To form a truer portrait of Northeast Asian perspectives on modernity, this book presents a broad range of analyses from philosophical and political-philosophical scholars specializing in the region.
The book considers the encounter between "Western" modernity and "Eastern" tradition not as a simple clash of cultures, but as a generative and hybridizing process of negotiation. It examines the concrete manifestations of modernity in various intellectual and political movements that attempted to radically restructure Northeast Asian societies. And through these situated perspectives, it rethinks and redefines the idea of "modernity" itself, challenging and presenting alternatives to Western-centric thinking on the topic.
This book will be of particular interest to political philosophers, political theorists, comparative philosophers, regional specialists in East Asia, and all scholars grappling with the perplexities of global "modernity."
Part 1: General Overview
1. Introduction: Modernities in Northeast Asia
Jun-Hyeok Kwak and Ken Cheng
Part 2: Modernity and Tradition
2. Equality and Nationality: The Emergence of Modern Identity Politics
Naoki Sakai
3. China and the Production of Its Own Hybridic Modernity
Roger T. Ames
Part 3: Embracing and Resisting Modernity
4. The Meanings of the 1919 Moment in China: Sovereignty, Connectivity, and National Awakening
Tze-ki Hon
5. Marginalized Science of Modernity: Statistics and Building a Nation-State without Knowing Oneself
Koichiro Matsuda
6. Eastern Learning (Donghak) and Hybrid Modernity in Late Joseon Korea
Yutang Jin
Part 4: Redefining Modernities
7. Modernity Before Its Time: China’s Zhou-Qin Transition as an Early Modernization
Tongdong Bai
8. How Tradition Informs Chinese Modernity: A Progressive Conservative Perspective
Daniel Bell and Pei Wang
9. Multiple Dialogues over Modernity: Considerations on Maruyama Masao’s Political Thought
Takashi Kibe
10. Competing Modernities in Colony and Metropol: The Establishment of the Police System in Meiji Japan
Naoyuki Umemori
Biography
Jun-Hyeok Kwak is Professor of Philosophy (Zhuhai) at Sun Yat-sen University, China.
Ken Cheng taught at the School of International Studies at Sun Yat-Sen University (Zhuhai), China, from 2020 to 2023.
