The Lucky Country by Donald Horne

Author:Donald Horne
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742531571
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2009-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Images of Asia

If the impression has been given that no one in Australia ever thinks of Asia, it should be pointed out that this is now far from true. There has been a huge shift in attitudes. Sensations burst into the newspapers, seminars are held, articles are written. But the interest is sometimes that of someone momentarily attracted to an idea: Fascinating stuff, I must find out what it’s all about sometime. There is not very much real feel for Asia. It is a learned lesson and people can get their lines wrong. Someone may say over his claret, ‘We may only have a few years before China wins. It’s not myself I’m worried about but my children.’ Then over his brandy he will confound those who suggest that Australia is geographically an extension of South-East Asia by saying, ‘Distances don’t matter any more and geographical location is less important. Australia is part of The West.’

In the following paragraphs I have attempted some broad categorization of how Australian attitudes towards Asia can go wrong.

‘The faceless hordes.’ The lumping of all Asians together can create a mindless panic: 52 per cent of the world’s population lives in Asia, therefore 52 per cent of the world’s population en bloc threatens Australia. This arithmetical method has a long history, going back well before the arrival of Communism. As a common substitute for thought there is a corny poetic quality about it. The settlers gather in the stockade and while away the night at cards, sure that with the dawn they will all be scalped by the Indians. It is a thoroughly pessimistic view that could cause a people to bolt at a time of crisis.

‘I like Asians.’ A minority of those who hold the view that all Asians are the same seem delighted by the prospect of more than a billion identical neighbours. This belief is often associated with statements about the vitality and youth of Asians – which mock the conservatism that lays destitute so many rural areas in Asia, and the sloth that is so often the despair of Asian economic planning. I once sat through a dinner in which the speaker propounded the thesis that one Asian was as good as two Australians. He then explained that he had recently met some Africans. They spoke good English; some of them even spoke French. So one African became as good as two Asians (or four Australians). When ignorance is confronted with an Asian who does not pick his nose and can discuss affairs of the day in the tongue of a former colonial power it is likely to idealize him in terms that insult the reality of the dreadful problems of the depressed communities of Asia. Sometimes this sort of generalization becomes less of a personal fantasy and makes slightly more sense. An Australian decides that he has a favourite nation in Asia. ‘I like Indians’ is even more meaningless than ‘I like Englishmen’. But it is a start, a beginning of the breakdown of generalities.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.