研究故事

Politics is polarised in much of the West and at a crossroads in the East. Injecting Confucian values into modern political life could offer a way forward, says Professor Joseph Chan.

Consider two scenarios. In the US politicians have pushed the country to the fiscal cliff more than once in recent years because of an inability to reach a compromise. In China, the discrediting of Marxism has left the country without a strong philosophical compass and it is vacillating between Western liberalism and traditional values to fill the void. Where can they go?

Professor Joseph Chan, Head of Politics and Public Administration, has spent much of the past decade contemplating the state of the world and how to bring a new understanding to modern society. His framework has been Confucianism, which promotes different values from the West but which he says could combine well with modern concepts such as human rights, democracy and the separation of powers.

"I want to give Confucianism a modern twist so that this traditional system of thought can mesh with modern aspirations and values – so Confucianism can become a source of inspiration for modern people," he says.

"My ultimate interest is the larger picture of modernity and tradition. Modernisation has been so powerful an engine that traditional schools of thought have been put to the sidelines. I think this is a worrying sign. The ancients captured great insight about human wisdom and human virtue. If we simply focus on certain narrow individual moral Western values like freedom, equality and democracy, and base our society and politics completely on these pillars, we risk losing a great deal of these traditional insights."

"For China my message is we can use Confucian resources to develop a modern political regime that is built upon institutional pillars like democracy, the separation of powers and human rights."

Professor Joseph Chan

The full version of this article was originally published in Bulletin. Please click here to view this HKU publication.