Thoughts on Chinese Culture

See an interview published in Ming Pao, inviting university lecturer Huang Yingyu to talk about why people should learn Chinese culture at that time. After reading the full text, I think the interviewee's point of view is generally reasonable. He quoted the speech of Tang Junyi, a famous Neo-Confucianist, and pointed out that Hong Kong people who were born and raised here are inevitably influenced by Chinese culture. Culture is also an important part of knowing one's own life. Furthermore, if Ruoyan abandons Chinese culture, he should at least seriously examine whether Chinese culture is really worthless and hopeless, so that he can give a fair account to others.

However, I saw Xu Chengen, the author of "The Depressed City-State", criticized him harshly, saying that the article was terribly wrong and wronged his children. First, knowing the culture of a country does not mean that you must identify with the culture of that country, but instead focus on critical thinking. Second, it is ridiculous that the interviewee even got his own identity wrong and had an improper foothold. Hong Kong people are Hong Kong people and should no longer be allowed to be robbed by Chinese culture and return to be Chinese spiritually.

I think Xu Chengen's comment is a little unfair. In fact, the interviewees did not ask people to identify with Chinese culture. They did not want to talk about the real regime. They only advised people to at least understand the essence of Chinese culture. The answer of Neo-Confucianism is "the study of mind and nature". Those who practice the study of xinxing should realize that Chinese culture is indeed sick, especially the political system has yet to be reformed. But being ill does not mean immediate death. The study of xinxing is the source of Chinese culture.

However, advocating Chinese culture in this situation will be questioned or even resisted. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with advocating Chinese culture. It is worth criticizing why Hong Kong, which prides itself on the integration of Chinese and Western cultures and even the international convergence, has a growing camp that advocates Chinese culture, and advocates local culture, British culture, Japanese culture, Nanyang culture, Is the power of South Asian culture shrinking day by day? If the purpose of knowing Chinese culture is to know oneself, and the lifeline of Hong Kong people is so complicated, should Hong Kong people keep an open heart to explore and tolerate more levels of culture? Can I dabble in Chinese culture and British culture on an equal footing, and then freely choose my preferred lifestyle? It is not difficult to persuade people to understand Chinese culture, but it is difficult to point out the injustice that political reality is trying to hide.