ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the values held by citizens in East and Southeast Asia on the basis of the fi ndings of a survey which was administered at the end of 2000 in the region.1 That survey was undertaken in order to assess the extent to which the citizens shared standpoints, typically described as constituting ‘Asian values’, which had been put forward in the 1980s and early 1990s in particular by many politicians and many academics of the region. What was being stated was that a sharp contrast – a real divide – existed between ‘Asian’ and ‘Western’ values. Indeed, those who made that point also tended to claim that ‘Asian values’ were not just different from, but superior to, ‘Western values’. Such views were not held by all politicians and all scholars in the region, admittedly; the opposite standpoint was also put forcefully by many others, but the debate has been suffi ciently ‘animated’ to occupy the front of the stage for a number of years.
