The potency of academic culturalism

The civilizations of Japan, China, and South Korea are distinct in their modern histories, experiences with industrialization, and cultural traditions, which encompass and highlight their respective geopolitical positions in the world. Although the three historical and current economic powerhouses of East Asia share a reverence for Confucian ideology and its continued prominence in contemporary affairs, past wars, fierce territorial disputes, and seemingly intractable political disagreements have resulted in lingering suspicion and hostility between them. From the brutality of colonization to the intense competition in manufacturing, design, and innovation, the triangular relationship between Japan, China, and South Korea is at best tumultuous and ambiguous, and at worst fraught with irreconcilable animosity. That said, however, no triangular relationship in Asia is as crucial for the peaceful and prosperous development of the region. Degrees of collaboration or combativeness that are present in this trilateral relationship will profoundly shape the future agendas of not only regional but world leaders. 

Despite enduring political disagreements and contrasting interpretations of history, Japan, China and South Korea share not only a historical written linguistic system but also a ceaseless drive to modernize and advance all sectors of their civil, social, and industrial landscapes. Another common denominator is the near-obsessive emphasis on education and standardized, high-stakes, centrally administered, seemingly life-or-death examinations. The big three of East Asia are economic competitors in many arenas, but also cooperate on issues ranging from nuclear nonproliferation and climate change to refugees and trilateral trade. 

Territorial sovereignty and history textbooks will, in the immediate future, remain inexorable thorns in the garden of East Asia. Although all three nations may currently be located in distinct stages of economic development and subscribe to widely varying foreign policies and internal mechanisms of governance, the words, ideas, principles, and philosophies of once paramount Confucian thinking allow Tokyo, Beijing, and Seoul to have a general understanding of each other’s cultural and moral roots. This understanding, though at times fleeting and substantially vulnerable to the winds of political change, provides a basis for constructive engagement. In other words, the more that common concrete is poured to underpin new buildings, economic pedagogies, and foreign policy paradigms, the less likely that an unanticipated political earthquake will wreak considerable diplomatic causalities. Thus, the more culturally integrated nations are, the more governments and citizens respond to tumult with tolerance rather than saber-rattling.     

The power of ideas and of culture to transform enmity into amity is well-chronicled with the rise and propagation of American cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse, Michael Jordan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The distinguished international reputation of American higher education and its cultural properties have attracted countless scholars, students, and tourists to the land of opportunity. The “soft power” that America continues to wield, with its positive foreign policy implications, has been replicated of late by one of the surging Asian tigers, South Korea.

With the rise of the South Korean cultural wave in the late 1990s and especially into the beginning years of this decade, Korean music, soap operas, movies, and cuisine have attained a coveted regional status. The government’s investment in and deregulation of the entertainment industry not only sparked a renewed interest in South Korea from the alleys of Beijing to the skyscrapers of Tokyo, but also laid the foundation for a relatively harmonious decade of collaboration and intercultural interaction.

Along with the escalating regional status of South Korean cultural exports, the increased rate of student-faculty exchanges and institutional partnerships among Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese universities has been remarkably beneficial in assuaging recurring political, economic, and social misunderstandings. The more students and scholars are free to share their unfiltered impressions and beliefs in American-style open classrooms, the less likely that cultural pride will be misconstrued as extremist nationalist behavior.

As both an external and internal observer of this volatile triangular relationship, the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University has, this past summer, done its part to foster dialogue and intellectual cross-pollination in the region. With its 60th anniversary celebrations in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo, the WEAI created an atmosphere in all three cities that spotlighted similarities over differences and shared stakes rather than divergent interests. The impact that trilateral forthright conversation can have on repairing diplomatic rows cannot be underestimated. Although quarrels still persist, it is an incontrovertible fact that trilateral mutual trust and respect can be most effectively achieved through sustained academic collaborations and conversations along with a genuine appreciation of each other’s cultural idiosyncrasies as packaged in films, songs, novels, and world heritage sights.  

The author is a graduate student at Teachers College majoring in international educational development/higher education.