The NYT today has a piece reporting on the big Chinese internet company Tencent, and one of its founders, "Pony" Ma, the power behind the giant mobile instant-messaging service, QQ.  The line that caught my attention was this:

But instant messaging and game-playing are major obsessions,  now central to Chinese culture.

     Texting and gaming might not be in our minds when we say "Chinese culture," but the story is a good indication of how culture changes. If we define "culture," as do some anthropologists, in terms of what people actually do now – not what they think they ought to be doing or not what someone else thinks they should be doing, but what they really do – then internet activities are central to contemporary Chinese culture.

    This raises one of those "what would Confucius do?" questions.  Perhaps the first response of a modern-day Confucian (truth in advertising: I do not consider myself a Confucian; I am simply interested in working through what the philosophy might mean in a modern context) would be a critique along these lines: internet behavior is selfish, taking people away from the cultivation of their close social relationships (do Chinese youth care for their elders while they are texting?) and, thus, should be discouraged.  It is not "Chinese," but a foreign subversion of traditional Chinese culture.

     My sense is that this sort of conservative reaction is futile.   There is much in modern life – not the least of which is the cultural dominance of profit-oriented behavior – that a more traditional Confucian would oppose.  But such complaints will fall on deaf ears; the Chinese internet is not going to disappear.  The challenge, then, for contemporary Confucians is to find ways to adapt the philosophy to the social reality.  How can web-based computer networking become an avenue for the cultivation of close personal relationships?  Some of this is happening already, as the article makes clear: social networking is a major element of the Chinese internet.  A Confucian might then seek ways in which those networks can be made into means to engender Humanity.  Although a lot of internet use is self-centered, it can also be social and constructive in ways that might come close to a Confucian-esque ideal.

     I also have to point out a historical irony in this story.  "Pony" Ma (Ma Huateng) has a partner named, Zhang Zhidong.  That is, of course, the name of a late-Qing dynasty reformer, Zhang Zhidong, who did much to encourage the famous notion of "Chinese learning for fundamental principles (ti), Western learning for practical application (yong)" – 中学为体，西学为用. 

     Now, the elder Zhang might be a bit surprised at what China has become in the 21st century.  But his formulation may still be applicable.  The internet is very much in the realm of "yong," practical application.  It cannot be simply shut down or rejected.  It has taken on uniquely Chinese characteristics – internet users there are, for example, generally younger and more interested in entertainment than older, information-seeking American netizens.  The question is: how might "Chinese learning" – and I think modern revisions of Confucianism (and Taoism!) are relevant here – be expressed or re-imagined in the midst of this new practical reality?  I’m not sure the 19th century Zhang Zhidong can answer that question, but let’s leave his picture (his beard is cool!) as inspiration for our modern cultural inquiries: