Wednesday, March 04, 2015

汉学主义 Sinologism

"Sinology posed an obstacle to the process of inclusive globalization. Without overcoming them, globalization will become essentially "Sinologization" and continue to be an overt or covert form of Westernization. Despite controversies, globalization nowadays is generally viewed as a positive development in the rapid process of modernization of world cultures. From the perspective of Sinologism, however, I can see why the opponents of globalization are so vehemently opposed to this process. Globalization brings with it potentials of cultural conflicts, i.e., Samuel Hungtington's "clash of civilizations." In my opinion, the clashes brought about by globalization in the East-West encounter are not so much in the nature of civilizational conflicts as ideological conflicts. In East-West studies, the conflicts of ideas across cultural traditions are largely in the nature of epistemological conflicts. The underlying driving force for cultural conflicts in the East-West encounter is the dominance of Western ideology in epistemology in the West's approach to non-Western cultures and traditions. In terms of my conception of Sinologism, globalization is largely a process of modernization predicated on Western models of development with little attention to the vast differences between cultures, traditions, and regions, still less attention to the differences in social conditions, moral consciousness, life styles, and cultural values in different societies. Wei-ming Tu points out that because of the overwhelming presence of the West in all aspects of Asian life, modernity in East Asia is substantially "Western" and "modernization, in theory and practice, is synonymous with Westernization". In the mind of many Chinese intellectuals, Westernization has universal value and is the right direction for the whole world and humanity."

Source:
"Sinologism, the Western World View, and the Chinese Perspective ", by Ming Dong Gu

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