培育年輕學者卓越研究能力計畫：思想東亞、超克全球、想像世界

Abstract

從明治日本以降，「什麼是亞洲？」與「什麼是世界？」這兩個充滿時代感的問題 一直位居當時公眾辯論的核心。儘管眾人提出的答案常常南轅北轍甚至針鋒相對， 但關於亞細亞論的終極目標，縱使是在不同政治與思想立場的人之間也有極大的共 識。所有亞細亞論的信徒們都堅信，只要亞洲國家可以振衰起弊，心手相連打造「大 亞洲」，自然可以小搏大輕易撂倒西方。換句話說，他們相信一道堅實的亞洲連帶 不僅可以反過頭去重建西方，更是一個讓僵化的世界史結構得以鬆動重整的關鍵。 但自從日本戰敗，亞洲論的烏托邦美夢瞬時化為泡影。接踵而至的，是整個亞洲甚 或世界對於亞細亞主義的防備：只要稍稍碰觸亞細亞的議題，就會被當成法西斯主 義的陰魂不散。弔詭的是，在戰後恢復亞細亞主義名譽的，竟然是席捲東亞的全球 化現象。全球化讓東亞成為一個區域，一躍而起成為多元世界中的一個中心，但在 此同時，雖然全球經濟的浪潮造就了東亞的崛起，但經經濟的勃興也打消了亞細亞 論既有的烏托邦衝動。本研究計劃的發想，便是緣起於一種班雅民式的歷史救贖 觀：承接班雅民的救贖計劃，我們重新考察亞細亞論，目的不在讓已經隨著歷史一 起化為灰燼的亞細亞主義死灰復燃，而是要妥善繼承亞細亞論的思想遺產。「思想 東亞、超克全球、想像世界」─本計劃試圖啟動亞細亞論隱約指向的三部曲，讓來 自東亞的挑戰，成為全球流動的一大威脅。在這樣的脈絡底下，東亞已經不再是全 球的換喻，而是可以讓「全球」驚駭莫名的孿生兄弟，代表著全球鍊結中最為脆弱 的一環。除了七個子計劃之外，本計劃更進一步整合計劃的團隊成員，在往後的執 行計劃的三年裡，我們將集體籌組讀書會、論壇、工作坊、理論營、並催生可能的 國際學術交流，希望能夠集思廣益，帶動外文學門對於東亞議題的討論，並且從文 學、電影、藝術、思想、文化以及理論的角度，開出一個多元的批判視野審視全球 區域的問題所在。如此從頭思想東亞，目的不在於將東亞視為一個知識操作的標 靶。相反地，我們試圖把東亞視為思想過程本身。在這個過程中，我們希望能夠取 得一個新的視角來觀照世界與全球之間的臍帶，進而一刀剪斷它，好迎接一個新世 界的呱呱墜地。

“What is Asia?” and “what is the world?” had long been the epochal questions at the forefront of public debate since the Meiji Restoration. Despite the heated wrangle, those who engaged in the debate had never pick up their opponents on the aim of Asianism. An unflinching conviction the acolytes of Asianism shared was that the Asian countries still held great prospects for leveraging against the West once they got back on their feet and coalesced into a “Greater Asia.” They believed the indomitable Asian solidarity would not only shake up the West, but also bring seismic changes to thaw out the fossilized structure of world history. Since the defeat of Japanese militarism, the utopian bubbles were soon pricked despite their enduring presence in the pre-War era. Coming hard at the heels then was a surge of slurs on the monstrous offshoot of Asianism (i.e. “The Co-Prosperity Sphere of Greater East Asia” ). Even the tangential remarks on Asianism would be passed off as the token of fascist revival and warned against with great alarm. By an ironical twist of fate, it was not until the incursion of globalization that the tarnished reputation of “East Asia” was salvaged. Metamorphosing into a “region” the contours of which was sketched out solely by the footsteps of globalization, “East Asia” as an utopian idea was nonetheless neutralized under the guise of stupendous economic growth. What inspires and characterizes this joint research project is in the final analysis the Benjaminian attempt in salvaging the history of Asianism: the redemptive task Benjamin has imposed and now we brace ourselves for, to put it schematically, is not to recall and rejuvenate the obsolete Asianism, but to inherit it in a proper way. “Thinking East Asia, Overcoming the Global, and Imagining the World”—this is the trilogy we feel obliged to set in motion with a view to confronting the untrammeled flow of globalization with the challenges from East Asia, which is actually not so much the synecdoche for the global society as its awe-inspiring dappelgänger, one of the weakest link of the global chain. Besides the seven research projects, in the following three years we will team up as usual to organize the study group, forums, workshops, conference panels, theory camp, and international academic exchanges in order the better to enable brainstorming, prompt discussions, popularize ideas, and sharpen our critical pondering over the problems of the “global region” from the perspectives of literature, films, art, culture, and theory. By thinking East Asia from the ground up, we do not mean to degrade East Asia into a mere target of intellectual operations. On the contrary, East Asia is the thought process par excellence, in the midst of which we hopefully will be blessed with a new angle to the umbilical cord between the world and the global, and bear witness to the birth of a new world by cutting it off once and for all.