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.

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.