Topic: Asia

A little over a year ago, sometime in November of 2004 or so, I started on a reading project intended to give myself a grounding in East Asian history.

I had started on A New History of Korea, by Ki-baik Lee, and quickly found that in order to understand Korean history, I would need a grasp of Chinese and Japanese history as well. So I began to read China: A New History, by John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, as well as A History of Japan, by R.H.P. Mason and J.G. Caiger. Then I decided to supplement this reading with four volumes I had kept on my bookshelves since college, when I had largely failed to read them: William Theodore de Bary's indispensible collections, Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume I and Volume II, and his Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume I and Volume II, which provide translations of original materials that trace Chinese and Japanese thought from their earliest origins to modern times. And once I had decided to read the Chinese and Japanese sources, I obviously couldn't neglect the Sources of Korean Tradition, Volume I and Volume II, Columbia University Press's more recent addition to its excellent Sources series (which also includes Sources of Indian Tradition).

Altogether, this added up to 3,829 pages. Considering that I lingered over them for well over a hear — putting them down for stretches of time, especially during the hectic autumn of last year, when I was the sole speechwriter during the busy season of UN committee work and reform efforts — this is not exactly proof of my speed-reading abilities. On the other hand, it's not always easy to face another 40 pages of Neo-Confucian debate on whether the universe is made of principle or force, or another 30 pages of medieval Korean proposals for land reform that not even their authors took seriously.

Still, there is reward in having delved even into these obscure and difficult corners of East Asian thought. And then some sections were genuinely fascinating, like Japan's strange origin myths, the struggle of the Chinese to come to terms with the West, or Korea's furious rejection of Japanese colonialism. And the overall picture is one that will help me greatly in understanding the Koreans I work with and their views of themselves in the world.

Having spent so much time exploring East Asia from the inside out, I have now turned to The Korean War, by Max Hastings, and the shift in perspective is a bit dizzying. To have read Korean accounts of their jubilation when the Americans arrived to liberate them from the Japanese, and then to read of the Americans' utter bafflement at what they found in Korea, is to be reminded how little Korea registered in the consciousness of most people in most parts of the world. When it came into focus, it was as a pawn in Great Power politics — just as it had been earlier, in the wrangles among its neighbors, Japan, China and Russia. It's weird to go back to the American sense of Korea as an alien land, its people at least as baffling as those of Afghanistan and Iraq strike us today. But the combination of perspectives, interior and exterior, will hopefully give me a fuller sense of how Korea's unique history is connected to the broader world.

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment |

Topic: Asia

I have to admit that I'm totally baffled by Japan's spate of hard-line actions toward China and South Korea in the last couple of weeks. First came the dispute over Takeshima/Dokdo, those uninhabited islands in what Japan calls the Sea of Japan and South Korea calls the East Sea, during which Japan's Shimane Prefecture went so far as to declare an official "Takeshima Day." Then came the Japanese government's approval of controversial textbooks that according to China and South Korea downplay Japanese atrocities during World War II. And now Japan has granted gas drilling rights in territory that China believes it owns.

Taken together, these moves are symptomatic of a rightward shift in Japanese politics. They are of a piece with Japanese moves to remilitarize and become more assertive as a major world power. And there is some justification to the Japanese view that after decades of good global citizenship, they should be allowed to move on once and for all from the nastiness of 60 years ago. Nor are the Japanese entirely wrong in feeling that South Korea and China need to meet Japan halfway, overcoming their own racism and accepting that the past is past.

What I can't work out, though, is why Japan is stirring all of this up right now. As part of Japan's growing assertiveness, they've made a bid for permanent membership on the Security Council. There is some chance that Japan might succeed, but to do so, it will need the votes (or at least abstentions) of all five existing Permanent Members of the Security Council — including China. Furthermore, South Korea has emerged as one of the most vigorous opponents of Japan's aspirations. For Japan, stirring up anti-Japanese feeling in East Asia seems counterproductive, to say the least: conflict with China could completely kill Japan's Security Council bid, while news videos of violent anti-Japanese protests across East Asia don't exactly paint Japan as a respected regional leader.

So what on earth is Japan doing?

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment |

Topic: Asia

Yesterday, Jenny and I went to the Asian Art Fair at the Seventh Regiment Armory at Park Avenue and 67th Street. The centerpiece of New York's Asia Week (click on the link, then scroll down for an excellent slide show), the fair gathers some of the world's leading dealers of Asian art, and it was fascinating to see these rare, privately held works, and to hear them discussed in a way that is totally different from what you overhear in museum shows. Instead of academic talk about origins and expression, there was much back-and-forth about provenance, price (people batted six- and seven-figure numbers about) and the thrill of the chase.

We were lucky enough to get our admission free simply by joining a tour offered by the Korea Society, which essentially consisted of visits to the three booths focusing on Korean art. It occurred to us that, at least for Americans, Jenny and I are pretty knowledgeable about Korean art: we've been to the major museums in Seoul and Kyeongju, to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and to the Metropolitan's scant collection. The only major repository of Korean art that we haven't visited is Japan. But there is relatively little surviving Korean art anywhere, and until recently, no Western museums focused much attention on Korean art. As such, many of the best objects remain in private collections.

Each of the three exhibitors offered unique pieces. Probably the most surprising was a small Koryo celadon sculpture of a monk (pictured above). Celadon sculptures are extremely unusual, and the material is of course prone to damage, so a complete, unbroken sculpture in celadon is almost miraculous. Another exhibitor had in her collection a number of high-quality paintings, including a beautiful portrait of a Joseon-era military official from the 18th century. The collection in any one of these three small booths beats the entire Metropolitan collection of Korean art (although the Met does boast some very old bronze pieces.

Other amazing works in the show included John Eskenazi's superb collection of Gandharan and South Asian art, including Buddhist sculptures from the third through fifth centuries that clearly showed the Greek provenance of the classical image of the Buddha in lotus position with top-knot. There were also spectacular Japanese artifacts and a stunning array of Tang-period and earlier Chinese sculpture.

If you're interested in Asian art and have a chance to go to the fair this year, do. If you can't make it, plan to go next year.

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment |

Topic: Asia

So it looks like Akayev is toppled in Kyrgyzstan. It also looks like this might be another post-Soviet velvet revolution, like the ones in Ukraine and Georgia, where repressive dictators were overthrown by popular movements, largely without violence. Something remarkable seems to be happening in the post-Soviet world.

I haven't been following this one too closely, but it strikes me as good news that the people of a Central Asian country are demanding democracy and rights. I am also tickled to see that one of my favorite place-names, Kyzyl-Kiya, has made the news.

Come on. Say it with me.

Kyzyl-Kiya.

There. Didn't that improve your day? I thought so.

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment | View Comments (1) |

Topic: Asia

Okay, so while my interest in Asia is not primarily romantic (although I did get to Korea by following a girlfriend), I admit that it's something of a stereotypical pattern: cf. this post on Overheard in New York.

And while my obsession isn't romantic, it's definitely Romantic. In trying to trace the roots of my interest Asia, I've come to believe that the English Romantic poets deserve much of the credit. Poems like Shelley's Ozymandias, Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and especially his Kubla Khan, gave me a taste for the Exotic East. So yes, I was thoroughly Orientalized. I'm not sure this is so terrible as I was led to believe in college. After all, these poets were passionately interested in the East, which is why they attempted to reckon with the aspects of the East that they found most different from their own world. This strikes me as a fundamentally sane approach ? far more sane than it would have been to try to catalog what East and West had in common, although that effort became necessary as time went on.

And by the way, after you've reread Coleridge's Kubla Khan, take a look at the source material, from the straightforward writings of Marco Polo:

CHAPTER LXI.

OF THE CITY OF CHANDU, AND THE KAAN'S PALACE THERE.

And when you have ridden three days from the city last mentioned, between north-east and north, you come to a city called CHANDU [Xanadu], which was built by the Kaan now reigning. There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment.

Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass of 16 miles, and inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he keeps there in mew. Of these there are more than 200 gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the other hawks. The Kaan himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard behind him on his horse's croup; and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he slips his leopard at it, and the game when taken is made over to feed the hawks in mew. This he does for diversion.

