Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1990

What China needs to modernize successfully But let me focus my remarks on China. Since economic development in the Wester n mould works short-term wonders in raising the living standards of many people throughout China, it is what people seem to want. More and bigger technology and a market economy are unavoidably built int o the blueprint of any Chinese ruler who has first of all to feed the mouths of 1.1 billion people. Can we have the technology and the marke t economy and still retain our traditional harmonious relationshi p with Nature, and retain our traditional human order? I should like to ask the environmental scientists among us whether or not, or how much, irreparable damage has already been done to our beautiful mountains and waters, our forests, our soil, and our air, by the very industrialization that has on the whole raised the Chinese standard of living during the last decades? I am convinced that to modernize successfully, or, indeed, to survive as a nation in the long run, China must have technology-and-trade as well as tian ren he yi. The latter is one Chinese concept that when rekindled can make a significant contribution to humankind; but there is no Chinese monopoly on the concept, for many other civilizations also believed in the same idea. The Aztecs of the 15th century in Mexico, for example, ‘saw the relationshi p between their city and its environment a s an integrated cosmological structure - an ordered universe within which the natural phenomena were regarded as intrinsically sacred, alive, and intimately relatable to the activities of man. ... [They] approached the phenomena of nature with a sense of participation: the universe was seen as reflection s of relationship between life forces, and every aspect of life was part of an interpenetrating cosmic system' (quoted from Richard Townsend 1979). The tian ren he yi cosmology was the human norm in many parts of the world, and can reassert its place once more. How to implement the concept of 'Tian ren he yi' But we cannot achieve this simply by reasserting it in words. It is not enough simply to hold on to th e right values; there must be firmly installed institutions to implement these values. Th e institutions that would allow advanced technology and market economy to thrive in a moral context of tian ren he yi may or may not already exist, but we have to establish them or to identify and strengthen them. I suspect that some such institutions will be found in some form of the democratic process; but to identify them we need to engage in massive academic studies and practical experiments in the scholarly fields of the humanities and the social sciences. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has outstanding educational and research programmes in the humanities and the social sciences, and it behooves this university to take a leadership role in doing the kind of thinking and research that China of tomorrow will need for both her Heaven and her Man. I am encouraged by the inauguration of the new bimonthly journal, The 21st Century, on this campus; one hopes that it is one of many new ventures of like purposes to come. But can such studies and experiments be given enough attention in Hong Kong and in China, not only today but especially tomorrow, when the full weight of economic development will surely continue to be in the picture for decades to come? Will such studies and experiments, even if the y can be carried out as we hope, yield practical answers to our questions, and yield them in time? Fellow graduates, this is a challenge that faces us all. Let us roll up our sleeves as soon as this ceremony is over; we have a lot of work to do. • I am convinced that to modernize successfully or indeed to survive as a nation in the long run China must have technology-and-trade as well as tian ren he yi I t behooves this university to take a leadership role in doing the kind of thinking and research that China of tomorrow will need for both her Heaven and her Man 40TH CONGREGATION 9