ABSTRACT
In the early twentieth century, Max Weber’s analyses of world religions concluded that East Asia’s traditional societies and cultures were inadequate in creating the preconditions necessary for the rise of modern capitalism. Since the spectacular postwar growth of East Asian economies, however, Weber’s thesis has been revisited and critiqued. In an interesting historical irony, developmental literature has often attributed the region’s economic success to Asian values. How do we read Weber in light of this paradoxical historical development? What can a Weberian approach to East Asia’s contemporary prosperity tell us about the interplay between culture and economic systems? Exploring these questions, this chapter reviews Weber’s work on East Asia and critically examines the concept of “Asian values” as a predictor of economic success. The chapter argues that Weber’s preoccupation with European society resulted in an ethnocentric oversight as to Asia’s potential. At the same time, the chapter cautions against an ahistorical and reified conceptualization of culture as the key to East Asia’s economic success. Instead, the chapter focuses on the ways in which culture was strategically appropriated and mobilized by both the state and economic entities for their development and nation-building agendas.
