WILL EAST AND WEST CULTURE CLASH IN 21ST CENTURY

BY FRANCIS C W FUNG, PH.D.

In his book Clash of Civilizations Samuel Huntington predicted the clashes of

civilizations between Muslim and West and between China and America in 21 st
century. However, Zhang Liwen in his treatise The Philosophy of Coherence and
Connectivity(He-He Philosophy) predicted the reconciliation of the 5 conflicts of the
20th century, between men and men, between men and society, between men and
nature and among religions and nations by the spirit of the Coherence and
Connectivity Philosophy in 21st century as sure as the dynamic balance of Ying and
Yang. He claimed that Chinas assimilation of foreign cultures and religions through
her 5000 years of continuous history is attributed to this He-He force at work at
every major interruption.
A countrys culture experiences strong and weak periods coincides with cycles of
economic and political strength. Politics is an ever changing phenomenon according
to circumstances. All cultures of the world progress with time as they develop in
different regions. Cultures of the world are not better or worse, they belong to all
mankind and all have strength and weakness. They are diverse, like a beautiful
symphony in a colorful world garden. In times of political (confidence) and
economic decline the worst part of a culture shows up in its extreme form. There is
no perfect political system but whether the system produces public goods or has
the confidence of the public. Often when a country is economically strong its
political confidence rises and it has a tendency to gloat in glory and criticize other
country. In doing so it totally disregards the Daoist wisdom that The stronger you
are the more humble you should be.
A country in decline when economy is in decline will question its past especially
when challenged by foreign economic power. So for a declining culture to rejuvenate
it must raise its economic and educational success level first. The proper
perspective of relative importance of two cultures is best visualizes through the Taiji
twin fish diagram. Both have head(strength) and tail(weakness) meshing together
in a spinning (progressing) circle. And they also contain part of each other in both
of them. It can be said that different culture complement each other and both
contain each other and progressing together. Mankind can learn and benefit from
each others culture. The interaction of diverse culture lays the progress of world
culture as a whole. From this perspective there will never be clashes of civilization.
So called civilization clashes are merely under the shadow of economic and political
conflicts. Economics can be improved and political conflicts are but transient.
China is now at the critical stage of rejuvenation after rising from the low of
centuries of colonial invasion and humiliation. Its economics is in ascendency and
citizens moral is high. It is great time to learn from outside and the past and move

forward. It is not the time to feel inferior and shy from outside challenge and future
vision. Throughout Chinas 5000 years of history China has gone through cycles of
strength and weakness. It took China over 400 years for Confucianism, after the
decline of Tang Dynasty, to reconcile with Daoism and Buddhism. It did not happen
by comparing which is more superior but accepting the He-He spirit to assimilate all
three into one culture as a whole.
During recent times China struggled for two hundred years to rejuvenate after the
invasion and humiliation by Western powers. Today under the leadership of
President Xi Jinping, China is peacefully rising in the spirit of Coherence Culture (He
Culture) for world mutual development and common destiny. Under President Xi
Jinpings vision of China dream, China will achieve her 2020 centennial goal of a well
off society and her 2050 centennial goal of becoming fully modernized without
clashing with America. By that time China would have fully assimilated East-West
culture in a harmonized world under the spirit of Coherence Culture (He Culture).
Francis C W Fung,Ph.D.
Director General
World Harmony Organization
San Francisco, CA.