Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Confucian Temple in Beijing
Starting from 25 June, I began a preliminary fieldwork about Confucianism in China. My plan is to visit scholars who are working/ researching about this topic, and most importantly, to see if I can find a group that I can do fieldwork with. So far, I had found one group that is very interesting. I am intruded by their organization because of their consistency. Furthermore, this is a voluntary group that is funded by private donation, which make this group more 'civilian' than the others I can find so far.
On the 3rd day I arrived Beijing (28 June), I visited the Confucian Temple. Before that, I went to the Lama Temple. It is an very interesting contrast because the Lama Temple is considered as 'religious place' by the government with the 'regulations on the size of incnese in religious location' at the entrance. I was so impressed by the amount of people who worship inside the temple and concluded that it is a house of worship. Contrast to the Confucian Temple, where there were no people who burn incense whatsoever. The number of visitors there in Confucian Temple were drastically lesser than the Lama Temple as well.
Having said that, I observed that there are few interesting things inside the Confucian Temple:
1) the exhibition hall that reconstructed Confucianism by emphasizing its impact AROUND the WORLD (in a way, making it as universal)
2) although there were no incense burning, a newly introduced way of worship to Confucius was introduced -- by putting a charms on the fenses set up outside the temple and also around the main hall in Imperial College
3) there was a Shishu inside the Confucian TempleTo me, new function(s) of Confucian Temple are being reconstructed.
On the 3rd day I arrived Beijing (28 June), I visited the Confucian Temple. Before that, I went to the Lama Temple. It is an very interesting contrast because the Lama Temple is considered as 'religious place' by the government with the 'regulations on the size of incnese in religious location' at the entrance. I was so impressed by the amount of people who worship inside the temple and concluded that it is a house of worship. Contrast to the Confucian Temple, where there were no people who burn incense whatsoever. The number of visitors there in Confucian Temple were drastically lesser than the Lama Temple as well.
Having said that, I observed that there are few interesting things inside the Confucian Temple:
1) the exhibition hall that reconstructed Confucianism by emphasizing its impact AROUND the WORLD (in a way, making it as universal)
2) although there were no incense burning, a newly introduced way of worship to Confucius was introduced -- by putting a charms on the fenses set up outside the temple and also around the main hall in Imperial College
3) there was a Shishu inside the Confucian TempleTo me, new function(s) of Confucian Temple are being reconstructed.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Who's Confucius?
I think I should explain a little bit more about the picture for this site. The key idea is that different presentations of Confucius represent different knowledge/power relationship. While there's a Catholic Church to regularized the image of how Jesus 'should' looks like (and of course there's controversy about the racial representation), there is no such institution to regulate how Confucius 'should' look like....until recently.
In 2006, the China Confucius Foundation announced a standardized image of Confucius (see Chinese news release here). The rationalize is that it'll help to propagate Confucian Culture to the non-Chinese audience. According to the General Secretary of CCF, Mr. Shuhua Zhang, 'Confucius is the representative of Chinese history and culture. His teaching is getting acknowledged by people from different part of the world. Thus, different images of Confucius may create obstacle to established an legitimated representation of Confucius' . ( "孔子是中国的历史文化名片，他的学说正被越来越多不同地域的民众所关注、认同，而孔子形象不统一，不利于树立世界范围内公认的孔子形象。”)
But then, who has the power to say which Confucius image to use?
Well, legitimacy seems is coming from Confucian scholars, historian, artists and the offspring of Confucius (the Kong's family). Or, this is what the CCF 'thinks' that where the legitimacy should be coming from. However, if we get to understand the background of CCF, a quasi-government organization (receive financial support from the central government of the PRC), that's a whole different story.
Putting the political agenda aside, if we just look at it as a cultural issue, the image of Confucius raise series of interesting questions on representation. Lionel M. Jensen's book Manufacturing Confucianism(1997) had an in depth account on the Western construction of Confucius and Confucianism. While the West gained the power to define the culture of the 'Others' through imperialism and colonialism, it is an interesting twist to see how the Chinese government is regaining its power to define what Confucianism is about. Not to say that they had successfully done so, but when the issue of 'how to present Confucius to the global audience' became an issue, and the fact that the government is actually putting in resources to deal with it, that is something interesting.
In 2006, the China Confucius Foundation announced a standardized image of Confucius (see Chinese news release here). The rationalize is that it'll help to propagate Confucian Culture to the non-Chinese audience. According to the General Secretary of CCF, Mr. Shuhua Zhang, 'Confucius is the representative of Chinese history and culture. His teaching is getting acknowledged by people from different part of the world. Thus, different images of Confucius may create obstacle to established an legitimated representation of Confucius' . ( "孔子是中国的历史文化名片，他的学说正被越来越多不同地域的民众所关注、认同，而孔子形象不统一，不利于树立世界范围内公认的孔子形象。”)
But then, who has the power to say which Confucius image to use?
Well, legitimacy seems is coming from Confucian scholars, historian, artists and the offspring of Confucius (the Kong's family). Or, this is what the CCF 'thinks' that where the legitimacy should be coming from. However, if we get to understand the background of CCF, a quasi-government organization (receive financial support from the central government of the PRC), that's a whole different story.
Putting the political agenda aside, if we just look at it as a cultural issue, the image of Confucius raise series of interesting questions on representation. Lionel M. Jensen's book Manufacturing Confucianism(1997) had an in depth account on the Western construction of Confucius and Confucianism. While the West gained the power to define the culture of the 'Others' through imperialism and colonialism, it is an interesting twist to see how the Chinese government is regaining its power to define what Confucianism is about. Not to say that they had successfully done so, but when the issue of 'how to present Confucius to the global audience' became an issue, and the fact that the government is actually putting in resources to deal with it, that is something interesting.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Religion in China on the Eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Pew survey on the general religious landscape in China.
Well, Confucianism is not considered as religious affiliation here~~
http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=301
Well, Confucianism is not considered as religious affiliation here~~
http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=301
Monday, April 14, 2008
Ideology in China - Confucius makes a comeback!
A story about the revival published in the Economist in 2007.
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