Michael A. Schuman

“Moreover, the new wealth the region now enjoys is convincing East Asians to revisit their ancient culture with fresh, more confident eyes. No longer does success automatically equate with westernization; East Asians are finding new value in their old practices, teachings, and traditions. “The 200 years of Western colonization and domination of Asia was like pouring concrete slabs over Asia’s history,” Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and one of Asia’s most influential academics, told me over lunch in Beijing. “For Asia to modernize, Asia had to reject its past. Asia’s past was a burden so they focused on learning the best of the West. But now that they have succeeded, they are in a position to reengage with their past in a different way. You have to develop what I call ‘cultural confidence.’ What Asia is doing is finally drilling through those slabs and reconnecting back with its past. There will be a kind of cultural renaissance taking place in Asia.” He calls this trend “the most significant thing happening in Asia today.”
― Michael Schuman, Confucius: And the World He Created

“In fact, he studiously evaded talking about death at all. When one disciple queried him on the topic, Confucius answered: “You do not understand even life. How can you understand death?”6 For Confucius, exerting energy on such matters was a waste of time. He was very much a man of the here and now, focused primarily on solving real issues people faced in the real world. He sought to instill morality in man, ensure good government, strengthen the family, and bring prosperity to society. His goal was to teach people to be virtuous and put that virtue to use by building a better society. Wild speculation about the unknowable was a distraction, in his opinion, from the more important (and more practical) task of making the world a more harmonious place.”
― Michael Schuman, Confucius: And the World He Created