God's Dust: A Modern Asian Journey [Paperback]

Ian Buruma (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1990

Investigating the question of what happens to Asian cultures when traditions of the village break down and are replaced by the complexities of the modern world, the author's travels took him from Burma to Japan, via Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Buruma ( Behind the Mask ) writes with trenchant skepticism yet implicit sympathy about the "cultural confusion, the endless searching for meaning and national identity" in contemporary Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. As a "secular European" and 10-year resident of Hong Kong and Tokyo, he is an ideal observer--objective and respectful, but aggressively inquiring--of these paradoxical nations lately made and unmade by Western influences. Based on a year's travel in Asia, Buruma's essays search past and present for causes and effects of cultural emergence. In Bangkok, "the same girl who dances to rock 'n' roll on a bar top, wearing nothing but cowboy boots, seemingly a vision of corrupted innocence, will donate part of her earnings to a Buddhist monk the next morning to earn religious merit." Her moral gyrations, Buruma argues, are merely pragmatic, reflecting the "corrupted taste" of her Western audience. Thai Buddhist fundamentalists eschew most Western ideas as evil, while using "Western" slide shows to exhort fellow-Thais to live virtuously ("we must use modern technology to get quick results"). He concludes that in seeking Western-style "material well-being," Thais may "have lost something" but have kept their self-respect. A reporter of historical reach, Buruma comprehensively and concisely brings the East's "mystery" down to earth. Political analysis may take the place of descriptive passages customary in travelogues, but the author grinds no axe. Using his privileged status as informed outsider to question, not mythologize, cultures unfamiliar to us, Buruma offers anyone with a passing or permanent curiosity about Asia much to gain from his definitive work.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Buruma writes that it "is the main theme of contemporary Asia--and not just Asia. How to be modern without losing your cultural sense of self." His year-long journey through Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan confronts lands where ancient traditions struggle with foreign influences old (Chinese and Indian) and new (Japanese and American). His effort to find the true meaning of each culture leads him from government offices to red-light districts in an intriguing study that is often cynical and is very attentive to the seamier aspects of life. While God's Dust may not be as scholarly as Buruma's Behind the Mask (LJ 5/15/84), it is just as provocative and interesting. For adult and Asian subject collections.
- Kenneth W. Berger, Duke Univ. Lib., Durham, N.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Noonday Pr (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374522359
• ISBN-13: 978-0374522353
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,125,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perceptive Survey of Asia in Transition, December 11, 1998

By 

Eric W. Sedlak (Tokyo) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Dust: A Modern Asian Journey (Paperback)

Ian Buruma's lively writing style, familiar to readers of the New York Review of Books and the Far Eastern Economic Review, comes to the fore in this wonderful look at a variety of Asian countries. He manages to isolate scenes and trends that characterize the tension between the traditional and the modern in several Asian nations (or indeed nations in formation). The non-Asian writer on Asia is at times less forgiving, and at others brings a fresh view, but always provides insights that few other books or writers seem to produce. God's Dust lets the seasoned Asia dweller feel that she is developing her own unique perspective on life in Asia, and at the same time gives those who have never experienced Asia's intricacies and contradictions an opportunity to experience more than a travelogue or a soon-to-be-proven-wrong business trends bestseller would deliver.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eminent Asian scholar, March 5, 2007

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Dust (Paperback)

In a few pages, Ian Buruma sketches the essential characteristics, problems, myths and `soul' of 8 Asian countries.

Burma still hangs in the iron fist of a military dictatorship. This potential rich country is strangulated by national socialism. Its population survives through a black market, `a tapeworm eating its way through a bankrupt economy'.
Thailand sticks together by three crucial elements: `Nation, Religion and Monarch'. Being a country of `hedonism without guilt', it never lost its self-respect.
The Philippines, as a nation, is still struggling with its colonial past (Spain and the US) and with its oligarchies, of which the strongest one is the Catholic Church. `As long as the US bases are here, we cannot become a modern country'.
Malaysia's main problem is the chasm between the Village (which belongs to the Malays) and the City (dominated by the Chinese). The political class tries to cement a common national identity through religion (Islam).
Singapore is a Big Brother state. Its government fears chaos and an attack on its independence.
Taiwan is still dominated by the struggle between the early- and the late- comers from the mainland, and between the lowlanders and the mountain people. It has a fundamental identity problem: `How can a modern Chinese state identify itself with Chinese civilization when it is not China?'
Korea has a precarious geographical situation. Its rulers have always been using outside powers to fight opponents at home. The legitimacy of the Korean nation is thwarted by the North/South division.
The mythical pristine Japanese identity (idealized in the Village) based on benevolent imperial will, social harmony and communion with nature is lost in modern commercialism. Jingoism is used in order to forge a new concrete for the nation.

This book is a must read for all Asian scholars and all those interested in Asian affairs.