Current Event: Restore Subsidies for Graduate Student Loans!

The recent graduate student petition reminded me of the below quote. 

"The Dao of great learning lies 

in making bright virtue brilliant, 

in making the people new, 

in dwelling at the limit of the good."

The below link is a petition to restore subsidies for graduate student loans.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/restore-subsidies-graduate-student-loans/TtNGQfHG?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Popular TV Shows: Will ABC's Revenge's character Emily Thorne be trapped in her own web of revenge?

Emily Thorne Starts Dating Daniel Grayson as Part of Her Revenge Plot

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." I think this quote would do well for Emily Thorne to heed. As shown in the picture above, Emily Thorne/Amanda Clark started dating her enemies' son, Daniel Grayson, as part of her revenge plot. However, if you look closely at the picture or had seen the recent episodes, you would feel the sense that Emily/Amanda might be slowly developing deeper feelings for Daniel.  Her situation is a perfect example of why revenge should be done or not be done. Ultimately, I wonder will she need to "dig" the extra grave for herself. 

Current Event: Stockton Asian Farmer Market

Although Stockton is a city that is in the middle of nowhere and has no Asian resources like in Los Angeles, Stockton has an Asian farmer market that provides awesome, fresh Asian food resources for those who wish to buy cheap, Asian food (e.g, fresh Chinese soy milk). AS a matter of fact, I regularly attend this farmer market even since I found out about this resource since I am a big fan of Chinese soy milk and traditional Asian vegetables, such as Chinese spinach. Additionally, they sell tofu for ~ $0.50 to $0.75 (3x cheaper) than any store and sell green Chinese spinach and boy choy for the price of $5 for six of them.

Is there a correlation between Modern Music Lesson Training & Confucianism?

Classical music is a component that has always been part of myself. It is almost impossible for me to ever define myself without thinking about music. This blog is to express my love for two important dominant themes that had been part of the culture worldwide: classical music and Confucianism.  However, these two topics were rarely associated together. In fact, most considers those themes as two separate entities.

My personal belief is that classical music training has been innately part of the Confucian tradition societies for thousands of years but just not explicitly expressed as that.

Current Event: Hmong New Year Celebration in Stockton

Last Saturday, I attended the Hmong New Year Celebration with my sister and friends. I am not Hmong and had never seen a Hmong Celebration so this celebration was quite new and different for me. Sadly for me, I did not like the food that were present at the celebration since the food was either large amount of barbecued meat or fried something. Also, the vendor sellers mostly only spoke Hmong, which caused me to have difficulty to communicate with them. However, there were some really nice performances by various performers, such as ethnic dances and singing, and some interesting vendor shops that had very nice hand-crafted artwork.

Current Event: University of the Pacific Hosts the Jon Schamber High School Speech & Debate Touranament in Stockton

University of the Pacific Speech & Debate Team

 A couple of weekends ago on October 28th through 30th, the University of the Pacific Debate team hosted on campus the 32nd annual Jon Schamber High School Forensics Tournament. This tournament a full, two day tournament for the high school students in Stockton or near Stockton. The tournament features the following: CX (Cross Ex) Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and Radio Broadcasting, Ten Different Individual Events. The Pattern A individual events are Expository, Dramatic Interp, Impromptu, Thematic Interpretation, and OPP. The pattern B events are Oratory, Humorous Interp, Extemp (Combined National & International Topics), Duo Interpretation, and Oral Interpretation.

Current Event: Think Fast! Students Sharpen Lifelong Skills in Debate Competition

Last weekend on November 4th through 6th, one of the largest college debate tournament, hosted by the University of the Pacific Debate team, took place on campus at the University of the Pacific. This tournament was the Paul Winters Invitational- a full, two day IE/NFA/LD/NPDA/CEDA tournament. University of the Pacific's Speech and Debate Team was founded in 1854. It is now one of the oldest, more accomplished, and prestigious debate teams in the state of California. Pacific team did very well and took third at this host tournament.

Science Blast Community Day in Stockton!

Science Blast Community Day
Today, November 5, 2011, this annual Science Blast event was held at A.G. Spanos Center at the University of the Pacific from 8:30 AM to 12PM. This popular event was hosted by the science-related student community from the University of the Pacific and the Delta College.  Numerous children from the community were in attendance.

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.


Video 1

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.

Better Leadership: Why Legalism Should Not be Applied in the Context of a College Fraternity

Legalism, “Fa Jia” or “school of law,” was the utilitarian political philosophy with Han Fei Zi as its major proponent.  The legalists argued that the best government is one based on authoritarian control, not ethical or moral persuasion.  They claimed that human nature was incurably selfish and that people normally do not know what to do.  Thus, the only way to preserve the social order (and society) was to impose strict discipline from above and enforce laws strictly.  For example, if your father or your husband disobeyed the government in a small infraction, such as lying, you were morally obligated to report him to the officials and let the officials punish him.

Culture: Importance of Confucian Virtues: the Natural Laws in Asian Societies

Dr. Yao, Author of Introduction to Confucianism, wrote in his book that the “Five Regulations” are “five Confucian virtues,” which are “ren” (humanness), “yi” (righteousness), “li” (ritual/propriety), “zhi” (wisdom), “xin” (faithfulness). He claims that these virtues are believed to be as constant and unchanging as natural laws, remaining the same for all time and guiding/ordering all other virtues” (Yao 34).  


Dr. Yao’s sentence here is very powerful and important because it was able to convey effectively the important Confucian virtues that are the glue in Asian societies.  They are the unspoken and accepted laws that guide East Asian societies, even if they are not obvious or invisible at times. 

What is Confucianism?

“About 2,500 years ago, a man was born to a once aristocratic family in a small state called Lu in East China. During his lifetime, the man endeavored to…carrying forward the old tradition in a chaotic environment and opening up a new horizon in a dark age. By the time he died at the age of seventy-three, his teachings had spread throughout the state and beyond…But there was one thing that neither [his students and disciples] knew: that Chinese culture, and to some extent, East Asian culture, would be forever linked with his name, that the tradition he loved…would rank with the greatest in the world” (Yao – Author of An Introduction to Confucianism). This tradition is Confucianism- the Western English word coined by the Jesuits from the 16^th century.  

An Introduction

This blog is a place to discuss Confucian ethics and Confucian "Dao" (Way) of life. The purpose of my blog is to explore the application of the Confucian principles in the each daily living, specifically in Stockton.

My interest in writing this blog is due to my passion for Confucius and his philosophy. I believe that the Confucian principles can have beneficial effects on a person in all aspects of his or her life.
As a person that comes from a traditional Asian family, I had grown up with the Confucian principles constantly being engrained into my mind, and these principles have been integrated into my identity as a person.   

About Me

I am a boring student who loves Confucianism and practices this in my daily life. I am a double major in engineering and mathematics who would like to explore how Confucian idealogy fits into my life, along with my other passion and interests.