Confucius Lives Next Door Summary

Japanese Celebrations Organizational Pattern: Topical I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: The Japanese have a very unique and interesting culture. B. Statistic: 90% of Japanese people celebrate on New Year's Day. C. Thesis Statement: Like the United States, the Japanese celebrate various holidays with lavish festivities. D. Importance: As more and more Japanese people immigrate to the United States, knowledge of the Japanese culture becomes increasingly important and necessary.

Well this book report will be one of the hardest one’s for me to write for the book was so boring I literally fell asleep every couple of pages and had to drink a huge amount of caffeine just so I would not be put to sleep. However I learned that if a pick up this book and read I’ll be able to put myself to sleep even if I’m struggling to fall asleep. For Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living In The East Teaches Us About Living In the West is like listening to a monotone speaker that makes everyone want to be anywhere else than suffer anymore to their ramblings.

Do you know what a Japan family goes through once they move in America back then? In the novel,” Under the Blood Red Sun”, Graham Salisbury writes about a Japanese family moving into Hawaii and what activities and hobbies they do. The Japanese army attacks Pearl Harbor and because of this event their racer pigeons and Tomi’s Papa and Grandpa are taken away. The author teaches the reader about how everything isn’t fair, bravery, and to treat others the way you want to be treated.

In Peter Duus’ Japanese Discovery of America, the author shows the learning experience that Japan went through in order to become one of the strongest countries in the early 20th century. From 1797 when the first American ship arrived in Japan, to 1879 when President Grant visited the Meiji emperor, Japan, not one of the strongest countries economically and militarily at the time, had interactions with multiple countries that included Russia, England and Portugal. However, Japan’s Confucianism belief and the development of the Tokaido Road served as roots for their quick rise to modernization. Even though multiple countries were cooperating with Japan, the relations with the United States proved to be the most

Reading T. R. Reid's new book brought me back to that conversation. ''Confucius Lives Next Door'' is aptly named. Reid, a longtime reporter and Asia correspondent for The Washington Post, has nailed his copy of the Analects to the mast. Drawing on the experience of his own and his family's life in Tokyo and other east Asian points, he has written a paean to what he terms ''east Asia's social miracle -- how the Asians have built modern industrial societies characterized by the safest streets, the best schools and the most stable families in the world.'' Asians, he holds, have ''a sense of civility and harmony that you can feel,'' and they ''achieved their social miracle primarily by holding to a

In relation to the observation made by Reid, the concept of “Confucianism” is often observed as one of the major Chinese religions alongside Taoism as well as Buddhism. The religion has been emerged in the Japanese culture during the period of 285 AD. A few of the major principles of this religion such as humanity, morality, trustworthiness along with the consideration of developing an individual have been widely witnessed to provide significant influence within the Japanese culture (Reid 67-90). The principles and beliefs within the facet of “Confucianism” had played an imperative part particularly for Japan which eventually strengthened its political philosophies as well as ethical code of conducts by a considerable level. In relation to the political phenomenon, the notion of “Confucianism” had played an essential role for the Japanese culture in terms of developing morality along with increasing individual potentials of achieving their desired goals and objectives. Moreover, the religion had also been widely observed to create significant loyalty among the Japanese communities through increasing the amount of

China and Japan are two unique civilizations that went through similar, yet vastly different changes throughout their histories. Their growth and response to other nations differed in many ways in government, lifestyle, and general well-being. One of the main causes for such difference between the countries is the way the West influenced each region, and the way China and Japan responded to this influence. China focused more on the idea of being a "status oriented" society, while Japan was more "goal oriented" based. In China, anyone had the ability to better themselves and change their status through civil examinations given by the government. Western impact however slowly changed this old age system. Japan's caste system viewed

     Confucius’s counsel and guidance recorded in The Analects instilled wisdom when they were first recorded and continue to provide a thought provoking analysis of life and the checkpoints that guide it. The Master’s commentary on restraint, diligence, decency, and citizenship are well intended and relevant. Politics and the role of government also come under scrutiny as Confucius offers his insights in bettering the organization of power. His proverb-like admonitions use clear examples of everyday life allowing them to be understood and easily digested. Confucius’s own eagerness and willingness to share goodness he experienced makes it easier to apply and practice in one’s own life.

