Q3. What was your first experience with the
Analects? And, at what age did you become aware
of your personal historic significance as the 79th
generation direct descendant of Confucius?
JK: My heritage is something that I have been
aware of since I can remember. People have always
told me exactly who I am and what my role and
responsibilities are; however, they all perceive the
role and responsibility of the 79th descendant in
different ways. The pressure of trying to please
everyone made me feel very weak and small when I
was younger, as I knew I couldn’t satisfy everyone.
I would often wish I was someone else without all
these eyes watching and judging me. This feeling
lasted until the Beijing Olympics in 2008. During
the opening ceremony, there was a sequence where
many of Confucius’ analects were quoted. Seeing
the importance of Confucius on such a big stage
brought me to tears. An entire nation whose culture
was based on my relative’s wisdom had an entire
world seeing his thoughts in such dramatic way that
it made me realise I was thinking selfishly and at
a low level. It was then that I realised the role and
responsibility of who I am was my decision, and that
trying to please everyone in the long term would
help no one. Regarding the analects, I had always
known about them but it was my mother who hired a
teacher to come to my house after school to read and
talk about what we thought each analect meant.
Q4. Confucianism at its core holds that human
beings are fundamentally good, and teachable,
improvable, and perfectible by personal work and
through communal endeavor. Confucian thought
focuses on the cultivation of virtue in a morally
organised world. What do you personally perceive is
the greatest challenge for people in maintaining and
striving for goodness today?
JK: When studying the Analects, I learned that there
was more than one way to interpret Confucius’
sayings, and more than one lesson to every story.
People these days are often force fed answers and
thoughts that are not their own and they then choose
a side because it is easy, not because it is right.
Being able to know what is right and wrong should
be natural since we as humans have the ability to
think for ourselves and to critically analyse. The
greatest challenge for people in a modern society in
maintaining and striving for goodness is keeping true
to themselves and to their core values. They should
not be swayed by bad influences or their