China’s state religion: “Political Confucianism”

By Joel ~
| China web debris | China: life & times | Confucianism | Meta-narratives |

“Political Confucianism” is the official ideology of choice in Mainland China, where some influential people are explicitly seeking to re-re-instate perennially useful Confucianism as China’s “state religion.” Here’s an explanation aimed at a Western audience by Wang Rui-Chang. For more introductory information, see “China: Dem0cracy, or Confucianism?”. There’s also “China repackaging Confucius” and “China unveils its ‘soft-power’ campaign: Canonize Confucius, no mention of Mao” as easy first introductions.

By coincidence, I also just today found this photo collection from the 1973-74 campaign to denounce Confucius.

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Confucius say…

By Joel ~
| Confucianism | Culture fun | Learning | Meta-narratives |

We had more ancient Chinese philosophy for bedtime stories tonight – in DVD computer animated comic book form. Yeah, that’s right: a CG 孔子 on DVD. Jessica fell asleep sometime around, “If one can rectify one’s own self, what problems can there be in governing?”

By the way, “Confucius say” in Chinese is 孔子說. No doubt many of you have wondered about that ever since elementary school and that “Man who stands on toilet” joke. But it’s no joke to the PRC: New/neo-Confucianism is apparently the philosophy of choice on which the government wants to build China’s emergence… but I haven’t read any thing substantial about that yet.

Here’s two other tidbits from this evening’s enlightenment:

“If you repay an enemy with kindness, how will you repay someone who is kind to you? You should treat an enemy with decency and fairness, and you should repay kindness with kindness.”

“While your parents are living, do not travel far away. If you have no choice but to travel far away, let your parents know your whereabouts so that they won’t worry.”

Some day we’ll learn about this stuff for real.

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A North American couple with a background in Intercultural Studies tries to make a life in China. This is our coping mechanismblog.

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    Chinese take-out

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    正步

    Pronounced: zhèngbù
    Means: goose-stepping (in military parades). Also what Tianjin's university sophomores have to do for hours each day this week . For example:
    教官让我们踢很长时间正步。
    jiàoguān ràng wǒmen tī hěn cháng shíjiān hèngbù.

    - 2010/08/26

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    Recent China internet debris.

    All the tea in China

    A guy decides to research and drink every single kind of tea in China, one per week, and blog about it. If you like Chinese teas and want to know more about them, this is a great project to check out: The Taobao Tea Trail

    - 2010/08/23

    China's "other billion"

    A journalist with over seven years experience in China is taking a six-month journey through rural China to document the lives of China's "other billion" -- the Chinese who aren't born, raised and educated in relatively developed coastal cities: "I have embarked on what I hope will be a six month journey through the Chinese countryside — listening, watching and telling stories from farmers’ lives. ... China, it is often said, has more than 400 million Internet users and hundreds of millions of new urban residents who are changing the face of the country. It is less often noted that China also has another billion people who have not yet been fully included in these new economic and social changes. The following, if you will, are some fragments from the story of the other billion."

    - 2010/08/20

    China in 2013 -- a dystopian novel skewers "the China model of development"

    The China Beat provides a helpful summary of a dystopian novel critical of the way things are in China: "The novel can be read ... as a realistic presentation of the shocking darkness behind the dazzling economic miracle created by the Chinese model. It also proposes that China’s younger generations suffer from the consequences of collective amnesia and historical half-truths... The book can also be read ... as an allegory of the modern nation-state. Taking China as a case study, by questioning the morality and political legitimacy of the Chinese model of development, the novel is intended to lead us to the potential catastrophes that a modern nation-state may bring about if it is out of its people’s control."

    - 2010/07/28

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