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This article was posted on the Web site Gaiam.com in February, 2002, but is no longer available there.

West Meets East:
Today's Asian Influences

By Gil Asakawa

The busy executive returns home from a hectic day at the office and sighs with relief. It's time to relax.

A framed image of exquisitely painted bamboo greets her at the door, like a welcome sign to a peaceful retreat. The home is arranged following feng shui principles, allowing the chi, or energy to flow from room to room. Just walking in has a calming effect. After changing into loose, comfortable Tao pants, she lights some incense and puts on a CD of airy, calming music for meditation. She heats some water for tea, and settles onto a zabuton pillow for her nightly yoga exercises. The bustle and hassle of work already seem far, far away.

Although she is not Asian, Asian elements are arrayed all around her: Chinese calligraphy on the wall; chopsticks and a Japanese tea set on the kitchen counter; a shoji screen separates her living area from her dining table; Asian influences inform her lamps, her furniture.

The busy executive finds solace and serenity in the Asian objects and cultural artifacts that surround her. She relaxes, her spirit half a globe away, preparing herself for the next day at the office.

From the East

The common perception is that Asians - especially Japanese - have an unquenchable thirst for all things Western, and are constantly absorbing and adapting American and European culture for their own uses. But cultural exchange by definition is a two-way passage. There has been a cyclical and irrefutable adoption of Asian culture by the West for centuries, and we are today living in a time that celebrates Asia more than ever before.

• The Detroit News reported in August, 2001 that Asian home furnishings - antiques and reproductions - are in great demand from every corner of China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and southern India. The article noted that major American furniture manufacturers such as Broyhill, Bassett and Thomasville have created entire collections of Asian-inspired furniture, and first introduced them at the spring 2001 International Home Furnishings Market.

• The Miami Herald also noted in an article from 2001 that Asian popular culture - specifically in movies and animation - have had a great influence in the U.S. "After decades on the margins of the American mainstream, the Eastern cultures that gave the world tofu and futons, tai-chi and Tae Kwon Do, Maoism and Taoism, Szechwan and sushi, have surged into the spotlight," the article reported. The article pointed out that the success of the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" last year was a bellwether that included such diverse touchstones as the hit TV series "Iron Chef," a Japanese program which pits chefs from different countries against a Japanese master chef in a live cooking contest, to the superstar status of Seattle Mariners hitter Suzuki Ichiro and other Asian players in U.S. pro sports.

• And William and Mary College - the second-oldest college in the U.S. - hosted a seminar Feb. 1-2, 2002 on the influences of Asia on American culture.

• Also in 2002, Harvard University Press is publishing University of Maryland history professor Warren I. Cohen's "The Asian American Century," including a fascinating and eye-opening assessment of the "Asianization" of America. Cohen makes the point that Asian influences in food, film, music, medicine, and religion are now woven deeply -- and permanently -- into the American fabric.

Nothing New

The current fascination with Asia is not new. Starting with the first bolts of silk brought back to the west from China in ancient times, there have always been goods and culture from the Orient that have been accepted into Western society.

In the mid-1800s, when Japan was opened up after centuries of isolation, exported woodblock prints which were considered cheap reproductions in Japan were hailed as works of art in France, inspiring an entire generation of painters we revere today as the Impressionists. Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Cezanne and others were all enchanted with the Japanese approach to perspective, space, light and color, and incorporated those ideas into their own now-famous paintings. Think of all the other Asian inventions we now take for granted: eyeglasses, fireworks, ramen noodles, Buddhism, and more recently sushi, futons, and Godzilla.

Sometimes these cultural imports come on the wave of celebrity endorsements or developments in world politics:

• The Beatles introduced the world to Nehru jackets and Transcendental Meditation in the 1960s.
  
  
• President Richard Nixon introduced Americans to ping pong and the giant pandas Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling when he opened relations with China in the early 1970s.
  
  

• The 1970s' rise and sudden death of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, combined with the hit TV series "King Fu" established all forms of Asian martial arts - and their emphasis on honor, discipline and commitment - throughout the U.S.

• The TV mini-series of James Clavell's "Shogun" in 1980 sparked an interest in Japanese culture, especially of the samurai era and pre-modern Japan.

• Thanks to a traveling museum exhibit, a wave of Chinese mania swept through America in the early 1980s, resulting in a rise in Asian fashion and Asian themes at chic department stores.

• Japanese culture has embedded itself into the U.S. mainstream via technology such as video games and hit animation series including Pokemon.

• Chinese film stars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li have extended the popularity of martial arts beyond what Bruce Lee started, and Chow Yun Fat's rise from Hong Kong gangster movies to Hollywood blockbusters has opened the door for Asian faces in mainstream U.S. entertainment.

• And with China's recent accession into the World Trade organization, we can expect an all-new wave of interest in Asian artifacts as exports flood Western consumers.

But the exchanges aren't always positive. According to Lane Hirabayashi, professor of Asian studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder and a third-generation Japanese American, the surges in interest are cyclical. But he also cautions, "I feel there are anti-Asian cycles going on also. When Wen Ho Lee was charged with being a spy for China, it was kind of scary, because it brought out the feeling that Asians can't be trusted. It goes back to the days of Flash Gordon, when one of the bad guys was called 'Merciless Ming.'"

Lifestyle Choices

Throughout this process of importing Asian concepts and products, there has also been a steady stream of interest in less commercial aspects of Asian culture -- those that deal with spirituality, lifestyle choices and traditional values of simplicity, economy and respect for nature.

Asian martial arts have always been interlaced with the peaceful aspects of training for the sake of developing the mind and spirit, not just to learn to fight. Tai Chi is a deliberately slowed-down form of training that is as much meditative and contemplative as it can be aggressive.

And since the days of the Beatles urging hippies that all they needed was love, there has been an increasing interest in various forms of Buddhism and meditation, touchstones of much Asian cultures. This interest in self-improvement and inner development has led to the popularity of more physical manifestations such as yoga, qigong and reiki massage.

It has also led to the flowering of an open-mindedness about alternative healthcare including not just the power of herbs and teas but also such ages-old Asian techniques such as acupuncture and feng shui.

Today, a plethora of Asian influences surrounds Americans, and although some are the mainstream pop culture of movies and cartoons, many are more thoughtful reflections of the continuing interest in Asia as a source of inspiration for a peaceful, balanced lifestyle. If you allow the best of Asian culture into your life, it can help calm you and focus your energy on the goals you're trying to achieve - and it doesn't matter whether you're an executive or not.