Table of Contents

A deeper understanding of culture helps people gain smoother cross-cultural communication. According to Hofstede (1993), culture is “the collective thought process that distinguishes one group or category of people from another” (p. 40). In other words, it is shared by people within a particular group and distinguishes the people of that group from other groups.

Confucianism is an important part of Chinese culture, both in ancient China and in contemporary China. It is a system of thought and behavior that is considered the core philosophical foundation of most East Asian cultures (Park & Chesla, 2007). In ancient China, Confucianism clearly influenced people. In the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology. Moreover, the ideological system of Confucianism was mixed with the political and legal systems of ancient China (Yang, 2019). Thus, unsurprisingly, it was deeply rooted in the social structure, especially the hierarchy, as well as in the values and attitudes of the people.

In contemporary China, the influence of Confucianism persists, although Confucian values were severely criticized during the communist revolution. As Ip (2009) mentions, after the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, the communists tried to replace old, traditional values with a new socialist culture. As a result, Confucianism, which had been demonized as a tool of the feudalists to control the people, was naturally systematically suppressed and purged, especially during the cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976. Although the era of the revolution has passed, its influence continues to this day. Some of the values of Confucianism are still widely considered to be a harmful and feudal heritage. Moreover, its values have been further challenged by Western culture. As a result, Confucianism no longer seems to play an obvious influential role in contemporary China. However, based on my own observations, I can still see how Confucian values influence people’s values and attitudes. For example, I find that many Chinese parents still believe that the relationship between parents and children naturally involves inequality, which gives them power and authority over their children.

Thus, paradoxically, it seems to me that although contemporary Chinese believe they have embraced Western values, such as equality, and find some Confucian values undesirable, many of them are still, even unconsciously, heavily influenced by Confucian values. This phenomenon is very interesting and worthy of study, thus prompting me and my teammates to conduct a study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of Confucianism on the interpersonal relationships of contemporary Chinese people and their perceptions of this influence. The findings suggest that Confucianism still seems to influence contemporary Chinese people’s interpersonal relationships at a relatively high level. And it is likely that people are more aware of the influence of Confucianism on them than we originally assumed.

Research questions and hypotheses

We want to understand the influence of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships in contemporary China. In addition, we want to get a glimpse of contemporary Chinese people’s perceptions of the influence of Confucianism on them. In other words, this project aims to answer the following questions.

1. Are interpersonal relationships in contemporary China still strongly influenced by Confucianism?
2. To what extent are contemporary Chinese people aware of the influence of Confucianism on them?

Our hypothesis is that interpersonal relationships in contemporary China are still strongly influenced by Confucianism, and that contemporary Chinese are not fully aware of the influence of Confucianism on them. However, it is difficult to examine the influence of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships in contemporary China by directly asking participants how much they believe they have been influenced by Confucianism. This is because many people who do not know much about Confucianism may simply be unconsciously influenced by Confucianism, and people may think of different things when talking about interpersonal relationships. That is, we need to make some more specific and easily testable hypotheses.

Therefore, we chose to examine contemporary Chinese people’s values and attitudes relevant to human relationships, and then see whether they corresponded to Confucian values. Furthermore, to be specific, we specified human relationships and categorized them into four categories: interest relationships (liyi guanxi), teacher-student relationships, superior-subordinate relationships, and family relationships. Interest relationships (liyi guanxi), which refers to relationships between people who have shared interests or conflicting interests. And here the term interest means instrumental benefits, such as money. For example, you have interest relationships with people you do business with. The next type of human relationships is teacher-student relationships, which mainly refers to the relationships between teachers and students in schools. And the third one is superior-subordinate relationships, namely the vertical relationships in organizations. The last type of human relationships is family relationships, including relationships between parents and children, wives and husbands, younger and older siblings. Finally, based on previous studies, we made the following detailed assumptions.

