Julien wrote:
This reflection make me realise exactly what characterise Westerness and why Japanese and Chinese will never be Western, even at a same level of advancement, wealth, education, with a same economical or political system... Humansim and philosophical reasoning and inquiry. That is what has characterised Westerness ever since Ancient Greece and Rome. That is what we call the Renaissance and the Enlightment, what brought democracy, human rights and prompted scientific and philosophical (applied to politics, etc) research and why Europeans have dominated the rest of the world, even though other regions like China, India or Arabia has be more wealthy and had the same opportunity to colonise the world (but never did, because there wasn't the need to educate people to new ideas,etc.). It's a bit difficlt to explain and I am still a bit confused as it has just dawned on me that this was the source of Westerness. I think it is both a cultural and ethnical factor and probably why Westerners are usually associated with Latino-Germanic Caucasians (not so much Russians or Eastern Europeans). That's also why an Asian with the same level of education and wealth will never be a Westerner, because their mentality/culture are different. I think, even poor, a European would stay a Westerner if they are Western in the mind.
An important addendum to your thought here is that these "Western" traits - individual freedom, democracy, human rights, etc. - all have an impact far beyond making life nice for those living in Western societies; they are all a part of the foundation on which Western concepts of economic productivity are based. Individual freedoms, for instance, is a part of the idea that each citizen is an autonomous economic unit that must make decisions for itself about how it's going to generate enough wealth to survive, and to what extent it's willing to sacrifice (i.e., work) in order to prosper. Our legal and constitutional systems are geared towards guaranteeing these rights of individual autonomy not only because, well, we all want to be respected in that way, but because it benefits our societries as a whole that we each have these choices available, that we have these opportunities for taking economic risks ourselves. This is an important part of "Westernness"; that the critical core of our productivity as a society rests with the individual components of society - the citizens themselves.
Locally, they're called 'Christian' names, 'cause usually the Chinese who took them up are Christians. Though nowadays, even non-Christian Chinese got themselves a 'Christian' name... (like my housemate e.g.).
