The day after my students diligently completed the assignment of writing a Di Zi Gui appraisal, I sent this email to them in appreciation of their candid and delightful writings. I also shared my response to the same assignment in reciprocity.
Dear Class,
I read all your appraisals just now. I read quickly, because I was eager to glean your opinions. I will go over them again later and offer my thoughts on your individual reflections, but for now, let me just shout out to you all that I absolutely enjoy and respect your active and critical thinking. My eyes lit up at many extremely interesting observations, comparisons, and personal anecdotes in your reflections. I am very proud of you for being so involved and interactive with this material.Your reflections inspired me to come up with my own "thesis" for this assignment - truly, I didn't write this beforehand; I'm writing it now as I email you because you have inspired me to do so. The thesis is: The Chinese society bases its social structure primarily on the Confucian values of harmony and morality, while the Western democratic system holds high the principles of individuality and law. While Confucian tradition highly emphasizes harmonious relationships between all people - especially among family members - to maintain social stability, Western democratic tradition believes that individual achievement drives social progress. These different emphases on stability and harmony versus progress and creativity are mirrored closely by modern Chinese and American schools and society. Chinese students engage in more collective activities and practices in and outside school, while American students are encouraged to voice their individual opinions and to be unique so they can stand out. American society is much more tolerant than Chinese society of progressive and creative ideas and behaviors ranging from technical innovation to marijuana regulation. In the meantime, Chinese society is much more caring towards the old, who are usually cared by their children rather than by nurses or senior houses, has stronger bonds among relatives and friends that often function like family members, to name two examples. Although the moral force is strong in China, it lacks the sophisticated legal system of modern democracies. Confucian texts were, therefore, followed more "in spirit" than "in letter."
I imagine that a perfect world looks more or less like a combination of both traditions' strengths: a legal framework that protects individual creativity, and strong social morality that harmonizes inter-personal relationships.
I just want to share these thoughts with you after you have generously shared your thoughts with me. Have a good weekend everyone!
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