Interest relationships. According to Ding (200, 6), Confucianism inspires an “indirect style” (p. 87) in business communication in China. That is, dominated by Confucianism, the Chinese tend to be self-humbling and avoid talking about profits explicitly when discussing relevant business issues. We have also observed these behaviors and found a possible reason for them. Mencius, a famous Confucian scholar, believed that people should not act for their own benefit because this would destroy the social structure (Im, 2011). This is part of the reason why, under the influence of Confucianism, people tend to avoid talking directly about their own interests. Instead, interpersonal relationships, meaning personal relationships that go beyond instrumental interests, are more emphasized.

Thus, we assume that people influenced by Confucianism are willing to have personal relationships with people with whom they do business or work. At the same time, they may feel uncomfortable about establishing a relationship of interest with a friend, such as borrowing money from them or doing business with them.

Teacher-student relationships. Historically, as J. Han and Y. Han (2019) argue, Confucian teachers, who were granted with superior, automatic power over their students, had hierarchical relationships with students. The key to their understating of teacher-student relationships is respect. However, this kind of respect is one-way. That is, students should respect teachers, which means to be obedient. Furthermore, Confucian teachers also enjoyed unquestioned support from parents and the community (Nguyen, 2009).

Accordingly, our assumptions were that people guided by Confucianism highly respected teachers and believed that teachers had the authority that students should listen to them.

Superior-subordinate relationships. Ip (2009) claims that organizations with typical Confucian values have a top-down decision-making style and a command-and-control organizational culture. Hierarchical authoritarianism and paternalism imply inequality. As a result, free and open debate and disagreement are less tolerated and allowed in these organizations.

Therefore, we speculate that people guided by Confucian culture who are employees may be afraid to question the opinions of their superiors and feel distanced from them. Distance here refers to a sense of estrangement or a perception of inequality between positions. They may believe that subordinates must be polite enough to their superiors and that superiors have the right not to do so.

Family relationships. Park and Chesla (2007) argue that Confucianism is a conceptual framework for family relationships in China. In particular, three relationships in the family were chosen: parent-child relationship, sibling relationship, and husband-wife relationship. First is the parent-child relationship. In Confucian families, respect for parents is extremely emphasized. They are expected to support the family and give guidance and discipline to their children (Park and Chesla, 2007). Even sometimes respect for parents can be placed higher than the law. The second is the sibling relationship. As Park and Chesla (2007) state, older siblings are “role models for younger siblings, acting as surrogates for their parents in their absence” (p. 304). In other words, older siblings are morally required to help younger siblings; in turn, younger siblings are expected to respect and listen to them. The third is the relationship between husband and wife. Hurh and Kim (1990) point out the power imbalance in the relationship between husband and wife in Confucian values. Only the husband has the authority to make decisions about important family matters, while the wife should obey her husband and be responsible for managing the family.

Therefore, we make the following assumptions about the three types of family relationships. First, we hypothesized that people with Confucian values might agree that they should live with and care for their elderly parents, even if they are married. In their daily lives, they may often express or hear opinions like you should/should not do this because I am your parent/teacher. People may even put their parents on a higher pedestal than the law, so even if they break the law, they will still side with their parents. Second, if they have siblings, they may feel more obligated to take care of their younger siblings than their older siblings. Finally, people with Confucian values may believe that women should invest more time and energy in the family than men.

Methodology

Survey Items

In total, we created 15 survey items. The first two survey items were designed to collect some demographic information about the participants, including their age and education level. The third item was designed to understand contemporary Chinese people’s perceptions of the influence of Confucianism on them. And the remaining items were used to examine the impact of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships, which were divided into four categories as described above. And we used closed-ended, single-choice questions to make our survey easier to answer and more convenient for us to analyze the data. After creating the survey items, we used “Wenjuanxing”, an online platform where people can create or participate in surveys, to create our survey and publish it.

Interestingly, we realized that the literal translation from Chinese to English could cause misunderstanding and confusion due to cultural differences. For example, at the beginning, we used the term “interest relationship” which was translated from the Chinese word “friendship”. Although this word is commonly used in China, it does not convey the same meaning in English. Therefore, based on Dr. Hiller’s kind suggestion, we have replaced the abstract concept interest relationship with a concrete description of the corresponding behavior to avoid confusion. Examples are given below and can also be found in the Appendix.

