Asia-pacific perceptions of the financial crisis: Lessons and affirmations

This article is a report on a workshop in which historians joined with economists to probe the experience of a traumatic development in the process of economic integration —the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98—in a selection of Asia-Pacific countries. It is a preliminary investigation, specifically focused on perceptions rather than material consequences, and relying strongly on the participants' familiarity with the dominant narratives operating in each of the countries concerned. The investigation notes the resilience of those dominant narratives. It suggests, however, that although the impact of the Financial Crisis on the economies and peoples of the region was dramatic, the impact on public perceptions in the economics sphere was less significant. It is in the social and political spheres that we find the strongest reactions. That is, while the Crisis did not bring about a demand for radical change in economic policy in most Asian countries—in particular a demandfor a reversal of liberalizing policies—the experience of 1997-98 certainly reinforced a number of national narratives (and national anxieties) which work to promote plurality not integration in the Asia-Pacific.