IDENTIFYING ASIAN Be Text by Miguel Paolo Celestial [PART 1] The globe is changing, and it's not just the weather. Economists, politicians, and anthropologists are more than keen to point out that the decade has seen one of the world’s mast progressive rebalancing of forces — in terms of trade, culture, and influence. Yet the unease and distrust of the West over the emergence of an Asian superpower are not one reserved for an ordinary rval. It seems that old feelings of fear and strangeness — almost of the unknown — have also come to resurface After the age of empires and communism, there stil seems to exist a great wall between not just China and the West, but the West and Asia in general. Ina world fast converging through the exchange of products and information, where knowledge has never been as accessible or ideas as shareable, Asia's beliefs and customs still posses an old-world mysticism for the West. WestEast explores these differences through the eyes of Asia's most influential and celebrated modern writers. In this first part, WE asks about Asian spirituality and steps into the world of Haruki Murakami, famous internationally for opening doors into fantastic realms and greeting the mysteries of the self. ‘So if | have to make a summary of myself, it temifies me. | don't know which of the many faces represents me more ond the more closely | look the clearer the transformations become, and finaly only bewilderment remains.” (Gao Xingian, Soul Mountain)Journey to the East The Joumey to the Fost was published in 1932, was an alegory by Geman novelist and Nobel Prize winner Herman Hesse, invobing a religous sect composed of famcus hitorial and fetional characters. This group se ost a5 pgrms searching for the “utimate Trt” in the East, which was considered “Home ofthe Light”, the source of renewal LUke sik and spices that drove traders and conquerors of past centuries, Asian spirtulty — as exotic fit and el — has inspired a smiar pursut by the West. Though its practees have been embraced in the flds of non-convetional medicine and ‘moder wellbeng. these are sill regarded vith a fair amount ‘of caution, approached as fads oc heath altemaives, oc tsted only a5 last resort, Asian spirituality remains distant. Different. But as plobalzation opened access beyond Asan relgon and modicne, it has allowed the West to approach this spirtuaiy ‘trough Asis culture and hertage. W's art, chema, and literature ‘ave insight fo everchanging atttudes and identies germinating from ambiguous sytem of beet Consequently, globalization has proved greater access to the West. But what makes Eastern sprtualty more interesting is how Asians. have appropriated American and European ideas, ews, and modes of thought and expression into ther belts, managing in tum to exer infuence on the West. Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami quickly comes to mind. Has this happened because something is missing 9 the Wests understanding of ite? This may net necessary be due to a ant in analysis — perhaps. precisely the opposte. Central to Asian spirtulty is its bass in emptiness This “emptines, the nothingness, ofthe Orient”, according to Yasura Kanabata, Japan's fst Nobel laureate for literature, “snot to be taken for the rihsm of the West’. The aference bring that this nothingness if also the essence of fulless, as borne by silence, light or darkness, or the wordlessness of the upmost reaches of song, where beauty brims. Only inthis emptiness is wholeness, the renewal Herman Hesse seught, possible. Completeness in the constantly new sustained by the cycles of nature, in the passing of seasons where creatures flower and die, emerge and wilt. Asian relgons and cultures abide by these crslar phases, transformations, and constant changes. In conwast, Wester art of late has been cbsessed with britle tranches of structure and appearances, and purported discoveries of the “totaly new" that merely peel old bark produce works that lack sap. instead of leading culture 10 the intended evo, the obsession, not unlike the inpetus behind industry, has brought it to petifacton Western art has arrived at prevalent stasis, with decadence overpowering Uke mold and lichen. Mere and mere, Wester culture and religion are faced with the steady disintegration of the Wester sou, which has sufored the tol of wars and hate and typermaterialsm, of megalomaria and. selfrighteousness. As the West begins to acknowledge its ebbing prowess for imagination, i inreasingly looks to the East.Refugees Returning Home “at most you can only find in @ particular comer, in a particular room, ina panicuar instant, some memories which belong purely to