Latest Posts
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Notes (and some thoughts) on Leigh Jenco’s Book: Changing Referents: Learning Across Space and Time in China and the West
I've been following Leigh Jenco's work in comparative philosophy for some time now and was most happy to see her new book come out late last year: Changing Referents: Learning Across Space and Time in China and the West. It… Continue reading
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Kylo Ren, Finn, and Confucian Morality
In the new Star Wars movie, two characters form a converse pair: Kylo Ren, son of Han Solo and Leia Skywalker, had been trained as a Jedi Knight but turned to the Dark Side; Finn, on the other hand, had… Continue reading
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Further to a Critique of “The China Model”
In our exchange at Parlio, Daniel Bell has raised a question that has spurred me to a lengthy response, one that fits better here than at the bottom of the comments section there. Daniel asks: “What, if anything, did you… Continue reading
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Two (more) defects of the “China Model”
I have been in a discussion, over at Parlio, with Daniel Bell about his book, The China Model. It's getting a bit long and I thought I would post some of my comments, as a single piece, here, and… Continue reading
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Friday Yi Jing Blogging: Yankees will win Wild Card playoff game next week!
Using the Yi Jing to predict the outcome of sporting events is a tricky enterprise, as my Super Bowl forecast demonstrated this year. But the Yi always leaves open the possibility of human folly and contingency, and, thus, is not… Continue reading
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Making Confucianism Relevant to Americans
In my ongoing work to understand what Confucianism can mean in modern American contexts, I am returning to a paper I wrote for an academic conference a couple of years ago. My thinking on the topic has expanded since then,… Continue reading
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Reading “On Liberty” in Beijing
I'm back in Beijing teaching a course, "Confucianism in America," for the International Summer School at Renmin University of China, just like last year. We got started on Monday: thirty students, most all Renda undergraduates, reading and thinking about how… Continue reading
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Thoughts on Yu Ying-shih’s brief reflection on “Confucianism’s Kiss of Death”
Thanks to Yaxue Cao on Twitter, I came upon some recent brief remarks by the eminent scholar Yu Ying-shih on the current revival of Confucianism in the PRC that had popped up on Weixin (wonder if it was taken down….). … Continue reading
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China Still Not Gaining Soft Power in US
China went large at the recent Book Expo America in New York but, for the most part, American readers did not notice. Maybe they were turned off by marketing language like this: "provides visually perceptive materials for education in patriotism… Continue reading
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Why the Seahawks Lost
What a crazy conclusion to the Super Bowl! A circus catch followed by perhaps the worst play call in the history of the game. Wow. And it looks like both Sunzi and the Yi Jing got it wrong. But… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 