Moreover [at a spot in the Park where there is a charming wood] he has another Palace built of cane, of which I must give you a description. It is gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside. [It is stayed on gilt and lackered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail of which is attached to the column whilst the head supports the architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to support the architrave.] The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes, covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will rot them. These canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces in length. [They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent the wind from lifting it.] In short, the whole Palace is built of these canes, which (I may mention) serve also for a great variety of other useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can be taken down and put up again with great celerity; and it can all be taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When erected, it is braced [against mishaps from the wind] by more than 200 cords of silk.

The Lord abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes in the Marble Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for three months of the year, to wit, June, July, and August; preferring this residence because it is by no means hot; in fact it is a very cool place. When the 28th day of [the Moon of] August arrives he takes his departure, and the Cane Palace is taken to pieces. But I must tell you what happens when he goes away from this Palace every year on the 28th of the August [Moon]....

But I must now tell you a strange thing that hitherto I have forgotten to mention. During the three months of every year that the Lord resides at that place, if it should happen to be bad weather, there are certain crafty enchanters and astrologers in his train, who are such adepts in necromancy and the diabolic arts, that they are able to prevent any cloud or storm from passing over the spot on which the Emperor's Palace stands. The sorcerers who do this are called TEBET and KESIMUR, which are the names of two nations of Idolaters. Whatever they do in this way is by the help of the Devil, but they make those people believe that it is compassed by dint of their own sanctity and the help of God....

There is another marvel performed by those BACSI, of whom I have been speaking as knowing so many enchantments. For when the Great Kaan is at his capital and in his great Palace, seated at his table, which stands on a platform some eight cubits above the ground, his cups are set before him [on a great buffet] in the middle of the hall pavement, at a distance of some ten paces from his table, and filled with wine, or other good spiced liquor such as they use. Now when the Lord desires to drink, these enchanters by the power of their enchantments cause the cups to move from their place without being touched by anybody, and to present themselves to the Emperor! This every one present may witness, and there are ofttimes more than 10,000 persons thus present. 'Tis a truth and no lie! and so will tell you the sages of our own country who understand necromancy, for they also can perform it.

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment |

Topic: Asia

As we all know by now, the ferocious tsunami that struck Asia and Africa on 26 December is one of the most devastating natural disasters in history. The United Nations, of course, is playing a major role in coordinating the relief efforts.

The disaster struck a number of places Jenny and I traveled in India, including Chennai (Madras), Mahabalipuram, and the former French colony of Pondicherry. (On our living room wall is a Pondy silk scarf, and in our cabinet of curiosities is a statue of the goddess Laxmi from Mahabalipuram.) This brings home the tragedy to me personally, both because I've met and interacted with the locals and seen the places that are now devastated, and because the tourists who were hurt and killed were people just like me and the people I socialized with.

Austin's Blog has a collection of videos of the tsunami, which are not for the faint of heart.

And finally, The New York Times ran an op-ed piece a couple of days ago discussing previous tsunamis and similar natural disasters, and warning that the island of La Palma, in the Canaries, will one of these days collapse into the sea, launching a tsunami that will hit the east coast of the United States with a wall of water taller than any skyscraper. We would have eight hours or so to evacuate, and we'd need to get pretty far inland to be safe.

I suppose this is all a reminder that nature is very big, we are very small, our lives are very short, and the only thing we can be sure of is that we will eventually die. So enjoy the present moment, because it's all there is.

Happy new year.

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment |

Topic: Asia

If you're feeling as awful about the big tsunami as everyone else, you might want to donate to the Red Cross which is coordinating disaster relief. The website is running slowly — hopefully because it's swamped with people making donations — but if you wait, it should load.

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment | View Comments (2) |

Topic: Asia

Having decided that I need to get a better grounding in the history of East and Central Asia's major players, I just bought China: A New History, by John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman; A History of Japan, by R. H. P. Mason and J.G. Caiger; and Russia and the Russians: A History, by Geoffrey Hosking. My plan is to read about a given era in China and Japan, then read about it in Ki-Baik Lee's A New History of Korea, thus getting an overall sense of East Asian history and a clearer understanding of what outside events Korean history is developing against. (The Russian history I can tackle later.)

| Permalink | Share This Post | Post Comment |