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For centuries, the saying “of all kindness, filial piety comes first,” has long been a guide for moral behavior in China. Filial piety means to be obedient and respectful to one’s parents. It holds a significant position in the Chinese moral framework. Children who exercise filial piety are generally called xiaozi in Chinese. Filial piety is seen as the prerequisite for many ethical concepts and the basis for moral standards in Chinese traditional culture.
Furthermore, the traditional moral standards also stress the connection between filial piety and care for the overall society. Gradually, this kind of love within a family was developed into the common moral code for the whole Chinese society.
The special committee of filial piety under the China Association of Ethics announced on October 30 that it aims to help 1 million children between the ages of 4 and 6 learn about filial piety within five years.
The initiative triggered heated debate. Supporters say that the golden period to nurture filial piety is between age 4 and 6, and the committee’s plan to start such a program is a great innovation and is necessary. But opponents say this kind of program won’t result in the expected results because people who have filial piety cannot be cultivated through any shorttime programs.
Creative move
Zhu Haitao (www.qianlong.com): Having filial piety will add to family harmony and happiness. Children who respect parents, show filial piety and feel grateful to their parents are more likely to develop good personalities. Children aged from 4 to 6 are most likely to accept education related to filial piety, and this thinking will get deep-rooted in their hearts once the seeds of filial piety are imbedded.
Filial piety is the basis of morality. A child’s filial piety to his or her parents is an indication of their overall moral quality, and also the prerequisite for the sound development of all other moral factors. Children should first be kind to their parents before they can be good citizens. This project is necessary and should cover more children.
Yuan Guangkuo (www.xinhuanet. com): The biggest realistic significance of the xiaozi project is not how many “stan- dard” xiaozi are nurtured, but to impart the concept of filial piety to the young people. Their respect and love to their parents and the senior people will set a good example to the rest of society. Filial piety is not easy to measure, but it can be nurtured and spread.
Showy project
It’s great to encourage the people to be kind and respectful to their parents, but I think it’s ridiculous to train millions of young xiaozi through a certain project. A person’s moral standard is mostly an acquired thing through training and education. First of all, their parents will offer them the first class about filial piety. If the parents do not respect their parents or senior people, in most cases, the children will follow suit. Secondly, school education is also very important. Teachers need to guide the students by confirming good deeds with praise and curbing bad habits with criticism. Finally, the influence of the social environment on the young is also critical. If justice always wins over injustice and good over evil, and every social member acts with credibility and selfdiscipline, then the children will naturally become respectful to others.
Generally speaking, the development of a social moral code is a slow and continuous process, and I doubt that a real xiaozi can be produced in five years. Also, I’m a bit curious about the operation of this project. Where do the millions of children to be made into xiaozi come from? There are generally two sources: one is parents’application and the other is for the organizer to select children from kindergartens. Are there any criteria for selection? Is it necessary for the parents to pay for their children’s selection? Is it certain that these children will be surely made into xiaozi? If the parents are the ones that have the final say on whether a child is a xiaozi or not, can you assure that they are objective? If other people will make the judgment, what are the criteria? If parents are required to pay certain fees for the program, and every participant can win a kind of honorary title, there isn’t any difference between this project and other preschool training classes.
Moral instruction is not something that can be accomplished instantly, and it’s impossible to produce xiaozi on a large scale. What society needs is an atmosphere full of filial piety and love, not these showy projects.
Liu Xuhui (Guangming Daily): The Chinese traditional culture stresses that real virtue comes from gradual and continuous influence. Various frameworks and formats for morality can only damage people’s internal moral sense.
The xiaozi project intends to promote moral standards among the young, and this is a good intention. However, this project regards education as a simple “assembly line,” with the illusion that under the mechanical evaluation standard, xiaozi can be produced in large quantities as cars are—in the same size and at similar levels.
