> On Jun 9, 11:22 am, "abianc...@my-deja.com" my-deja.com>
> wrote:
>

>> A coolie's thinking, blame Confucianism for his boring life, haha!

>
> I'm having the time of my life in retirement, abum_chump.  And I don't
> need to say this nervous twisted "haha" at the end of every sentence
> as life is not a joke.
>
>
>
>
>

>> On Jun 9, 12:58 pm, rst0wxyz yahoo.com> wrote:

>

>>> On Jun 9, 8:13 am, PaPaPeng yahoo.com> wrote:

>

>>>> My sentiments exactly. In Confucian tradition, one should judge a
>>>> person not by his words, but by his deeds. But I was intrigued enough
>>>> to read the original article (reproduced below) and found many points
>>>> I agree with.

>

>>> There goes the Chinese revolution, going to pots and back to ancient
>>> 500BC.  China will never be anything but coolies to the world by
>>> living on confucianism.

>

>>>> Regarding The people's new opium [June 7], of course this is right
>>>> about the rise of Confucianism in China nowadays. Why do you think the
>>>> Chinese equivalent of the French Maison Descartes, the German Goethe
>>>> Institute, and the Spanish Instituto Cervantes popping up all over the
>>>> world is called Confucius Institute? In Confucian tradition, one
>>>> should judge a person not by his words, but by his deeds, and with
>>>> this criterion, Zhou Enlai, Wen Jiabao and many other communist
>>>> leaders, up to Deng Xiaoping, are or were full-blooded Confucianists
>>>> rather than Marxists, regardless of what they say they are. Not to
>>>> mention the Chinese foreign policy of the last 30 years, which to the
>>>> trained Confucianist eye is much more characterized by Confucianism
>>>> than Marxism. And imagine the practical benefits. Almost all of the
>>>> 60-plus million overseas Chinese are Confucianists, and the common
>>>> bond with Japan, Taiwan, the two Koreas, Hong Kong, Singapore, even
>>>> Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, is Confucianism. Besides, many other
>>>> foreigners who live by the credo "Don't do to others what you don't
>>>> wish them do to you" are actually Confucianist, though they usually
>>>> don't realize that yet. It's just that the perennial trouble with
>>>> Confucianists is that they are not very good at battle, strife and
>>>> defense. You need the communists for that; that's their raison d'etre.
>>>> Meanwhile, be prepared for some nasty Confucius bashing when the
>>>> Western mainstream media start to realize all this and re-aim their
>>>> guns. Your sneaky little title "people's new opium" is already a
>>>> foreboding of much more rancor to come. Typical of ATol to always lead
>>>> the way, in right or wrong. Ganbei! (Cheers!)
>>>> Migrant Worker
>>>> Luxembourg (Jun 9, '08)    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Letters.html

>

>>>> BOOK REVIEW
>>>> The people's new opium
>>>> China's New Confucianism by Daniel A Bell
>>>> June 7, 2008http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JF07Ad03.html

>

>>>> Reviewed by Sunny Lee

>

>>>> BEIJING - As China is slowly reeling from the terrible earthquake that
>>>> jolted the nation, Bi Baokui praised, in a piece titled "Reflection on
>>>> the earthquake", Premier Wen Jiabao, who within two hours of the
>>>> earthquake was already on an airplane en route to the disaster site,
>>>> as embodying "the Confucian spirit of humanity". Bi forgot to praise
>>>> the Chinese Communist Party - which many people would customarily do
>>>> in such situations. Perhaps he can be forgiven on that; Bi is a
>>>> Confucian scholar. [1]

>

>>>> Confucianism is resurgent in China. Once regarded as a defunct
>>>> "reactionary" ideology against Chinese progress towards

>

>>>> modernity during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, Confucianism is
>>>> now back in place with a mission to prop up the moral skeleton of the
>>>> nation that is undergoing a dizzying array of sociopolitical changes.

>

>>>> In recent years, Beijing has particularly encouraged the revival of
>>>> Confucianism as a psychological sedative amid growing public
>>>> discontent over the nation's widening income gap and social growing
>>>> pains.

>

>>>>  Chinese top leaders themselves have become avid evangelists of
>>>> Confucianism. President Hu Jintao's key slogan, goujian hexie shehui
>>>> or "to build a harmonious society", is a conscious evocation of the
>>>> old sage's emphasis on the value of harmony and balance. As with most
>>>> slogans, however, this is a self-admission that the nation is not yet
>>>> harmonious and Confucianism is expected to help the nation to achieve
>>>> the goal.

>

>>>> But the key question is, will China's all-out embracing of
>>>> Confucianism deliver the nation? Surprisingly, a strong endorsement
>>>> comes from a Westerner.

