Opinion | China could become a world-class civilisation to rival the West – if it returns to the Singapore model

Asia has never had an equivalent of the Western civilisation, in terms of global influence. China has a chance to build such a civilisation, though it has strayed from the path set by Deng Xiaoping after his visit to Singapore

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Lee Kuan Yew welcomed Deng Xiaoping to Singapore on November 12, 1978. The success of Singapore and Hong Kong, which both have ethnic Chinese-majority populations, suggests the Chinese are of a calibre to build a great civilisation. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:00am, 26 May 2019Updated: 10:00am, 26 May 2019

At the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations, in Beijing on May 15, President Xi Jinping emphasised that “no civilisation is superior to others”. In the first place, it would be quite a challenge to compare Asia’s diverse civilisations. But for the sake of argument, let’s consider India and China, both countries with long histories and deep traditions, through the prism of women’s rights, for starters.

In India, there was once the practice of sati, whereby a widow immolated herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. Although the custom was not widely practised, it was prevalent among upper-caste Hindus until 1829, when the British rulers of India outlawed it following a debate begun by colonial officials. So, for some Indian women, would British civilisation be superior to Hindu tradition?

In China, the extremely painful practice of foot-binding persisted for about a thousand years, until the early 20th century. While sati was about preserving the chastity of Indian widows, generations of Chinese girls endured the deformation of their feet to be more marriageable. The bound feet were called three-inch golden lotuses, with connotations of elegance and feminine appeal.

Whatever the merits of Xi’s position on civilisations, China should still be given some credit for restarting the conversation about Western and Eastern civilisations. Back in 1996, Japanese philosopher Masakazu Yamazaki argued that there has never been such a thing as an Asian civilisation, that is, an Eastern equivalent of the Judeo-Christian, Western civilisation that transcends nationality and is dominant in Europe and the Americas. Instead, Asia has individual national and ethnic cultures incapable of encompassing the entire region.

Fundamentally, Asia lacks “the dual structure of rule and language in the West”, said Yamazaki, and “the seeds of modernisation in Asia would fail to sprout but would lie dormant until the encounter with the West”.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang performs at the Asian culture carnival as part of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations, in Beijing on May 15. Photo: Xinhua