|
             
Confucius prominent Confucian sayings and symbols
To say the least, 2008 has been a pivotal year for China. It was marked
by tragedy (the Sichuan earthquake) and by triumph (the lavish Olympic
opening ceremonies). Riots in Tibet, the milk scandal, and, most
recently, the crackdown on democratic dissent, are just three of the
many China stories that captured headlines across the globe.
Yet there are two major stories that received little notice. Each
reveals important things about China. Each helps place its tragedies and
triumphs into a richer context. And each presages the bigger pivots
ahead in China's course.
1. Chinese nationalism becomes an oppositional force
Chinese patriotic fervor, especially as manifested on the Net, got
plenty of attention, mostly portrayed as something welcomed or even
stirred up by the regime. This portrayal makes sense, up to a point.
Yes, officials liked seeing posts denouncing the French after a
torchbearer was roughed up in Paris, and later, after French President
Nicolas Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama. But these same authorities never
forgot that patriotism has often proved notoriously difficult to control
in China. Chinese elites know that the mix of patriotic outrage and
frustration with official corruption, malfeasance, or selfishness has
often driven people into the streets.
This didn't happen in 2008. But at one crucial moment in May, right
after the earthquake, a familiar shift from outward-focused to
inward-focused patriotic fervor occurred. This made Chinese officials
nervous – for good reason.
The tone of the Chinese blogosphere suddenly changed, with posts
criticizing foreigners for being unwilling to let the Olympic torch
relay be a celebratory event disappearing. In their place came posts
chiding the government for continuing to run upbeat stories about the
torch.
How, some bloggers asked, could official news agencies be so
self-absorbed and callous as to focus on the torch when the citizens of
Sichuan were suffering? Rulers who truly care about the people, they
insisted, should have a clearer sense of priorities during national
crises.
This whiplash could have led to large-scale street actions that made
headlines, but it didn't. That's partly because China's leaders, who
keep a close eye on the Web as a barometer of popular sentiment, called
on the media to take a more somber tone in torch stories – and then even
suspended the relay for a time.
This didn't completely defuse discontent at a precarious moment. There
were still small gatherings in Sichuan villages and towns, often linked
to anger at shoddily constructed school buildings that collapsed while
nearby structures remained standing. And it didn't put an end to all
expressions of outrage on the Web, as some bloggers picked up on the
school collapses, claiming in posts that corrupt deals struck between
developers and local officials were to blame for the large number of
children left dead or injured in earthquake zones. Still, the about-face
on the relay limited the extent of these sorts of dissent.
The government realizes that few Chinese now have any faith left in the
formal ideologies espoused by Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping,
and their successors. It also knows that the Communist Party is
perceived as being riddled with out-of-touch officials who care only
about lining their pockets.
One response to this long-term legitimacy crisis has been a new emphasis
on social welfare and social harmony in propaganda, mixed in with a
drumbeat of references to the Communist Party's role in returning China
to a position of global importance.
When the tenor of blog posts shifted in May, the regime concluded
quickly that business as usual regarding the torch was making its talk
of striving to create a "harmonious society" (President Hu Jintao's
mantra) ring even more hollow than usual – and the result could be
dangerous. This was probably the right conclusion to draw.
2. An old Chinese philosopher gets the star treatment
The philosopher at the center of this second overlooked story is
Confucius, who has been making an extraordinary comeback in a land
where, within living memory, he was officially excoriated as a
retrograde thinker.
As recently as the early 1970s, the Communist Party still held to the
Marxist dictate that progress tended to comes as the result of struggle
and conflict (whereas Confucius celebrated harmony), and Chairman Mao
insisted that old modes of thought that venerated the past and prized
social hierarchies (as Confucianism did) had to be uprooted once and for
all for China to advance toward utopia.
In addition, Mao's longtime archrival, the Nationalist leader Chiang
Kai-shek, had praised Confucius as China's greatest thinker – another
point against the sage in the eyes of the Communist Party of the
Cultural Revolution era, when mass rallies denouncing him were held.
The revival of Confucius has been going on for years. It has been linked
at the popular level to a general loss of faith in Marxism and Maoism,
which has led to an interest in reappraising many once-discredited
belief systems. And recently, thanks to how nicely Confucian bromides
fit in with talk of a "harmonious society," the sage has gotten official
support. Old temples honoring him have been rebuilt, new statues of him
have gone up, and "Confucius Institutes," devoted to spreading Chinese
culture, have been set up in foreign countries.
It is hard to tell whether this official embrace of Confucius expresses
a genuine renewed admiration for the sage within the leadership, or is
merely a cynical use of his image and legacy. It may be a bit of both.
Another factor behind the popular official revival alike may simply be
national pride. Whatever strengths or weaknesses may be in the man's
ideas, there is no question that he ranks as among the most famous
philosophers in world history.
This revival reached new heights during the torch run, when the flame's
arrival in Qufu, the sage's hometown, was celebrated lavishly. It was
then taken to an even higher crescendo during the Opening Ceremony, when
Confucius was quoted as Hu and other leaders looked on with approval.
Then 3,000 actors took the stage at the Bird's Nest, dressed up to
represent a massive contingent of the sage's disciplines.
The prominent Confucian sayings and symbols played in the opening
ceremonies were treated in a surprisingly matter-of-fact way, as though
Confucius had never ceased being a revered figure and positive symbol of
China's long history.
For the historically minded, the effect was shocking. It was similar to
what a sports fan might have experienced if a man who had won a gold
medal as a sprinter at the Rome Olympics in 1960, then disappeared from
the track scene, suddenly took the lead in the finals for the 100-meter
dash in the 2008 Games – and the commentator simply said: "Gee, we
always knew he was fast!"
Each of these under-the-radar stories played a role in making 2008 a
Chinese "year of great significance" – to borrow a phrase my colleagues
and I use in the title of a forthcoming anthology. Confucius
And each gives us a sense of things to watch for in 2009 and beyond, as
the Communist Party continues to try to ride out still longer the
legitimacy crisis it has faced ever since the faith in Maoism as a creed
dissipated decades ago. In struggling to come up with novel ways to
remake their image and stay in power as a ruling group, China's leaders
will very probably continue to play the nationalism card and rev up
still further the uses of Confucius.
We should be ready for these developments. We should also watch for
moments when, as happened briefly last May, patriotic fervor morphs into
antigovernment backlashes, and officially sponsored Confucian-sounding
calls for pursuit of a "harmonious society" are attacked by the public
as nothing more than window dressing for a ruling group most of whose
member care above all simply about keeping hold of the reins of power.
• Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor of Chinese History at University of
California, Irvine, prominent Confucian sayings and symbols
Confucius |