Japan, forced to rebuild itself from the ashes of defeat, was occupied by Americans in the aftermath of World War II. Although it was commonly perceived through the victors’ eyes, in John W. Dower’s novel, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, Dower summarized his studies of Occupied Japan and the impact of war on Japanese society in the view of both the conqueror and the defeated. He demonstrated the “Transcending Despair” (p. 85) of the Japanese people through their everyday lives in the early stages of the occupation. In chapter three, Dower attempted to comprehend the hopes and dreams – as well as the hopelessness and realities – of the Japanese who were in a state of exhaustion and despair. In chapter four, due partly to the food shortage, crime rates rose as people began to steal. Women turned to prostitution while men turned to the black market. Some Japanese were so desperate that they stripped out of their clothing and exchanged it for food. Dower vividly conveyed the depth of loss and confusion that Japan experienced. On the other hand, Kasutori culture flourished in the 1950s as sexually oriented entertainments dominated the commercial world. In chapter five, the people of Japan turned wartime slogans into slogans for reconstruction and peace. They used witty defeat jokes as a way to escape despair. Even though they were defeated, the people of Japan pushed through the misery and sought to reinvent their identity as illustrated through prostitution, the black market, and “Bridges of Language” (p. 168).

Confucius, who lived from 551-479 BCE, was a Chinese philosopher, teacher, and politician. Confucius had written a set of books or ideas and concepts called The Analects. These were different collections of sayings that Confucius had written to reflect his ideas about different things like politics, family, morality, and many more. Confucius is also the creator of the commonly used “Golden Rule” of “do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.” Through his teachings, books, and his followers, the philosophy of Confucianism was created. In Doctrine of the Mean, Confucius explains how to perfect oneself and how to become a morally righteous person. He explains how one must maintain a balance into a constant state of equilibrium.

Imperial pageants, such as the Meiji Constitution’s Promulgation ceremony and the emperor’s 25th wedding anniversary began in 1889 (Fujitani 207), contributed to the sense of membership in Japan. Transportation and media were necessary to keep citizens informed on events without being in Kyoto or Tokyo (ibid). These technological advances created a “sense of national simultaneity” (Fujitani 202) throughout the nation and was a somewhat sufficient way to have the citizens believe in the new traditions of the Meiji era (Fujitani 202-203). For those that did not live in major cities like Kyoto and Tokyo, where these extravagant events took place, ceremonies and festivals had been created to celebrate the imperial events (Fujitani 207). These festivities

Confucius created a system of thinking called Confucianism. If only one word could be used to summarize the Chinese way of life for the last two thousand years, that word would be Confucian. No other person has had as great an effect on the life and thought of the Chinese people as Confucius. He is the most adored person in Chinese history. Confucius claimed no greatness, instead he looked to a past time that he saw as the golden age. He told one of his disciples, "I transmit but I do not create. I am sincerely fond of the ancient. I would compare myself to Old P'eng who was fond of talking about the good old days." Confucius was a transmitter of the wisdom of the past. From his study of Chinese tradition, he gathered the

As Japanese economy soared, its media products such as manga, TV shows, movies and music spread out across Asia. Especially, the young people in Asia began to embrace Japanese culture rather than the culture from the most dominant culture exporter- the United State, and this phenomenon was analyzed by Koichi Iwabuchi in his Feel Asian Modernities. His account of this intra-regionalization in Asia is cultural proximity that Japanese culture shares intimate similarities with other Asian countries and appeal to the audience to perceive this cultural flow.[ Iwabuchi, K(2004), Introduction: Cultural globalization and Asian media connections. Feeling Asian Modernities, pp 12.] In this way, American

The culture of a place is an integral part of its society whether that place is a remote Indian village in Brazil or a highly industrialized city in Western Europe. The culture of Japan fascinates people in the United States because, at first glance, it seems so different. Everything that characterizes the United States--newness, racial heterogeneity, vast territory, informality, and an ethic of individualism-- is absent in Japan. There, one finds an ancient and homogeneous society, an ethic that emphasizes the importance of groups, and a tradition of formal behavior governing every aspect of daily living, from drinking tea to saying hello. On the surface at least, U.S. and Japanese

One of the most famous people in ancient China was a wise philosopher named Confucius (circa