User:Ylim2115/sandbox

During the field trip, we visited several locations such as Nicholson Museum, the Quadrangle, New Law Building and few statues at the Old Teachers College. For me, the Confucius statue at Old Teachers College was interesting because the whole idea of Confucianism is not familiar to Australia and I wondered why the University has a Chinese philosopher's statue at this specific location. It seems to me that the main purpose of this statue is in order to facilitate better understanding between the peoples of China and Australia and also to let the students know about the famous belief of ancient China which had a great influence throughout Asia. The outer appearance of the statue already presents a whole different feel and emotion from other Western statues like the Naked Lady and I think it's because of the outfit and the teachings of Confucius. It has more authority to it and the face of the statue itself gives the audience a feel of kindness and righteousness which are main virtues of the Confucianism. Not only that, Confucius teaching focuses on benevolence and virtue which encourages to have mutual sympathy towards one another (Yang, 1993). With this being said, I also felt like the way he is holding his hands together expresses a meaning as well. Although I couldn't find anything specific on the web, I personally thought it as a sign of acceptance from observation. Lastly, the accessibility of this statue is certainly limited because of it's location therefore the main audience is most likely to be students.

References

Yang, Huanyin (1993) ‘Confucius (Kung Tzu) 551 – 479 BC’, Prospects: the Quarterly review of comparative education, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education vol. XXIII, no. 1/2, 1993, p. 211-19