Knowledge Production with Asia-Centric Research Methodology

Abstract

Taiwanese cultural critic Kuan-Hsing Chen has elaborated and promoted an “Asia and the rest” worldview for over a decade. His opus magnum Asia as Method argues for a paradigm shift to observe Asian reality with a de-imperialized, de-colonized, and de–Cold War mentality. The work has produced academic discussions among advocates and antagonists in social science and humanities. This article critically examines its main tenets and education scholars’ reaction to them: whether Chen’s deconstruction of “the West and the rest” offers a substantive and distinctive Asia-centric research methodology to the field of education in its content, pedagogy, and knowledge production.