By Doug
Tattershall
Cultural upheaval in the 20th
century led many Chinese to criticize Confucian ideas about families, particularly the
subordination of women and young people. The seminar will study these attacks on the
Confucian family, both before and after communism was established in China.
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Dec.
3, 1999 – (Lexington, Ky.) –
Fourteen University of
Kentucky students will travel to China this spring to
study “The Confucian Family and its Enemies in
Twentieth-Century China.” The trip is part of next
semester’s Bingham Seminar, a biennial UK Gaines
Center for the Humanities course that ends with a trip
to the area studied.
This
year’s seminar, led by history professor Kristin Stapleton, examines the history of
Confucian thought about the family, including what Confucians consider to be the ideal
family and the role they give the family in social and political life. Cultural upheaval
in the 20th century led many Chinese to criticize Confucian ideas about families,
particularly the subordination of women and young people. The seminar will study these
attacks on the Confucian family, both before and after communism was established in China.
During
the spring semester, the seminar will include a lecture by Harvard University professor
Wei-Ming Tu, who will visit the Gaines Center as the Thomas D. Clark Lecturer. In May, the
students will travel to China. Stops will include: the Forbidden City to see the idealized
Chinese family household -- the home of the Ming and Qing emperors; the surviving
old-style courtyard houses of Beijing; Qufu, the ancestral home of Confucius; Chengdu, the
setting for the most famous anti-Confucian novel of the 20th century; and Shanghai, the
modern metropolis that often has been seen as the source of the gravest threat to
traditional Confucian values.
The
Bingham endowment and the Lexington campus chancellor fund the Bingham seminar, including
travel expenses.
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