What’s Asia Got to Do With It? : “Asian Values” as Reactionary Culturalism

It is a common misunderstanding that the “Asian Values” discourse is about Asia. Originally dubbed “Confucian values,” it became “Asian” in order to serve as a causeway connecting the discourses of Singaporean and Malaysian authoritarian leaders in the early 1990s. Not seriously engaging with a storied “Asianisms” debate about common values in the region, it was crudely essentialist. In the face of perceived external and internal challenges, proclaiming democracy as culturally alien proved a useful authoritarian tool. Earlier manifestations of this reactionary culturalism in the region functioned similarly, e.g., “Thai-style democracy.” These discourses shaped political agendas, as efforts by democratic oppositionists throughout Southeast Asia to develop a counter narrative of “vernacularised” liberalism demonstrated. Not surprisingly, an Asian Values-style exculpatory discourse has been revived alongside a recent autocratization wave in Southeast Asia. Comparativists interpreting such arguments as a defense of indigenous values and constructivists imagining Asian Values contributing to a Southeast Asian regional identity have inadvertently contributed to legitimizing such authoritarian normative claims. © The Author(s) 2024