5. You feel uncomfortable to (1) Borrow money from your friends. A. Strongly disagree B. Disagree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Agree E. Strongly agree (2) Do business with your friends. A. Strongly disagree B. Disagree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Agree E. Strongly agree

Participants

We recruited participants through QQ and WeChat, which are the most popular social media platforms in China. We sent the survey link to DKU Chinese students’ WeChat groups, DKU Chinese students’ parents’ WeChat groups and family WeChat groups. And some of our friends and family members also spread the link to people they knew. We also posted it on our WeChat Moments where people share their lives with others. The data collection took two days, from March 2 to March 3, 2020. We did not offer any rewards, although many other students did, because we wanted people to find the topic interesting and be willing to take it without external rewards.

A total of 156 people completed the survey. They were mainly our friends, family members and parents of DKU Chinese students. Their age and education level matched our expectations for our target participants. Chinese people who are representative of contemporary China, different from traditional China, and who have a basic understanding of Confucianism.

Age. We hypothesized that most participants grew up in contemporary China. The majority of them (75.64%) were 30-54 years old and 22.44% were 15-29 years old. Only a few respondents were 55-69 years old (1.26%), and one preferred not to answer. Considering the way we surveyed them, it is likely that they were college students, such as those at DKU and our high school classmates, as well as their parents. New China opened up to the outside world forty years ago, marked by the policy of reform and opening up. Therefore, our participants can be considered to be largely representative of the generations of contemporary China, and they are very different from traditional China because they grew up in a relatively more modern environment than previously outlined.

Education level. We assume that our participants are also relatively modern in their thinking. The majority of respondents reached a high school education level (94.87%), and only a minority did not graduate from high school (5.13%). Therefore, our participants are likely to have a basic understanding of Confucianism, as it appears in the official version of high school history textbooks. Thus, their level of education makes the answer to question 3, which is about people’s perceptions of the extent to which Confucianism has influenced them, more reliable (see Appendix).

Results and Discussion

First, as shown in Table 1, I created a new categorical variable called level of influence. It has five categories, namely “high,” “relatively high,” “moderate,” “relatively low,” and “low. I coded answers representing the same attitude, degree or frequency into new categories with the same level of influence. For example, “extremely”, “always”, and “agree” represent the highest level of magnitude, frequency, and attitude, respectively. Therefore they were reclassified as “high”. In addition, “undecided” in questions 3 and 17 was considered as a missing value because it does not effectively indicate attitudes. In other words, they will not be counted when analyzing the data.

Table 1. The coding of influence level (categorical variable)

Then, I converted the categorical variable, influence level, into ordinal variables, with 2 being the highest and -2 being the lowest. Specifically, as shown in Table 2, I code “high” as 2, “relatively high” as 1, “moderately” as 0, “relatively low” as -1, and “low” as -2. The ordinal variable influence level was used to indicate the strength of associations between peoples’ values and attitudes and Confucian ideas. The higher the values are, the stronger the associations are. When the values are close to 2, the maximum, they represent typical Confucians who are strongly affected by Confucianism. Given the first hypothesis that human relationships in contemporary China are still strongly influenced by Confucianism, the results I expected to see are that the values of the indicators, the measurements of Confucianism’s effects on human relationships, are close to 2. And given the second hypothesis that people are not fully aware of Confucianism’s impact on them, the result I expected to see is the value of the variable “peoples’ awareness of Confucianism’s effects”, on the contrary, is close to -2. After coding the descriptive answers into numeric variables, I organized the data collected in Table 3.

Table 2. The coding of influence level (ordinal variable)

Table 3. The counts of responses to the questions

To analyze the results of the four parts as a whole (interest relationships, teacher-student relationships, superior-subordinate relationships, and family relationships), I combined the results of questions belonging to the same part by adding them up. For instance, in the second part, there are 31 responses of “2” in question 6 and 16 responses of “2” in question 7 (shown in Table 3). Then I calculated 31+16=47, which was the total number of responses of “2” in the second part. Similarly, I also added up the results of questions 4-15 to indicate the overall results of Confucianism’s impact on human relationships. All the results are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. The sum of responses of questions in the same part

The First hypothesis

Figure 1. Histogram of influence level of Part 1

Part 1: Confucianism’s influence on interest relationships.

