Technical modernization without cultural Westernization was attempted in Egypt and Japan

Evidence

When the West forced itself on China and Japan in the mid-nineteenth century, after a momentary infatuation with Kemalism, the prevailing elites opted for a reformist strategy. With the Meiji Restoration a dynamic group of reformers came to power in Japan, studied and borrowed Western techniques, practices, and institutions, and started the process of Japanese modernization. They did this in such a way, however, as to preserve the essentials of traditional Japanese culture, which in many respects contributed to modernization and which made it possible for Japan to invoke, reformulate, and build on the elements of that culture to arouse support for and justify its imperialism in the 1930s and 1940s. In China, on the other hand, the decaying Ch’ing dynasty was unable to adapt successfully to the impact of the West. … At the end of the 1940s the import from the Soviet Union won out over those from the West —nationalism, liberalism, democracy, Christianity—and China was defined as a socialist society. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 285 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

A question that is in some dispute, however, is why the reformers looked to Europe rather than build on preexisting shari¯‘a traditions. The Egyptian jurist Tariq al-Bishri contends that what he calls the mimicry of the West was the outcome of a combination of circumstances, chief among them European coercion and the Egyptian elites’ infatuation with European ways. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1009 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Modernization need not require Westernization; Japan’s unique economy stems from its non-Western culture; Several non-Western societies modernized without adopting Western culture (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Several non-Western societies modernized without adopting Western culture #corroborates (0.95)
• Japan modernized by borrowing Western techniques while preserving its cultural essentials, China did not #exemplifies (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 285
• Egyptian Westernization combined European coercion with elite infatuation #complicates (0.82) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1009
• Peter the Great’s Westernization began with surface appearance and moved to military modernization #complicates (0.76) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 382