Andrew TAM Ka Pok - Section 16 ISEAP 2021 Conference

International Society of East Asian Philosophy 2021 Conference
“Philosophies around East Asian Seas”

Date: December 10-11, 2021 (Friday and Saturday, Japan Time)
Venue: Virtual (Zoom)
Organizer: International Society of East Asian Philosophy (ISEAP)
Co-organizer: Meiji Institute of Philosophies, Meiji University (MIPs)

The conference is supported by
科研費基盤研究B「東アジア哲学の国際的研究拠点の形成」
科研費基盤研究C「戦前東アジアにおける哲学：日本の植民地支配の観点から」

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Day 2(December 11, 2021) Section 16 Organized Panel "Merging Seas and Troubled Waters"

Andrew TAM Ka Pok (University of Saint Joseph, Macao)
‘The Peninsula Self-Consciousness of Hong Kong in its Maritime and Continental “Fudo”’

Abstract:
In Hegel’s “Lectures on the Philosophy of World-History”, nations are divided into three geographical categories where the cultural self-consciousness is manifested: highlands, valleys, and coasts. Hegel argues that nations only manifest their freedoms in the limitlessness and boundlessness of the sea. In “Jijinron”, Uchimura Kanzo further argues that the people of mountains, plains and sea have very different cultural characteristics. Hegel’s observation is acknowledged by Watsuji Tetsuro, who argues that cultures manifest their self-consciousness in “Fudo” (風土, climate and land), although Watsuji disagrees with Hegel’s arbitrary judgement that Asian only regarded the sea as the limit of their continental territory.

Furthermore, in “The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World”, Lincoln Paine demonstrates that Asian maritime adventures have significantly influenced world history. Paine also remarks that “Maritime History” is not only about the sea but also rivers and canals linking the inland to the ocean.

Based upon the philosophical and historical studies mentioned above, this paper argues that Hong Kong manifests a special “Peninsula Self-Consciousness” in its Maritime and Continental “Fudo": Hong Kong is linked by Pearl river to both the mainland and the sea, making Hong Kong a place linking China the Continental nation and other Maritime nations like Britain and the United States. The Chinese term for the peninsula is 半島 “bandao”, which literally means “half-island”—it is neither an island nor an inland, but an in-betweener. I argue that such half-ness brings several characteristics to Hong Kong: (1) cultural interconnectedness, (2), inclusiveness, and, (3) freedom.

Keywords: Hong Kong, Macao, Hegel, Watsuji Tetsuro, Uchimura Kanzo, Lincoln Paine