Editor’s Note
Homewards:
A Collective Odyssey
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
Victor Hugo
I
n one of the first Western tomes devoted mainly to
China, The Description of the World by Marco Polo,
commonly known as The Travels, the China that Polo
gave to the world in his own extended account was
a benevolently ruled dictatorship, colossal in scale,
decorous in customs, rich in trade, highly urbanized,
commercially inventive, and weak in the ways of
war. Claimed to be a westerner’s look at China from
the inside, this vivid and intriguing narrative left a
strong imprint on western minds at the time. As one
of the world’s oldest civilizations with one of the most
complex cultures the world has known, the story of
China is an astonishing one and, scholars agree, has
much to teach, Chinese and expatriates alike. This
keen interest in China was well-echoed recently
in a lecture by Michael Puett, a tall, 48-year-old
bespectacled professor of Chinese History at Harvard
University. Prof. Puett’s course on Classical Chinese
Ethical and Political Theory has become one of the
most popular courses at the university, drawing over
700 rapt undergraduates with the hope to “change
their lives with those ancient wisdoms”.
As a Chinese person myself, I have to admit that the
wisdoms of our past have such an incredibly powerful
momentum on our lives, they persist in a myriad
ways, affecting our language, beliefs, behavior, selfesteem, creative expression, politics and everyday
interactions. It has never ceased to fascinate me as
to why hearing a rendition of A Flower Moon Night
on Spring River puts the listener at peace, as though
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The Keystone Magazine
he or she were gazing at a graceful Chinese landscape
painting. How Chinese arts and aesthetics effectively
embody and give voice to one of the most dynamic
and profound schools of thought in China, Taoism.
Why Chinese people have had a deep concern for
order and harmony in society. How folk dance, the
oldest art form in China, expresses one’s realm of
thinking, emotions and inner world, through its
diversity of movements, refinement of form and
richness of character. Why the importance of nature
and humankind’s closeness to it became the abiding
theme manifested through Chinese art, myth and
literature across the ages. Why the Chinese emphasize
the welfare of human beings as a collectivity rather
than individuals in such diverse areas as politics and
fiction. These ponderings on China’s legacies and
cultural and philosophical ethos just go on and on…
There are no easy or clear answers, any more than
there are easy ways to understand any culture.
It becomes even more complex when trying to
situate oneself within a culture. Self-knowledge is
proverbially difficult. If the long and intricate history
of China seemed impenetrable, at times, to the outside
world, it is even more daunting for the Chinese to
master: her arts, philosophies, poetry, literature and
theatre are challenging to penetrate and illuminate
with a clear and beautiful understanding. I have
always been struck by the ease with which one can
be swallowed up in China’s past. By “swallowed up”
I do not mean the hopeless feeling of being buried