아시아적 가치 논쟁 재론

Abstract

Asian values have been extolled for their contribution to the miracle of Asian economic development and censured for their role in Asia's financial meltdown. This article is to examine critically the debates on the relationship between Asian values and the regions's capitalist development. The rhetorics about Asian values which tend to relate to Asia's varied economic performance have not been used as an independent discipline to provide little explanation for the context of a dynamic and evolving process of international norm-setting, bearing in mind the significance of national and regional peculiarities and various historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds. They often have been used as a tool to describe the phenomena which happen at specific times and places. However, the cultural diversity of Asia is too great for there to be a single set of common values across the region, especially under the situation that both capital and information has been being globalized. Taking into account the presence of such cultural complexity, we conducted the field researches in Korea, China, and Japan to reinforce strongly the image of cultural complexity in the East Asian region. The observations made in the public surveys and in-depth interviews, which focus not only on day-to-day family life and practical experiences in enterprises but also on the broad influence of, and contest between, cultural traditions, also provide some critical evidence of a coherent value system across the region. This attempt includes the wishes of political philosophers to promote East Asian consciousness and to enunciate a code of East Asian values for the co-existence and co-prosperity of East Asian countries in a future-oriented manner.