Biweekly Symposium No. 573: Second Thoughts on the “Guoxue Craze” and A Review of Confucianism from An Ideological Perspective. Lecturer: ZHAO Shilin Host: QIN Sidao Commentators: WU Si, RONG Jian, FANG Zhaohui, YANG Fan, Guping, XU Wenming, SHENG Hong
Professor ZHAO Shilin started his presentation by introducing the similarity between the swift literary craze and the current Guoxue craze that is a popular promotion of traditional Chinese culture. The former in the 1980s was in essence an anti-tradition cultural movement, while the latter is a restoration of that tradition. He analyzed the connection between the upholding of Confucianism and the criticism of reforms, especially the market-oriented reform initiated by DENG Xiaoping. He thought there were several factors that contributed to this unreasonable movement, including the mass media, the ideological outcry, and the unexamined enthusiasm towards the traditional Chinese culture. He objected the statement that constitutionalism and rule of law could be deduced following the logic of Confucianism and he argued the pandemic statist intervention of citizens’ lives was a result of such mass cultural craze.
Other experts expressed their views at the seminar.
Unirule Biweekly Symposium has been serving the Chinese public as an open platform for academic exchange.
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