East Asia

1
East Asia
2
East Asia Overview

• Background
• Culture and Religion
• Tradition
• Face
• 4 Religions
• Social Issues and Human Rights

3
Buddha
Background

• To truly understand other religions/cultures, you
  must first be open to respecting other
  religions/cultures
• Not Necessarily Acceptance
• As a military officer you should never denigrate
  anothers beliefs

Confucius
Taoism
4
East Asia

• Background
• Culture and Religion
• Tradition
• Face
• 4 Religions
• Social Issues and Human Rights

5
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Nationalism
• Long historyJapan--China
• Regional Culture
• New trendregional pride
• East Asian Traditions
• Avoid stereotyping especially since many of
  their beliefs are centuries old

6
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Long Standing Traditions/Customs
• We have produced great art and great philosophy.
  The Mandarin speech of China is more beautiful an
  descriptive than any other in the world. Our
  poets were singing when Britain was but a rocky
  outpost on the edge of the known world and
  America was inhabited solely byaborigines. Yet
  you come to teach us a new faith? I find it very
  strange.
• The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

7
East Asia

• Background
• Culture and Religion
• Tradition
• Face
• 4 Religions
• Social Issues and Human Rights

8
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Face
• The perception that others have of you is a
  distinct characteristic of many Asian societies.
• Face connotes an avoidance of embarrassment,
  failure, defeat or contradiction.

9
East Asian Culture and Religion

• What is the meaning of face?
• American students tended to equate the concept of
  face with saving their own face, relating it to
  individual sense of ego and self-worth
• Japanese students, on the other hand, understand
  the concept of face to be related to honor,
  claimed self image, and more importantly to the
  family/organization

10
East Asian Culture and Religion

• What is the meaning of face giving?
• American students could not offer a meaning
• To Asians, face giving means allowing room for
  the other person to recover his/her face--room to
  maneuver, to negotiate--so both can gain face in
  the end

11
East Asian Culture and Religion

• What does it mean to lose face?
• For Americans, loss of face means personal
  failure, loss of self-esteem, or loss of
  self-pride on an individual attribution basis
• Whereas for Japanese and Korean subjects, loss of
  face means disrupting group harmony, bringing
  shame to their family, classmates, or company.

12
East Asian Culture and Religion

• How do we deal with losing face?
• For Americans, humor is a strategy used to
  recover from face loss if that does not work in
  a serious situation, other strategies that may be
  used are defensive strategies and attack
  strategies--clear win-lose strategies.
• Asian cultures, on the other hand, focus more on
  maintaining the image of a win-win process.

What can you do to help others maintain face?
13
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Guidelines concerning face
• Be deferential to those above you in age or
  position.
• Be considerate to those below you in age or
  position.
• Do not expect Asians to act contrary to group
  norms.
• Do not insist that your hosts respect your rights
  or opinions.

14
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Guidelines concerning face
• Do not in any way defy your hosts accepted moral
  standards.?
• Do not show anger avoid confrontations.
• If you must say no, try to do so as tactfully as
  possible.
• If you must criticize, do so in private and with
  expressions of positive regard.

• As important as Face is something else is more
  important

15
East Asia

• Background
• Culture and Religion
• Tradition
• Face
• 4 Religions
• Social Issues and Human Rights

16
East Asian Culture and Religion

• 4 Other Main Beliefs/Religions
• All are ancient beliefs
• Buddhism
• Confucianism
• Daoism
• Shintoism

Buddha
Daoism
Confucius
Shinto
17
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Buddhism--A religion based on the teachings of
  Siddartha Gautama, an Indian prince who lived in
  the sixth century BCE (before common era)
• Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the
  world, being exceeded in numbers only by
  Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
• 364 million followers

All religious statistics derived from Number of
Adherents of World Religions at
http//www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm
18
East Asian Culture and Religion

• The 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism explore human
  suffering
• 1 Suffering exists Suffering is real almost
  universal. Suffering has many causes loss,
  sickness, pain, failure, the impermanence of
  pleasure.
• 2 There is a cause for suffering. It is the
  desire to have and control things. It can take
  many forms craving of sensual pleasures the
  desire for fame the desire to avoid unpleasant
  sensations, like fear, anger or jealousy.

19
East Asian Culture and Religion

• The 4 Noble Truths (continued)
• 3 There is an end to suffering. Suffering ceases
  with the final liberation of Nirvana. The mind
  experiences complete freedom, liberation and
  non-attachment. It lets go of any desire or
  craving.
• 4 In order to end suffering, you must follow the
  Eightfold Path.

20
East Asian Culture and Religion

• The Buddha's Eightfold Path consists of
• 1) Right Understanding of the Four Noble Truths
• 2) Right thinking following the right path in
  life

21
East Asian Culture and Religion

• The Buddha's Eightfold Path continued
• 3) Right speech no lying, criticism, condemning,
  gossip, harsh language
• 4) Right conduct by following the Five Precepts

22
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Five Precepts
• Abstain from harming living beings.
• Abstain from taking what is not given - stealing.
  
