Let virtues of loyalty and decency calm restless Hong Kong, Confucian Academy president says
In our third report on key religious leaders, Tong Yun-kai gives his take on strife in the city
Hong Kong's biggest problem is that it is still living in "the aftermath of British rule", with its people steeped in the influence of foreign faiths and cultures, according to a local leader of the Confucian school of thought.
But there is a remedy for the political conflict - as well as for corruption on the mainland - in promoting Confucianism, which advocates loyalty, benevolence and righteousness in all aspects of life, Confucian Academy president Tong Yun-kai said.
The 81-year-old offered his diagnosis for Hong Kong amid debate on whether the city's colonial past was to blame for its problems. Last month, Chen Zuoer , former deputy director of Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said a failure to "decolonise" was the root cause of the city's internal strife and economic woes.
Despite his criticism of colonial holdovers, Tong made it clear he did not agree with everything the central government said or represented.
For example, he believed the Communist Party should be renamed the "Datong Party", using the term for "great unity" - a Confucian concept for a utopian world in which the elderly, lonely and homeless were all cared for.
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"[My proposal] reflects the country's true culture, faith and religion. When there are only four communist countries in the world today … would people discriminate against or isolate you [if you stuck to the term 'communist'?]" Tong asked, referring to the socialist regimes of Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea.
