日志

Something about Chinese Cultural Values
Most Chinese cultural and social values are derived from Confucianism and Taoism. Confucianism is the yang side of Chinese philosophy, which is characterized as solid, focused and aggressive, such as Confucius’s famous teaching “Doing something even though one knows it is impossible to succeed.” Taoism is the yin side of Chinese philosophy, which is characterized as yielding, diffuse and passive, such as Lao-tzu’s famous teaching “It is because he is thus free from striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.” In the meantime, Buddhism also exerts a lot of influences in Chinese cultural and social values.
But like the old Chinese proverb says, "the wind varies within ten li, customs vary within a hundred li", Chinese culture covers large geographical territories, where each region is usually divided into distinct sub-cultures. Considering the diversity and complexity of Chinese culture, when communicating to foreigners we should choose the universal Chinese cultural values such as the famous Chinese rule of "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."
There are many ways to communicate Chinese cultural values to foreigners, and establishing Confucius Institute, which aims to promote Chinese language and culture in foreign countries, is definitely one of the most effective ones. Moreover, we can use mass media such as movies and TV programs to promote Chinese cultural values, too.