st century through analogy with the term American Century. The implicit assumption underlying the usage of the term is that the 21st ...
* Indian century
The Indian Century is the idea that the 21st century will be dominated by India, as the 20th century is often called the American Century, and the 19th century as Pax Britannica (British Peace). The phrase is used particularly in the assertion ...
*Greater India
Greater India, or the Indian cultural sphere, is an area composed of many countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct indigenous cultures ...
* Indocentrism Indocentrism is any ethnocentric perspective that regards India to be central or unique relative to other countries and holds that the "host" culture i.e. of India, is superior to others.
Viewpoint
According to Indologist Michael Witzel, there i ...
* China's peaceful rise
"China's peaceful rise", sometimes referred to as "China's peaceful development", was an official policy and political slogan in China under former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao which sought to assure the internatio ...
* Chinese Century
The Chinese Century () is a neologism suggesting that the 21st century may be geoeconomics, geoeconomically or geopolitically dominated by the People's Republic of China, similar to how the "American Century" refers to the 20th century and the " ...
*Sinocentrism
Sinocentrism refers to the worldview that China is the cultural, political, or economic center of the world. It may be considered analogous to Eurocentrism.
Overview and context
Depending on the historical context, Sinocentrism can refer to ...
* Pax Sinica
''Pax Sinica'' (Latin for "Chinese peace"; ) is a historiographical term referring to periods of peace and stability in East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia led by China. A study on the Sinocentric world system reveals ...
* Tiger Cub Economies
The Tiger Cub Economies collectively refer to the economies of the developing countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the five dominant countries in Southeast Asia.
Overview
The Tiger Cub Economies are so named b ...
References
Further reading
* Khanna, P. (2019). ''The future is Asian: Commerce, conflict, and culture in the 21st century''. Simon & Schuster.
* Mahbubani, K. (2008). ''The new Asian hemisphere: The irresistible shift of global power to the East''. PublicAffairs.
* 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). Routledge.
* Wong, P., Manvi, M., & Wong, T. H. (1995). Asiacentrism and Asian American Studies? ''Amerasia Journal'', ''21''(1/2), 137–147.
* Yin, J. (2022). Rethinking Eurocentric visions in feminist communication research: Asiacentric womanism as a theoretical framework. In Y. Miike & J. Yin (Eds.), ''The handbook of global interventions in communication theory'' (pp. 188–214). Routledge.
External links
Asiacentricity
An Anatomy of Eurocentrism in Communication Scholarship: The Role of Asiacentricity in De-Westernizing Theory and Research
The Asiacentric Idea in Communication: Understanding the Significance of a Paradigm
Asian Communication Studies at the Crossroads: A View to the Future from an Asiacentric Framework
Toward an Alternative Metatheory of Human Communication: An Asiacentric Vision
Theorizing Culture and Communication in the Asian Context: An Assumptive Foundation
{{Asia topics
Asian culture
Asian studies
Asian-American culture
Ethnocentrism
Geocultural perspectives
Pan-Asianism
Political neologisms