>

>>>> "It is not entirely fanciful to surmise that the Chinese Communist
>>>> Party will be re-labeled the 'Chinese Confucian Party' in the next
>>>> couple of decades," Professor Daniel Bell at Tsinghua University in
>>>> Beijing predicts.

>

>>>> The Oxford-educated scholar does something quite unusual in China. He
>>>> teaches Confucian philosophy to Chinese students. This may sound like
>>>> teaching a fish how to swim, but that's exactly what he does.

>

>>>> In addition, he has just finished a book, titled China's new
>>>> Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society. In it,
>>>> he talks about such subjects as why Communist Party leaders invoke
>>>> centuries-old Confucian values now? Why do senior communist leaders
>>>> dye their hair black? Why the Chinese view that human rights should
>>>> not have priority over national sovereignty? The adventurous professor
>>>> even talks about why sexual intercourse with karaoke bar girls in
>>>> China is often preceded by singing a duet. Bell draws on various
>>>> social scenes in today's China and provides a Confucian explanation.

>

>>>> Bell came to Tsinghua four years ago. That was the first time the
>>>> elite school, the alma mater of President Hu Jintao, hired a foreigner
>>>> in the humanities since the Cultural Revolution. Now, Bell is a full
>>>> professor. He is also a faculty advisor to doctoral students - a very
>>>> rare honor in China for a foreigner. In fact, he has gained so much
>>>> trust from the Chinese leadership that he was even invited to attend a
>>>> closed-door conference at the secretive Chinese Communist Party School
>>>> where senior communist cadres discussed sensitive political topics.

>

>>>> In the book, Bell offers his personal observations on some Western
>>>> "misunderstandings" about China. For example, he says, "China is not
>>>> as totalitarian as it may seem. Much thinking and policymaking in
>>>> Western countries [on China] is based on crude stereotypes about
>>>> China. Compared to Singapore, China is a paradise of academic
>>>> freedom."

>

>>>> Obviously, some readers are not accustomed to such "panda-hugging"
>>>> statements. "People think I am brainwashed by the Chinese government,"
>>>> Bell explains in a two-hour interview at a restaurant near his school.

>

>>>> But, on the other hand, he also has some unflattering words to say to
>>>> the Chinese government. For example, he believes that the Chinese
>>>> government has to apologize to the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen
>>>> protests. "Almost everybody in my private circle I talked to, said the
>>>> government shouldn't have used so much violence to the peaceful
>>>> protesters," adding, "I think once the government becomes more stable
>>>> and legitimate, it will [apologize]."

>

>>>> In China, where many other religions attract a growing number of
>>>> followers, such as Buddhism and Christianity, Bell sees that if China
>>>> is ever going to choose its national religion, it will be very likely
>>>> be Confucianism.

>

>>>> "Christianity for one sense is a religion that is hard to be accepted
>>>> by Chinese because it talks about the empirical world and also says
>>>> there is a completely separate transcendental world. The concept is
>>>> quite foreign to traditional Chinese teachings," Bell says.

>

>>>> Professor Liu Yiqing of Peking University agrees: "... the Cultural
>>>> Revolution did a lot of damage to Confucianism, but Confucius
>>>> advocated good virtues such as filial piety, loyalty to family. He
>>>> also taught us to treat other people in good ways. So, I believe
>>>> Confucianism will find its place back in China."

>

>>>> In China today, more than 10 million children study the Confucian
>>>> classics in school. In Chinese colleges and universities, courses on
>>>> Confucianism are among the most popular, while courses on Marxism
>>>> struggle to get students unless they are made compulsory, Bell says.

>

>>>> Television lecture series on Confucianism are also very popular. Books
>>>> written by a TV Confucianism lecturer, Yu Dan, have sold 10 million
>>>> copies - much more than the number of J K Rowling's Harry Potter
>>>> books. Yu Dan's latest book on the Analects is ranked second on the
>>>> bestseller list by the local newspaper Beijing News.

>

>>>> Bell spares considerable pages on this "Yu Dan phenomenon". Although
>>>> he believes "it's fine to popularize the Confucian idea", at the same
>>>> time he, as an academic, is concerned about her approach that
>>>> primarily focuses on alleviating the modern-day anxiety of an
>>>> individual.

>

>>>> "Yu Dan neglects the aspects of social responsibility - the key to
>>>> Confucianism," he says. "It's not just for individuals to cope with
>>>> problems in life. The key is social responsibility and how we develop
>>>> that. That's really unfair to the philosophy. I think she almost
>>>> completely neglects that part of Confucianism." Bell also adds that Yu
>>>> Dan interprets Confucianism through the eyes of Taoism: "She is using
>>>> the wrong moral perspective to interpret Confucianism."

>

>>>> But despite such academic demand for fidelity to the

>
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