As part of my self-education I'm reading a good deal on Japan, China, and East-Asia in general. The last book that I got in my hand was Ogura Kazuo's Japan's Asian Diplomacy. The author served as Japan's ambassador to Vietnam, France, and Korea.
It quickly becomes obvious from the book that Ogura has plenty of insight into the main ideological and political currents shaping the broader agenda of foreign policy making in Japan, China, and Korea. He offers a historical, ideological, and political overview of Japan's relations with its neighbours going back to the early middle ages, and shows that in most cases the Japanese policies and stances were heavily influenced by internal political interests and leadership contests. In many places in the book he is openly critical about such short sighted diplomacy, and makes an effort to show that in many cases taking a too hard line in domestic politics forced the leadership into a position where to save face it was almost necessary to act aggressively on the international place - to live up to the expectations raised in the public, so to say.
The author was not afraid to point out some harmful and aggressive long standing tendencies of Japanese policies - such as treating the affairs of Korea almost as an internal issue requiring constant intervention - and the lack of long term vision in the building up of relations with China.
The book also offers a very interesting perspective on how the Tokugawa shogunate's closed-door policy served to prepare Japan to see itself ideologically and politically among the Western, colonizing, powers very soon after the Meiji period. This amounted to a significant shift from the earlier Japano- or Sino-centric world views dominating political thinking. It also explains in part why Japan acted quickly and with no sympathy towards other Asian nations.
The book discusses several other issues, and it is a very interesting and thought-provoking reading. I don't have an in depth knowledge of either Japanese history or politics yet, but I'm happy that I took down this volume from the library shelf, and at the moment it seems that it will definitely contribute to my understanding of the Japanese perspectives on diplomacy in Asia.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 October 2016
Saturday, 4 June 2016
Giffard's 'Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990'
I've just finished Sydney Giffard's 'Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990'. The book offers an excellent overview of the political, social, and economic changes that took place in Japan in the century covered. It's main focus is on politics and governance, and thanks to Giffard's background as an active diplomat who has spent years in Japan, the book offers especially insightful and in-depth descriptions of the considerations informing key policies and decisions that have shaped many of the big decisions of Japan's, and Asia's, past.
Giffard is also an excellent writer: the book offers flowing prose, precise and evocative language. It has an arch, it creates a narrative, but avoids forcing the facts into a 'theory'. It has respect for the facts and the many different strands of processes that together constitute the fibers of reality.
An outstanding reading, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Japan, the history of East-Asia, the Second World War, in history in general, or in politics and international relations.
Giffard is also an excellent writer: the book offers flowing prose, precise and evocative language. It has an arch, it creates a narrative, but avoids forcing the facts into a 'theory'. It has respect for the facts and the many different strands of processes that together constitute the fibers of reality.
An outstanding reading, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Japan, the history of East-Asia, the Second World War, in history in general, or in politics and international relations.
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
On Angela Kiss's 'How to be an Alien in England'
I picked up Kiss's book with some excitement: she is a contemporary female writer, working as an accountant, and a Hungarian, writing about her expat experiences in the UK. I put down the book with a bit annoyed. Altogether, I would give it 2 stars out o 5, if I would give stars. Here is why.
In her book Kiss is into what was a very popular genre from the Romantic age up to the late 1980's: giving a national characterology. She is trying to do it in a funny way, but the book does not give one enough info to discern what Kiss actually finds true and how much of her bafflement concerning British habits is genuine, and how much is adopted for comical effect. Some of the jokes are good, some of the stories are cute, but altogether the material is too thin. Where it isn't too thin it commits one of two other mistakes: 1) It relies too heavily on the same jokes, and 2) it doesn't recognize when being puzzled why another culture stops being funny. The first of these two issues becomes apparent after page 30 where she can only keep the narrative flowing by making more and more ridiculous overstatements, which, naturally, become less and less entertaining, and don't provide any actual insight either into her experiences in Britain as an East-European, nor into what the Brits are like in their daily interactions.
The second issue is very bothersome and irritating on many points of the book: Kiss seems simply to have assumed that her way of doing and understanding things is obviously correct, since it makes sense to her. That's fine so far, but then she assumes that different ways of doing things not only not make sense to her but they can't make sense at all. She doesn't even entertain the idea that there might be different ways of going about one's life and looking at things. Or at least she doesn't show any sign which would indicate that she understands this.
