World Literature - Essay Example

What effect did contact with Western civilization have on the cultures of India, China, and Japan? Westernization is considered adriving force behind the process of globalization. The Western thought has resulted to globalization, and globalization propagates Western culture, hence a cycle of Westernization. Western ideologies such as technologies, music, clothing, cars and many more has been integrated into several cultures across the globe and created in traditionally non-western countries like China, Japan and India.

Westernization took center stage on the three countries mostly in the 19th century after a long period of isolationism. It is worth noting that westernization came into play in China, India, and japan economically, socially and politically. Economically; the industrial revolution in USA and Europe had created a gap between these countries and the west, leaving the nations behind technologically and military. During this period the western nations had dominate these countries hence forcing them to open their ports and cities to foreign merchants.

Socially, western culture influenced the lifestyle of the citizens of these three countries. For instance, Buddhism was the dominant religion in these countries. However, with a success of the Jesuit mission in the Asian countries during the 19th Century, the Christian religion is now being practiced in these countries. Politically, the Asian political system was characterized by hereditary leadership. However, with the introduction of the western culture and practices, these three countries hold elections.

It is therefore vital to state the westernization played a vital role in shaping the current culture in China, India and Japan. The use of the Western Languages for African writers has been a major debate in the 21st century. Categorically, African writers in the 21st are characterized by global perspective hence their main target is no longer Africa but the entire world. In this regards, they tend to write in the language that the globe world understand. In addition, Africa is a multi-language society hence even if the writers wanted to target Africans only with their works; they have to do it in a language that is best understood by all.

Considering the fact westernization has taken over Africa, Africans understand the western languages hence the need for the writers to use the western languages. As much as western writers use the Western language in doing their writing for global purposes, it is clear that using the western language diminishes the African culture. Their use of the western languages as opposed to African languages make western culture superior over African culture which should not be the case considering the fact that the writers are Africans.

ReferencesPerry, M. (1985). Western civilization: Ideas, politics & society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.