When East Meets West

In the five milleniums of civilization in China, feudalism reigned uninterruptedly during the last 2500 years, until the collapse of the latest Qing dynasty in 1911. Without Confucianism serving as its basic ruling mechanism, feudalism could never be as persistent. Confucianism first gained popularity during the Warring States Period of China (475-221 BC), then sanctioned by emperors of different dynasties, took deep root in the Chinese race. And the influence of this philosophy wasn't limited to China; Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other countries in Asia more or less were once in its shadow. If one was to compare the East with the West, Confucianism to too important to left uninvestigated.

During a time of war and living hardship, Confucius spoke of social order and ethical importance. It quickly gained the favor of the ruling class, because it demanded the people's blind loyalty to the emperor, who was revered as the son of heaven. It gained favor of a patriarchic society, because it demanded absolute obedience from women to men. It achieved social stability because it favored rigid and hierarchical conception of social organization. Confucianism valued the sameness within units; it disapproved of individual discrepancy among the mass. It also demanded that one should be content with one's social, economic, and political position within the society. It discouraged challenges from the inferior to its superior. These principles of Confucianism permeated very layer of the Chinese society, from political system to family grouping, from education to architectural design. As a result of 2500 years of cultivation and consolidation, it is very safe to say that a typical Chinese person is more or less rooted in Confucianism.

In contrast, the Western tradition was deeply rooted in religions and science. Unlike Confucianism, which had more humanistic and intuitive approach to matters, the west favored a more materialistic and analytical approach. The manner of Confucianism is passive, obedient, and submissive; the west encouraged aggressiveness, individual freedom, and continued exploration. The difference is so great that one might argue they represent the Yin and Yang indeed. The people of Confucianism tend to seek satisfactions in whatever surroundings they happen to find, to content themselves with things as they are. For this very reason, traditional Chinese architecture has rarely been touched by radical changes in milleniums; its continuity is unparalleled in world history. But the progressive Westerners are always determined to better the existing; for them there could be no limit in stylistic and technological exploration. From Etruscan to the classical Greek and Roman, early Christian to Romanesque, Gothic to Renaissance, Mannerism to Baroque, Internationalism to Modernism, Modernism to Postmodernism, the taste seemed to change tirelessly with progress of time. In terms of technological pursue, from candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to gas-lamp, gas-lamp to electric light, the quest for a brighter light and greater efficiency came naturally; as natural as these men's own existence.

When East meets the West, if these differences were not properly resolved, the result can be disastrous. In recent years of economic boom, when China decided to blindly reproduce Las Vegas-style architecture to its urban landscape, a crime has been committed against its own culture. When Japan had chosen to follow the technologically superior West after WW II, it has left the path on which the Japanese culture had emerged. If it had given itself a little more waiting, it might have developed a technology entirely of its own, much more to its cultural advantage.