As can be seen in Figure 1, most of the respondents are highly influenced by Confucianism (73.9%), including 31.4% with a high level and 42.5% with a relatively high level. While only 26.1% responses as moderate, relatively low, or low level of influence. The distribution is unimodal, centered at 1, and significantly skewed to right, with a median of 1 and a standard deviation of 1.02. This means the influence level, basically, is close to 1.

Thus, this result suggests, to some extent, that many contemporary Chinese are relatively highly influenced by Confucianism in terms of interest relations. This result matches our first hypothesis. For both non-Chinese and Chinese, it is important to know that it may be better to adopt an “indirect style” in business communication in China, as previously explained (Ding, 2006, p. 87).

Figure 2. Histogram of influence level of Part 2

Part 2: Confucianism’s influence on teacher-student relationships.

Similarly, as is evident in Figure 2, an overwhelming majority of respondents (88.8%) are influenced by Confucianism, with 15.1% of a high level, 46.5% of a relatively high level, and 27.2% of a moderate level. In addition, some of them (9.9%) are slightly affected, while only a few respondents (1.3%) reported a low level of influence. The distribution is unimodal, centered at 1, and largely skewed to right, with a median of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.9. This means the influence level, mainly, is close to 1.

Therefore, this result, to a certain degree, suggests that many contemporary Chinese people are influenced by Confucianism in teacher-student relationships at a relatively high level. This result corresponds to our first hypothesis. For international exchange students who study in Chinese universities, to know the typical relationships between teachers and students in China might help them adapt to the Chinese teaching styles.

The first reason for this result might be that the traditional Confucian stereotype of teachers’ roles is embedded in Chinese people’s values. And another possible reason is that the education system in contemporary China differs little from the traditional one. In contemporary China, students still need to pass the competitive national examinations to enter high schools or universities, which is similar to the traditional imperial examination (keju). And J. Han and Y. Han (2019) also find that with a typical top-down teaching style, respectful students in contemporary China are still expected to be obedient, quiet and would not interrupt the class.

Figure 3. Histogram of influence level of Part 3

Part 3: Confucianism’s influence on superior-subordinate relationships.

A different pattern emerges when it comes to superior-subordinate relationships. Figure 3 shows that more than half of the responses represent a high (27.7%) or moderate level of influence (26.8%). However, though the numbers of responses measured as “high”, “relatively low” and “low” are all lower than those of “relatively high” and “moderately”, they are not small at all (13.8% “high”, 17.6% “relatively low”, and 14.1% “low”). The distribution is almost normal, which means it is unimodal and symmetric, and centered at somewhere between 1 and 0, with a median of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.25. The tails on both sides are fat. In other words, the data, denoted as influence level, are scattered instead of clustered around the center.

According to this result, I speculated that the superior-subordinate relationships in contemporary possibly were not very much influenced by Confucianism. This result is contradictory to our first hypothesis. Accordingly, for non-Chinese people who do business with Chinese companies, it is unwise to understand the organizational cultures and structures or to interpret and predict their decisions largely based on Confucianism.

As for the possible explanation for the results, I agree with Ip’s explanation (2009) that as China gradually becomes an international power, Chinese organizations today try to “adapt and respond to both the Chinese developmental context and the global economy” (p. 474). That is, Chinese organizations’ cultures and values are changed into more international ones. And therefore, Confucianism no longer affects them very much.

Figure 4. Histogram of influence level of Part 4

Part 4: Confucianism’s influence on family relationships.

We found similar patterns in family relationships. As Figure 4 demonstrates, most responses represent a relatively high level of influence (27.3%). The next is the moderate level (22.8%). And 16.2% responses are “high”, 20.0% responses are “relatively low”, and 13.6% responses are “low”. The counts of “1”, “2”, “0”, “-1”, and “-2” are quite similar. The distribution is unimodal, slightly skewed to right, and centered at 1, with a median of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.28. The tails on both sides are fat. In other words, the data, denoted as influence level, are scattered instead of clustered around the center.

