ABSTRACT
The reality of Asian creativity is obscured by a misinterpretation of Joseph Needham’s work, which demonstrated that China once led the world in applied science. Creativity researchers distinguish two types of creativity based on the cognitive processes involved and the end states of those processes. Abstract thinking is indispensable for the creativity associated with scientific breakthroughs because the information needed to resolve intractable problems is often unavailable at the concrete level. Any system of writing, from a narrow phonetic transcription to systems that depict sound holistically as syllables, will support creativity by drawing attention to the externalized text apart from its meaning. Given the myths associated with Asian orthography, and Chinese character-based writing especially, it will be helpful to describe how these systems are structured before addressing their impact on creativity. Knowledge in East Asia is perceived less as a result of active exploration and more as an exercise in absorbing past truths.
