Rethinking Asianism and method

Abstract

While contemporary Asian scholars are debating how they can avoid locking up themselves in an obsession with the West, and discovering new categories and new methodologies by inter-referencing and multiplying their frames of reference through grasping Asian shared realities that have moulded their histories and cultures, this article looks back and closely examines the postwar Japanese thinker Yoshimi Takeuchi’s tantalising idea of ‘Asia as method’. It discusses why and how Takeuchi calls for a ‘rollback’ of western values instead of forming a distinctive Asian paradigm, in order to effect universal freedom and global equality. For Takeuchi, ‘Asia as method’ may mean that Asia courageously embraces the negativity brought by Europe as the path to a higher stage of freedom and equality.