LL-L 'Language politics' 2007.01.10 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 10 January 2007 - Volume 06

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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L 'Language politics' 2007.01.10 (04) [E]

At 11:09 AM 01/10/07 -0800, Ron wrote:

As far as I know, the government of Mainland China does not embrace
Confucianism, at least not officially.  To the contrary.  The philosophy's
(and its spin-off religion's) hierarchically based premise has always run
counter to socialist ideas.  Furthermore , considering the general global
tendency toward wanting to increase social equality, it would have a
snowball's chance in hell of becoming accepted worldwide.  While Taoism and
Buddhism are (after Islam and the Baha'i Faith) currently the fastest
growing philosophies and religions in the "West" (especially among
intellectuals), Confucianism has hardly any followers that are not East
Asian or of East Asian descent.


Actually, it does not appear from their web site
http://english.hanban.edu.cn/market/HanBanE/412360.htm that they do anything
except promote the Mandarin language.  My guess is that the word "Confucius"
is used simply because of widely recognized positive association with things
Chinese.  See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute.
Interestingly, Hans Kung has written that if the Jesuits had used a
Confucian model in China instead of a Buddhist one, then China would
probably be Christian today, his premise being that Buddhism in China really
existed on a Confucian cultural substrate.  Which I would also argue
regarding Marxism, which has some interesting parallels.  But what do I
know?

Ed Alexander

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