Universality and Particularity: What Is Asianness?

The publication of this book, Universality and Particularity: What is Asianness?, is not a trivial matter. It contains a small segment from the recent thinking of professor Naoki Sakai and professor Sun Ge. Together they elaborate on the transcendental perspectives that the notion of Asia could provide in terms of entering regional histories, and of re-examining the issues left out in the assumed relationship between universality and particularity.

Following their respective speeches at Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing, professor Naoki Sakai and professor Sun Ge carried out a dialogue upon issues regarding the relevance of Asia as a category of perception in light of the current international political dynamic, and the new reality of a fastly fostered Asian unity. This discursive event put forward the notion of Asia and Asian theories as an intellectual horizon. As such, it has the potential to problematize existing categories and orders, and thus provide windows into the contemplation of subjectivity.