Disclaimer, Sources, and Motivation

I have two sources for this summary (one in Chinese, one in English, and not exactly, but quite the same pattern of argument).

A friend of mine brought my attention to the English language translation of Prof. Kang´s speech first. We had discussed articles about the "comeback" of confucianism in the Economist, Newsweek and the like who reported it recently. We then did some web research, and found these two sources (and some more, of course). The English translation doesn´t contain the story of as to why Kang would deal so extensively with Confucianism as a state religion or doctrine. Here, the Chinese link sheds some more light on that, though not all that much, either.

I should make it clear that I can not guarantee either link´s authenticity. The internet is still just the internet, and also, neither my knowledge of Chinese, nor of English, is perfect. Misreadings from my part are always possible, too.

The English link was quite helpful to get a first idea of Kang´s position. But I didn´t follow it in all cases. I got the impression that Kang may not only advocate Confucianism for China, but for the rest of the world, too. But I´m not at all sure if this is the case, or if Kang rather wants to prevent the West from somehow imposing westernisation upon China.

So this is an imperfect try to shed some more light on a debate that Kang Xiaoguang joined, as it seems, two and a half years ago and which has now been detected by some international media. But I want to make this try, anyway. The Economist take of it is by no means exhaustive either. In fact, it hardly looks at the details of Kang´s position (which it should have done).
Any corrections or comments you might have will be welcome.

Updated June 7, 2007