If xiaozi are really to be produced in the form of industrial projects, then there must be a formal model for the production. Before the program starts, there must be clear design, operation control and final project examination and approval. What exactly are the criteria for xiaozi? Are there indicators like to what extent they obey their parents, or how many times they cook for their parents every month? Real filial piety is not about how it looks, but about internal respect to parents. Thus the key of nurturing xiaozi is to stimulate people’s internal moral sense through continuous moral education.
However, in real life, we have seen too many showy “filial piety projects.”Hundreds of children help to wash their parents’ feet together, and teachers assign filial piety homework. It has been proven that such activities are unable to promote children’s filial sense.
To nurture xiaozi, the important thing is to influence them through actual practice, but not through such showy image projects. For example, expressing more care for the senior population by improving social welfare and public infrastructure construction, or publicizing model citizens who practice filial piety to their parents are good methods. In this case, influenced by what they see and hear, children will naturally grow up as people with filial piety.
Liang Shuang (Beijing Evening News): Upholding filial piety in the whole society is a great cause. However, when such a basic moral concept as filial piety, which requires children to be respectful and kind to their parents, needs to be encouraged, or even sustained through a special nation-level project, we can’t help asking,“Isn’t the project a shame to the Chinese?”And “what’s wrong with the young children?” The plan is to train millions of xiaozi within five years, but given the large number of the county’s overall adolescents, 1 million or 2 million is a small quantity. And, can we say that those who are confirmed as xiaozi by this special committee of filial piety will be strikingly good?
What worries many people is not the project itself, but its potential connection with students. When xiaozi can be not only“mass produced,” but will also bring profits to certain accreditation organizations, then China’s moral virtue is really in danger.
It is said that since 2008 the special committee of filial piety has conducted a lot of special research on growth and filial piety. Of the 100 families surveyed, 98 percents believe filial piety is closely related to their children’s schooling and personal growth. Follow-up investigations on 100 students at different ages show that 96 percent of the students doing well in school work fall into the xiaozi category, while the survey on 100 adolescents who are addicted to the Internet or who have committed crimes, only 3 percent are obedient and respectful to their parents.
Do the two surveys based on the two types of 100 students suffice to represent the country’s whole situation about the young population? Can the two examples really cover children in all types of families in every social class? At a time when students’ academic performance is put first, connecting filial piety to one’s school performance seems to be a trick that intends to allure more parents to send their children to the xiaozi project.
Furthermore, the traditional moral standards also stress the connection between filial piety and care for the overall society. Gradually, this kind of love within a family was developed into the common moral code for the whole Chinese society.
The special committee of filial piety under the China Association of Ethics announced on October 30 that it aims to help 1 million children between the ages of 4 and 6 learn about filial piety within five years.
The initiative triggered heated debate. Supporters say that the golden period to nurture filial piety is between age 4 and 6, and the committee’s plan to start such a program is a great innovation and is necessary. But opponents say this kind of program won’t result in the expected results because people who have filial piety cannot be cultivated through any shorttime programs.
Creative move
Zhu Haitao (www.qianlong.com): Having filial piety will add to family harmony and happiness. Children who respect parents, show filial piety and feel grateful to their parents are more likely to develop good personalities. Children aged from 4 to 6 are most likely to accept education related to filial piety, and this thinking will get deep-rooted in their hearts once the seeds of filial piety are imbedded.
Filial piety is the basis of morality. A child’s filial piety to his or her parents is an indication of their overall moral quality, and also the prerequisite for the sound development of all other moral factors. Children should first be kind to their parents before they can be good citizens. This project is necessary and should cover more children.
Yuan Guangkuo (www.xinhuanet. com): The biggest realistic significance of the xiaozi project is not how many “stan- dard” xiaozi are nurtured, but to impart the concept of filial piety to the young people. Their respect and love to their parents and the senior people will set a good example to the rest of society. Filial piety is not easy to measure, but it can be nurtured and spread.
