Harmony and conflict

Harmony and conflict

1. When you were studying in the United States in the early 1970’s, did you think of an economically developed Asia, combining its efforts to construct a union, as a possible concept?

The United States was standing out as the superpower in the international scene at the time I was studying in New York. The social sciences field was looking for other possibilities of development in other parts of the world, and began to pay attention to Asia. The ‘Asian miracle’, first initiated by Japan, and followed by the economic took off of the Four Little Dragons, (Taiwan, Hong-Kong, Singapore and South Korea), showed some signs of hope for a further global development in the rest of Asia. In the 1960’s in the West, Confucianism was...

Read more: A new consensus for Asia?

Harmony and conflict

I came over here to Taiwan on the far side of the world and found the pantropical weed Bidens pilosa, a species that in years past I had stumbled across in South Florida, the Caribbean, and Central America. In South Florida it’s called “beggar’s tick” because each of the small thin seeds it produces in startling abundance has two clasps at the end that enable it to attach velcro-like to pant-legs, socks, and shoe-strings. The seeds have to be picked laboriously off when one comes indoors, otherwise they get all over everything. The plant invades lawns and sends down deep roots. It resists being pulled up by a strength in the roots and a weakness at the base of the stem. When someone tries to uproot one of these plants from a...

Read more: A Noxious Weed

Harmony and conflict

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 My tuk-tuk driver and I were lucky to have spent an hour looking for the residence of Fr. Francois Ponchaud on a dry day- dense with dust and exhaust fumes- yet nevertheless, dry. There was nothing more ennerving than being stuck in traffic in a flooded street under pouring rain in Phnom Penh.

We arrived at Ponchaud’s workplace, where his staff greeted me warmly in Khmer, apparently the only working language in his office.The young man lead me to their bureau on the first floor where I was greeted by the legendary Francois Ponchaud himself, barefooted and smiling broadly.
Being ever so obliging, he agreed to re-tell the tale of the 17th April, 1975, the night when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge and...

Read more: Account of the 17 April, 1975

Harmony and conflict

One of the perks of being American in Taiwan is being able to cash in on the general appreciation of the Chinese here for most things American, the general dislike and bewilderment at the crazy policies and behavior of President Bush being an exception. This is not always appreciated by non-Americans here who are always being mistaken as Americans.

In a recent article of the Frenchman Benoit Bouquin on cultural diversity he recounts his mixed feelings when young Chinese students mistake him for being an American. As an American in Taiwan over fifty years ago, being called American naturally made me feel good. It was also certainly better than being pointed out as a “foreign devil” or “big nose” which in those days was just as...

Read more: An American Perk

Harmony and conflict

If I had a wish to formulate for Asia, it would be to witness the coming to age of a generation of peacemakers, of men and women willing and able to craft a new style of relationships between individuals or within families, as well as between ethnic groups and nations. Computer, financial or educational skills are all important for the future of Asia. Peacemaking skills may prove to be even more vital. Let us be reminded of what is at stake when it comes to relationships between Taiwan and Mainland China, North Korea and South Korea, India and Pakistan, ethnic and regional communities within Indonesia… First and foremost, Asia needs peacemakers.

"Happy the peacemakers, they shall be called children of God." (Mt 5,9) In the Biblical...

Read more: Asia Needs Peacemakers

Harmony and conflict

Read more: Competition or Solidarity?

Harmony and conflict

I cannot bear how unimaginative Taiwan has become since my stay abroad. All political discourses are repetitive, the media repeats a bunch of lies, nobody seems to be able to articulate a project that would give a sense of direction to this nation.It is linked with our educational system, of course. When I was a child, everything was organized for making us think alike. Thinking outside the box was the supreme sin. There were stock sentences to be repeated. Lessons in literature and language were meant to make us speak and write in a certain way and in a certain style. Memorizing was the supreme virtue. Memorizing is good actually – as long as you are taught to build on it for inventing new things.

So, I dream of a Taiwan in which...

Read more: Dreaming Taiwan

Harmony and conflict

Translated by Jason Chen

People hate running into unexpected trouble. It catches us off guard and makes us feel helpless. Hackers are the greatest threat to websites and, being an administrator of the eRenlai website, my most feared type of unexpected trouble.

We are now 10 years in to the 21st century. The internet has been in rapid development since the end of the 20th century, evolving from a simple channel of communication to something that has become inseparable to everyday life. On the internet people learn new information, express their opinions and voices, create interpersonal networks and activity centres, share their everyday life experiences and so on. Through web-based texts, sounds and videos, we have developed a new kind...

Read more: eRenlai and life's unexpected troubles

Harmony and conflict

“Harmony” is a central concept in China’s spiritual as well as social thought. Although similar concepts and ideals can be found in the West they might not play as decisive a role as is the case in the Chinese context. The decades that followed 1949 had seen a sharp decline in the use of the term, as political circumstances made the central government emphasize the role of “struggle” in the process of building-up a new social model. However, “Harmony”, as a spiritual ideal and a regulating social concept, has been progressively revived and investigated anew. In this line, the emphasis now put on “hehe wenha” (culture of harmony and cooperation) by several leading intellectuals and institutions is an interesting attempt at...

Read more: Exchange and Harmony

Harmony and conflict

Are families in crisis? The answer differs according to countries and cultures. In any case, we should certainly avoid sensationalism...

We can trust our own experience: families are still a place of personal fulfillment, a place where children can grow in security and happiness, where parents can love each other, where different generations learn tolerance and solidarity, remembering together the past and preparing the future. In other words, families are still a blessing, the space in which humanity discovers its own humaneness by learning what it means to be father, mother, son, daughter, brother and sister. Let us just imagine for one minute: what would be a civilization where technological and social developments would have led us...

Read more: Family: Transmission, crisis and inventiveness

Harmony and conflict

A Chinese philosopher reflects on how “mutual enrichment” should shape the definition of our identities as well as international politics.


“The politics of recognition”, title of a paper presented by Charles Taylor, was formulated within the context of nationalist movement, minority group, feminism and multiculturalism. In that paper, Taylor has well analyzed the historical development by which Western world has arrived at the modern preoccupation with identity and recognition. There was first the collapse of social hierarchy based upon honor, followed by the switch from honor to dignity, which led to a politics of universalism, emphasizing the equal dignity of rights and entitlement. Then came the second change, the...

Read more: From Politics of Recognition to Politics of Mutual Enrichment

Harmony and conflict

The topic of this issue of Renlai is “How the Future of Asia is envisioned by its Youth”, with special concern for the different roads that might lead to Asia’s integration. If Asian youth are to look at Asia in terms of its future, then they must not look only at one another across local Asian boundaries, but at the whole world, because Asia is on its way to becoming a dominant world power. This means that youth must engage in dialogue not just with the young and old of Asian nations, but with the young and old of the rest of the world. If East and West are to live together, they must speak to one another, share ideas and work together.
The “East” is a term often used to denote the whole of Asia, but sometimes it refers...

Read more: From West to East and East to West