A materialistic, strife-ridden and fast-changing China with a growing better-educated middle-class is increasingly facing a moral and spiritual vacuum. This was at one time filled by what is suspected to be a dangerous "cult", such as the now-banned Falun Gong with its leader based in the United States.
In many ways the vacuum has been filled by the rapid growth of Christianity in China. David Aikman's "Jesus in Beijing, Monarch Books, 2005, puts the toal number of Christians in China at around 80 million, including Protestants (the majority) and many Catholics in "non-offical" or "underground" churches. Now the total number is estimated to reach 100 million.
With growing national pride, the spiritul vacuum has also spawned a social tendency of seeking spiritual, moral and philosophical anchor by going back to the golden age of Chinese philosophers like Confucius (551-479 BC) and Zhuangzi (circa 369-284 BC). It has also given rise to a revival of "national studies" and television shows featuring the teachings of various classical works. Even some private schools known as "si shu" have appeared on the scene offering immersion courses to business executives on Confucian and other classical Chinese philosophical concepts.
The revival of Confucianism sits well with the need for political stability of a China in transition, including the hierachical concept of social order, the emhasis on moral virtues, and the ideas of harmony within the self, within the family, within the society, between states, and between Man and Nature. It is no wonder that the concept of Harmonious Society has been embedded in President Hu Jintao's political mantra. It also explains the establishment of 322 Confucius Institutes and 337 Confucius Classrooms in 94 countries and regions as of October 2010 with a plan for 1,000 Confucius Institutes by 2020. This is also in line with the global trend that some 100 million foreigners were learning Chinese in 2010.
The political dimension of a Confucian revival is expounded upon in Daniel A Bell's "China's New Confucianism – Politicics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society", Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2008.
The social yearning to find spiritual sustenance and meaning of life in modern-day China is perhaps exemplified by the rock-star like popularity of Ms Yu Dan, a comely lady professor of media studies at Beijing Normal University, following her book "Reflections on The Analects" that has sold 4.2 million legal copies and an estimated 6 million pirated versions since it was published in December 2006. The book, which remains on best-seller lists, is based on seven lectures that Yu gave on CCTV 10's popular prime-time show "The Lecture Room."
One of the reasons of her popularity is that in a modern story-telling style, she is able to lead her readers through some of Confucius' salient teachings to find "advice for stress reduction, forgiveness, simple living, friendship and achieving one's dreams."
For example, with reference to relevant quotations from The Analects, she illustrates the depth of parental and motherly love with two simple stories in different places in her book. I have translated the relevant excerpts – which I have titled "The Story of an Apple Tree" and "A guardian angel for each new-born" by way of illustration of her writing techniques which some of her critics liken to "creating a kind of Confucian chicken soup for the modern Chinese soul". Download Yu Dan on Confucius – Translations on Parental Love
A feature "Yu Dan and China's return to Confucius" appeared in the New York Times on August 29, 2007. Click here
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