Japanese Cultural Policy toward China, 1918–1931: A Comparative Perspective (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Hardcover

Teow, See Heng

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674472578 ISBN 13: 9780674472570

Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999

Synopsis

Most existing scholarship on Japan's cultural policy toward modern China reflects the paradigm of cultural imperialism. In contrast, this study demonstrates that Japan―while motivated by pragmatic interests, international cultural rivalries, ethnocentrism, moralism, and idealism―was mindful of Chinese opinion and sought the cooperation of the Chinese government. Japanese policy stressed cultural communication and inclusiveness rather than cultural domination and exclusiveness and was part of Japan's search for an East Asian cultural order led by Japan. China, however, was not a passive recipient and actively sought to redirect this policy to serve its national interests and aspirations. The author argues that it is time to move away from the framework of cultural imperialism toward one that recognizes the importance of cultural autonomy, internationalism, and transculturation.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Most existing scholarship on Japan's cultural policy toward modern China reflects the paradigm of cultural imperialism and emphasizes a linear pattern of Japanese cultural aggression, particularly after 1923 and the establishment of the China Cultural Affairs Bureau. In contrast, this study demonstrates that Japan, like the other Great Powers, was motivated by pragmatic interests, international cultural rivalries, ethnocentrism, moralism, and idealism. The author argues that Japanese policy can best be understood as the promotion of its own experience of development, which stressed the civilizing aspects of East Asian civilization, modernization, and the promotion of Japanese culture and interests. Japanese policy focused on cultural communication and inclusiveness and was part of Japan's search for an East Asian cultural order led by Japan. Like the United States and Great Britain, Japan, too, was mindful of Chinese opinion and sought the cooperation of the Chinese government. China, however, was more than a passive recipient and actively sought to redirect Japanese policy to serve its national interests and aspirations. The author argues that it is time to move away from the framework of cultural imperialism toward one that recognizes the importance of cultural autonomy, internationalism, and transculturation, especially in view of regional and global developments in the 1920s.

About the Author

See Heng Teow is Head of the Department of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0674472578
• ISBN 13: 9780674472570
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 326