Most Western modernization theories implied that Confucianism would have to be abandoned if Asia wanted to develop a dynamic modern society.Classical Western theorists of modernity assumed that traditional Chinese culture was impervious or even inimical to modernization.Max Webers famous thesis that the Protestant ethic was an essential factor in the rise and spread of modernization contrasts with a notion that has gradually emerged in the last two decades in East Asia, which argues that societies based upon the Confucian ethic may, in many ways, be superior to the West in achieving industrialization, affluence and modernization.Weber also wrote extensively on Asia, especially China and India, concluding that Asian cultural and philosophical or religious traditions were ill-suited to modernization.In order to determine whether such a Eurocentric view of modernity is still valid, the author examines these competing theses and concludes that modernization represents a complex process of social transitions which includes both universal and culturally conditioned elements.