Dr. Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye came in to talk to us about ‘The Great Learning’ and Confucianism, both very important pieces of Chinese, and world, history.
I would like to touch on a point made by Dr. Wei-Tsing Inouye about how, in Chinese culture, power is displayed through learning and knowledge. Examples she included were; a portrait of an Emperor with a book open on his lap and how those most knowledgeable were able to wear scholarly robes to display their learning. This idea brought me back to the old idiom “knowledge is power” and how we, as a Western society, display our power through knowledge.
Displaying power through knowledge is quite prevalent in the tertiary education setting we find ourselves in; the most prevalent form of this seems to be knowledge over others. People want to prove their power and their superiority by knowing something that you don’t, and openly demonstrating that. Yes, many people in this university love learning for the sake of it but we’ve all seen those who use it as a means to an end or to gain power. It is well known that, usually, tertiary education leads to a better job, more expensive belongings, and a higher socioeconomic status. That sounds like an awful lot more power through learning.
It looks as though, in a Western context, knowledge is weaponized. This is in contrast to the Chinese examples shown in class, where humility seemed to be the key aspect. So, knowledge is power, but what differs is how you express it.
