Non-Western elites favored combining modernization with preserving indigenous culture
Evidence
Reformism. Rejection involves the hopeless task of isolating a society from the shrinking modern world. Kemalism involves the difficult and traumatic task of destroying a culture that has existed for centuries and putting in its place a totally new culture imported from another civilization. A third choice is to attempt to combine modernization with the preservation of the central values, practices, and institutions of the society’s indigneous culture. This choice has understandably been the most popular one among non-Western elites. In China in the last stages of the Ch’ing dynasty, the slogan was Ti-Yong, “Chinese learning for the fundamental principles, Western learning for practical use.” In Japan it was Wakon, Yōsei, “Japanese spirit, Western technique.” In Egypt in the 1830s Muhammad Ali “attempted technical modernization without excessive cultural Westernization.” This effort failed, however, when the British forced him to abandon most of his modernizing reforms. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 200
Categorization
- XREF: The Ti-Yong and Wakon Yōsei frameworks parallel the grafting/bastard-synthesis tension in ‘Grafting & Growth: On Trees as Infrastructure’ — cultural imports as grafts onto native stock. — connects to: Long-standing village institutions function as dynamic hybrids of modern and traditional elements. — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 60; Moderners can reclaim sustainable practices from their own ancestral traditions. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1696; Global economic integration was premised on moral and cultural transformation of non-Western societies. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 130
- DEFINE: Defines the three-way taxonomy of non-Western responses to the West: rejectionism, Kemalism, reformism.