Why the Chinese Save. Sheldon Garon, who teaches in both the history and East Asian studies departments at Princeton, is a leading scholar of Japan. But his timely new book, Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves (Princeton University Press; all rights reserved) takes on an issue that’s also important to contemporary policymakers in transition economies: Why some countries save far more of their income than others. The received wisdom, heavily influenced by the experience of Japan and the east Asian Tigers, is that families’ decisions about savings are generally driven by cultural values derived from Confucian teachings and are thus largely beyond the reach of government policy. So countries on the cusp of development that lack the savings bug – for example, Mexico and South Africa -- must either import large amounts of capital or make do with lower rates of investment.
To be sure, many East and Southeast Asian societies appear culturally disposed toward thrift. Savings in China. ASEAN Charter. Old Tensions China, Japan, Korea. Wednesday's 67th anniversary of the end of World War II collided with election-year politics in the Asia Pacific, spurring South Korea's president, Japanese officials and Chinese activists to stage controversial gestures that have stirred up bitter wartime memories. South Korea had already rekindled long-smoldering resentment of Japanese occupation and war-era abuses when its president, Lee Myung Bak, last week visited a cluster of rocky islets claimed by both his nation and Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda recalled his nation's ambassador to South Korea in protest of Lee's visit Friday to the outcroppings known in Japan as Takeshima and in South Korea as Dokdo and coveted for their surrounding fisheries and energy reserves. On Wednesday, the anniversary of Japan's surrender that ended World War II and its colonial occupations, Japanese coast guards arrested 14 Hong Kong activists who landed at another set of disputed islands to stake a claim for Chinese sovereignty.
INTRODUCTION TO BASIC ASIAN VALUES | AsianWeek. [Hu’s On First ] I wrote this as the result of a research project I did for the progressive Asian American Resource Workshop in Boston (headed by Peter Kiang, now professor at U Mass) with a couple of other members who helped with the research. Though this was written back in the 1980s, I think it still holds up well with the passage of time as the Asian population has increased immensely since then, and Asians still find themselves baffled by American and Asian culture, depending on which base they had grown up with. I find that as someone who grew up in the 60s in a basically white culture, but with strong parental Asian influences, most Asians end up working with both sets but often not understanding the basis and interaction between these often conflicting values. By Arthur Hu, March 9, 1985 © 1985, released to open source, please attribute rules.
One of the most central features of a culture are its values. Traditional values are a common thread among individuals in a culture. The Cocept of Asian Values. Pan-Asianism. Pan-Asianism as an Ideal of Asian Identity and Solidarity, 1850–Present Sven Saaler and Christopher W. A. Szpilman This is a revised, updated and abbreviated version of the introduction to the two volume collection by the authors of Pan-Asianism. A Documentary History Vol. 1 covers the years 1850-1920; Vol. 2 covers the years 1850-present, link. The economic and political power of Asia, the world’s largest continent, is increasing rapidly. Where is Asia? Attempts to define Asia are almost as old as the term itself. The term “Asia” arrived in East Asia relatively late, being introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century. 1808 map of Asia These arguments about the definition and nature of Asia in reaction to the impending Western threat marked the beginnings of Pan-Asianism as an ideology and a movement.
In this way, then, a pan-Asian worldview or “style of thought” became established and diffused throughout the region. Pan-Asianism and Empire.
Global Consumer Trends - Individualism. International Markets Bureau MARKET ANALYSIS REPORT | OCTOBER 2010 Global Analysis These reports cover a wide variety of subjects and countries of interest to the sector. New reports will be posted regularly. If you wish to be on e-mail distribution in order to receive the reports more quickly, or to comment on any of the reports, please contact infoservice@agr.gc.ca.
The spirit of individualism applauds the freedom of the individual and encourages personal development and self-direction, with few social limitations. Independence, self-responsibility, and individuality are key values in this context and will be described in detail in this report. Self-Asserted Consumers: Consumers are increasingly likely to do their own research when it comes to product claims. Self-Care and Self-Improvement: Consumers are watching their health more than ever, in an effort to take more control of their lives and rely less on medical institutions.
Independence Self-Responsibility Individuality. Culture can determine long-run growth. The idea that culture is a central ingredient of economic development goes back to at least Max Weber who, in his classical work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (Weber 1905), argued that the protestant ethic of Calvinism was a very powerful force behind the development of capitalism in its early phases.
In our new research (Gorodnichenko and Roland, 2010), we provide both a theoretical model and empirical evidence showing that countries with a more individualist culture have more innovation, a higher level of total factor productivity and higher long-run growth than countries with a more collectivist culture. Here are the main tenets of our theoretical formulation of the idea: Individualism emphasises personal freedom and achievement and therefore individualist culture awards social status to personal accomplishments such as important discoveries, innovations, or great artistic achievements.
