book review: hung-chao tal, ed. confucianism and economic development: an oriental alternative?...

8/11/2019 Book Review: HUNG-CHAO TAl, ed. Confucianism and Economic Development: An Oriental Alternative? Washingto

1/4

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ISSN 0742-5929)

Vol. II

April, 1994

Copyright 1994 .American Association for Chinese Studies

THE

CULTURAL

E.


2/4

April 1994]

OOK R VI WS

125

HIJNC CHAO

TAl,

ed. Confucianism

and

Economic Development

n

Oriental Alternative? Washington,

D.C.:

Washington

Institute, 1989.

x

+

233 pages. $22.95

doth.

Unlike most collections of essays, Confucianism

and

Economic De-

velopment

is

interesting and informative. It does

not

answer the

question of whether

Confucianism

might

serve as an

Oriental

al

ternative to industrialization and modernization along Western

lines,

but

then

the

editor

warned

us that not only did the several

authors in the

collection employ

different

methodologies

and

per

spectives,

they each

a


3/4

126

MERIC NJOURN L

O

CHINESE STUDIES

[Vol.

2:109

ticed

in different Confucian

societies

in different

ways (p. 106).

Not

only

that,

but

within

the

same

society,

the

social

orientation

may

change over

time (p. 107) . Confucianism was selectively

adapted

to meet

the

challenges

of

social, economic and political

change. Thus,

the

empirical data

cited

by Wen-lang Li suggests to

him

that

Taiwanese

entrepreneurs and

their behavior

are

tradition

alistic

in

so far as they

conform

to some

of

Confucius' normative

expectations (p. 129),

meaning that

they have selectively

adapted

Confucianism to

their

needs. There was compliance wherever

Confucian normative enjoinments

were

not

manifestly

dysfunctional.

Siu-Iun

Wong

conceives

the

Chinese as

being eminently

prag

matic

and

their

cosmology as

abundantly

eclectic allowing

them

to

become adept

borrowers

of

foreign practices (p. 169). Hang

sheng Cheng

argues

that

few people [are]

more

down-to-earth

than the

Chinese

and

generalizations based

on philosophy and

ideology are perilous. Although Confucian philosophy has had a

strong

hold

on

the

Chinese

mentality,

the

Chinese

are

remarka

bly pragmatic (p. 60).

We have

then an uncertain

variable,

Chinese or

Confucian cul

ture, conceived as a factor in

the rapid

industrialization

and

eco

nomic

growth

of

Japan

and the

East Asian mini-dragons. It is a

factor

known to

undergo regular mutation and reinterpretation

that must operate in

rapidly changing circumstances. Everything

becomes mercurial and

fugitive.

That

having

been

said,

the

collection

of

essays is a veritable

storehouse

of

information, speculation and suggestive insights.

The

essay by Yuan-Ii Wu and

Hung-chao

Tai,

Economic

Perform

ance in

Five East Asian Countries: A Comparative Analysis, is a

repository of

statistical

information

that

is

enormously helpful in

outlining the phenomenal

rates

of

growth

that

have characterized

the

five economies under consideration.

The

es o;;ay by Kuo-hui Tai,

a study of

the

nea-Confucian fnfluence

of

Shibusawa Eiichi, and

Shibusawa's

subsequent

development

of

a

rationale

for industrial

development in

Japan,

is worth

the price of the

volume.

The

essays

on

the economic

modernization

and

industrialization of

the

Re

public

of China

on Taiwan, by I-ting

Wong

and Wen-lang Li,

each

dealing v rith different

aspects

of the process are dear,

precise

and

insightful. The essays by Young-iob

Chung,

Siu-Iun Wong and

Thomas Bellows on

the

Republic

of

Korea, Hong

Kong

and Singa-


4/4

April 1994]

OOK

R VI VVS

127

pore, respectively, provide the

reader

with a wealth of

information

and

plausible

interpretation.

The collection

dearly

does

not answer the question

of

the

role

of

Confucianism

in the economic performance of the

newly indus-

trialized East

J \. :;ian

nations. We still have

the puzzle of Mainland

China,

the

home of

Confucianism,

enjoying only feeble

economic

growth

and development

before

the

1980s and 1990s, and then un-

dertaking one of

the

most

impressive

contemporary

tr

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