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ABSTRACT
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians have been othered in American society due to racism and xenophobia because some view them as responsible (as individuals or as a community) for causing and spreading the virus. In response to the nationwide surge of anti-Asian hate crimes, the author, an Asian American preacher, suggests a revitalization of ren (仁), the foundational concept of the collectivist culture of East (Southeast) Asian society and also the essence of Confucianism, as an indigenous homiletical voice. The paper explores the distinctive conception of otherness—in particular, the heart of compassion (惻隱之心, ceyin zhi xin) and righteousness (義, yi)—in ren as an alternative concept for mitigating controversial features of Levinas's ethical project. Further, the author proposes revitalizing ren in preaching so that the praxis of compassion and resistance combines with the dynamic of biblical lament as a homiletical strategy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 From January 1 to June 27, 2021, bias crimes against Asian Americans in San Francisco more than doubled, from 43 to 89, and in New York City they increased fivefold, from 21 to 105, compared to the same period in 2020 (Watkins and Bromwich Citation2021; Fuller Citation2021). Ali Watkins and Jonah E. Bromwich, ‘No Vaccine for Racism’: Asian New Yorkers Still Live in Fear of Attacks,’ The New York Times, July 18, 2021; Thomas Fuller, ‘Fear, and Discord, Among Asian Americans Over Attacks in San Francisco,’ The New York Times, July 21, 2021. According to a report by Stop AAPI Hate, nationwide, 9,081 hate incidents (4,548 in 2020 and 4,533 in 2021) were reported to the center between March 19, 2020 and June 30, 2021. The report indicates that the incidents involved verbal harassment (63.7%), avoidance (16.5%), physical assault (13.7%), and online harassment (8.3%). These acts of discrimination occurred primarily in public spaces: on the street, on public transit, and in parks (48.2%), businesses (30.1%), private residences (9.4%), and online (8.8%). The ethnicity of the victims was Chinese (43.8%), Korean (16.8%), Filipinx (9.1%), Japanese (8.6%), and Vietnamese (8.2%) (Stop AAPI 2021).
2 Levinas's intellectual background enables him to create an opposition between insider and outsider, which permits the xenophobia associated with outsiders to grow and fester. Drabinski argues, ‘[W]e could say that there is something presupposed in Levinas’ concept of Europe that not only makes such racist and xenophobic utterances possible, but even makes them necessary.’ (Drabinski Citation2011, 7).
3 Confucianism was initiated by Confucius (孔子, 551–479 BCE), and it spread throughout East and Southeast Asia as an important element of cultural/political systems and social ethics. The influence of Confucianism reached societies populated by Han people, including China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, that share a common language, tradition, and history. It has influenced Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, which have the largest numbers of the Han people's diaspora and are more exposed to Confucian culture. Lastly, it has also influenced non-Han regions such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, which all have geographical proximity to China (Tu Citation2000; Huang and Chang Citation2017; Nawrot 2021).
4 For instance, the drastic industrialization of Korean society after the Korean war in the 1960s and ’70s diminished the influence of Confucianism. China discarded the Confucian tradition in its modern-era process of communization—in particular, the cultural revolution in the 1960s—and Japan faced a similar phenomenon as other East Asian countries. Yet Confucian ideologies and values are still alive and are practiced in people's lives as the essence of collectivist culture and thinking (Bae Citation2014; Francis and Nakajima Citation1991).
5 One example of this thinking is the ritual hierarchy of agnates (persons descended from the same male ancestor) in both the domestic and public arenas, such as in the paternalistic concepts of the king of Korea as the national father and of the father of the family as the elder who has the authority and power to control other family members. This has encouraged authoritarian, factional, gerontocratic, patriarchal, and male-oriented ideas and practices in society that are in direct contrast to the genuine meaning of otherness in ren. Moreover, the male-labor-dominated industrial structure of society during the modernization and industrialization of East and Southeast Asian society has maintained the status of the male-dominated household among family members. This has also played a role in conserving the hierarchical and authoritarian familism based on paternalism in the transformation of the family system. For these reasons, the enclosed family-oriented community has critically distorted the genuine perspective on otherness. Further, it has recognized different groups as one community but limited them to relation-based networks that draw primarily on existing kinship-, university/school-, and regional origin-based ties (Koh Citation1996; Kwon Citation2014).
6 Biblical lament simultaneously contains the undivided characteristics of compassion and resistance. First, lament enables sufferers to speak and allows them to express their emotions, thus breaking the silence. Further, lament invites sufferers to bring their sorrow and rage before God and also awakens them to the awareness that God always listens and can be trusted to help in the midst of their horrible experience. Therefore, lament makes space for the experience of the compassionate God who was crucified as divine and fully human. Second, lament represents a resistant voice that is a profound expression of people's desire for God's justice and liberation. In the public arena, lament not only brings individuals and communities into a closer view of the reality of the society to which they belong but also proposes an alternative consciousness, one in which people can see their history in the light of God's justice. Thus, biblical lament establishes the hermeneutic dynamic of compassion and resistance within its praxis. The worth and value of sufferers are not invalidated by the compassionate God; instead, the divine experience leads them to act with courage and claim justice in God's fierce resistance to the evil and suffering in their reality (Kim Citation2021).
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Notes on contributors
Jeremy Kangsan Kim
Jeremy Kangsan Kim has recently received his PhD from Aberdeen University in practical theology (homiletics). His main academic interests are in Homiletical Theology derived from Western and East Asian philosophy, hermeneutics, sociology, and psychology, especially socio-political and socio-cultural issues in both North American and Korean contexts, with the hope of reshaping contemporary preaching in contemporary Asian-American and Korean contexts.