472. Samuel Huntington and Confucian Culture

For Samuel Huntington, China's resistance to Western supremacy stems from its Confucian values, which emphasize the importance of hierarchy, authority, consensus and the state's dominion over society and which clash with American beliefs of liberty, equality, democracy and individualism.

We cannot agree with Mr. Huntington's argument that Confucianism is what has created friction between China and the United States; trade and economic patterns have. 

Clearly enough, Samuel Huntington didn’t have any clue about the United States founders’ borrowing from Confucian moral philosophy when they unfold the history of the United States and worked hard to lay down cultural foundation for this new nation. Dr. Dave Wang's paper, Confucius in American Founding, reveals how the founders used Confucian moral philosophy to bring up new virtue for the new nation. 

471 Great Wall, Benjamin Franklin, Matt Damon and Yimou Zhang

The upcoming movie, Great Wall has become a hot topic before its being released in the end of this year and early next year. The movie was directed by Zhang Yimou, written by Tony Gilroy, Carlo Bernard, DougMiro, Max Brooks, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz. The movie is an American-Chinese 3D epic science fantasy monster-adventure action film. The film main star is Matt Damon.

The Great Wall has been regarded a symbol of China. It began to form as early as 7th century BC. However, it was Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China, who connected several walls into a big wall during his reign 220-206 BC.  The purpose of the wall was to protect the Chinese from the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups from the north. 

But since the film’s trailer was released, journalists and commentators have criticized it for “whitewashing” — casting white actors in roles that could or should be cast with nonwhites. Why is Matt Damon saving ancient China, anyway? Couldn’t the Chinese handle it themselves?  (Please read "Movies: The real reason Matt Damon had to save ancient China." from Daily Tribune.)

Constance Wu, a star in Fresh Off The Boat, a well-known US comedy series, posted on Twitter several weeks ago: "We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that a only (sic) white man can save the world." Below you can read the snapshot from her twitter.

 

 

 

 

Soon after Constance's remark,  Zhang Yimou replied to Ms. Wu, "Our film is not about the construction of the Great Wall. Matt Damon is not playing a role that was originally conceived for a Chinese actor. The arrival of his character in our story is an important plot point." (Please read "Chinese director defends casting of Matt Damon in film The Great Wall" )

I have no interest in involving myself in the debate. However, Mr. Zhang's mention of "the construction of the Great Wall" reminds me of Benjamin Franklin's recommendation of a Great Wall in North American colonies.

It is very interesting that an American actor played the main role in the movie related to the Great Wall in 2016. Back to 260 years ago, in 1756, Franklin, one of the main founders of the United States, loved the Great Wall so much that he recommended one to be built in the blue mountains to the south of Philadelphia. Actually, Franklin personally involved in construction of forts in the blue mountains. Dr. Dave Wang went to look for tangible relics of Franklin's forts several years ago. Based on his findings there and historical documents, he wrote a paper, which was published by Virginia Review of Asian Studies in 2015.  Below you can find the first two paragraphs: 

 

 

 

 

470. Ideas from the East: American Founders and Chinese Wisdoms

When the Empress of China, the first commercial ship of the United States, anchored the Chinese shore in August 1784, the Chinese merchants quickly realized that the crew members were not British. The crew members were, in fact, Americans from the newly established United States—China’s newest trading partner. By sea the journey had taken over half a year. For the United States, China was still a far-away land. 

Yet in spite of the great distance between these two nations, Chinese culture strongly influenced the fledgling United States. Five years ago Virginian Review of Asian Studies published my study of China’s tangible cultural influence on the United States[1]. 

It has been noted that America’s founders loved particular Chinese ideas and used them help their efforts to build a new nation in North America around the founding era. In this essay, I will introduce the particular Chinese ideas that were introduced to America as they laid the philosophical and cultural foundation of the United States.

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[1] Dave Wang, Chinese Civilization and the United States: Tea, Ginseng, Porcelain ware and Silk in Colonial America,  Virginia Review of Asian Studies, 2011.

469. America's 240th Independence Day-and the Chinese Connection

Through Dr. Dave Wang's pioneer research we have learned that Chinese civilization had its influence on American founding. In the following I introduce the short essay written by JeffreyBingham Mead, the host of Marvels of China:

July 4, 2016 marked the 240th Independence Day of the United States of America. This is a good day to remind ourselves that the connection between the USA and Chinesecivilization has been in existence almost since the beginning of the United States

The U.S. Founders and China blog site by Dr. Dave Wang features a treasure-trove of little-known facts that Dr. Wang has been researching, publishing and lecturing about for many years. 

On this day Dr. Wang has published Confucian Virtue and the Founding of the United States. Click here to read it.