Character

A 22 year old Chinese friend of mine told me that Confucian values aren’t prevalent in China anymore, that it’s a myth. The implications of this are that the importance of the masses and community are no longer as important as those of the individual, and with the rise of capitalism it is easy to believe that. For instance, how can every shop that sells identical goods possibly survive if they are willing to pass a sale along to his neighbor? Why would someone buy the same good from multiple vendors if that person only needs one of them? The answer might surprise you: not only do they find a way to survive, but they lead customers to others shops “Miracle on 34^th Street” style. Here’s an example: I needed an adapter to insert my old camera’s memory card into my computer, and I went around several booths in one of many gigantic electronics malls. One of the shopkeepers finally understood and led me to the person who sold them. He expected no payment from the second shopkeeper or me, and returned to his shop to await his next customer. The first point is that they look out for each other. They may not be following all of the rituals that Kong zi (Confucius) taught, but the community’s good is ingrained in them. The same value is reflected when one has forgotten or dropped something: they rush to return it. I have heard people running up to me to return a few Chinese RMB that I dropped, and there is a story about when one of my coworkers left a bag in a restaurant he frequented, and one of the owners delivered it to his apartment. Do you think “Finders keepers, losers weepers” translates into their language or philosophy?