November 11, 2007
Written by C.N.
Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century
I came across this 1999 article from Time magazine that caught my eye: The Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century. I had not seen this particular list before, and found it to be an interesting read. I’ve broken down the names on their list into my own categories below but you should definitely read the individual descriptions and biographies for yourself on the Time site:
Communist Leaders
Ho Chi Minh
Pol Pot
Mao Zedong
Deng Xiaoping
National Leaders Seen as Benevolent
Sun Yat-Sen (‘Father’ of modern China)
Mohandas Gandhi
Corazon Aquino
Chulalongkorn (‘Father’ of modern Thailand)
National Leaders Seen as Tragic
Hirohito
Park Chung Hee (President of South Korea during its economic rise)
Sukarno (Former President of Indonesia)
Economic Leaders and Artists
Eiji Toyoda (leader during Toyota Corp.’s international rise)
Akio Morita (founder of Sony Corp.)
Akira Kurosawa (famed filmmaker)
Embarrassed to Say I’ve Never Heard Of
M.S. Swaminathan (considered ‘Father’ of modern green revolution)
Issey Miyake (fashion designer)
Daisuke Inoue (inventor of the karaoke machine)
Rabindranath Tagore (Asia’s first Nobel Laureate, for literature in 1913)
Like I said, it’s an interesting list and each of their biographies is well worth the read.
Author Citation
Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. Some rights reserved. 
Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2007/11/most-influential-asians-of-the-20th-century/> ().
Short URL: https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/?p=507
Translate Into Another Language