Coming of Age Literature Comes of Age

At eight a m every A day, about 20 of us assemble to talk about growing up. This aging phenomenon, growing up, is something that happens lifelong, in the early years with ceremonies and rituals and random happenstance, such as baptisms, confirmations, bat mitzvahs, marriages, and in our later years, with more subtle awakenings, but awakenings nevertheless. After talking about various "scholars'" notions of life's passages, we're now moving into the literatures of the countries we're visiting, taking a privileged look at the inner lives of the Japanese, the Chinese, etc. One of the most challengins tasks we face is to ask, Can we apply our Western notions of human development to folks in Asian countries?