Research Fieldwork in China Round ONE --- focusing on the dujing movement and sishu

I have conducted my first round fieldwork in China to better understand the phenomenon of the revival of Confucianism focusing on the dujing 讀經(reading classics, especially Confucian one) movement and the development of sishu in contemporary China. Since 14 July till mid-October, I've visited different part of China including metropolitan cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hefei), the second-tier cities (Lanzhou, Chongqing, Xiamen) and the semi-rural area (e.g. Laizhou in Shandong, Loudi in Hunan). I had visited sishu and other forms of dujing education inistutions in these places; observed their classes; interviewed their principals, organizers, teachers and parents.

This trip is extremely rewarding in many senses.

First of all, I see the importance of 'locating the context' instead of just talking about the revival in a board/general sense. It is only through that we can have a more in-depth understanding of the social implication of this 'revival'. I found that the current analysis about the revival focus too much (or at one point, exclusively) on the political aspect of the revival. The key argument is that since there is a political and ideological 'vacuum' in the post economic reform China that Confucianism is being 'hand-picked' by the government as an ideological tool to 'fill the vacuum', through providing any set of 'narrative' (such as 'harmony' or 和) for its legitimacy.

I think that this is a valid analysis of the current political context for the revival of Confucianism. And I agree that such context is very important to explain why the revival is possible. However, what I disagree is that this should not be the only significant aspect of the revival. Even though the state's change of attitude towards Confucianism (or to a certain extend, manipulated the Confucian narratives for its legitimacy), that does not means that we can jump to the conclusion that everything's happening are state-led project and the activities and phenomenon that we can observe during the revival (such as the emergence of modern sishu, and the dujing movement) a 'less genuine' social movement.

To understand the revival of Confucianism not just another state-led project but a social phenomenon and has 'real' social implication, there are few main points that we need to be aware of:
1) According to Kang Xiaoguang's study (2008), dujing movement is the major activity that the activists in the revival of Confucianism are actually participating in. Therefore, if we want to observe and truly understand the nature and the CONTENT of the revival, this is an important aspect that should not be ignored.
2) Based on my initial fieldwork in China, there are many forms in promoting the reading of Confucian classics and they all have their own agenda other than allying with the state's policy. In many cases, dujing activists are actually facing the suppression from the state (e.g. the Shanghai Meng Mu Tang incident)

Currently, there is lack of organized study about the dujing movement in China. Therefore, the findings from my initial fieldwork will provide a general descriptions of the different forces that are active in promoting the reading of Confucian classics in contemporary China and the different forms of educational institutions that emerged from that.

I'll definitely share more later, after I recover from the hectic 3-month-around-the-country fieldwork tour. Stay tune.

More on the English translation on the 'Confuius from the Heart' by Yu Dan. 

http://china.org.cn/books&magazines/2009-06/09/content_17912997.htm

Confucianism and Democracy

Daniel Bell's articles on The New York Times. 

Yu Dan's Book being translated into English

Telegraph talks about it. 

And of course, the Xinhua News has to talk about it too~~Confucius goes international (in the way that they want!!)

Religious leaders and a Confucian scholar

A group of religious leaders from China visited the US recently. It by itself is an interesting news already, to see how the Chinese government is 'reaching out' to the international community in religious affairs. I had recently translated an article that discusses the impact of globalization on religion in contemporary China. It states that politics and religions is always intertwined throughout the history in China with politics situated above religion and have the power to control over how religious should be in society. In a sense, religion and politics are not separated because politics controlled religion. And if we understand Confucianism as a religion, that even reinforced the point because it is the state official ideology. The understanding of whether Confucianism is a religion is crucial in the understanding of the relationship between state and religion in China.

So, when I found out that there is a Confucian scholars among the religious leaders visiting China, I found that is pretty interesting. I see that as a statement of the government position in how they understand whether Confucianism is a religion or not .... it is a semi-religion! Definitely, the 'Confucian scholar' was singled out and does not belong to the 'religious leaders' category. Of course, officially, there are only five religions in China and Confucianism does not belong in it. However, the fact that they need a Confucian scholar to tag along with the visit of religious leaders also implies that 1) the special role of Confucianism in Chinese religious landscape; 2) we cannot talk about Chinese religion without talking about Confucianism; 3) Confucianism is an important 'spiritual ideology' for the government yet it is not officially religion.

http://www.religionandpolicy.org/show.php?p=1.1.2085
http://stories.globalatlanta.com/2008stories/016287.html
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/15/religious-leaders-end-10-day-trip-to-america/

Interview with Danile Bell @ VOA

Where is the revival?

This is the time to recap what I've been doing so far. I had conducted multiple interviews and participant observations in the past few weeks. Although I had identified certain area that I want to look into, the question of how to locate the revival is still a crucial one.

This point is confirmed by one of the activist I interviewed. He used 'boiling water' as a metaphor to describe the situation about the revivalism now. Without the support of the government and the obscure treatment from the media, which make it difficult to observe what's going on here now in China in terms of the revival. Like the bubbles in boiling water, things are keep changing and transforming every minute and it is hard to describe/ pin-point what is the current status is like.

For instance, in terms of learning about Confucian classics. Different groups who are doing it in different ways, have different purpose in mind and do it in different ways. There are private Shishu, which charges a lot for summer camp and extra-curriculum classes on reciting and reading the classics. There are also rural full-time schools that only teaches Confucian classics and serves as the only education institute in the area. And of course, there's free/ volunteer classes provided by individual and group. And when they talk about 'classics', the definition is also varied : some only refer to the Four Books (Confucians classics), some include classical literature, and some even include English classical literature.

Things could be even more complicated in terms of worshiping Confucius. I don't think that we can see this worship as a worship of deity/god at all. It is more appropriate to understand this as a symbolic political rituals. Two things I need to understand is the purpose of doing that for the state; and also the purpose of doing that as an individual.

I feel that there's revival. As one of the interviewee told me that 'yes, the government and the media had talked a lot about it. But they can only talk about it because there's this kind of interests from the people!' But to describe it what exactly had revived and how it is reviving, I'll still need more research and thinkings to sort it out!