The Useless Tree

Confucius/Confucianism

  • Gender Convergence

         In an NYT article today, researchers say that men and women, in the US at least, are behaving more like one another: Now experts who shared their latest research at a conference this month say that far from… Continue reading

  • A Father Mourns A Son

        In today’s Washington Post, Andrew J. Bacevich reflects upon the death of his son in Iraq.  The elder Bacevich is himself a military man, having served in the US Army in Vietnam.  His son followed in his footsteps… Continue reading

  • Confucius, The Cartoon

        You can’t make this stuff up: BEIJING, May 21 — The China Confucius Foundation will award a 500, 000-yuan (about 60,000 U.S. dollars) prize for the winner of a Confucius’ animated image selection.      The selected imagery… Continue reading

  • Euthanasia in China

         A sad story in the LA Times yesterday about a severely disabled woman in China who is asserting a right to die: Confined to a rusty wheelchair and unable to control her muscles below her neck, Li Yan… Continue reading

  • It Was A Massacre

        Imagethief discusses (ESWN, too) the boot-licking performance last week of Ma Lik, leader of a pro-PRC political party in Hong Kong.  Mr. Ma stated, in remarks in Beijing, that we should not refer to the Beijing massacre of… Continue reading

  • A Little Rectification, Please!

          Can we discern a pattern?         – Wolfowitz screws up and then stays on too long at the World Bank;       – Gonzales screws up and then stays on too long at Justice;      … Continue reading

  • Buying Children

         I have suggested elsewhere, that Confucianism, with its emphasis on the social embedded-ness of the individual, would likely support some forms of medical intervention to facilitate child birth.  If the intent and purpose of such intervention were driven… Continue reading

  • Burning Mao

        Last Saturday a man from Xinjiang, with a Chinese name, threw some sort of flammable material at the giant portrait of Mao that hangs over Tiananmen Gate, scorching its lower left hand corner:           … Continue reading

  • French Sinological Food Fight: Thoughts on Politics and Writing

        New Left Review runs a piece on an intellectual battle between two French sinologists, Jean-François Billeter and François Jullien.  I have not read any of the many books cited; obviously both men are accomplished scholars.  One of the central… Continue reading

  • Derek Fisher, Confucian Gentleman

         Derek Fisher is a professional basketball player.  He is also a father.  And his two roles came into heart-rending conflict this week: Fisher, a point guard for the Utah Jazz, sat in an office at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer… Continue reading