Reading the book reminded of an important difference between comedians. Some of them are really funny to listen to for a few minutes, and they can be downright brilliant in short sketches. Still, if one has to listen to them for more than 5 minutes it becomes apparent that what seemed to be depth or meaning is just obsession with some insignificant detail or a ridiculous overstatement and simplification. Then there are comedians who can do one and a half hour shows, connect a string of topics, comment on publicly debated issues - moral, political, etc. - and one is entertained all the while. Sadly Kiss's book reminded me much more of the first kind of comedian. There are some funny bits and pieces, but reading the book for more than 10 minutes makes its shallowness obvious, and highlights that its author has failed to grasp what being an alien in England is like, as well what Brits are like. These are of course both tall orders, in fact, in my opinion they are impossible, since there is no unified British character, nor is there a single immigrant experience. There are common threads but those would have to be teased out with much more care and sophistication. What's more annoying is that Kiss doesn't even seem to have tried sufficiently. I would only recommend this book to someone who has never been to the UK and never intends to come here, and is a big fan of often very insensitive and politically incorrect 1970's, 1980's humour.
In her book Kiss is into what was a very popular genre from the Romantic age up to the late 1980's: giving a national characterology. She is trying to do it in a funny way, but the book does not give one enough info to discern what Kiss actually finds true and how much of her bafflement concerning British habits is genuine, and how much is adopted for comical effect. Some of the jokes are good, some of the stories are cute, but altogether the material is too thin. Where it isn't too thin it commits one of two other mistakes: 1) It relies too heavily on the same jokes, and 2) it doesn't recognize when being puzzled why another culture stops being funny. The first of these two issues becomes apparent after page 30 where she can only keep the narrative flowing by making more and more ridiculous overstatements, which, naturally, become less and less entertaining, and don't provide any actual insight either into her experiences in Britain as an East-European, nor into what the Brits are like in their daily interactions.
The second issue is very bothersome and irritating on many points of the book: Kiss seems simply to have assumed that her way of doing and understanding things is obviously correct, since it makes sense to her. That's fine so far, but then she assumes that different ways of doing things not only not make sense to her but they can't make sense at all. She doesn't even entertain the idea that there might be different ways of going about one's life and looking at things. Or at least she doesn't show any sign which would indicate that she understands this.
Reading the book reminded of an important difference between comedians. Some of them are really funny to listen to for a few minutes, and they can be downright brilliant in short sketches. Still, if one has to listen to them for more than 5 minutes it becomes apparent that what seemed to be depth or meaning is just obsession with some insignificant detail or a ridiculous overstatement and simplification. Then there are comedians who can do one and a half hour shows, connect a string of topics, comment on publicly debated issues - moral, political, etc. - and one is entertained all the while. Sadly Kiss's book reminded me much more of the first kind of comedian. There are some funny bits and pieces, but reading the book for more than 10 minutes makes its shallowness obvious, and highlights that its author has failed to grasp what being an alien in England is like, as well what Brits are like. These are of course both tall orders, in fact, in my opinion they are impossible, since there is no unified British character, nor is there a single immigrant experience. There are common threads but those would have to be teased out with much more care and sophistication. What's more annoying is that Kiss doesn't even seem to have tried sufficiently. I would only recommend this book to someone who has never been to the UK and never intends to come here, and is a big fan of often very insensitive and politically incorrect 1970's, 1980's humour.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Books, books, books, and a beautiful Sunday
We finally have the first truly glorious weekend in the UK: the temperature is above 20 celsius degrees and the Sun is shining all day long. Accordingly, I went for a good 5,5k run around Summertown in the morning.
I've finally finished The Shepherd's Life yesterday. Excellent book. I have to make a small amendment to my previous post on the book: Rebanks does not argue straight out for a more conservative life and to sticking to old ways. He himself chose to combine his farming life with work done for UNESCO, and he tells several stories about how his grandfather, his father, other shepherds, and he himself had to adopt new methods and approaches to keep farming sustainable and going. Excellent book all in all.
The next two books that I will read will be Sidney Giffard's Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990, and Angela Kiss's How to be an Alien in England. Giffard's book seemed to be a good choice, as I have read now 5-6 basic books on the history, economy, and politics of Japan, as well as 15-20 of the key literary pieces. Giffard used to work in Japan in a political function, and he is a Brit, which makes the book doubly interesting for me.
Kiss's is book is nothing heavy or serious. I've already skimmed through the first few chapters on the bus. It is funny, in an interesting way. It is somewhere between humour that is becoming increasingly frowned upon and American stand up comedy. She does rely on many bad national stereotypes, and makes many jokes based on overgeneralization which are not necessarily lucky. But at some points she seems to be aware of what she is doing and making fun of making fun of people in this way. All in all, a relaxing and witty reading, even if one doesn't actually learn much about how to be an alien in England. Shusaku Endo's book Foreign Studies is probably a more accurate representation of the issues one deal with :)
I've finally finished The Shepherd's Life yesterday. Excellent book. I have to make a small amendment to my previous post on the book: Rebanks does not argue straight out for a more conservative life and to sticking to old ways. He himself chose to combine his farming life with work done for UNESCO, and he tells several stories about how his grandfather, his father, other shepherds, and he himself had to adopt new methods and approaches to keep farming sustainable and going. Excellent book all in all.
The next two books that I will read will be Sidney Giffard's Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990, and Angela Kiss's How to be an Alien in England. Giffard's book seemed to be a good choice, as I have read now 5-6 basic books on the history, economy, and politics of Japan, as well as 15-20 of the key literary pieces. Giffard used to work in Japan in a political function, and he is a Brit, which makes the book doubly interesting for me.
Kiss's is book is nothing heavy or serious. I've already skimmed through the first few chapters on the bus. It is funny, in an interesting way. It is somewhere between humour that is becoming increasingly frowned upon and American stand up comedy. She does rely on many bad national stereotypes, and makes many jokes based on overgeneralization which are not necessarily lucky. But at some points she seems to be aware of what she is doing and making fun of making fun of people in this way. All in all, a relaxing and witty reading, even if one doesn't actually learn much about how to be an alien in England. Shusaku Endo's book Foreign Studies is probably a more accurate representation of the issues one deal with :)
Friday, 29 April 2016
The Shepherd's Life
The Shepherd's Life has been a hit book in Britain. James Rebanks wrote an interesting and compelling account both of what it is like to be a shepherd, and of why it is okay to choose to continue a tradition. Rebanks isn't into high level politics. He is into the very personal and moral sphere of life, the sphere in which we seek our happiness, fulfillment, our calling, and try to construct a life that has meaning and value for us, and for others. And he is very good at this, even remarkably so.
There are many debates in contemporary philosophy concerning values, meaning, the good, and the meaning of life. I think Rebanks's position is closest to those who claim that value is created, not found. Reading his account of how natural it was for him to continue what his grandfather and father have been doing reminded me of Samuel Scheffler's book Death and the Afterlife, in which Scheffler argued that many of our standard activities - work, learning, healing, saving, and building houses for example - only make sense because we believe that others will engage in the same ways of life which we live and value, and imagine to go on. In a sense of course Scheffler's point is obvious: how could we imagine what it will be like to live in, for example the EU or India in 200 years? Naturally, we imagine that despite all the inevitable technological, political, economical, and fashion-related changes there will be core elements of life such as the ways families live (together or separately, close or far, etc.) or the way we treat individuals (with respect, with demands, with empathy, etc.) which will be similar to ours.
Rebanks makes a good case for the position that it is possible and should be seen as a respectable option to say no to the current ideal of striving for a career in management, finance, business, law or something else that earns big money and is done in a busy city. The alternative he highlights is that of carrying on with something that is working, keeping things going, and adopting to changes when that is important, without discarding a whole way of life just because other options seem to be easier or more lucrative at the moment.
As someone who is/has making/made the attempt to become the first academic in my family, and doing so in the UK, not in my home country, not somewhere where my own language is spoken, away from my family and childhood friends, this message awakes interest. Maybe I should have taken on the low salaries at a Hungarian university - way below EU average and even more below UK average - and struggled with paying the rent but fulfilled a role in that society? On the other hand I know that the answer is clearly no. The option that Rebanks depicts is only open as long as one has a comfortable enough life to go on. Being a shepherd comes across as fantastic. And it must be. It must also be rewarding, and hard work. It also has a function and it is valuable. But such choices are only viable as long as they provide the basics. When the shepherd's life will change to be more like the miner's in the UK, no one will write books like this anymore.
This is not to say that Rebanks isn't right. As long as the option of living such a life is a meaningful - and not a harmful - option, it should be fine for people to resist the pressure of uniform careers and dreams. Still, this can't be done when need and poverty kick in. It can't be done in 90% of the world right now. Hence I'm of two minds about the book. I applaud the sentiment and there is a message with which I heartily agree. On the other hand, I think everyone reading the book has to be careful not to mistake it for an argument for going back to old professions or to stay where she is at. We should consider keeping traditions going as long as they provide lives worth living for us and our communities, but not beyond that. We need to be able to put up with change when we have to. Hence, the book should be considered as a particular story about a group of shepherd's in one region of the UK, and nothing more.
Just a minor update at the end: Some people might read my review and not recognize the book they've read or get the impression that The Shepherd's Life is a philosophy book. It is not. It is a lucidly written, entertaining, emotional, informative and imaginative journey through the family life, community, work, and landscape that frame shepherding. And of course there are the sheep and the herding dogs. Lovely stories, great characters, all written in an easy to follow and pleasant way. I warmly recommend it.
