East meets West: What we can learn from our newcomers
Beneath the obvious physical signs of rapid change, unseen moral values are coming to Canada via waves of immigrants from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
Douglas Todd
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Far more East Asians walk the school halls and streets of Greater Vancouver than in the '70s. East Asian restaurants are everywhere. Signs sporting East Asian characters cover shopping malls and movie theatres. Local TV is peppered with East Asian-language hosts. Table tennis and badminton are booming.
In 2004, roughly one-third of Greater Vancouver's population had roots in East Asia.
Many native-born Canadians experience the newcomers as "strangers" -- and the feeling is often mutual.
As Chinese New Year approaches on Feb. 9, it may be worth thinking about the clash of East-West cultures occurring in Greater Vancouver, Toronto and other North American cities.
Beneath the obvious physical signs of rapid change, what unseen moral values are coming to Canada via waves of immigrants from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China?
Generalizations abound. People talk about a tireless East Asian ethic for hard work, and a determination to move to the top of the class in education -- not necessarily in the humanities, but in technology, the professions and business.
There's also talk of East Asian respect for parents and those in authority, not to mention taboos about homosexuality and opposition to inter-racial marriage. Some observers also note a passion to obtain material riches, exemplified by the Chinese New Year's blessing, Gung Hay Fat Choy, which wishes wealth and prosperity.
William Theodore de Bary, author of Nobility and Civility: Asian Ideals of Leadership and the Common Good (Harvard University Press, $35), is one of the few scholars trying to probe beneath the easy generalizations about East Asian values.
The Columbia University professor has devoted his career to probing the moral underpinnings of Asia's successes and failures -- and his latest book explores how those ethics are poised to transform the West.
De Bary wants to go beyond mutual suspicion. He hopes the West, while influencing the East, will benefit from the collision of values.
He's especially keen on how the ancient traditions of Confucianism and Buddhism could offer North Americans guidance on being less selfish and individualistic, and more oriented to the common good.
This is not to say de Bary is Poly-annaish. He's clear that Confucian and Buddhist values have often been degraded and co-opted by authorities in Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and economically booming China, which some critics today accuse of being a neo-fascist state.
De Bary believes Confucianism, a non-theistic philosophy which underscores much of East Asian life, promotes a "bowing" culture -- which expects firm respect to be shown to parents, ancestors, elders, rulers and hierarchy. Such a culture, he says, is not all bad.
However, he deeply regrets many East Asian autocrats have manipulated Confucianism's commitment to social "harmony" to justify top-down, bureaucratic coercion.
East Asian rulers have often twisted the ancient philosophy to demand meek deference. In the name of Confucian order, they've crushed dissent and pushed manic material "progress" at the expense of the working poor, human freedom and the ecology.
What is happening now that East Asia's "bowing culture" is coming up against the West's individualistic mindset?
The West could be described as having a "rebel" ethos, where everyone is considered equal and it's seen as cool to reject the past, walk away from tradition and do your own thing (we'll set aside for now how mass-produced rebel culture creates its own conformity).
What can westerners learn from imported East Asian values -- particularly those embedded in Confucianism and Buddhism?
Or, as de Bary shapes the question: "Can Asian values enrich liberal concepts such as liberty, rationality, human rights and due process without undermining western ideals?"
De Bary doesn't believe Confucianism, in its pure form, sanctions arbitrary use of power or cronyism, even though it has often been used to justify it.
In calling for people to be civil and noble, true Confucianism, he argues, requires citizens to follow their conscience, live with integrity and "stand up to those who abuse power."
De Bary could have been thinking about former B.C. lieutenant-governor David Lam (a Confucian-shaped immigrant and philanthropist who wholeheartedly embraced Christianity and Canadian values) when he says Confucianism's emphasis on becoming a "noble gentleman" could help Westerners overcome their obsessive individualism.
De Bary laments how western individualism leads to social rudeness, weakens loyalty to worthwhile institutions and leaves many lonely. What is the point of western freedom and creativity, he says, unless used well?
Confucianism might point to an answer. De Bary believes Confucianism is about much more than protecting a social order so that everyone knows their place. Confucianism, he says, asks adherents to protect the planet and all humanity, to preserve the universe's harmony.
In addition to Confucianism, de Bary appreciates Buddhism, which has also deeply and subconsciously influenced everyday life in East Asia.
Where Confucianism may be focused almost too much on the things of this world, Buddhism has an otherworldly quality, de Bary says. This Buddhist emphasis can be a healthy counterweight to the conformist tendencies of Confucianism.
He also likes the Buddhist teaching that humans should detach themselves from anxiously desiring control, wealth and power. And the Buddhist stress on divine compassion, he writes, provides a keen reminder to people in both the East and West to look beyond their narrow interests.
Although de Bary's arguments are fascinating, be warned that Nobility and Civility is not a reader-friendly book. It's hard slogging -- dense, highly abstract and sometimes vague -- as difficult as the elusive subject it's tackling.
Still, de Bary is right in urging people from the West and East Asia to go beyond seeing each other as strangers and find a way to learn more about each others' moral inclinations. That way we could engage in a process toward mutual understanding, which will include listening, criticizing and eventually being transformed for the better by each other.
The professor also makes it clear the people most likely to emerge as leaders in the globalized future are those educated in the values of both the West and the East.
dtodd@png.canwest.com
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