Posts written by Bill M. Mak

A major Buddhist conference in Hong Kong with very few Hong Kong scholars…

Another major academic event coincided with the start of the school year in August. An international conference titled “Buddhism, Science and Technology: Challenges to Religions from a Digitalized World” took place as part of the Inaugural Forum “Beyond Civilizational Clash: The Coalescence of Human Civilizations”, held in the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, August 10–11, 2023. It was sponsored by the Glorisun Global Network, whose founder, Hong Kong philanthropist, Dr. Charles Yeung, was also present. Nearly two hundred scholars from China and around the world were invited. I was invited to deliver a talk in the “Buddhism and technology” panel and I read a paper titled “Flat Earth and Mount Sumeru: Can East Asian Buddhist cosmology be accommodated in modern science?” Unlike others who took the opportunity to praise the scientific insight of the Buddha, I challenged this idea and questioned how we should handle scientifically outdated concepts without undermining the value of the religion. As usual, some eminent scholars, usually with science background, but with no academic training in Buddhism, would make some fantastic claims about Buddhism, to the embarrassment of many. A curious observation I may make —— there were hardly any Hong Kong scholars — I was invited because of the international and mainland networks I belong to. This appears to be a wider phenomenon that applies to academics in Hong Kong in general. Some years ago, I tried to bring together the local Buddhist scholars, to create some platform for communication and collaboration. We reckoned that there are no less than 50 local scholars working as full-time researchers or university professors in fields connected to Buddhism. Somehow Buddhist scholars in Hong Kong are not so active internationally and many of them are not so well connected with their Mainland Chinese counterparts either. I suppose Hong Kong universities tend to hire international scholars who often have transient presence here in Hong Kong and the local Hong Kong scholars may risk being marginalised.

My presentation — not the most popular one!

曲阜孔子博物館

為期五天的梵語研修班很快結束，我跟大成助教離開江西，坐高鐵於同日傍晚抵達曲阜。初遊孔孟之鄉，再遇文禮書院的學子。在曲阜待了大約一週，感覺國內的文化事業高速發展。一個「孔子博物館」，蓋得就像香港的故宮一樣，沒想到孔子在新中國竟然成為一位聖人，得到國家明星級的抬舉。更有趣的是國內的國學熱一直沒有降溫，過了二十多年，也逐漸出現一些成熟的傳統文化產業，而傳統文化教育的質量也越來越高。每次在香港看像央視「中國詩詞大會」等節目，心裡不單隨喜，同時也擔心香港的文化教育落後。

再遇文禮學子

曲阜一所書院

孔子博物館（3）

孔子博物館（2）

Confucius Museum, Qufu

Five days reading Sanskrit and Chinese Buddhist texts flew by quickly. Mahāsiddha and I left Jiangxi, and arrived in Qufu, the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, by high-speed rail in the same evening. This was my first time visiting the “Confucian city”. My plan was to also meet up with scholars and students from the Wenli Academy, who moved there not long ago. I stayed in Qufu for about a week, and truly felt the astounding cultural development in China in the past decade. The Confucius Museum, opened in 2019, was almost as extravagant as the Hong Kong Palace Museum. It seemed unreal that Confucius these days has a celebrity-like status here in China, at least here in Qufu. What’s more interesting is the passion for traditional Chinese learning that is evident everywhere — from dainty little tea houses to a guqin studio I randomly walked into. While some might worry that this cultural fad may lead to excessive commercialization, the serious and genuine scholars and artists throve at the same time. To be honest, I worry not so much about how this cultural awakening may unfold in the Mainland, what worried me more is the general decline of cultural awareness or cultural education in general in Hong Kong.

My former Chinese students now in Qufu, in front of the Confucius Museum

Confucius Museum (2)

Confucius Museum (3)

Visiting a traditional academy in Qufu