Three tigers, one mountain

The Chinese, Koreans and Japanese are more than neighbours, they are siblings from a Confucian family. They share so much culturally, from this ancient philosophy with its hierarchical, bureaucratic legacy, to rice-growing, art, architecture, chopsticks, noodles and much more which has been passed down from China over millennia. In turn, China has modelled much of its recent industrial and economic strategy on Japan’s post-war manufacturing miracle, and adores contemporary Korean popular culture. Yet still East Asia festers with a mutual animosity which frequently threatens to draw the world into a 21st-century war. In this book, which blends popular anthropology, history, politics and travel, the subjects are these Asian tigers which have endured occupation, war and devastation to become among the richest, most developed and powerful societies on earth.

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