Culture: Nature vs. Nurture in Stockton

Southwest Hall in 1800s - Stockton State Mental Asylum

Current Southwest Hall 

I recently found out that Southwest Hall, the second largest residence hall at the University of the Pacific, was originally the Stockton State Mental Asylum. This was an interesting bit of information that made me realize that if Kaspar Hauser had lived in Stockton during the 1828, he would most likely had put into the Stockton Mental Asylum, the current Southwest Hall because people in Stockton would had considered him insane for claiming to grow up in a cell and for not being able to speak any human language. Hauser was a German youth who claimed to grow up in a darkened cell and showed up in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany at the age of approximately 16-17. Kaspar was and has remained a hot topic for the psychology realm today due to his unique situation.


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Culture: Drunken Monkey & Martial Arts

The Drunken Monkey theme from the lecture last Friday reminded me of the "Drunken Monkey" martial arts form in the movies, Last Hero in China and The Drunken Master. Both movies are quite popular martial arts movies (the clips are shown below). As there are numerous martial arts schools in Stockton, specifically Kung Fu school, such as Charley's Independent Wu Chun (been in Stockton for over 20 years), this topic with regards to the martial arts film clips is relevant to my Confucius blog in Stockton.

Current Event: Drunken Monkey in Stockton!

Drunken Monkey

Today, October 28, 2011, Dr. Robert Dudley from UC Berkeley gave a seminar talk on "The Drunken Monkey: Is Alcoholism in Modern Humans an Evolutionary Hangover?" at the University of the Pacific's Biology Building. The Drunken Monkey hypothesis was first proposed by Dr. Dudley. "The drunken monkey hypothesis proposes that human attraction to ethanol may have a genetic basis due to the high dependence of the primate ancestor of Homo sapiens to fruit as a food source. Ethanol naturally occurs in ripe and overripe fruit and consequently early primates developed a genetically based attraction to the substance" (Wikipedia).

Current Event: UOP Engineering Boat Race!

Current Event: Confucian Engaged in Youth at Stockton Christian Church

Popular TV Shows: Dexter in Focus - Bridge Between Confucianism and Legalism

Popular TV Show Character Dexter

When I heard about the Dexter show and the main character, I realized immediately that the Confucian traditions are applicable to the character.  In fact, Dexter follows the code from Xunzi’s (Xunzi was a student of Confucius's grandson) saying of “In the case of incorrigibly evil men, punish them without trying to reform them.” This is exactly how Dexter acts in his actions and how he justifies himself.  For Dexter, the justification he used is called the “The Code.” According to his code, he only kills victims that have killed someone without justifiable cause and will likely commit the crimes again. 

Current News: Stockton Amtrak Crash!!! Crash at Contra Costa County

On September 30, 2011 at approximately 7:20 p.m., the train carrying 191 passengers from Oakland to Bakersfield (with stop at Stockton) collided with a truck at a rural crossing east of Brentwood in the Contra Costa County. Majority of the passengers were due to arrive at Stockton Amtrak station at 7:30 p.m. that evening. There were 37 passengers and two crew members that suffered “minor to moderate” injuries. My little sister was one of the passengers inside the train car that collided with the truck and was one of the few passengers in that train car that were unhurt. Almost all the passengers wanted to get off the train immediately but were all told they had to stay on the train. My sister, along with the other passengers, was forced to stay at this crash site for the next five hours. My friends and I drove to the train crash location to try to take my sister and were told that no one was allowed to get off the train by the police officers.

Better Leadership: How Confucianism Can Be Used in the Context of a College Fraternity

University of the Pacific--home to the numerous student organizations and activities that are available on the school campus--has an especially large number of fraternity organizations. Most fraternities and large organization clubs, have conflicts and issues among the members. I recommend Confucianism application in a fraternity as the best solution to solve inter-fraternity conflicts I agree with Dr. de Bary that Confucianism is a “life-style and an attitude of mind.”  The Confucian principles can have beneficial effects on a person in all aspects of his or her life. Each member of the fraternity can benefit from the application of Confucianism and the fraternity’s conflicts can be more easily dealt with.

Culture: Values of family in American Born Asians

Mary and Sarah are second generation Asians (or ABA) who were Pre-Pharm and Pre-Dental majors at the Pacific, respectively. Their families brought them up far away from their homeland (Vietnam & China). For Mary, the Vietnamese culture and language is not even being practiced at home, especially her family are somewhat open-minded about what Mary should do for academics and boyfriend. For Sarah, the Cantonese language is often spoken at home and, in most ways, her mother adheres to the common Asian discipline for Sarah and her sister. They did not choose to study Pre-Pharm or Pre-Dental. For both Mary and Sarah, despite their love for art and talent in art, they chose to study Pre-Pharm and Pre-Dental due to her “ren” or love for her family (parents and younger siblings) and her strong desire to support them in the best way possible after she finished with school. Despite being American born and being second generation with slightly different family upbringing, they act unconsciously with the Confucian principles. They act in such manner because the Confucian virtues are the “natural laws” and what determine the moral society and guide the social order in the Asian societies.