Reflective Journal 2

 In this reflective journal, I will be talking about my thoughts and reflection on Confucianism, the French Revolution, Chinese and Western Perspectives of Self, and how it has impact the beliefs in my life. 

Firstly, I will talk more about Confucianism. In LEP, Confucianism is part of our curriculum and I lean Confucianism both from CDE and LEP. So basically, Confucianism's system and its ethical thinking is developed by Confucius. The most important aspects of Confucianism are  忠，孝，仁，爱，礼，仪，廉，耻, which in English is "Loyalty, Filial Piety, Humanity, Love, Manners, Justice, integirty and being humble. This beliefs are actually essential in our life, if we want to be a gentleman of great values. The most important aspect of filial piety to me is probably filial piety. Filial Piety is one of the basic qualities that a gentleman and a normal and upright person must have. Examples of extreme filial piety can be found in the 24 paragons Filial Piety, which really shows extreme cases of filial piety and deep connections with the parents and son. Examples of the stories are Zeng Shen, a student of Confucius who felt a stinging pain in his heart when his mother bit her finger, and Wang Xiang who swam in a frozen river searching for carps for his mother, and Wu Meng who attracted Mosquitoes to suck his blood to prevent them from sucking his mother's. This examples are all extreme, honorable examples of filial piety. However, in Confucianism, it does not tell us to be blindly follow and listen to our parents, aka "Blind Filial". We have to know what is good for our parents and do things that will benefit them, and not blindly following their orders and wishes. One of Confucius's students angered his father, and the student actually allowed the father to hit him with a thick stack of bamboo wood(or some sort of ancient cane). Confucius was actually enraged by the students actions as his actions is not actually deemed as filial piety. Filial Piety is to ensure that our parents can live happily and have a carefree life. What the students did could have caused himself to lose his life due to the thickness of the rod, which would have hurt the father more, instead, he should have ran away. Therefore, as you can see, there are actually classifications within filial piety, and some of them are not actually really being filial. We have to know what is best for our parents and ensure that they will be happy. I am alos more interested in filial piety compared to other qualities as I have done a project in sec one on filial piety and I have found out that filial piety within the society is decreasing and it is important to inculcate filial piety in tenns nowadays. Alos, I do acknowledge the fact that integrity, justice, Love, Humanity, and loyalty are indeed also important aspects of a gentleman, but generally I believe that without filial piety and basic love for our parents, it is unlikely that we will be able to nurture other good qualities such as humanity and integrity.

Some videos to lighten up and crash courses in case you have no idea of Confucianism and hasn't been paying attention in class :P.

Another link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ximqppmkfc4

Now, Lets talk about the French Revolution. For the people involved, . They opposed absolute monarchy and religion and instead foresaw an age of progess, individual freedom, law and reason. The leaders of the revolution claimed to be inspired by the ideas of 18-century thinkers like Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquie and Rousseau and also by notions of reason and progress. They destroyed traditional hierarchical and social order, and replaced it with ideals of freedom and equality for all.This is due to western self consciousness, which originated in the 17 century, emphasizing on reasons and individualism. People in French were unhappy with the royal absolutism in French,and the privileges possessed by Nobles.  So basically French Revolution is to overcome monarchy and fight for individual Freedom, leading to equality. Though I have learnt more about the French Revolution, nothing much can be learnt from this French Revolution, nor has it impacted my life. I believe that we nowadays have basically enough freedom and we have no need for any more of this ideologies since society has "slackened" off and a large amount of freedom is actually given to us if you think about it. There's democracy, and in US, there's a freedom of speech, which I an sure is not possible in the past. Thus, what I think we should do is to cherish the freedom that we have now and not abuse it. Yes, we are allowed to have a freedom of speech and to express our feelings, but we should not use this opportunity to scold derogatory remarks and spread nasty rumors about politicians or people around us. We can give suggestive complains and feedback, and a certain amount of "language" which I believe the intensity of this 'language" should stop at a certain extent. Though many of us enjoy freedom, there are still inequalities in this world, namely gender inequality, racial discrimination and prejudice. These problems are still evident in our society and I believe more must be done to overcome this inequality in our world.

Also, we have learnt about eastern and western perspectives of self through our project mates; presentations. There are generally differences between the Western Perspective and the Eastern Perspective. Basically, Eastern=Collectivism, Western=Individualism. Individuals see themselves in a group instead of an individual to western culture where people normally see themselves as a unique individual. Also, one of the more dominant religion in the west is Christians and the more dominant religion in the east is Buddhism. There are also different ideals in western and eastern parts of the world. Eastern believes in karma, where what ever bad things you do will fall back on you one day, Also, stereotypes of perspectives of eastern and western self is that people in the east are actually much hardworking and deemed as"Asians", a slang used to describe "muggers" while western people are generally seen as slackers. Also people tend to think that kids in western countries are independent whereas kids in Eastern countries are not. Also, one would tend to think that eastern culture has instilled better moral values in teenagers and people such that their manners and their actions are gentlemanly whereas in the Western country their morals are pretty loose. These are common stereotypes which are actually false. Nowadays, according to research, people in the eastern parts of the world are not necessarily showing good moral values and following Confucianism which is China's main ideology. Examples of people lacking moral values and care are common, whereby someone just faints and nobody actually do anything. Two three days ago, a woman in china fainted in on a train platform due to low blood pressure/low sugar level. She lay there for 50 mins with passengers coming in and out and nobody actually paid attention to her, and those that did did little to help her, Eventually the ambulance came but by the time they arrived she was already dead. Another example is the famous case of the little girl who was run over by trucks two times in a row who was ignored by other people walking on the streets, only to be saved by a female lady cleaner. Thus, moral values, and the ideology of Confucianism is actually diminishing in the east, contrary to belief. Also, it is not that that the "Asians" are really born to be hardworking and are muggers for life, they are driven and pushed and forced to be hardworking, either by the school or their parents. Also another worrying factor is also that people in the east are getting older and the trend is in the direction of aging population due to depressing fertility rates in the East,


Thus, I believe that thanks to the peoples presentations on the French Revolution, I have absorbed more knowledge about the east and west, as well as knowing that some stereotypes between east and west are not necessarily true. I am also quite concerned that Confucianism is actually diminishing in china and I believe China's should focus more of its education in moral values  in order to bring back moral values to the east.

In conclusion, I have learnt alot from CDE presentations and I wish to hear more from the presenters. They have done excellent quality presentations and slides, which helped clarify some of the stereotypes, questions and doubts that I had in my mind.