scholarly journals “Confucianism”, an Alternative Source of Belief in Contemporary Chinese Society: An Empirical Study of the Founding of Xin 信 in a “Confucian” Company

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 819
Author(s):  
Lan Jiang-Fu

Open claims to Confucian values, often associated with cultural traditionalism and a larger revival of Confucianism among the Chinese population from the 2000s onwards, have gained momentum in the world of entrepreneurs. The intensity of this phenomenon can be explained by a wide variety of motivations, among which a desire to establish a belief, a sort of xin 信 towards traditional values, has emerged from within the “Confucian” company. Based on fieldwork carried out between 2017 and 2018 at TW, a private company located in Dongguan (Guangdong), this paper aims to analyze the efforts undertaken by “Confucian” managers to use the spiritual guidance role of Confucianism. Our work is organized into three sections. First, we analyze the main modalities of proselytizing within TW. Then, based on the personal experiences of three employees of this company, we try to understand how they live the jiaohua and to what extent this “educational” experience inspired by Confucianism has allowed them to reorient themselves towards a new way of perceiving the world. Finally, by placing it in a broader context, that of contemporary Chinese society’s crisis of values, we question the role Confucianism can play in the foundation of a population’s beliefs.

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Zhang ◽  
Li Chen

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore possible factors leading to a successful mediation in Chinese mediation shows. In China, media always play an indispensable role in information dissemination, morality advocacy and policy explanation. Design/methodology/approach This paper employed content analysis of 166 episodes of one representative mediation show, Gold Medal Mediation, and regression technique in data analysis. Findings Results of ordinal regression suggested that “secret talking”, rather than transparency, between disputants had significant influence on successful mediation. Function of mediators is limited in reaching full mediation. The effective factors leading to full mediation include compromise of rights, secret talking, attitude of the observer cohort. It suggests that the role of mediator is limited, rather than being over-exaggerated, in successful mediation. The successful mediation is largely dependent on disputants’ motivations. Additionally, “compromise of rights” by disputants is a key factor in solving disputes. Research limitations/implications Findings of this study revealed the role of Chinese mediation shows in propagating mediation in contemporary Chinese society and supporting upheld morality values. Due to the nature of the chosen mediation show, some disputes take more than one episode to solve. However, this study looks at each episode without considering the integrity of the dispute. That is, if the disputes take two episodes, the coder codes the two episodes as two separate disputes instead of looking at it as one dispute. Originality/value By exploring various aspects of mediations shows, including the role of mediators, disputants and a cohort of observers, this study can both explicitly show predicted factors to successful mediations on the shows, and can implicitly examine the power and perceived justification of mediation in contemporary China via media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2 supplement) ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Dominic Nnaemeka Ekweariri

" My investigation reveals that Heidegger’s account of affectivity – though his programmatical determination included an ontical dimension or otherwise lived, personal experiences – is overshadowed by a dense ontology that cannot enable real phenomenal experience. This is why he could not account for other affective states such as emotions, feel-ings and the role of the body in affectivity. Besides, in that account we are lost when we seek to answer the question of whether moods are “one” or “many”. My aim is to point out how these deficiencies in Heidegger’s account of mood could be overcome in Richir’s account of affectivity, where indeterminate background feelings (affections) could give rise to a deter-minate and occurent emotion (affects). The advantage of this move is a rich ontic account of affectivity where not only the body but also sense/meaning of affective episodes play a robust role in an encounter of world events. If Richir reproached Heidegger for existential solipsism, one could now reproach the former for existentiell/phenomenal solipsism. In the end I suggest that these two core but opposite aspects of affectivity (the ontological and the ontic) belong to the same reality: Dasein is not just in the world (ontology), but also the world is in Dasein (ontic/phenomenological). Keywords: mood, affection, affect, Heidegger’s ontology, Richir’s Leib and sense. "


