What is Modernity? The writings of Takeuichi Yoshimi

I read this over a month ago and I have been struggling to write something about this collection of writings by Takeuchi Yoshimi for the whole month.

Takeuchi presents the story of Western modernity from a Japanese/East Asian perspective. Modernity (signified simply as "Europe" at times) is "the self-recognition of Europe ... as distinct from the feudalistic" (p.54).

For Europe to be Europe (modern), it needed confirmation through an encounter with the "heterogenous" (p. 55) Orient, which resulted in Oriental resistance.

The advancement of Europe qua modern and the resistance of the Orient qua feudal is a "single phemonenon" (p. 58), and it is only through Oriental resistance that Europe recognizes its superiority.

In this story, while Japan seems the most modern of the Oriental nations (Takeuchi was writing in the post WWII era I believe), Takeuchi writes that behind this progress is "decadence, and what appears to be the least Oriental [modern] is at the same time the most Oriental [feudal]" (p. 63).

This is exemplified by the honour student culture in Japan, where the honour students at the top of hierarchy become the representatives of Japanese culture, and these honour students look outwardly for superior cultures to imitate. Takeuchi writes that "Japan's progress is the slave's progress, its diligence is the slave's diligence" (p.66).

Takeuchi owes his discovery of resistence through the writings of Lu Xun, who, as he quotes, experienced "the most painful thing in life" which is "to wake up from a dream and find no way out" (p. 70). Only through this confrontation with despair can the slave recognize his slavishness; in contrast, Japanese culture refuses to recognize this slavishness: "He is a true slave when he thinks that he is not a slave" (p. 72).

Takeuchi writes about the "national conditions" that have led to a man like Lu Xun in China and a lack of his Japanese equivalent. While Japanese modernity was imposed from the top-down, Chinese modernity is powerful because of its bottom-up, organic, ethnic-nationalist characteristics.

Takeuchi supports modern, universal, Western values, but the process of propagating these have involved its antithesis in colonization. So, Asia is necessary to "realize the latter's [West] outstanding cultural values on a greater scale" (p. 165); with this declaration this collection of essays is complete, with the uncertain idea of "Asia as method."

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