The Useless Tree

Confucius/Confucianism

  • The Ancients on the Web

         The new Google Trends feature provides an insight, perhaps not wholly accurate but interesting nonetheless, of what people search for on the web.  You can even compare two or more terms to see which is more widely searched. … Continue reading

  • Branding Korea: Goodbye Confucius

         The Marmot points us toward this article in the Korean Times:  The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) held a forum yesterday in southern Seoul to collect opinions about a symbol with which… Continue reading

  • Virtual Mourning

         I don’t know yet what to make of this: Just as the Web has changed long-established rituals of romance and socializing, personal Web pages on social networking sites that include MySpace, Xanga.com and Facebook.com are altering the rituals… Continue reading

  • Do as I Say, Not as They Do

         Chinese President Hu Jintao says more money needs to be spent on education because that is how to "foster a highly ethical nation."  In a brief article in today’s People’s Daily, he pushes the "Eight Honors and Disgraces,"… Continue reading

  • Lee Hsien Loong’s Lack of Integrity

        A good piece in today’s Asia Times on the Singaporean ruling party, PAP, and its inability to follow through on its promises to engender a more open and creative society in the city-state.  The PAP’s overwrought political fear… Continue reading

  • Singapore Politics: It’s Not About the “Asian” or “Confucian” Values, Its About the Repression and Corruption

         It’s election time in Singapore again and, just as the night follows the day, the ruling party, the aptly acronymed PAP, is unjustly and corruptly undermining the opposition and, more generally, democracy.      What happens – and… Continue reading

  • Why Ritual Matters: Bush disses Hu

        For Confucius, Ritual is the thoughtful and precise performance of personal and ethical commitment.  It is not enough to say that you care about a relationship, or that it is important to you, you must demonstrate that care… Continue reading

  • You Know, Culture is Business

         It seems that China is running a "huge" "cultural trade deficit:"  Chinese cultural products should be further promoted to the international market to narrow China’s cultural trade deficit with other countries, top officials said.     Ding Wei,… Continue reading

  • Can We Stop Calling China A “Confucian Society” Now?

         A story in the LA Times over the weekend points out just how far many people in China have fallen from the Confucian ideal: Respect for parents and clan elders has been a cornerstone of Chinese culture for… Continue reading

  • Inequality, Again

         A convergence of stories on the growing economic inequality born of globalization.  Walter Kirn in the NYT Magazine has a short piece reflecting, somewhat shallowly, on the cultural meaning of the exploding income gap between the richest CEOs… Continue reading