Asian Values: Do they exist?

Asian Values: Do they exist?

On the face of it, the existence of ‘Asian Values’ seems illusory.

After the humiliation of the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, the sounding

of the death knell for the Asian-values debate seemed imminent. Yet

with the recent ascension of China as an economic superpower and

similar economic miracles in the East, some began to speculate about

‘Asian Values’ and its inherent superiority in the political, economic

and social structures in countries.

‘Asian values’ can be termed as a set of values shared by people of

many different nationalities and ethnicities living in East and

Southeast Asia. Often seen in the context of religion, Taoism, Islam

and Buddhism have fashioned or influenced the basis of many values.

Despite some minor differences in the value systems of these

religions, they generally agree on certain areas. These include a

stress on the community rather than the individual, a reliance on the

moral fabric of human relations and conventions, a particular emphasis

on thriftiness and hard work, and a respect for political leadership

amongst others. In order to examine whether these Asian values still

have credence in today’s world, we must look at four areas of study:

the influence of globalization, the policies of government, adoption

of Asian values into economics, and the changing social fabric of

Asia.

There can be no doubt that globalization in the past decades has had a

profound influence on the traditional v...