![]() ![]() Ian Buruma belongs to a long tradition of Westerners who have tried to explain the East to the West. But these stereotypes hardly prepared the West for, say, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the fight against colonialism, the Japanese economic miracle and the rise of the Asian ''tigers.'' When the natives behaved badly, they were also deemed untrustworthy. ![]() They saw the Orient as peopled by exotic natives unconcerned with progress, ruled by ritual, in need of Christian enlightenment. The colonizers, however, never quite caught on. ![]() ![]() Latin America is a product of Spain and Portugal, Africa still carries the marks of British and French rule, but Asia? It too was colonized of course - India by Britain, Indonesia by the Netherlands, Indochina by France, the Philippines by Spain and the United States - yet somehow it never quite surrendered. ![]()
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