Essay: ON UNDERSTANDING ASIA

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WORLD WAR II was barely over and the great recessional of the colonial powers had not yet begun when Yale's Professor F.S.C. Northrop published The Meeting of East and West, in which he flatly described that meeting as "the major event of our time." To a U.S. deeply preoccupied with a seemingly shattered Europe, that statement two decades ago appeared vastly exaggerated. Today few would question it. The problems, needs and challenges of Asia weigh ever more heavily on the Western mind. The East-West encounter will undoubtedly dominate the rest of the 20th century.

If he had not realized it before, Charles de Gaulle learned as much during his Russian tour last week. Admittedly, he was hoping to lay the groundwork for a European settlement. But as he flew to Soviet Asia and announced that he would later visit tiny Cambodia, the war in Viet Nam seemed to be a more urgent topic of conversation. The chief foreign-policy concerns of both America and Russia now lie in Asia. U.S. congressional committees and other forums heatedly debate the stability of Asian regimes, the aspirations of the Mekong Delta peasants, the nature of Buddhism. Understanding Asia has become an urgent task.

It has never been easy. Nearly 100 years ago, Walt Whitman, in his eccentric language, urged America to "eclaircise the myths Asiatic, the primitive fables." The myths and fables, the romantic dreams as well as the shrewd half truths of colonial times, firmly established a belief in the impenetrable differentness of Asia. The situation was not helped by the fact that Asia itself had produced strikingly little written history. Today growing numbers of Americans have firsthand knowledge of how Asians think and feel, act and react —even though such knowledge is always beset by the danger of oversimplification. Diplomats, soldiers, businessmen, journalists, teachers and technicians constantly contribute to the growing body of "typical" Asian experiences.

There is the one about trouble at a motor pool in South Viet Nam; American advisers are considered disrespectful because they give advice about such things as how to grease the engines and which oil to use without first praising the skill of the local mechanics. Moral: The key to Asia is "face."

Then there is the policeman in Malaysia who is asked how long it will take to get to the next village; he replies, "A few minutes," when actually it will take an hour and a half. Moral: Asians only tell you what they think you want to hear.

Another story concerns the foreman at a construction site who is mixing his mortar by hand although a new mechanical mixer is available. When an American technician asks why the mixer is not used, the foreman replies proudly: "I am one day ahead of schedule now, so why bother with the machine?" Moral: Asians have no sense of urgency.

The incidents are true. But how true are the interpretations and what do they prove about Asian attitudes and the Asian mind?

The Fiction of Entity