For my observations, I am attempting to argue that Confucianism ethics do exist among Chinese people virtually or sometimes intangibly, however it does not have such a great relationship to the development of Chinese capitalism. To support my argument, I would like to point out some reasons and continue with my interpretations.
Firstly, the Chinese living overseas today are lacking of practical Confucianism ethics in their daily life. For instance in Japan, most Chinese people do not even have the idea of family, education drive, and paternalism. I met many friends from Fujian province in China, came to Japan for better job environment and higher salary. They do not put much attention on the needs of their family, somehow just get married with old Japanese for the approval of Japan nationality or long term visa. Moreover, most of the friends from Fujian came as students in Japanese language school or University, however most of their time spared on working instead of on the education. The ideology of paternalism does not even practiced on their lifestyle anymore when we listen to their words and also contents of conversations.
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| Confucius (551 – 479 BC) |
Maybe someone will argue that this situations is only happening in Japan, but not related to those focused areas like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. Regarding that matter, Singaporean Chinese as most of we know, are more influenced by the Western ideology instead of Chinese Confucianism ethics. New Chinese generation in Singapore even do not speak or read in Chinese, it is not possible for them to embrace a traditional Confucianism ethics in their lifestyle. This is very much similar to Hong Kong people. Although Hong Kong people can speak and read in Chinese language, but majority of them are receiving education from the west and even embracing Western culture in their lifestyle. Sometimes we heard the sincere critics of Hong Kong people about traditional idea in China. Taiwan is a great place for travel and see the Chinese culture, but I am not really confidence to make a statement that Taiwanese are very much influenced Confucianism until today. At least Taiwanese friends that appeared in front of me do not seemed to me strongly impacted by the Chinese Confucianism. Korean people is the only group of people that I think very much influenced by Confucianism until today. They have a very strong relationships with their family tie, put efforts on education, and Korean people also preserve the actual ideology or elder-younger relationship.
To summarize, Confucianism ethics are not significantly influencing the development of Chinese capitalism by referring to the areas like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. However for Korea, technological impact are greater compare to their Confucianism ethic impact.