There are many debates in contemporary philosophy concerning values, meaning, the good, and the meaning of life. I think Rebanks's position is closest to those who claim that value is created, not found. Reading his account of how natural it was for him to continue what his grandfather and father have been doing reminded me of Samuel Scheffler's book Death and the Afterlife, in which Scheffler argued that many of our standard activities - work, learning, healing, saving, and building houses for example - only make sense because we believe that others will engage in the same ways of life which we live and value, and imagine to go on. In a sense of course Scheffler's point is obvious: how could we imagine what it will be like to live in, for example the EU or India in 200 years? Naturally, we imagine that despite all the inevitable technological, political, economical, and fashion-related changes there will be core elements of life such as the ways families live (together or separately, close or far, etc.) or the way we treat individuals (with respect, with demands, with empathy, etc.) which will be similar to ours.
Rebanks makes a good case for the position that it is possible and should be seen as a respectable option to say no to the current ideal of striving for a career in management, finance, business, law or something else that earns big money and is done in a busy city. The alternative he highlights is that of carrying on with something that is working, keeping things going, and adopting to changes when that is important, without discarding a whole way of life just because other options seem to be easier or more lucrative at the moment.
As someone who is/has making/made the attempt to become the first academic in my family, and doing so in the UK, not in my home country, not somewhere where my own language is spoken, away from my family and childhood friends, this message awakes interest. Maybe I should have taken on the low salaries at a Hungarian university - way below EU average and even more below UK average - and struggled with paying the rent but fulfilled a role in that society? On the other hand I know that the answer is clearly no. The option that Rebanks depicts is only open as long as one has a comfortable enough life to go on. Being a shepherd comes across as fantastic. And it must be. It must also be rewarding, and hard work. It also has a function and it is valuable. But such choices are only viable as long as they provide the basics. When the shepherd's life will change to be more like the miner's in the UK, no one will write books like this anymore.
This is not to say that Rebanks isn't right. As long as the option of living such a life is a meaningful - and not a harmful - option, it should be fine for people to resist the pressure of uniform careers and dreams. Still, this can't be done when need and poverty kick in. It can't be done in 90% of the world right now. Hence I'm of two minds about the book. I applaud the sentiment and there is a message with which I heartily agree. On the other hand, I think everyone reading the book has to be careful not to mistake it for an argument for going back to old professions or to stay where she is at. We should consider keeping traditions going as long as they provide lives worth living for us and our communities, but not beyond that. We need to be able to put up with change when we have to. Hence, the book should be considered as a particular story about a group of shepherd's in one region of the UK, and nothing more.
Just a minor update at the end: Some people might read my review and not recognize the book they've read or get the impression that The Shepherd's Life is a philosophy book. It is not. It is a lucidly written, entertaining, emotional, informative and imaginative journey through the family life, community, work, and landscape that frame shepherding. And of course there are the sheep and the herding dogs. Lovely stories, great characters, all written in an easy to follow and pleasant way. I warmly recommend it.
Thursday, 28 April 2016
Challenges for 2016
Last year I've run two official half-marathons and a 10k run, all of them organized by BSI. One half-marathon and the 10k took place in Budapest, which proved to be a wonderful setting for running: wide roads, fascinating architecture, enthusiastic supporters, and a huge turnout. The third race took place at lake Balaton, at the end of October. Lovely race, lots of fun. The wind was a bit cold and when we ran on the shore the waves sprayed some water on us, but hey, who cares, we were already soaking wet from sweat.
This year the challenge will be a full marathon. I'll start preparing next week and as usual I'll use one of BUPA's training plan, this time the beginners marathon one. I would normally go for the intermediate plan, but I didn't do much running between December and April, so I think it will be best to go for a safe training.
At the same time I've also decided to try and read at least 25 books this year - or in what's remaining of it. I'm not really sure how many books I read each year. Suggestions on what would be good to read are welcome! You can go and check out my shelf here. It doesn't have everything, but covers a good deal of what I've been reading in the last years.
At the moment I'm reading - parallel as usually - Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, Sidney Giffard's Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990, and P. Adamson's A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy in the Islamic World.
This year the challenge will be a full marathon. I'll start preparing next week and as usual I'll use one of BUPA's training plan, this time the beginners marathon one. I would normally go for the intermediate plan, but I didn't do much running between December and April, so I think it will be best to go for a safe training.
At the same time I've also decided to try and read at least 25 books this year - or in what's remaining of it. I'm not really sure how many books I read each year. Suggestions on what would be good to read are welcome! You can go and check out my shelf here. It doesn't have everything, but covers a good deal of what I've been reading in the last years.
At the moment I'm reading - parallel as usually - Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, Sidney Giffard's Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990, and P. Adamson's A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy in the Islamic World.
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