Accordingly, this result might indicate that many contemporary Chinese people appear to not be very much influenced by Confucianism in terms of family relationships. Surprisingly, this result is contradictory to our first hypothesis. And since family, considered as the basis of the society, is especially emphasized in Chinese culture, understanding contemporary Chinese family relationships is essential to understanding contemporary Chinese social structure and values.

The possible explanation for the results might be that the increasing exposure to Western values and China’s previous policies, such as the one-child policy, have changed the traditional family structure a lot. For example, Hurh and Kim (1990) found that East Asian women exposed to Western values try to reconcile the roles of the traditional housewives and those of the modern working women.

Figure 5. Histogram of influence level of overall human relationships

Total: The influence of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships.

In summary, Figure 5 shows the overall influence of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships in contemporary China. The vast majority of respondents (75.9%) were either highly (19.5%), relatively highly (34.0%), or moderately (22.4%) influenced by Confucianism. In addition, some of them (14.9%) were slightly influenced. And only a minority of respondents (9.2%) were barely affected. The distribution is unimodal, centered at 1 and largely skewed to the right, with a median of 1 and a standard deviation of 1.22. This implies a degree of impact, mainly close to 1.

Based on this result, I draw a potential conclusion: many contemporary Chinese people seem to be influenced by Confucianism in their interpersonal relationships, and to a relatively high degree. This conclusion coincides with our first hypothesis. Furthermore, after comparing the results for different types of interpersonal relationships, I hypothesize that many contemporary Chinese may be more influenced by Confucianism in teacher-student and interest relationships than in superior-subordinate and family relationships.

Confucianism may still influence people in the contemporary China, and this result is probably attributed to the fact that Confucian values have been engraved in the cultural consciousness of Chinese people. At the same time, however, as Park and Chesla (2007) argue, Confucianism has been continuously adapted and modified by contemporary Chinese as China has opened up to the international community. Thus, we can see that the influence of Confucianism on interpersonal relationships, especially family relationships and superior-subordinate relationships, seems to have been weakened.

The Second Hypothesis

Figure 6. The level of People’s awareness of Confucianism’s impact

Surprisingly, Figure 6 indicates that a majority of respondents (83%) think that Confucianism influences them extremely or very much. Only some of respondents (12%) think it affects them moderately, and some of them (5%) do not think Confucianism only have slight effects on them. In other words, many Chinese people reported that they thought Confucianism affected them a lot.

To measure Chinses people’s awareness of Confucianism’s impact on them, I would compare the level of Confucianism’s impact reflected by people’s values and attitudes, namely the answer to the first research question, and that perceived by people (Question 3). In this way, I could see whether people fully realized the impact. As shown above, the answer to the first research question seems to be that Confucianism is likely to still have relative high impact on human relationships. Meanwhile, the result of Question 3 is that people seem to perceive a relatively high level of Confucianism’s influence. Accordingly, I speculated that many contemporary Chinese people fully realized Confucianism’s effects on them. This result contradicts our second hypothesis.

A possible explanation is that though some of Confucian values are considered out of date, people recognize that many aspects of Confucianism are valuable now. Thanks to the Chinese government’s encouragement of yangqi, which means to reject the negative parts and develop the positive parts of cultural heritage, Confucianism regained popularity in China. Nowadays, when it comes to Confucianism, people might think of its arguments of humanity (ren) instead of only the hierarchy system. Thus, Confucianism, again, is acknowledged an essential part of Chinese people’s cultural identity.

Limitations

As with the majority of studies, this research is subject to several limitations. One of the limitations of this study had to do with the sample that was drawn from a population of educated Chinese people of two age groups. Though participants were representative of the groups of people who grow up in contemporary China, these results, undeniably, did not apply to all contemporary Chinese people with other demographics. It called for larger and more inclusive studies.

