The Dao of World Politics (New International Relations) by L. H. M. Ling

Author:L. H. M. Ling
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781134527052
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

Postcolonial transcultural subjectivities

Dae Jang Geum and Jodhaa Akbar offer only two examples of Transcultural Asia.35 Other dramas from the region, especially in recent years, also brim with yin/yang dialectics. A few random examples include: South Korea’s Pyeong-haeng-i-ron (Parallel Life, 2010),36 China’s Hongmen yan (White Vengeance, 2011),37 and Japan’s Thermae Romae (Roman Baths, 2012).38 Each challenges Westphalia World’s dichotomies of Self vs Other, West vs Rest, power vs powerlessness. Complementarities and complicities (yin) swirl in these films despite the conflicts and contradictions (yang) that keep opposites apart. Transcultural Asia releases us from Westphalia’s suffocating triangulations by creatively subverting what “is” for what “could be,” thereby instantiating what “is.” The filmic styles range from noir tragedy to romantic comedy – the last an indication of the insouciance needed to emancipate ourselves from dim, dark Westphalia World.

Transcultural Asia reconciles. Unlike The Quiet American, the yin is just as verbal, active, and intentional as the yang. For this reason, the Westphalian script cannot proceed as planned. Lust/Caution demonstrates its tragic results; Jewel and Jodhaa Akbar, the positive possibilities within. Change and transformation necessarily inhere as yin entwines with yang. Transcultural Asia also underscores a larger context to specific problems. The Taiwan–China “crisis” does not belong solely to Taiwan–China–US; it involves the whole region and, therefore, requires regional attention. Only then could the “crisis” transform sustainably. The same applies to other splits in Asia, e.g. North/South Korea, Pakistan/India, India/China, China/Tibet.39 Transcultural Asia exposes the lie behind Westphalia World’s resort to the “great powers”: not only do they not resolve crises but the “great powers” tend to perpetuate them. The Quiet American and Lust/Caution offer a small airing of this public secret, albeit inadvertently for the former and explicitly for the latter.

Transcultural Asia signifies both a postcolonial and a transnational subjectivity in the making. It instantiates Takeuchi Yoshimi’s call for “Asia as a method” (Chapter 2). Chen Kuan-hsing does so by identifying Taiwan as a mesh of “multiple nodal points” (zhidian). It overlaps and intersects several “life networks” (wangluo): a “local Taiwan” (taiwan zaidi) that operates within “cross-Strait relations” (liang an guanxi) that are situated within a “Mandarin international” (huawen guoji) that forms an integral part of an “Asian region” (yazhou quyu) that constitutes a “globalized region” (quanqiu quyu).40 Through globalization and the hybridization that results from it, these new forms of subjectivity reflect Taiwan’s mix of colonial and hegemonic legacies along with indigenous cultures and values. At the same time, Chen stresses, Taiwan needs to restore its relationship with China: for too long, Taiwan has demonized China. With improved cross-Strait relations, Taiwan could exert its presence, at last, in Asia and in the world. Chen calls for Taiwanese subjectivity to “de-colonize” (qu zhi min), “de-imperialize” (qu di guo), and “de-Cold War” (qu leng zhan).41

Literary theorist Chen Fang-ming agrees. For her, the novel Lust/Caution crystalizes Taiwan’s multi-layered, multi-faceted subjectivity even though the author, Eileen Chang, had never visited the island.42 Like Chang’s Shanghai of the 1940s, Taiwan endured colonization by Japan for almost two generations before

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