America's relationship with Asia

America is, to paraphrase Walt Whitman, big. 

After starting to see Singapore from the perspective of outsiders, I came to see Singapore from the outside. Singapore is basically a Chinatown with an army. And it is in many ways parallel to the overseas Chinese communities. The Chinese communities in California are traditionally invisible - at least low key. But they developed in parallel with Singapore, so when I see Chinese Americans - or Asian Americans, for that matter, it's like seeing long lost relatives.

Asian Americans haven't made their mark in entertainment by and large. But the first railroads to California were built by Chinese people. There were the Chinse exclusion laws. The Civil Rights act was seminal to Black Americans. The Immigration act of the 60s was equally important to the Asian Americans, although it took a while to make its influence felt. The story of the Asian Americans need to be told a little more. The first reason is that Asians have contributed more than their fair share to the US being a scientific and technological powerhouse. We pulled our weight in building Silicon Valley, nobody doubts that this is one of the most important events of the early 21st century. 

The other reason is that Asian Americans, as well as non-China East Asians live in this space between America and China. America doesn't just reckon with a rising China, but also a rising Asia. Many of us feel the tug of both America and China. America, who at various points was at war with the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, and at other points is allied with these 4 countries in counterbalancing the influence of China. 

Asians (including Asian Americans) have a relationship with the US which may be more distant culturally and emotionally. But this is a world which was modernised and shaped by the US, and in turn, is now shaping the US, because the rise of Asia will transform the relationship between US and the world. Don't forget that it was Pearl Harbour which blew the door open between US and the rest of the world and paved the way for internationalism, NATO and the Bretton Woods institutions. The paradox between Japan the enemy, Japan the ally, and Japan, the killer of the Detroit car industry. The paradox between Asia symbolising the past of ancient Asian civilisations, and Asia being the future because it is a rising power. Asian culture is not dead but it was forever transformed by American influence. 

Obama - who, lest we forget, grew up in Java - pivoted to Asia. The US is not post-racial. But just as the first Black president symbolises that race relations in the US is more complex than just black and white, the presence of Asians and Latinos reminds us that the US is a much more complex place than before. It's becoming something that more and more resembles the Asia of many races living side by side. Therefore it had to be Obama who pushed for the "pivot to Asia", meaning that USA's relationship with the world was not just trans Atlantic but also trans Pacific. 

The questions over the changes to the US' role in the world are not raised by Europe. They are raised by Asia. Something has changed recently - it is not America's relationship with Europe and Russia, although that is undoubtedly important. But the dramatic change is Asia. And those changes - the rise of Asia, the rise of Silicon Valley - are amongst what's at the top of peoples' minds when they are motivated to vote for Trump. 

Because Asia is an agent of change for the US (at least its relationship with the rest of the world) many of us are also pondering - just what is the US turning into? The US, which liberated us from the Japanese, who fought Korea and Vietnam, who helped build the trading system that became a buttress for Asian prosperity, and who is now nervously looking over its shoulder at China. The US, who was so preachy about freedom and democracy and is now struggling to make its democracy work. The US who, when they were the hegemons, believed in a free and open world, are now thinking in terms of empire, and preparing for a struggle against China and asking us to choose sides. There are cultural clashes all around. Asians and Americans do not have the same depth of conversations about culture, because there is not the same depth of understanding. The sheer diversity of Asians is already bewildering to Asians already, let alone Americans. Some Asians believe in democracy. Others believe in dictatorship. Both of these can nevertheless make their societies work. Some Asians see Americans as role models. Others see Americans as cautionary tales. Some of them remember the bravery they displayed in vanquishing the Japanese. Others resent the support Americans gave dictatorships in Philippines and Indonesians during the Cold War, or the role they played in the Great Asian Financial Crisis of the late 90s. Some Asians are amazed at the generosity of the Americans in sharing their technologies with the world, and others are appalled at the selfishness of big American corporations and their oligarchs. 

Some strange relationship is shaping up, and that strange relationship is driving plenty of changes all around the world.