Asian Studies Open Seminar – Western Intellectual Influence on East Asians: Beneficial, Harmful or Neutral ? (Jong-Seok Park, Center for Asia-Pacific Future Studies)

Seminar Abstract

Three types of the effect of Western intellectual influence on East Asians can be assumed: 1)Beneficial, 2)Harmful, 3)Neutral.

A large portion of Western of Western intellectual influence on East Asians can be evaluated to be beneficial. But not all.

I will investigate two cases here. One is the perception of the number of colors of the rainbow. This is the example of being neutral, neither beneficial nor harmful. The other is the method of placing “unit commas” writing numbers. This is the example of being harmful. Blind Westernization might cause big trouble to East Asians. “Selective Westernization” is desirable.

Dr. Jong Seok PARK is Associate Professor at the Center for Asia-Pacific Future Studies of Kyushu University. He was previously a research scholar at the University of Hawaii (Manoa), and an Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University, where he completed his PhD (in Law and Political Science) in 2010.