China is a country that is often perceived with a critical eye in the west. Many news pundits and politicians take jabs at China, as it has become very popular to have a go at it. From my own experience, I lived in Hong Kong for a number of years, and there have been times I’ve shared this with people in the United States, they responded saying, “that must’ve been hard.” I actually enjoyed my time in Hong Kong, and it’s upsetting to watch people from different countries demean each other, especially when they have so little experience with the place. Different cultures often have different views, it’s important to have an open mind and understand where other people are coming from before assuming their intentions. While it may seem like China has many complexities from the outside, if one looks deeply into the frameworks that China has lived by for thousands of years, their culture may be easier to understand. Confucianism is one of the foundational frameworks around which much of Chinese society is organized.
Confucius lived from the years 551-479 BC. His teachings have had a huge impact on Chinese society over the course of many years. Confucianism was so important to Chinese culture that for centuries, Imperial China dedicated a civil service exam that required people to study Confucian values for the first 18 years of their life. This exam was so crucial that it determined what job one would have for the rest of their life. Even after China moved away from the civil service exam in 1905, Confucius has persistently influenced China until today.
Confucian values stress that different parts of society fall into a hierarchy and every member of society has a role to fulfill so if everybody does this, all will mutually benefit. For example, a child’s role in the family is to respect their parents for taking care of them, but it is also the parent’s responsibility to treat and nurture their child. This ensures that the child can grow up and become a constructive member of society. Now, people must respect the authority of the government, while officials also respect the interest and well-being of the people. It is in this way, Confucius believed that everybody can mutually benefit by serving their role in society. It is clear there are no malicious intentions. So why is it perceived this way? It’s simply the fact that people don’t understand Chinese culture, and as a result, misjudge them.
Confucianism would also instruct that citizens must respect their rulers. This is one of the core tenets of the philosophy and one of the main principles that may conflict with western philosophy on government. Whereas Democratic societies value humanism, and citizens have a right to choose their leaders, Confucian based societies, such as China, see nothing wrong with a single party system. As a result, Westerners often have a hard time viewing the Chinese government as legitimate, while Chinese find western society’s need to have a choice around government to be complicated and chaotic. Who’s to say who is right and who is wrong.
I believe that cultures always have fundamental principles or teachings that people are proud of, But what isn’t so easy to understand is how other cultures may interpret society and the world. In the western world, there is certainly tension with China, and often people think that people from China have bad intentions. However, it may just be a matter of culture clash, and while different countries may have different beliefs, it shouldn’t prevent people from understanding each other. If cultures can become more understanding, and less critical of one another, not only will there be less conflict, but maybe they could even learn from each other.