Archives of Peking University News - PKU English - 北京大学

北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
News benefited from the occasion for having a short interview with one of the
keynote speakers, Prof. Tu Wei-ming, who shared with us his vision of a harmonious
and prosperous dialogical civilization and how Confucian ideals contribute to its
making.
PKUNews: During the panel discussion, questions were raised regarding what the
East and the West can learn from each other. Could you enlighten us on this process
of on-going dialogue between the two cultures?
Tu: A dialogical civilization is a vision defined in terms of a dialogical mode of
understanding. Dialogues begin with polemics. But you must have a sense of
recognition, recognition of the other, a sense of respect, and then there is a
possibility of mutual reference and mutual learning. In that sense, the discussion, the
debate, the exchange of ideas will culminate into social capital and cultural
competence more than your intellectual horizon. Therefore in a very essential way,
this will eventually contribute to some form of understanding. Only with this kind of
understanding could we have some sense of peace.
PKUNews: You mentioned how religious leaders fell prey to their ambitions to
present their own religion as irrefutably superior to others, often turning the
well-meant religious dialogue into power struggle in the most profane way. How can
this situation be rectified?
Tu: That‘s right. Each religious leaders, I am not talking about people who have faith,
but people who are leaders, who have the power, ought to learn to become public
intellectuals themselves, to develop the language of global citizenship. Without that it
is difficult to have inter-religious communication.
PKUNews: How do you see the role of Confucianism contributing to this global
citizenship and the kind of communication you described?
Tu: Confucianism has only one language, that is, the language of global citizenship.
Because Confucianism teaches the world to transform from within. It does not have a
language from outside, that is, outside of this ―lived world‖. So the idea is to change
the ―lived world‖ by an idea or by a kind of shared aspiration and increasingly people
accept this kind of shared aspiration. Once the religious leaders become truly
bilingual, that is, not only conversant in the language of their own faith, but also that
of global citizenship, can they convince the secular world of their own visions and
teachings.
PKUNews: Professor Tu, thank you for your words of wisdom.
Harvard-Yenching Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and of Confucian
Studies at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, was
888