Word: asian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Godden sisters are now successful British novelists, and when Rumer (Black Narcissus, The River) and Jon (The Seven Islands, The Peacock) use India as a locale, reality still does not impinge on the writing. Seen through their eyes, the vast Asian subcontinent becomes a setting instead of a place, muddy rivers are transformed into revered waters, reeking slums smell of curry and spice, and lacerating poverty is unflinchingly accepted...
This may look to Western eyes like abject submission; the Asian sees it as the only way to win. In Taoism, the symbol of strength is water, which conforms to the shape of whatever it touches yet in the end cuts its own path through rock. Jujitsu (literally, "give-way art") is the art of defeating an aggressor with his own strength...
...idea of harmony is socially authoritarian-it depends on the static society, in which authority flows downward from above. Status based on skill or achievement can only be disruptive in such a world. "What do you do?" is the American conversational icebreaker; "Who are you?" is what the Asian wants to know. The Indian caste system is only the most elaborate expression of this fact; caste and status are important everywhere in Asia...
Japan is the only Asian country so far that has met the challenge. In the 19th century, it made a dramatic decision to modernize and had the advantage of starting from a fairly advanced feudal base. The Japanese have developed a truly industrial society within many of the old forms. A working democracy coexists with a profound need for authority and group action, a consumer economy with esthetic frugality (one picture hanging at a time, in contrast with the Western collector's crowded wall). Industry is paternalistic and feudal-hardly anyone gets fired or quits-although that is beginning...
India represents the third major attempt of the traditional Asian mind to come to terms with the modern world. Industry has begun to change the country, "has even begun to instill a sense of time and punctuality-here and there. In the fall of every year, Hindu workmen decorate their workshops and literally worship the god in their machines. But the machine does not require worship; it requires hard work, precision and comprehension. Sensing a lack of these, many Indians are pessimistic about the future. "Everyone is' waiting for the Americanization of India," says Essayist Nirad Chaudhuri, "but what...