Preface

In her essay in this part, Ong discusses the ways in which new alternative narratives of modernity that reinforce the localizations of citizen-subjects by nation-state regimes are being worked up by Asian economic and political elites. These narratives may either enter directly into “state projects of modernity” or paradoxically take the form of declaration of transnational Chinese solidarity-the “glow of Chinese fraternity” and the idea of “Greater China”—but presuppose the disciplining of citizens by nation-states: “Chinese culture,” as that which presumes to order harmoniously the three regimes of nation-state, family, and capitalist workplace, is but a metaphor for the stern hand of state discipline, regulation, and control. Much of the discourse promoting “Confucianism” by these elites-in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and elsewhere-appears due to their belief that Confucianism effects just such a metaphorical reduction.