This study was further limited by the statistical treatment of data collected. To analyze the overall situation of different types of relationships, I added up the numbers of responses to different questions. However, the hidden assumption here was that those questions included had the same weight, which might not be true. For example, the respect society gives to teachers (question 6) can possibly reflect Confucianism’s impact better than the perception of teachers’ authority (question 7). In this case, question 6 should be given more weight. If I take 2 as the multiplier, then the equation of calculating the number of responses of “2” would change from 31+16=47 to 31*2+16=78. However, it is very hard to decide the weight given to each question due to the difficulty of measuring abstract things like values. And for now, adding up results of the questions was enough for us to make some meaningful generalizations.

Finally, the findings of this study were also limited by the methodology. We assessed the level of Confucianism’s impact on human relationships in contemporary China by measuring the strength of the associations between Confucian values and people’s values and attitudes. However, association is not equal to causation. That is, I was unable to prove that these values and attitudes strongly associated with Confucianism were exactly caused by it, instead of other possible factors. So, future study should focus on the causation between Confucianism and people’s attitudes and values we examined in this research.

Conclusion

Confucianism is an essential part of Chinese culture, and its influence on the Chinese people continues to this day. However, with people’s the reassessment of traditional values and increasing exposure to Western culture, does Confucianism still have a strong influence in contemporary China? Interest in Confucianism and curiosity about its current influence drove us to conduct this study.

This paper aimed to examine Confucianism’s influence on contemporary Chinese people’s social relationships, including interest relationships, teacher-student relationships, superior-subordinate relationships, and family relationships. Our hypotheses are as follows. First, we expected that human relationships in contemporary China were still strongly influenced by Confucianism. And second, we assumed that contemporary Chinese people did not fully realize the effects of Confucianism. Through this research, we inferred that Confucianism possibly had relatively high impact on human relationships in contemporary China, which was especially true for interest relationships and teacher-student relationships. This result was likely to support our fist hypothesis. But surprisingly, we rejected our second hypothesis because the results indicated that many contemporary Chinese people seemed to fully realize Confucianism’s influence on them.

It seems impossible to deny the depth of Confucianism’s influence on Chinese people. Therefore, the acknowledgment of Confucianism’s impact on contemporary China’s human relationships helps to understand Chinese culture better and thus facilitates intercultural communication with Chinese people. Moreover, this research also offers a good opportunity for us to reflect on ourselves. We can ask ourselves the following questions. What determines our values and attitudes? What cultural heritages influence me deeply? How to understand my cultural identity? Through answering these questions, we might get a deeper insight into ourselves and our cultures.

References

Ding, D. D. (2006). An indirect style in business communication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 20(1), 87-100. doi:10.1177/1050651905281051

Han, J., & Han, Y. (2019). Cultural concepts as powerful theoretical tools: Chinese teachers’ perceptions of their relationships with students in a cross-cultural context. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13(1) doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2019.130108

Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural constraints in management theories. Academy of Management Perspectives, 7(1), 81-94. doi:10.5465/ame.1993.9409142061

Hurh, W. M., & Kim, K. C. (1990). Adaptation stages and mental health of Korea male immigrants in the United States. International Migration Review, 24(3), 456-479. Im, M. (2011). Mencius as consequentialist. In Fraser, C., Robins, D., & O’Leary, T. (Ed.), Ethics in Early China: An Anthology (pp. 41-64). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Ip, P. K. (2009). Is Confucianism good for business ethics in China? Journal of Business Ethics, 88(3), 463-476. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0120-2

Nguyen, H. T. (2009). An inquiry-based practicum model: What knowledge, practices, and relationships typify empowering teaching and learning experiences for student teachers, cooperating teachers and college supervisors? Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5), 655-662. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2008.10.001

Park, M., & Chesla, C. (2007). Revisiting Confucianism as a conceptual framework for Asian family study. Journal of Family Nursing, 13(3), 293-311. doi:10.1177/1074840707304400

Yang, X. L. (2019). Viewing the advantages and disadvantages of contemporary democratic political system from the political philosophy system of Confucianism in china. Quality & Quantity, 53(6), 3023-3032. doi:10.1007/s11135-019-00915-4  

Appendix

This is the translation of the survey we administered, which was in Chinese. The influence of Confucianism on human relationships in contemporary China Nice to meet you!

