Confucian Confusion
Confucian thought and teachings provided the foundation for Eastern culture throughout Asia for two thousand years. Although there was an ebb and flow to the influence and importance placed on Confucianism and the Analects, no serious scholar would deny the depth and breadth of their importance and influence throughout history. However, during the industrial revolution, China became less insular and more exposed to outside cultures, particularly European and American culture. For many centuries, China had remained largely culturally isolated, agrarian, and immune to the drastic social and cultural upheavals sweeping the rest of the world in vast, messy, often deadly, waves.
However, once the industrial revolution reached mainland China, people began to travel, gain other perspectives, and for the first time truly question (or outright reject) many traditional teachings, including those of Confucius. This was not the first time in history this had happened. 2500 years earlier, Confucius competed with Daoism and Legalism, and all schools of thought left their own deep cultural imprints. However, this was the first time in history that China as an Eastern culture began to question and reject some of their own wen in favor of more Western ideas.
The impact on Chinese literature was profound and lasting. Suddenly, we see imaginative stories filled with metaphor and layers of possible meaning. We see a break from the traditional wen of naturalist writing, and full embrace of literary fiction and short stories.
Most students today have lived their entire lives with the internet, but many have experienced the explosion of social media and smart phones. How do cultures maintain their identity in the global community? What parallels can we draw between the effects of the industrial revolution, and the advent of Instagram and Facebook? What is the Chinses government doing today to maintain control and cultural identity? What is good or bad about “the great firewall of China”?
Mokeymark 101 