Showy project
It’s great to encourage the people to be kind and respectful to their parents, but I think it’s ridiculous to train millions of young xiaozi through a certain project. A person’s moral standard is mostly an acquired thing through training and education. First of all, their parents will offer them the first class about filial piety. If the parents do not respect their parents or senior people, in most cases, the children will follow suit. Secondly, school education is also very important. Teachers need to guide the students by confirming good deeds with praise and curbing bad habits with criticism. Finally, the influence of the social environment on the young is also critical. If justice always wins over injustice and good over evil, and every social member acts with credibility and selfdiscipline, then the children will naturally become respectful to others.
Generally speaking, the development of a social moral code is a slow and continuous process, and I doubt that a real xiaozi can be produced in five years. Also, I’m a bit curious about the operation of this project. Where do the millions of children to be made into xiaozi come from? There are generally two sources: one is parents’application and the other is for the organizer to select children from kindergartens. Are there any criteria for selection? Is it necessary for the parents to pay for their children’s selection? Is it certain that these children will be surely made into xiaozi? If the parents are the ones that have the final say on whether a child is a xiaozi or not, can you assure that they are objective? If other people will make the judgment, what are the criteria? If parents are required to pay certain fees for the program, and every participant can win a kind of honorary title, there isn’t any difference between this project and other preschool training classes.
Moral instruction is not something that can be accomplished instantly, and it’s impossible to produce xiaozi on a large scale. What society needs is an atmosphere full of filial piety and love, not these showy projects.
Liu Xuhui (Guangming Daily): The Chinese traditional culture stresses that real virtue comes from gradual and continuous influence. Various frameworks and formats for morality can only damage people’s internal moral sense.
The xiaozi project intends to promote moral standards among the young, and this is a good intention. However, this project regards education as a simple “assembly line,” with the illusion that under the mechanical evaluation standard, xiaozi can be produced in large quantities as cars are—in the same size and at similar levels.
If xiaozi are really to be produced in the form of industrial projects, then there must be a formal model for the production. Before the program starts, there must be clear design, operation control and final project examination and approval. What exactly are the criteria for xiaozi? Are there indicators like to what extent they obey their parents, or how many times they cook for their parents every month? Real filial piety is not about how it looks, but about internal respect to parents. Thus the key of nurturing xiaozi is to stimulate people’s internal moral sense through continuous moral education.
However, in real life, we have seen too many showy “filial piety projects.”Hundreds of children help to wash their parents’ feet together, and teachers assign filial piety homework. It has been proven that such activities are unable to promote children’s filial sense.
To nurture xiaozi, the important thing is to influence them through actual practice, but not through such showy image projects. For example, expressing more care for the senior population by improving social welfare and public infrastructure construction, or publicizing model citizens who practice filial piety to their parents are good methods. In this case, influenced by what they see and hear, children will naturally grow up as people with filial piety.
Liang Shuang (Beijing Evening News): Upholding filial piety in the whole society is a great cause. However, when such a basic moral concept as filial piety, which requires children to be respectful and kind to their parents, needs to be encouraged, or even sustained through a special nation-level project, we can’t help asking,“Isn’t the project a shame to the Chinese?”And “what’s wrong with the young children?” The plan is to train millions of xiaozi within five years, but given the large number of the county’s overall adolescents, 1 million or 2 million is a small quantity. And, can we say that those who are confirmed as xiaozi by this special committee of filial piety will be strikingly good?
What worries many people is not the project itself, but its potential connection with students. When xiaozi can be not only“mass produced,” but will also bring profits to certain accreditation organizations, then China’s moral virtue is really in danger.
It is said that since 2008 the special committee of filial piety has conducted a lot of special research on growth and filial piety. Of the 100 families surveyed, 98 percents believe filial piety is closely related to their children’s schooling and personal growth. Follow-up investigations on 100 students at different ages show that 96 percent of the students doing well in school work fall into the xiaozi category, while the survey on 100 adolescents who are addicted to the Internet or who have committed crimes, only 3 percent are obedient and respectful to their parents.
Do the two surveys based on the two types of 100 students suffice to represent the country’s whole situation about the young population? Can the two examples really cover children in all types of families in every social class? At a time when students’ academic performance is put first, connecting filial piety to one’s school performance seems to be a trick that intends to allure more parents to send their children to the xiaozi project.