Bringing Asian Epistemologies to Western Contexts: A Relational Approach in Times of Crisis

In this dissertation, I explore the researched and lived potential afforded by the principle of interrelationality from the culturally situated Asian approach espoused in Yoshitaka Miike’s (2008, 2012, 2013, 2017) metatheory of Asiacentricity and Kuan-Hsing Chen’s (2010) Asia as method. This work addresses the limitations of binary logics as a Eurocentric modern tool and proposes an Asiacentric dynamic orientation to research. I draw on Asiacentricity’s principles of harmony, interrelatedness, feelings, and flux to guide an ongoing experimentation to find meaning in relation to others in a Western context. I turn to Asia as method as an additional point of inspiration to transform knowledge production by looking to Asiacentric social ontologies to inform my methodology. Inspired by Chinese medicinal dynamic theories of practice rooted in Asian philosophy, I propose an ethico-onto-epistemological approach to research where researchers approach work through equal measures of theoretical absorption, observation of theory in practice, and an active personal exploration of theoretical application, treating one’s data with inherent energetic potential. This work found that orientations of complementarity and interdependent poiesis are crucial to engage in Asiacentric relationality, and that an Asiacentric methodology is guided by tenets of living one’s research, engaging the dynamism of the world and oneself as researcher, and embracing connectedness through an acceptance of incompletion.