Brief introduction:

Since the very beginning, Confucianism has been troubled by a serious gap between its political ideals and the reality of societal circumstances. Contemporary Confucians must develop a viable method of governance that can retain the spirit of the Confucian ideal while tackling problems arising from non-ideal modern situations. Prof Chan argues that the best way to meet this challenge is to adopt liberal democratic institutions that are shaped by the Confucian conception of the good rather than the liberal conception of the right.

Prof Chan's research, funded by RGC, examines and reconstructs both Confucian political thought and liberal democratic institutions, blending them to form a new Confucian political philosophy. Prof Chan decouples liberal democratic institutions from their popular liberal philosophical foundations in fundamental moral rights, such as popular sovereignty, political equality, and individual sovereignty, and grounds them on Confucian principles and redefines their roles and functions, thus mixing Confucianism with liberal democratic institutions in a way that strengthens both. He then explores the implications of this new yet traditional political philosophy for fundamental issues in modern politics, including authority, democracy, human rights, civil liberties and social justice.

About the Speaker:

Professor Joseph C.W. Chan, Head of Department of Politics and Public Administration of the University of Hong Kong, was educated at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (B.Soc.Sc), the London School of Economics and Political Science (M.Sc) and the University of Oxford (D.Phil). He teaches political theory and researches in the areas of Confucian political philosophy, contemporary liberalism and perfectionism, human rights, and civil society. He has published extensively on Confucian political philosophy.

Brief introduction:

This project examines the transformation of ancient Chinese ritual concepts into practice in local communities of Korea during the Chosun Dynasty (1392 - 1910 A.D.). The project compared the source materials regarding the rituals preserved in the documents of the Royal House and National Archives of Chosun Dynasty with ancient Chinese ritual records, aiming to analyze the process of cultural assimilation, as the central government implemented ritual policies through regional organizations at different administrative layers, such as counties, townships and neighborhoods. The project also studied how the central government constructed and adjusted its policies in collaboration with Confucian scholars to suit the target of regional indoctrination, and how it adapted in response to cultural resistance arising from Korean traditional customs, or divergence of geographical features and economic structure in various regions. The findings of the project made a significant contribution to understanding how cultural assimilation could move from a cultural elite to grass-roots communities, and provided a more complete and in-depth picture of Sino-Korean cultural interactions from the 15th to 16th centuries.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Lo Ming Tung, Associate Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Associate Director in the Centre for Chinese Cultural Heritage. He received a GRF grant for his project entitled -A Study of Traditional Chinese Matrimonial Etiquette as Recorded in Ancient Korean Ritual Documentations- in 2008.