• Abstain from sexual misconduct
• Abstain from false speech, including lying,
  tale-bearing, and gossiping.
• Abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs

23
East Asian Culture and Religion

• The Buddha's Eightfold Path continued
• 5) Right livelihood support yourself without
  harming others
• 6) Right Effort promote good thoughts conquer
  evil thoughts

24
East Asian Culture and Religion

• The Buddha's Eightfold Path continued
• 7) Right Mindfulness Become aware of your body,
  mind and feelings
• 8) Right Concentration Meditate to achieve a
  higher state of consciousness

• Buddhism to Confucianism

25
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Confucianism--Began as a school of thought
  founded by Confucius, a Chinese thinker who lived
  between 551 and 479 BCE
• This secular "religion" focuses on the conduct
  and practices of people in daily life - the
  creation of a society based on virtue.
• The teachings of Confucius were never intended to
  be a religion. It has no revelatory sacred
  writings, no priesthood, no doctrine of an
  afterlife
• 6.3 million followers

• to Daoism

26
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Daoism--Developed in the 6th century BCE as a way
  of thinking about man's relationship to nature
  and the universe, the Dao means "path" or "way"
  to lead man to live a virtuous life in harmony
  with nature.
• Daoism does not have a God in the way that the
  Abrahamic religions do. There is no omnipotent
  being beyond the cosmos, who created and controls
  the universe.
• 2.7 million followers

• to Shinto

27
East Asian Culture and Religion

• Shinto ("Way of the Kami") A belief system
  deeply rooted in Japanese culture that attempts
  to explain the relationship between human beings
  and nature.
• Shinto has no founder, no major scriptures, no
  creed and no religious or ethical laws. It
  doesn't divide the universe into this world and a
  supernatural world, and it has no substantial
  concept of heaven or an afterlife.
• 2.7 million followers

28
East Asia

• Background
• Culture and Religion
• Tradition
• Face
• 4 Religions
• Social Issues and Human Rights

29
Social Issues and Human Rights

• East Asia is confronted by a host of social and
  environmental dilemmaswell look at six
• Widespread poverty
• Labor exploitation
• Gender inequality
• Crime/Corruption
• East Asian Ethnic Conflicts
• The Legacy of Japanese Imperialism
• Foreign Workers
• Human Rights Concerns

30
Social Issues and Human Rights

• Poverty and Homelessness
• 20 of the population in Malaysia, the
  Philippines, and South Korea received less than
  6 of the nations income
• Many major cities in East Asia have large slum
  areas, frequently with no water, sewage, or
  electrical services
• Chinas floating population--200 million
• Most East Asian countries do not have
  government-sponsored welfare safety nets in place
  to help the poor

31
Social Issues and Human Rights

• 2. Labor Rights and Occupational Safety
• Many East Asian workers toil long hours for
  little pay.
• Unions--Discouraged, regulated, or illegal in
  most East Asian countries.
• Child labor is often preferred--fewer
  problems--more compliant--receive even less pay
  than adults.
• Sometimes children work for as little as 50 cents
  a day under deplorable conditions.

32
Social Issues and Human Rights

• 3. Gender Issues
• Old cultural traditions vice "new" modern
  culture
• Traditional role of women and new modern role
• China's export industry depends substantially on
  a female labor force
• Working women in China are often subjected to
  terrible working conditions, and sometimes even
  physical and sexual abuse.

33
Social Issues and Human Rights

• Gender Issues (continued)
• East Asian women who work outside the home are
  criticized for rejecting their traditional roles.
  
• Fundamentalists condemn and sometimes physically
  attack Muslim women who have secularized their
  lives

34
Social Issues and Human Rights

• Gender Issues (continued)
• Even in modern secular, Singapore, the
  government's official position is that a woman
  cannot legally be the head of a household, even
  if she is the major income earner.
• Women's movements and women's organizations are
  developing throughout the region as women demand
  equality in society and in the economy

35
Social Issues and Human Rights

• 4. Crime and Corruption
• Crime and corruption are also prominent East
  Asian social issues
• Many of the newly rich are officials or relatives
  of those with political power
• Selling "protection" is a favorite way to get
  rich
• Government backlash seen in many
  regions--crackdowns could threaten democracy in
  the region

36
Social Issues and Human Rights

• 5. East Asian Ethnic Conflicts
• Centuries-old conflicts between countries or
  nationalities
• Khmer people and the Vietnamese in Cambodia
• People of Korean descent and the Japanese in
  Japan
• Tibetans and the Chinese in Tibet
• Legacy of Japanese Imperialism
• Foreign workers
• Mistreated
• Not recognized by government
• No protective social programs

37
Social Issues and Human Rights

• 6. Human Rights Concerns
• Some argue that East Asian values legitimize
  limitations on individual rights in favor of
  group rights

38
East Asia Summary

• Background
• Culture and Religion
• Tradition
• Face
• 4 Religions
• Social Issues and Human Rights