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Biggs

A life course perspective, drawing on historical and personal experiences, is used to identify eye-opening concepts that can be used to make sense of the world in terms of personal and social ageing, in the context of intergenerational relationships. Two issues have been identified that characterise a challenge to cultural adaptation: that of generations increasingly becoming approximately the same size as they move from demographic triangles to columns, and that of finding an age-specific purpose for a long life. An analysis of contemporary problems facing gerontology and social policy is given, drawing on the need for complementary life priorities and enhanced generational intelligence. Implications for work, generational rivalry and precarity are examined along with some conclusions on the role of eyeopening conceptual development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-129
Author(s):  
V. A. Avatkov

The article considers the role of ideology and values in the formation and implementation of the current foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey. Taking into account the increasing role of regional actors such as Turkey in international politics, studying their tactics and mechanisms of influence on the global political environment is necessary to explain the further transformation of the international system.The study reveals the strengthening role of the ideology and values in world politics in general and in individual states, such as Turkey, in particular. Under the rule of the Justice and Development Party headed by the current President R.T. Erdogan the country began a gradual transition from «Kemalism», which includes the preservation of secularism, ProWestern democratic values and a gradual departure from the Ottoman heritage, to a more conservative domestic and foreign policy, characterized by the strengthening of Islamist and nationalist sentiments, as well as the transition to the policy of «neo-Ottomanism», «neo-pan-Turkism». The return of the idea of «aggrandizement» of the country to the official political discourse has affected the conduct of Turkey's foreign policy towards both the regional states and the world arena as a whole.The Republic not only began self-restoration as an autonomous actor of international relations in the eyes of the key world powers, but also started to spread its own values and ideas among the population of both the Middle East and among the states which constitute a national interest for Turkey (Russia, the post-Soviet space, etc.), thus influencing them at various levels and involving them in its orbit of influence – both politically, economically and from a humanitarian point of view.Using «hard power» abroad no longer meets the current Turkey’s policy. Instead it relies on forging humanitarian ties, combining initiatives in the cultural, educational and scientific fields to achieve a long-term influence. The Republic of Turkey is trying to spread the following values among the world community:«Justice». International relations must be just and fair. For Turkey it means conformity with its national interests.«Religious fatalism». Government actions both at home and abroad are legitimized through references to religion and fate.«Democratic values». The Republic of Turkey considers itself the most democratic state in the world and contrasts itself with “Western democracies”, which, according to the Turkish leadership, are spreading hegemony rather than democracy.«State-centrism» and collectivism. The interests of the state, society, and especially the Muslim Ummah, are placed above the values of the individual.«Traditional values». Given the Islamization and conservatism of Turkish society as a whole, traditional values also begin to play a major role in the general political discourse of the state.«Culture». Turkey also makes adjustments to the concept of «culture» in very inclusive terms, presenting its culture as a «melting pot» that can turn anything into Turkish.«Respect». In the eastern tradition, it is customary to show respect to elders, as well as neighbors and guests. Turkey uses a demonstration of respect in foreign policy instrumentally and pragmatically. An example of this is the address of the President of Turkey in relation to the leaders of other states: Nursultan Nazarbayev – «aksakal» of the Turkic world, Vladimir Putin is a «dear friend».


Religions ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Ngar-Sze Lau

This paper examines how the Buddhist revival, the Chan revival, and recent popularity of transnational meditation practices have facilitated Chinese women practicing Buddhist meditation in contemporary China. With the influence of the opening of China and growing transnational networks, there has been an increasing number of Han Chinese monastics and lay people practicing transnational meditation, such as samādhi, vipassanā and mindfulness, in the past two decades. Despite the restriction of accessing Chan halls at monasteries, some Chinese nuns and laywomen have traveled to learn meditation in different parts of China, and international meditation centers in Southeast Asia to study with yogis from all over the world. Surprisingly some returned female travelers have taken significant roles in organizing meditation retreats, and establishing meditation centers and meditation halls. Through examining some ethnographic cases of Chinese nuns and laywomen, this paper argues that the transnational meditation movement has an impact not only on gender equality, especially concerning Chinese women practicing meditation, but also on the development of contemporary Chinese Buddhism. The significant role of Chinese female meditators in promoting Buddhist meditation can reflect a trend of re-positioning the Chan School in contemporary China.


