ignorance = virtue?!

Today we visited the hometown and grave of Confucius, a Chinese philosopher whose teachings have shaped Chinese life and culture for thousands of years. To try to understand Chinese culture without understanding Confucianism isn’t just silly, it’s practically impossible.

His teachings constitute an entire ideological system and a way of life, with discussions on everything from social order and education to personal behaviour and relationships between family members. In terms of business, this has led to the development of a more strictly hierarchical system of organisation within companies than we are used to in the West. Based on the principal of ‘filial piety’ whereby children should give the utmost respect to their parents and elders, the positions and duties of ‘managing director’, ‘team leader’ and ‘administrator’ for example are adhered to much more closely and those in subordinate positions must accept the decisions and actions of those above them in the hierarchy.

Also, Confucius felt that the only virtuous women were ignorant ones – I’m officially not a fan.

There are so many differences like this between China and the UK and with business relationships between the two countries growing all the time, it’s really important to be aware of them. Hopefully I’ll be able to pass some of these little bits back to our clients at Innovate Product Design.