Panelists address effects of Confucianism
By Kevin Logan | May 6, 1994Four panelists yesterday attempted to promote historical perspective and current events in China, according to Martin Sherwin, the Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding sponsoring the conference. As part of a three-day conference examining "The Future of Democracy in China," the panel discussion was titled "China's Legacies: Confucianism, Imperialism, and Maoism." Sherwin served as moderator for the discussion and the panelists included Pamela Crossley, Asian studies program chair; Robert Hendricks, religion department chair; William Rowe, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University; and Madeleine Zelin, a history professor at Columbia University. The panelists discussed a variety of factors that may account for the failure of democratic institutions to emerge in China even though many other East Asian countries are democratizing. Zelin attacked a popular conception that China has a tradition of autocratic rule, which hinders the development of democracy.