Customer Reviews

The Asian American Century (Edwin O Reischauer Lectures)

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-- A Readable Well-Thought Perspective --
I enjoyed reading Cohen's perspective on Asian-American realtionships; it includes many interesting insights on the historial, current and potential future directions between the the U.S. and Asia. Cohen's extensive dicsussion of U.S.-Japan U.S.-China and U.S.-Korea history helps put todays' <important> world events into perspective. Americans DO tend to view the world through a Eurocentric lens; this books shows a different path. Cohen's (sociological) insights into cultural impacts and exchanges are top notch. This book is a well written, deceivingly light read that packs in many complex ideas into a very readable package.
<How many times can you say that about 'policy' issues writing!> ...and the restaurant tips aren't bad either. ;) Cheers, Patrick

This book is a superb introduction to a complex and broad topic. Contrary to the review in the Library Journal, I do not find the first chapter on the history of US strategy in Asia to be either too simple or too advanced. It has a lot for both the naive and sophisticated reader. And contrary to the other reader reviews, I found the book very balanced, neither condemning nor condoning all the US actions in the region, but explaining their complex evolution.

This is a good book to read if you are looking for positive facts about Asian and American relations. Cohen goes through much of the history of America's foray into East Asia, and he discusses the history of the changing relationship between East Asia (especially China) and the various American administrations. I especially liked how Cohen confined his study to East Asians, rather than the current academic trend of lumping all of Asia (Russia, Pakistan, India...) together. It makes much more sense this way.

On the other hand, Cohen is very selective in the facts that he reveals. He mentions how America brought democracy to S. Korea and Taiwan, and how America helped create the sports culture and the student movements. While he presents some good data on America's involvement in Asia, he also skips or skims over some very important issues.

For example, he says that American culture was never forced on Asian people, and that the American media was accepted by the Chinese people willingly and without coercion. What he neglects to mention is the fact that cross-cultural relationships don't have to be militarily enforced in order to be considered "enforced." When one country that is predominantly of one race conquers another country of another race, there are psychological issues of superiority/inferiority that come into play. Considering that most ethnic and gender studies professors today spend copious amounts of time studying this psychological issue alone, it is surprising that Cohen failed to explore it. An example of this psychological damage can be found in the Time Asia article last year (2001!) in which an Asian person questioned whether people of the Asian race even had the ability to compete creatively with white people. The author's contention was that many felt the white race was superior, and that many felt it might be pointless to even try to compete. Another example: in both Asian and Asian American literature, often one will find that all white male characters are good, and almost all Asian men are weak and bad. Obviously this is not reality: not all Asian men are bad (though there are some), nor are all white men good (though good white men also exist). To write a book about Asia without referring to this terrible inferiority complex is to tell only half the picture.

Cohen also ignores some important facts when making statements of opinion. For example, he mentions that Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam was inspired by Wilson's Fourteen Points, and then goes on to say Ho's interest accomplished little. What Cohen doesn't mention is that Ho was so inspired by Wilson that he wanted American help in ending French domination of Vietnam, and that he was ready to start talking about a democratic Vietnam. When Ho tried to approach Wilson in France with a plan to have America help establish a new system of government in Vietnam, Wilson's men wouldn't allow Ho to even talk to the president, saying that self-determination was only for white men (read the book "Ho" by David Halberstam). Ho then went to the person who was willing to help him--Stalin. By not mentioning this crucial fact, Cohen makes it seem as if Ho rejected democracy, when in fact history shows that democracy (or racism, depending how you look at it) rejected Ho.

All in all, this is a good intro book to Asian and American relations, but there are some crucial elements missing. My advice would be to read this book but to supplement it with other readings.