Saturday 6 July 2013

Filial Piety in Chinese Culture and the Myth of Collectivism (Part I)

It has often been argued that "Asians tend to value the community and Westerners value the individual"; that "Asians appreciate order and harmony, Westerners appreciate personal freedom" (note). One of the most influential advocates of this culturalist view on society is former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew. For those who don't know him, Lee Kuan Yew is considered a giant in Asian and world politics. He led the city-state of Singapore, an ex British colony, from "third to first world", with a per capita income now surpassing that of its former colonial master.

Mr Lee and all those who support the idea that the West is individualistic while Asia is collectivist, argue that Asian cultures, shaped by a thousand-year-long Confucian tradition, value the group over the individual, stress duties over rights, emphasize harmony and compromise rather than confrontation and self-assertion. Therefore, individuals don't behave like isolated beings, but harmonize their interests with those of the communities in which they are embedded, be it family, clan or nation (Brems 2011, pp. 41-42).

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