Author(s):  
Ramon J Venero ◽  
Yunshan Lian

As the second largest economy in the world and one of the BRIC countries, China has been a major inward FDI receiver and competing ground for MNEs. Entry mode strategy has become a critical factor to the success of MNEs in China. Common among different approaches is sensitivity to the cultural nuances of Chinese society and, in particular, to the norms of government actors at the Central, Provincial and Local government levels. The role of culture in inward FDI presents unique challenges and opportunities to MNC's in establishing a presence in one of the world's largest market. Entry strategies are discussed as well as the role that culture played in specific MNC's entries. The recent anti-corruption campaign in China has brought much attention from the outside world. Its impact on MNEs business model in China was discussed in this study. Implications for HR practitioners and managers are reviewed as well.


Author(s):  
Laurence Lux-Sterritt

Between 1598 and 1800, an estimated 3, 271 Catholic women left England to enter convents on the Continent. This study focuses more particularly upon those who became Benedictines in the seventeenth century, choosing exile in order to pursue their vocation for an enclosed life. Through the study of a wide variety of original manuscripts, including chronicles, death notices, clerical instructions, texts of spiritual guidance, but also the nuns’ own collections of notes, this book highlights the tensions between the contemplative ideal and the nuns’ personal experiences. Its first four chapters adopt a traditional historical approach to illustrate the tensions between theory and practice in the ideal of being dead to the world. They offer a prosopographical study of Benedictine convents in exile, and show how those houses were both cut-off and enclosed yet very much in touch with the religious and political developments at home. The next fur chapters propose a different point of entry into the history of nuns, with a study of emotions and the senses in the cloister, delving into the textual analysis of the nuns’ personal and communal documents to explore aspect of a lived spirituality, when the body, which so often hindered the spirit, at times enabled spiritual experience.


Author(s):  
Ben Cislaghi

Chapter 7 explains why and how behavioural and social change happened. It investigates how in the HRE classes, participants contextualised the abstract human rights knowledge within their local understandings of the world and traditional values. That contextualisation fostered revisions in participants’ understanding of themselves and others and expanded individual and collective aspirations and capabilities. This chapter also analyses the role of the programme in creating a space where gender segregation could be overcome, where men and women could sit and talk together, sharing decisions, and how that affected the aspirations, perceived freedoms, and capabilities of the entire community. The theory described in chapter two is critically reviewed and expanded.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiner Roetz

AbstractThe open society together with a pluralistic public sphere is a cornerstone of modernity and a necessary element of democracy. However, it has been maintained that the possibility of such a society depends on liberal convictions that are not applicable to non-Western cultures and also contradict the Confucian value orientation.The article argues that such an assumption is based on a number of problematic premises. There is no one-sided dependence of the socio-political system on culture, and the contemporary Chinese society is much too diverse to be dominated by Confucian values. Moreover, China’s cultural history and also Confucianism can be brought into the debate in yet another way than as a negative factor inhibiting and restricting an open society. There is textual evidence that forms of open society existed already in ancient China. Though they were not always supported by the elite, China’s intellectual heritage offers enough points of reference in order to refute the claim that the open society is an alien element in Chinese culture.


Author(s):  
Jianxiu Hao

Beneath the “Chinese successful story”, social stratification, class polarization, and cultural displacement have been accelerated. The Chinese Communist Party has not found a coherent solution to the challenges of reconciling social interests, since Communism has been more and more becoming mere “lip service”. However, it has been claimed that Confucian values can provide sources to dissolve the downsides of modernization in contemporary Chinese society. This study intends to investigate the revival of Confucianism, as a source for criticism and construction in Chinese socio-culture, as portrayed in user-generated videos which are produced/consumed by the largest Internet using population in the world, under the Chinese authoritarian regime which controls over communication. By means of a thematic audio-visual narrative analysis, this study has investigated 20 hours of Youku Paike videos published between 2007 and 2013. It has been detected:  (1) about one third of the user-generated videos can be interpreted as Confucian thematic narratives; and there is a slightly increasing trend portraying Confucian values; (2) Confucianism can become a source for the formation of a new online socio-culture, in the circumstances of China’s modernization and cyberization, to advocate social actors’ cultivation and humanity’s flourishing.


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