Joshua Mason, an American Scholar Who Loves Chinese Philosophy 喜愛中國哲學的美國教授 Joshua Mason

Dr. Joshua Mason is highly interested in cross-cultural observation based on his research specializations in Chinese Philosophy and Ethics. He and his wife who came from Nanjing, China, met when they studied at the East-West Center at University of Hawaii. They recently moved from LA county to Irvine. Mason found out that there is a Chinese Cultural Center in the city. In addition, there are Tai Chi club meets offered at the Center. For a person who has practiced Tai Chi for years, this is really a pleasant find! Dr. Mason came to a Tai Chi session one day and decided he will continue doing so. Furthermore, he wants to do something to contribute to the cross-cultural community.

“I’d love to meet people and share the good stuff I’ve learned,” he said. We embrace that idea so much that we invite Dr. Mason (aka Josh) to give a workshop about realizing how we are parenting our children. The description is as follows.

Decoding Your Parenting Style through Traditional Chinese and American Metaphors at 3:00 pm July 29, 2022, at South Coast Chinese Cultural Center.

The ideals of family life emphasized in Chinese and American traditions have important differences, as well as points of contact. These core assumptions about what is a good human life and how a perfect family should operate are revealed by the metaphors we use to describe the relationships between parents and children. In this workshop, we will explore several important metaphors of family life, so that we can recognize the ideals they express and their influence on our behaviors and our expectations. Surveying these similarities and differences in our traditions and languages will help us reflect on our own values and the way things work in our own families.

Our workshop will begin by showing how metaphors are not just poetic language, but instead shape how we understand ourselves and the world. Then we will look at metaphors from both Chinese and American cultures that present a model of family relations, such as “law maker,” “path maker,” “nutrition,” “harmony,” and more. Finally, you will see how these ways of understanding families reveal our underlying assumptions about human purpose and the good life. Throughout there will be opportunities for reflection and discussion among the participants, as well as Q&A.

Dr. Joshua Mason is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University. His research specializations are Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy, and Ethics. His book, Justice and Harmony: Cross-Cultural Ideals in Conflict and Cooperation, will be published by Lexington Books in September of this year, and his articles have appeared in The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Asian Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, and Comparative and Continental Philosophy, among others.

Joshua Mason 博士基於中國哲學和倫理學的研究專長，對跨文化觀察非常感興趣。他和華裔妻子在他們就讀於夏威夷大學的東西研究中心時結識。他們最近從洛杉磯縣搬到爾灣，發現市裡有一所中華文化中心，而且中心還提供太極社團的聚會。 對於一個練了多年太極拳劍的人來說，這個發現真是太令人開心了！有一天，Mason博士來參加太極拳課，之後決定他將繼續參加。於此同時他想著，自己可以為跨文化社區群體做一些什麽貢獻。

“我很樂意認識人，分享我學到的好東西，” 他說。文化中心非常歡迎Mason博士這個想法，我們邀請 Mason 博士（又名 Josh）舉辦一場關於了解我們如何養育孩子的講題討論會，以下是有關的信息。