The Useless Tree

Confucius/Confucianism

  • When “Confucianism” isn’t really Confucianism

    Alistair J. Nicholas, an expatriate pr exec in Beijing, pens a piece in the China Daily that reflects upon cultural differences between China and the West, especially in corporate workplaces.  There are some useful insights into how to get things… Continue reading

  • Charismatic Virtue

    This is s post for my Chinese philosophy friends who might be able to help me understand just how Confucian exemplary leadership works. Let's just stipulate up front: Confucians believe that the virtuous should rule and they should rule by… Continue reading

  • Confucius as Contemporary Art

    Not sure what to make of Zhang Huan's new exhiibtion at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, entitled, "Q Confucius."   All I know is what I can see on the intertubes.  From that limited perspective, however, it does not… Continue reading

  • How to lose a culture war

    In a speech given last October, and published in a Party theoretical journal on January 1st (Happy New Year!), China's President, Hu Jintao, throws down the cultural gauntlet: “We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic… Continue reading

  • Mao and Confucius

    A nice little piece by Didi Kirsten Tatlow on "Mao's Spell and the need to Break It" in yesterday's NYT.  She focuses on Robert Bellah, the venerable sociologist of religion (see review of most recent book here), and his thoughts… Continue reading

  • Kim Jong-il was not Confucian, Kim Jong-un is not Confucian

    Heard the news today (oh boy…): The Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, is dead.  Not much of a surprise really.  He had been seriously ill for a long time and had already set up his son, Kim Jong-un as a successor. … Continue reading

  • The Commodification of Education

    I'm a teacher.  A college teacher.  Every day, or just about every day, I am engaged in the dissemination and creation of knowledge.  I put dissemination first because, as a teacher, whatever knowledge I create is often (not always) bound… Continue reading

  • Mencius in Libya

    The rather gruesome public death of Muammar el-Qaddafi, dictator of Libya, has caused some upset in more comfortable political quarters.  And this was the topic of a historically well-informed op-ed in today's NYT by Simon Sebag Montefiore.  He draws comparisons,… Continue reading

  • Thinking of Yueyue and obligations to strangers

    The sad story of Wang Yue, widely known as Yueyue – a two-year old girl in Foshan run over by a van, and even run over a second time by another vehicle, and then left to die while uncaring passersby… Continue reading

  • Confucian child-rearing

    In my post on "Cherish the Young," I asserted that "child-rearing is central to the Confucian project of creating and reproducing ren – 仁 – "humanity" or "humaneness" or "benevolence," the highest moral accomplishment."  Commenter Bill Haines (well known to… Continue reading