Figure 1. Individualism vs GDP per worker Figure 2. Acemoglu, D, S. The diagnostic pundit: Individualism and its alleged discontents. The Explosive Rise in Individualism (John Stewart) | advayavada.com. The Explosive Rise in Individualism (from Evolution’s Arrow – The Direction of Evolution and the Future of Humanity, by John Stewart, Canberra, Australia 2000) Particularly in the last two hundred years, a significant proportion of individuals in more complex human societies has developed a strong capacity to use internal linear modelling to critically evaluate their own beliefs. Increasingly, this has produced a decline in the extent to which individuals are internally hard wired by inculcated beliefs to behave in ways that produce a cooperative and easily-managed society.
For more and more individuals, god, tradition and duty are all dead. Their behaviour is now guided largely by internal reward systems that are mostly self-centered, except for the legacy of the kin selection and reciprocal altruism mechanisms. These continue to predispose us toward some cooperation within our families and friendship groups. THE NEW GENERATION. Many generations have said “today’s young people only think of themselves,” but this time around it may be true. We recently witnessed a crisis sparked by self-contained bankers, politicians and CEOs, with systems and those serving them unable to prevent abuse of the collective; but we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Researchers and sociologists have noticed an increasing focus on the ME in recent generations. Termed by some as Generation Me[1], those from the most recent few decades are now on, entering, or preparing for the labor market. Throughout the world, the personal habits and behaviors of the young have implications for the future of business and the interactions between employer and employee. In the United States, over the past decades researchers[2] have measured narcissism – the inflated grandiose view of oneself, lack of empathy and need for admiration and self-enhancing experiences.
But are the young, and their behaviors, a product of the old? How did we get here? Dr. World Becoming “Ungovernable”, Says Peres | World Economic Forum - World Becoming “Ungovernable”, Says Peres. Global corporations are replacing the role of governmentsCorporations are answering the younger generations’ call for individualityThe theme of the 43rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is Resilient Dynamism. For more information, visit Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 24 January 2013 – Speaking this afternoon at the 43rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Shimon Peres, President of Israel, said the world is becoming ungovernable.
“Governments have found themselves unemployed because the economy has become global while governments remain national,” he said. Peres described his view that global companies are replacing the role of governments. “Forty global companies have more fortune than all the governments in the world,” he pointed out, going on to say that global corporations are answering the expectation of individuality which defines the younger generations. He also credited global companies with reducing racism. Notes to Editors. Worldvaluessurvey. This map reflects the fact that a large number of basic values are closely correlated; they can be depicted in just two major dimensions of cross-cultural variation. ** Update ** Added supplementary data file.
Each country is positioned according to its people's values and not its geographical location. To a large extent the two coincide, but the map measures cultural proximity, not geographical proximity. Thus, Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain are cultural neighbors, reflecting their relatively similar values, despite their geographical dispersion. The World Value Survey Cultural Map 2005-2008 Source: Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, "Changing Mass Priorities: The Link Between Modernization and Democracy.
" The World Value Survey Cultural Map 1999-2004 Source: Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy New York: Cambridg University Press, 2005: page 63. ** Update ** SEMINAR: THE ASIAN VALUE DEBATE REVISITED: EVIDENCE FROM THE WORLD VALUES SURVEY. This is a listing of older East-West Center events (newer listed first). See Events to get the list of current or upcoming events. Where: John Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor), 12 noon - 1:00 p.m. When: Sep 16 2009 (All day) What: The ‘Asian values’ debate has caused a lot of attention. DR. Primary Contact Info: Name: Joyce Gruhn. Asian values revisited. With Asia's economy still booming in the second half of the 1990's “Asian values” were announced by some politicians (Lee Kuan Yew, Mahatir, Ishihara, Mahbubani etc.) and contrasted with “Western values”.
Soon a controversial debate within Asia ensued (Kim, Fidel Ramos ea..), into which also the western democracies joined. The “West” however reacted rather defensively to the new assertiveness of some Asian statesmen, inspite of the fact that the authors of this debate put into question the western dominance in global value setting which has been in existence since the French revolution. But has this debate withstood the test of time, the challenges posed by the recession in Asia and by the ever increasing globalization?
Hardly. The crisis has destroyed the notion that “Asian values” had been the main cause and guarantor of Asia's exorbitant growth rates. In the meantime the debate has become quieter and more dispassionate. The Claims About 'Asian' Values Don't Usually Bear Scrutiny. [ATTENTION ALL IHT STAFF :The Singapore courts have ruled that material contained in the following article represents libel.Do not provide copies of this story to anyone not employed by the IHT without consulting the Publisher's office.Do not use information from this article in text being prepared for publication without consultingthe Executive Editor.] Singapore (population 2.8 million) has some of the world's harshest laws against smoking and other "anti- social" activities such as chewing gum.
In Indonesia (population 180 million), it was recently claimed that cultural factors would make it very hard to enforce any anti-smoking measures. Muhammad Budyatna of the University of Indonesia said the local culture expected people to be accommodative and indirect, "to display empathy, to understand what others want or do not want. " Most Eastern cultures were the same, he said, and offered a contrast to Western norms. But while some ills in the West are plain enough, are they Western?