Legalistic Confucianism and Economic Development in East Asia‪.‬

Imagining Modernity Through Tradition One of the fascinating theoretical questions posed by the spread of industrialization and today's nation-state-building process is how these originally Western and quintessentially modern institutions come to take root in other civilizations. The question becomes even more intriguing when the process of adaptation is unusually swift and successful as in East Asia. In Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, the states and peoples had scant time to learn and absorb modern practices, norms, and concepts before undertaking, or being subjected to, countless reforms and revolutions in the name of "modernization." How, or in what terms, did the people in this "great transformation" understand and interpret what they were doing? If the as-yet imperfectly understood concepts and values could not be appealed to, what resources--intellectual and ethico-moral--were at their disposal to use to motivate themselves and persuade others to undertake or endure such massive changes?