Bridges to the Future - China Rising

Professor Wang Gungwu is a scholar of Chinese history and culture. Gungwu explains that understanding culture in modern society is difficulty, however in China, "culture" is holistic. His talk addresses the question, "To what extent does the the tradition of a 'holistic' view of culture still guides Chinese thinking today, and how might it affect the way Chinese develop their future culture?" He highlights the change in the traditional Chinese culture over time, from it being challenged in the 19th century and nearly demolished in the 20th century. Gungwu defines that culture in the Chinese context included "philosophy, religion, the arts, music, literature, economic and political structures, all knowledge," thereby making it difficult to reconstruct after it had been destroyed.