He spoke at the University of Cambridge (27 Mar 09), as part of the university's 800th anniversary.
From the last para:
Human civilisations learn from one another more than they realise, more than we realise. In a collection of essays published by Needham on the historic dialogue of East and West in 1969, he chose for his title Within the Four Seas. That title was from the Analects of Confucius, who said, "Within the Four Seas, all men are brothers”. In the heyday of Third World solidarity in the 50’s, the Indians had a saying ─ "Hindi-Chini, bhai bhai” ─ Indians and Chinese are brothers. In these confused times, we need to learn from one another on the basis of a deep respect for each other as human beings.
LINK.
Oh, his posts like this says politicians like George Yeo gets new media!
Well currently no one has any respect for the other. Today the saying are like "Within the Four Seas, all men are Enemies” and same for the other saying. People need to educate their character.
ReplyDeleteThese are great thoughts. One bone to pick. I find the comment: "the Chinese have no wish to convert non-Chinese into Chinese-ness. In contrast, the US as a young country, believing its own conception to be novel and exceptional, wants everyone to be American."
ReplyDeleteI doubt both statements. Firstly, much of Americanism today is not by design, but just by the superior quality of American media, content and technology. If Japan's miniturization, Quality culture and even Anime` and manga are becoming popular, it is for the same reason... or for that matter, India's Bollywood. I would doubt if America started out saying it wants everyone to be American.
On the flip side, China's stance on many issues is not yet known. If the experience of Tibet is to be taken as a(bad) example, China does want the world to look like it.