How Asian Should Asian Law Be? – An Outsider’s View

Is there an Asian identity of Asian law, comparable to European identity and therefore similarly useful as a justification for unification projects? If so, what does it look like? And if so, does this make Asia more like Europe, or less so? Or is this question itself already a mere European projection? This chapter tries to address such questions. In particular, I look at a concrete project of Asian law unification—the Principles of Asian Comparative Law—and connect discussions about its Asian identity with four concepts of Asia. The first such concept is a European idea of Asia and Asian law, which defines a presumably homogeneous Asia on the basis of its level of difference from Europe. The next three concepts are concepts that emerged from Asian debates. Two off them explicitly invoke leadership of one country. A sinocentric concept of Asian law attempts to reinvigorate concepts from the time of Chinese dominance of East Asia prior to colonization. A Japanese concept of Pan-Asian law by contrast is built on Japanese modernization, which in turn was influenced by Europe. Finally, the idea of Asian values attempts to avoid leadership by any one country in favor of a truly Asian identity. None of these three chapters can fully avoid the central problems of the European projection: they are all defined by their relation to the West, and all of them invoke a relative degree of homogeneity as basis for identity. I close, therefore, with an alternative concept of Asia “as method” that attempts to overcome these two shortcomings and may offer a more promising path towards an idea of Asian law

Visions Of Odalisques: Orientalism And Conspicuous Consumption In Leila Sebbar\u27s Le Peintre Et Son Modele (2007)

Many Algerian writers (Alloula, Djebar, Boudjedra) have revisited the representational politics of colonial iconography despite awareness that this endeavor is at risk of renewing exoticism. This article examines how Leïla Sebbar\u27s Le peintre et son modèle reproduces such a problematic stance through the inclusion of a photograph by Joel Leick inline with her short story. Whereas Sebbar attempts to deconstruct the photograph\u27s orientalism by placing it outside the realm of the aesthetic and resituating it within the sexual exploitation of women in the former French colonies, I intend to demonstrate how this photograph reintroduces the very inequalities that her text tries to evacuate. Leick\u27s model elicits an eroticized gaze from readers, who become onlookers and obedient participants in the neocolonial consumption process. Rereading Sebbar\u27s short story through the lens of this photograph thus shows current limitations to the power of postcolonial texts and, ultimately, their troubled dependence on orientalist iconography

Look Beyond and Beneath the Soft Power: An Alternative Analytical Framework for China’s Cultural Diplomacy

This paper contextualizes China’s contemporary global cultural footprints by examining the recent development of its cultural diplomacy. It started with discussing the limitations of applying ‘soft power’ as the mainstream analytical tool: its lack of historical perspective and engagement of the domestic dimension, as well as the incompatibility with the very purpose of cultural diplomacy with its binary view of cultures and values. Then an alternative and more sophisticated framework of analysis building on cultural hegemony, Orientalism and nationalism is proposed to look beyond and beneath the soft power narrative to reveal a three-dimensional picture against the historical, international and domestic contexts. The dynamics among all the forces at work in this terrain are also critically analyzed to illuminate the complex nature of this uneven global cultural terrain of struggle and the unique challenges faced by China’s cultural diplomacy

China as humanist exemplum

This essay addresses the “demand for humanism, with a nod toward Asia” within current theory and global intellectual political culture. I argue that using humanism as a way to understand China (a habit inside and especially outside the PRC) keeps us within the orientalist tradition; it is also at odds with China's attempted/failed/ongoing revolution and trajectory since 1949. I offer an interdisciplinary analysis of area studies and other representations of China, especially in regard to Tiananmen and the Cultural Revolution. I then contrast this with current intellectual debates in China as well as with an older Maoist or revolutionary discourse. The resurgence or “demand” for humanism is rendered as part of an intellectual and political backlash or depoliticization.postprin

Arab-Muslim theatre defended

This article re-visits Greek and Arab-Muslim theatres from the avant-garde perspective to illuminate the aesthetics of theatre to which scholars in the School of Orientalism and the School of Arab Intelligentsia should return when evaluating Arab-Muslim theatre. Without this illumination, scholars, as this article shows, will fail to objectively read and correctly evaluate Arab-Muslim histrionic practices. Availing itself of Abdelkbir Khatibi’s double approach and proceeding from the conviction that theatre is the achievement of both actors and spectators while drama is an artistic linguistic creation, the article critiques the findings of these schools and challenges Orientalist writing which is “after all writing and not reality.” This article therefore deems it needful to unearth or more precisely to review avant-garde aesthetics of performance to explain the concept of theatre and to call into question the findings of the schools in question. However, before critiquing these schools, which delineated the subject matter from already disregarded perspectives, this article starts by investigating Greek tragedy in order to examine what theatre is or is meant to be in the hope of building a logical premise. It sheds significant luster on Greek tragedy from the avant-garde perspective to direct attention to the urgent epistemological task of reconsidering and deconstructing hegemonic European historiography which thrives with creating “gaps, absences, lapses, ellipses” in the cultures of others. This article is but an attempt to fill in these gaps and voids and to conceptually challenge Orientalist writing around Arab-Muslim theatre

Alors, la Chinoiserie? The Figure of China in Theorizations of World Literature

Chinese writing occupies a privileged position in current academic discussions of world literature.While China as defined within world literature serves as a test case for questions of nativist and universalist values, in the process it finds itself defined as a nation par excellence. Arguing that such definition constitutes a kind of 21st century chinoiserie, I proceed to question the place of China in the literary theories that inform the discussions of world literature, pinpointing part of this chinoiserie on confusion about the role and performance of translation. I then offer a tactical approach to how China and Chinese literature can be re-translated and re-theorized, pointing a way forward from its current confinement within the chinoiserie described.postprin

Reimagining the Study and Teaching of Philosophy for Our Time

The importance and relevance of philosophy has come to be recognized more today than ever before in recent history. In many colleges and universities philosophy is now an essential component of interdisciplinary studies. The public interest in philosophy is increasing. UNESCO’s initiatives to promote philosophy are laudable. All these call for reimagining the study and teaching of philosophy for our contemporary time − a task worthwhile for philosophy studies in ecclesiastical institutes as well

City as lens: (re)imagining youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong

In recent years, a paradox has emerged in the study of youth. On the one hand, in the context of the processes of globalization, neoliberalism and precarity, the patterning of leisure and work for young people is becoming increasingly convergent across time and space. On the other hand, it is clear that young people’s habits and dispositions remain deeply tied to local places, with global processes filtered and refracted through specific cultural contexts. Against this backdrop, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council/Research Grants Council (ESRC/RGC)-funded study of contemporary youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong, this article seeks to explore the role of the city as a mediating lens between global forces and local impacts. Utilizing both historical and contemporary data, the article argues that despite parallels in the impact of global forces on the structure of everyday life and work, young people’s leisure habits remain rooted in the fates and fortunes of their respective cities