SEIZING THE ASIAN CENTURY

This blog post is about an Asian Century cultural shift, politics and education. It recognises the ‘global market action’ driven by the growth of Asia and how “we’re all Asians now”(Shorten 2013). The author recognises different points about the ‘Asian Century’ in what is it going to mean for Australia, how well can Australia deal with it and prepare. I post about the differences of Australia to Asia and give opinion towards the issue at hand.

The source of this media article is on Bill Shortens speech at the Victoria and Asian Century conference in Melbourne, on august 8^th 2013. It is titled the ‘Seizing the Asian Century’ and helps reiterate the influences of Asian culture not only in society but education and politics. The article mainly identifies the exploding cultural shifts of India, Korea, China and Japan.  

Shorten highlights “by 2030, Asia’s middle class will have increased from half a billion to 3.2 billion. So the question I ask is are Australians prospering from this? Shorten states “the world we live in isn’t black and white. Or preordained. Its complicated. Messy. An up for grabs”( Shorten 2013). So in saying this, Shorten becomes centred over the issue of Australia’s ‘white privilege’. I’m thinking he’s thinking money, and as Leonardo expresses it “money being placed in white pockets” (Leonardo pg. 138)

“The discourse on privilege comes with the unfortunate consequence of masking history, obfuscating agents of domination, and removing the actions that make it clear who is doing what to whom. Instead of emphasizing the process of appropriation, the discourse of privilege centers the discussion on the advantages that whites receive”. (Leonardo pg.138) Australia is an attractive destination for Asian students, e.g. “9 of the top 10 countries that send international students to Australia are from Asia”(Shorten 2013). It brings about the issue of migration and education and also without doubt racism/whiteness in education. Shorten touches upon a stereotypical point, to the extent that I can say it’s fairly true that in many schools, Asian students tend to be amongst the top three students in the HSC etc.

Do I agree with the statement – “we’re all Asians now” – I’m not sure to be quite honest? Maybe I’m just coming from a racist’s perspective because I’m ‘white’. I agree to a certain extent but only in the integration of two cultures. Sushi is great! Indian Bollywood dancing on Australia’s got talent was good. Gangnam Style was awesome, for a bit, and back in the day the Asian cartoons like Yu Gi Oh were amazing haha.  For a better schools programme then yes, but what about the minority groups? Learning a Asian language may not be easy. The point of view of the article is to make Australia prosperous from Asia. Will it be a shift from a British Century to an American century and now an Asian Century.

http://billshorten.com.au/seizing-the-asian-century

REFERENCES:

-       billshorten.com.au (2013). SEIZING THE ASIAN CENTURY. [online] Retrieved from: http://billshorten.com.au/seizing-the-asian-century [Accessed: 15 Sep 2013].

-       Leonardo, Z. (2004). The color of supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 137-152.

-       Shorten, B. (2013). The Education Century that must go with the Asian Century. Sydney Morning Herald, 8/8/13.

-       Vass, G. (2012). The racialised educational landscape in Australia: listening to the whispering elephant. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1-26. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2012.674505

BY MANUEL ANGELOPOULOS