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Can you name the four dynasties in China? Can you put them in chronological order? Which two languages have the largest number of native speakers in India? What is the significance of 1868 in Japanese history? What is the second most popular religion in Indonesia?
Alright, now let’s push that a little bit. Which is the only country in Southeast Asia that was not colonized by Europe? The Imjin War was perhaps the largest war on Earth in the 16th century. Which countries have fought wars? How many words can you write to describe the life of Buddha before you exhaust your knowledge? Or Confucius? Can you write a paragraph? What is the name of the former?
This test is not – and should not be – daunting. On the Mount Everest of Asian history, these themes are tantamount to being covered in snow. But what percentage of Western graduates earn a passing grade?even in it engagedWill Podcast Streaming News Addicts Rise as High as 5%? How could such ignorance possibly hold water given the unfolding story of this century?
Don’t take this column as a cosmopolitan lament. This is not a call for intercultural understanding. States should prioritize (and, within reason, gloss over) the lessons of their own past. I just wonder if there is strategic wisdom in knowing so little about a continent whose gravitational pull to the west won’t wane.
If there are holes in education, that’s not what everyone is talking about. Yes, Stem subjects should have more prestige and funding compared to Humanities. But it’s already on the train. Enrollment of students majoring in English in the United States has declined. Britain’s second consecutive prime minister has focused on maths.The bigger problem is within The humanities are not as universal, transspecies as the name promises. It is possible to master them, and to be regarded as a highly educated individual, without even having a general knowledge of Asia’s past.
In his talk on “Two Cultures,” CP Snow talks about his eerie premonition at high-level social gatherings that those around him can’t explain what “mass” or “acceleration” means. (He describes these questions as “the scientific equivalent of asking ‘Can you read?'”)
Well, at my own social events, I sometimes act like an Asian expert at night. It’s hard to overstate how weird this is. I don’t speak Asian languages. I go a few times a year, mostly for the food. I’ve only lived there as a baby. Even seeing it as one place in the entire column, as if it were as coherent as Europe, shows the innocence of the outsider. Knowing that the Tang Dynasty preceded the Song Dynasty is not enough to distinguish a person in high society. I’m afraid so.
Occasionally, a public intellectual breaks through provincial notions. The way kings and queens approach history — with the photogenic Sloane constantly pointing at castles — has given way. A more Persian-centric view of the past was promoted by Peter Frankopan. A lifetime ago, Steven Runciman changed the way intelligent laymen viewed the worlds east and south of Greece. But the fact that this kind of Asian-oriented work is considered maverick is exactly the problem, isn’t it? A brief acquaintance with such material should be an entry fee to the elite, not an added exoticism.
Gaining this knowledge might even boost morale in the West. European countries are not ancient by world standards. (Finish rhetoric is so cool.) Nor are they uniquely imperial. (So put the accusations in context.) No, the US did not “make” China a superpower again. This situation is more like the default situation of history. (So don’t beat yourself up.)
Educational parochialism made sense when the West had the vast majority of world output and armaments. Now? As I write this, Joe Biden is grooming Narendra Modi in Washington. Not content with disrupting golf, Saudi Arabia is luring European footballers in their prime, like Bernardo Silva. Sports fans might think that Earth’s “field tilt” is changing. What it means to be an educated person must—and will—change accordingly.
Email Janan at janan.ganesh@ft.com
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