Leading Chinese environmental activist Sheri Liao will join a group of prominent intellectuals for a symposium on the renewed interest in Confucianism in China. The event, which will take place Friday, Oct. 29 and Saturday, Oct. 30 at International House, is free and open to the public.
The newly created Confucius Institute at the University of Chicago is organizing the symposium, “Reconstituting Confucianism: Theory and Practice in the Contemporary World,” which will explore fundamental questions about Confucianism, said Guy Alitto, Associate Professor in History and an event organizer.
Dali Yang, Professor in Political Science, Director of the Confucius Institute and Faculty Director of the University’s Center in Beijing, will open the event with remarks at 9 a.m. on Oct. 29.
“China’s economic resurgence and profound social transformation have been matched by considerable cultural ambivalence. Some have sought their answer to the uncertainties of rapid change in traditional culture, particularly Confucian values,” Yang said.
“An important related question we shall address is: will ‘New Confucianism’ remain an academic phenomenon only or will it be reconstituted as a social, political, and perhaps spiritual force in society as a whole?” said Alitto.
Interest in Confucianism, a traditional set of beliefs traced to the philosopher Confucius, has ebbed and resurged in China over the years. Both intellectual and social action efforts drive the movement, and environmentalist Liao will provide a social engagement perspective of Confucianism, Alitto said.
Liao will speak at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 29, on the topic “LOHO Community: An Example of Chinese Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability.”
Liao works to inspire environmental consciousness in the daily lives of Chinese citizens through Global Village of Beijing, an organization she started on her own using her personal savings. “As one of the first and now most influential, nonprofit NGOs in China, GVB is advancing sustainable development in China through the creation of an environmental culture,” Alitto said.
Liao has used GVB’s international reputation to raise public awareness of sustainable lifestyles and climate change through public education and community–based action campaigns, Alitto said.
She helped create the first waste–sorting recycling operation in an area of Beijing, founded a nature conservation and organic farming center north of the city, and was an organizing committee adviser for the 2008 Olympic games. In 2009, Time magazine featured Liao as one of the Heroes of the Environment.
Hongliang Gu, Professor of Philosophy at East China Normal University, will present “Liang Shuming’s Conception of Democracy” at the symposium. Gu is an expert on the influence of philosopher John Dewey on China’s understanding of democracy. Dewey, an early University faculty member, founded the Laboratory Schools. Gu’s presentation will begin at 10 a.m. Oct. 30.
Scholars presenting at the conference come from Chinese, American and Australian universities. The topics for additional presentations are: “From Culture to Cultural Nationalism: A Study of New Confucianism in the 1980s and 1990s,” “Confucianism and Chinese Cookery: Does Chinese Food Make The World Chinese?” and “Confucianism as the Religion for Our Present Time: The Religious Dimension of Confucianism.”
More information on the symposium is available at http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/reconstituting–confucianism/.
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The International House Global Voices Program is co–sponsoring the event with the Confucius Institute.
—William Harms
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
