Critical Confucianism : Radicalizing the Dao, Decolonizing Political Philosophy

How, and to what extent, can Confucian political theory and 21st-century critical theory be integrated? In the first sustained exploration of the intersection of critical social theory and Confucianism, a team of respected Chinese philosophers demonstrate how Confucianism can incorporate elements from a range of positions in critical theory including Latin American liberation philosophy, Black radical thought, feminist philosophy, queer theory, and postcolonial thought. Experimenting with the boundaries and possibilities of critical social theory and Confucianism, they take up topics such as hegemony, civil disobedience in East Asia, feminist commitment in South Korea, trans and queer trauma in the U.S., revolutionary rituals, and protest art in China. Providing a history of Confucianism, they show how it must be liberated from externally-imposed colonial and self-imposed patriarchal constraints. We see how variants of modern Confucianism meet liberatory challenges in ways that can be appreciated by more radical political theory. At a moment when calls for diversification and decolonization in philosophy have become more urgent this collection expands our thinking and offers a novel and progressive perspective on the modern viability of Confucianism.