The Planet Asia Universe

Asia features

Oct 13 |13:07
One of the objectives of Planet Asia is to define the entire continent not on political lines, but rather by our own self-definition (based on several years of on-the-ground research).

Planet Asia 2009

Planet Asia’s Asia is made up three parts: East Asia (aka the Orient), South Asia (India & neighbors), and SE Asia.
Technically, the Middle East & Russia are a part of Asia, too, but that’s a totally different scene, in our opinion, and thus excluded.

The Orient

While Japan and Korea enjoyed the spotlight for two decades (from the 80’s onward), both are presently mired in cultural and economic malaise, leaving China’s growing economic juggernaut at the head of the table. In total, Planet Asia’s ‘East Asia’ is made up of the following places:
The spectacle of Beijing's playing a lead role at global summits, where Tokyo is generally invisible, has been almost universally greeted as an overdue promotion. More and more, world leaders are quietly bowing to China as the superpower with all the economic momentum.
-- Newsweek
Japan then China
  • Mainland China
  • Taiwan
  • Hong Kong
  • Japan
  • The Koreas


South Asia

South Asia essentially means India, and its little brown cousins:
  • India
  • Bhutan
  • Bangladesh
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Sri Lanka

India or China as Asia’s Superpower?

We’re neither political experts nor economic ones, so we’ll address this question with two quotes that sum up our opinion on the issue. FOrst, a view from the Indian side:

Growth in India has come with a more entrepreneurial private sector but accompanied by deteriorating state capacity. China has a vastly superior state capacity but an indigenous private sector that is still finding its feet. Which combination augurs better for the future?

-- Arvind Subramanian, Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University

Next, a view from the Chinese side:

If India were to grow faster than China, it must increase its attractiveness to investing companies in terms of its market size and potential for luxury products. Indian consumers are more frugal and rational in spending. Chinese consumers are much more willing to pay for branded and luxury goods, a dream for marketers. This is evidenced by ubiquitous presence of luxury brands from Starbucks to Louis Vuitton in China vs. India. So if the India market is to grow faster than China, Indian consumers need to be encouraged to buy things they do not need and pay prices that have no relation to the cost of goods. After all, market growth is about the growth of brands.

-- Viveca Chan, Group chairman & CEO, Grey Global Group Hong Kong

SE Asia

Southeast Asians are descended from Austronesians, a farming and seafaring bunch spread out across islands ranging from modern-day Oceania to Indonesia. From Wikipedia: By the beginning of the first millennium A.D., most of the Austronesian inhabitants in Maritime Southeast Asia began trading with India and China which allowed the creation of Indianized kingdoms such as Srivijaya, Melayu, Majapahit, and the establishment of Hinduism and Buddism.

Planet Asia’s SE Asia

South East Asia, in the Planet Asia universe, doesn’t have much to offer, to expats, beyond the clichés: bar girls, beaches, and laid-back lifestyles lacking in culture and intellectual stimulation. Here are the countries that we intend to cover:
  • Cambodia
  • Indonesia
  • Laos
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
Here are the countries that didn’t make the cut. Sorry.
  • Brunei
  • Myanmar
  • East Timor
  • Papua New Guinea
Written by :
Futureguy
 
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