Chinese Values: A Sociologist’s View

Abstract

Within the moral perspective of the main cultures under discussion here, the Chinese approach stands out especially. In the following paper, I wish to give a short analysis of six core values in Chinese society. I will be doing this as a sociologist rather than as a philosopher, the substance of what I say being selected from the world of everyday experience. If I have any qualification for doing this, it is because I was born in China and have lived more than half my life either on the Chinese Mainland or on Taiwan. While there is an extensive literature on values, and Chinese values, in particular, I have chosen to concentrate on direct personal experience of life in a Chinese setting. Furthermore, since most of us are academics, I hope it will seem reasonable if I draw heavily upon the academic environment with which I am most familiar: the community which is Tunghai University on Taiwan. While there are certain distinctive features about this particular academic community, I am convinced that, in the main, it is typical of other such communities on the island and, perhaps, of Chinese communities elsewhere in South or Southeast Asia, as well. It goes without saying that my selection of core values may not necessarily be identical with a selection made by a typical Chinese scholar, though I presume that the degree of overlapping would be considerable. In any event, my purpose here is to stimulate thought and discussion. Questions may be raised as to how representative Taiwan may be of “all of China,” and I would be quick to admit that significant differences in values may well exist, given the divergent development streams which have occurred on both sides of the Strait of Taiwan during the past three decades. At the same time, if these “core values” are really “core,” then the underlying commonality should not have changed too much in thirty years.