yoursel, and it only in such memories that you can preserve yourself fly” (Gao Xinglan, “Soul Mourtain") (Chen Asia's neamess and understanding of nature and is seasons and changes, what then could account for the “powiderment” that Gao Xingjan, Chinese Nobel laureate for Warature, has referred to about hinealf In his book Sout Mountain? He suggests that amidst the confsion of rarsfommatons ‘eturing to memories or personal story is necessay 10 ven indviduaty, poining cut that “in the end, in this vast ocean of humanity you are at most only 2 spoonful of green seawater, insignificant and fragile”. As a witer and as an indhidual Cao Xingan as inssod on the valve of UReatue “to preserve a human conscousnes” to retain ident ‘Asia's history has gone through wars and conquests, not only ‘over land and trade, but also over ideas and individuality — enough to cause the diplacement of nations and idntties. ingjan admits that he has been “a refugoe from bith’, gbomn “while planes were dropping bombs, He also excaped E persecution In China to sett in a foreign court, writing BEF, Soul Mountain in a personal journey back to the sel For his part, Kavabatas compatriot Kerzsburo (08, who also won the Nebel Prae for Literature, sought to return from the ravages of war to face dsilisionment and ambiguity in Japan Personally, iv his wring, he has sought healing Last, Arundhati Rey inher Booker Prize- winning novel The Cod of Small Things, made a joumey with her protagonist back B co nda years after suffering injustice not only from domeste prolidice, but also fom her county's colonial heritage Asians have a unique way of deaing with <ésruptne time and fistoy. Consistent with the repetition of seasons, they have always managed to return to the old flow. Reuring to emptiness, to personal EP memories, to the historical reaies BE? of a county, and to the wounds of persecution and. prejudice, these ‘ian witers have identified themseles as individuals, and in the process have given readers a lmpse into the Asian spin From the West: Haruki Murakami “Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pes ore calling From glen to glen, ond down the mountain sie, Tre summer's gone, and al the roses fling les you, its you must go, and | must bide But come ye back when summers in the meadow. Oh Danry boy, oh Dany Boy, Ml miss you sot” [A child of the West, worldamous Japanese novelist Handi Murakami was deeply influenced by its culure, growing up reading Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Caner, and a slew of other ‘ners, and also imbibing the music of bands tke the Beatles, jazz acts tke Mies Davis, and the classical music of European composers As Bing Crosby sings about “Danny Boy", Murakami pines. for the lost innocence and spontaneity of Japan. But he does so in a voke and methed that & almost fuly Westen, “For in his Japan, the old has been destroyed, an ugly and meaningless hodgepodge has taken is place, and nobody knows what comes nex” “There are no kimonos, bonsai plants or tatam mats in Murakam's novels. Marakamis protagonists might as well be wing in Santa Moria” "I would not be surprised if his novels.tumed out to have a simiar influence in the West” “Though his works are largely set in Japan. Murakami speaks to a global audience” “The modem ennui hs characters feel has some specifically Japanese aspects to i but & is 2 condition found all across the world” "The weld as one small vilage, but fone that & uncertain of ts identity.” Readers and cries agree that Murakami has accurately shown the empty longing tat has slced into the lonely hears of the Japanese wih blades of neon and pop jargon. They agree that the ache and alienation that the author has captured in his stores have spread where captalism has thrived: tke a miasma, tke spores that settle in dark secret places, to take root and flourish — the same for Japan as in the United States, as for industrialized Europe Murakami’s concerns. span those of developed countries: terrorists, the senseleseness of war, consumerism, dsconnectedness, and the common! sense of loss Through hs characters, he_ speaks (of the ambition in Japan's “fercely camivorous cass society’, people’ pretentousness, TS. Elots. “holow men’, and “atelectual chameleons”, who utize and sell eas for the highest profit He descrbes a society with jaded and fossiized cltzens. Amidst all thi, Murakami expresses the communal yearning for escape from dreary mechanical lives. ‘The realzation of this dese though fantasy land surrealism and through the hope granted in love & what has made his stores very popular and highly accessbile, prompting adaptations into fins and plays in the West