By Raja A Ratnam
Cross-cultural shocks, especially those unexpected, can leave
unwanted imprints in both international relations and in personal social
relations. The following narrative highlights the nature of some of the
causes, and the efforts by certain Western nations to obtain an
eco-political foothold in independent Asian nations.
Way back in 1949, when the dragons blew smoke over the land (well, not quite), and the grandparents of today's youth had just reached adulthood, Kim was studying at a coaching college, preparing for university. One day, Kim's class was asked to write a few lines about their heritage. The intent was a little cross-cultural sensitisation. Asian students had suddenly appeared in White Australia, which had hitherto successfully avoided contamination by coloured people, especially the feared 'yellow hordes' to the North.
The next day, Kim's contribution included the following: his people had been civilised for more than 5,000 years, 'long before the white man came down from the trees.' One can only guess how that story went down. At the end of the class, the kindly lady teacher explained to Kim that, while what he said might be correct, it was not a nice thing to say. Kim's response was that he had indeed been taught his manners; that he would never say anything improper. But he could not see why he could not write what was a historical fact.
What Kim had displayed was pride in his ancestry, not prejudice against others. It gave him the confidence needed to deal with people who seemed unduly sensitive to colour on human skin. What the white host-nation people may not have been aware of was that Asians had generally viewed colonial whites (the only white people they had ever come across) as 'upstarts' (a term expressed privately by their tribal elders).
Yet, these young Asians had arrived in Australia willing to accept white people in their own terrain as fellow humans. That was because they had generally been taught not to be prejudiced against the British peoples as a whole while they remained anti-colonial.
An important consideration is whether the Asians represented a cultural shock to white Australians by behaving not only with indifferent confidence, but also (occasionally) with an aura of comfortable superiority (which could be intuited by only the more sensitive people).
Pride in their cultural heritage bonded these newly-arrived Asians, mainly because their diverse ethnic origins and associated cultural practices, faiths, religions and metaphysical beliefs were subsumed under the historically durable set of human values described as 'Asian values.' Reference to Asian values in white company is akin to waving a red flag at a bull. Many Australians of yesteryear, with their felt superiority arising from a colonial arrogance inherited by inference, were nonplussed by these new arrivals behaving atypically; that is, not as expected. After all, their politicians and priests, and the proselytisers in the media of populist prejudice, had conditioned them against these inferior Asians, with their alleged 'unspeakable habits', strange foods, and peculiar gods.
Yet, these 'Asian values' were only traditional global societal values. In more recent times, however, 'Asian values' became adopted by certain Asian leaders as 'star wars' retaliatory weaponry in a clash of cultures. They saw the attempted imposition of Western democracy and 'human rights' as little more than neo-colonialism in disguise. They were seeking cultural, capitalistic and political independence from the West. This clash of cultures is not to be confused with the more recent conflict of civilisations, euphemistically described as the War on Terror by the 'neocons' ruling the Western world today.
The felt superiority of the official Australians has been replaced by something called human rights. Whilst these rights have been defined in international law, the more powerful signatories to the law do not have an adequately defensible record of having applied these rights to their own indigenes, or to countries within their spheres of influence.
Australia has increasingly sought to join Asia eco-politically in recent decades, while heroically mindful of its historical and cultural differences from the Asian nations. Many of these may have much to learn from Australia and the rest of the Ultra-West. In turn, Western nations may now learn to understand Asian peoples and their cultures, as well as their determination to remain essentially Asian.
Way back in 1949, when the dragons blew smoke over the land (well, not quite), and the grandparents of today's youth had just reached adulthood, Kim was studying at a coaching college, preparing for university. One day, Kim's class was asked to write a few lines about their heritage. The intent was a little cross-cultural sensitisation. Asian students had suddenly appeared in White Australia, which had hitherto successfully avoided contamination by coloured people, especially the feared 'yellow hordes' to the North.
The next day, Kim's contribution included the following: his people had been civilised for more than 5,000 years, 'long before the white man came down from the trees.' One can only guess how that story went down. At the end of the class, the kindly lady teacher explained to Kim that, while what he said might be correct, it was not a nice thing to say. Kim's response was that he had indeed been taught his manners; that he would never say anything improper. But he could not see why he could not write what was a historical fact.
What Kim had displayed was pride in his ancestry, not prejudice against others. It gave him the confidence needed to deal with people who seemed unduly sensitive to colour on human skin. What the white host-nation people may not have been aware of was that Asians had generally viewed colonial whites (the only white people they had ever come across) as 'upstarts' (a term expressed privately by their tribal elders).
Yet, these young Asians had arrived in Australia willing to accept white people in their own terrain as fellow humans. That was because they had generally been taught not to be prejudiced against the British peoples as a whole while they remained anti-colonial.
An important consideration is whether the Asians represented a cultural shock to white Australians by behaving not only with indifferent confidence, but also (occasionally) with an aura of comfortable superiority (which could be intuited by only the more sensitive people).
Pride in their cultural heritage bonded these newly-arrived Asians, mainly because their diverse ethnic origins and associated cultural practices, faiths, religions and metaphysical beliefs were subsumed under the historically durable set of human values described as 'Asian values.' Reference to Asian values in white company is akin to waving a red flag at a bull. Many Australians of yesteryear, with their felt superiority arising from a colonial arrogance inherited by inference, were nonplussed by these new arrivals behaving atypically; that is, not as expected. After all, their politicians and priests, and the proselytisers in the media of populist prejudice, had conditioned them against these inferior Asians, with their alleged 'unspeakable habits', strange foods, and peculiar gods.
Yet, these 'Asian values' were only traditional global societal values. In more recent times, however, 'Asian values' became adopted by certain Asian leaders as 'star wars' retaliatory weaponry in a clash of cultures. They saw the attempted imposition of Western democracy and 'human rights' as little more than neo-colonialism in disguise. They were seeking cultural, capitalistic and political independence from the West. This clash of cultures is not to be confused with the more recent conflict of civilisations, euphemistically described as the War on Terror by the 'neocons' ruling the Western world today.
The felt superiority of the official Australians has been replaced by something called human rights. Whilst these rights have been defined in international law, the more powerful signatories to the law do not have an adequately defensible record of having applied these rights to their own indigenes, or to countries within their spheres of influence.
Australia has increasingly sought to join Asia eco-politically in recent decades, while heroically mindful of its historical and cultural differences from the Asian nations. Many of these may have much to learn from Australia and the rest of the Ultra-West. In turn, Western nations may now learn to understand Asian peoples and their cultures, as well as their determination to remain essentially Asian.
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