Chinese Philosophy

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to make one comment about Chinese Philosphy.
This was the first time I got to study briefly about Chinese Philosphy.
I never took a course or put much thought into it.
After having a debate and reading about the different schools of thought, I thought about my own culture.
As a Korean-American, I see where many of our rituals and customs has been influeced by especially from Confucius' teachings.
The whole filial piety, respecting our dead ancestors, hierarchy, etc...
It is also amazing how much of Asia has been influenced by it dispite our modernization or new ideas and philosphies.

lc

[Anonymous]

I saw a program on ch.28 recently titled "Daughter of Danang" that had some interesting insights into the differences between Asian and American ideas (though neither is wholly monolithic.) It was about a young woman whose mother was Vietnamese and whose father was an American GI. The mother's real husband was fighting in the Vietnamese army so she turned to the American to help support her kids. When the war ended, the GI left and the husband was coming home so the mother gave away the one daughter she had had with the GI. This girl ended up with a family in America. They provided all the material necessities for her, including an education that went up through college. But, according to the young woman, the mother was emotionally cold, and never hugged her or said she loved her. The young woman learned about her biological mother and eagerly made a trip with a translator to see her.

At first, the young woman was extremely happy, since the mother very emotionally expressed her happiness to see her daughter, and took her around the small town to show her off. Unlike her American family, the mother and other members of the extended family were constantly hugging and holding onto the young woman, and at first she felt very glad about this. Later, though she said she began to feel smothered. Worse yet, towards the end of her week visit, her half brother asked her to now fulfill her filial duties as he and others had been doing for their mother. He suggested that she take her mother to live with her in America, or send a monthly stipend to help improve her mother's living conditions. The young woman began crying uncontrollably as she listened to the translation, because, she said she felt so angry that they would ask her this.This seemed like an odd reaction to me, even though she was not Asian. Many other cultures also feel a close bond and responsibility to their parents, and especially a parent who is living in impoverished circumstances. But, it seems that this young woman's rather cold relationship with her American mother, and perhaps her own desire to get nurtured rather than to give support to a parent, all led her to feel betrayed in some way by this request. Unfortunately, both sides had problems understanding the other's point of view, and the young woman said she would not want to go back. This was a pretty dramatic display of the difference in social attitudes and ideas between Asian cultures and at least some people in the West.

[Anonymous]

An interesting dilemma for the young woman in the documentary. First, She is virtually abandoned by her birth mother -- then raised by a cold/distant adopted mother. She seeks out her real mother to better understand who she is. She is overwhelmed by affection (something new to her). She was raised by someone emotionally distant, so how could it be a surprise that she felt smothered. Then, her new found family asks her to take on a responsibility for someone who gave her away. This also casts shadows on the "affections" of the birth family. Before casting stones at this young woman, a closer look at her and the philosophies of both families might be necessary. [Edit by="bbrown on Mar 2, 1:08:19 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

A recent article in the LA Times showed how governments can use the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies to their advantage. An Chinese official talked about how Western people value individual rights so they criticize any limitations on these. But, he said, cooperation and duties to the larger community are more important to Asians, and so their government policies emphasize these values more than individual rights. This is not a new argument that the Chinese government has used against critics of their civil rights abuses. However, it just reminded me of how hypocritical that government is, considering that they have often denigrated Confucian ideas and traditional ways of doing things. Not that hypocrisy is their worst crime, but to use Confucian and traditional ideas in that way puts them right in line with authoritarian emperors of the past.

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