We are undergraduate students in DKU (Duke Kunshan University). We are doing this survey for our final project of EAP class (English for Academic purpose). We would like to use this survey to examine the influence of Confucianism on human relationships (relationships between families, friends, et al.) in contemporary China, and we also want to see to what extent we are aware of Confucian impact on us. Be assured that all answers you provide will be kept in the strictly confidentiality. And all information collected will only be used for our EAP final project.

We realize how precious your time is. That why we made sure this survey will only take a quick 2-3 minutes.

This makes a lot to us. Thank you for every second invested in our research.

1. What is your age? A. 14 years old or younger B. 15-29 years old C. 30-54 years old D. 55-69 years old E. 70 years old or older F. I prefer not to answer

2. What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? (If you are currently enrolled in school, please indicate the highest degree you have received) A. Less than a high school diploma B. High school degree or equivalent C. Bachelor’s degree D. Master’s degree E. Professional degree F. Doctorate degree G. Others (please specify) ____

3. o what extent do you think Confucianism influence you (no matter whether you know Confucianism well)? A. Extremely B. Very much C. Moderately D. Slightly E. Not at all F. Undecided

4. You think you should build private relationships with (1) (If any) People do business with you. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

   (2) (If any) your colleagues (people you work with in a job, no matter whether their positions are higher than you). A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

5. You feel uncomfortable to (1) Borrow money from your friends. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

   (2) Do business with your friends. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

6. You think that teachers have the authority that students should listen to them. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

7. To what extent do you think people in contemporary China respect teachers? A. Extremely B. Very C. Moderately D. Slightly E. Not at all

8. Employees usually dare not to question opinions of their superiors. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

9. When a subordinate meets a superior, The subordinate should greet the superior: A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

   The superior can ignore the subordinate: A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

10. To what extent do you feel your superiors are distant to you（the feeling of distance refers to the sense of alienation or perception of the inequality between your positions）? A. Extremely B. Very C. Moderately D. Slightly E. Not at all

11. Imagine that your parents are old and you are married, to what extent do you agree that you should live with your parents to take care of them? A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

12. You feel more obliged to take care of your younger brothers or sisters (suppose you have) compared with elder brothers or sisters. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

13. To what extent to you agree or disagree that women should spend more time and energy on family than men should. A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree

14. How often do you hear things like, “you should/shouldn’t do this because I am your parent/teacher/elder?” A. Never B. Rarely C. Sometimes D. Very often E. Always

15. To what extent to you agree or disagree that you should still stand by your parents and defend them even if they do something illegal? A. Agree B. Slightly agree C. Neither agree nor disagree D. Slightly disagree E. Disagree   This is the survey we administered, which was in Chinese.

儒家文化对现代中国人际关系的影响

您好！

我们是昆山杜克大学（DKU）的大一学生，正在做学术英语课（EAP）期末项目所要求的问卷调查。我们想通过这份问卷，研究儒家思想对现代中国人际关系的影响（包括家庭关系、朋友关系和师生关系）以及我们在多大程度上意识到了它的影响。

我们保证对所有信息保密，这份问卷将仅限于EAP期末作业的使用。

我们理解您的时间非常宝贵，因此这份问卷仅需占用您2-3分钟。这对我们来说意义很大。

1. 你的年龄是？ A. 14 岁及以下 B. 15-29 岁 C. 30-54 岁 D. 55-69 岁 E. 70 岁及以上 F. 不愿透露

2. 你已获得的最高学历是？（如果是在校学生，请选择已完成的最高学历） A. 高中以下 B. 高中/中专 C. 本科/大专 D. 研究生 E. 博士 F. 其他___

3. 你认为儒家思想对你的影响大吗（无论你是否很了解儒家思想）？ A. 非常大 B. 比较大 C. 一般 D. 比较小 E. 非常小 F. 实在不确定

4. 你觉得你应该和这样的人建立人情关系：

   1. 与你做生意的人： A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意
   2. 你的同事（无论是平级，下级还是上级）： A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

5. 你会感到不适：

   1. 向你的朋友借钱： A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意
   2. 和你的朋友做生意： A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

6. 你认为学生应该听从老师。 A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

7. 你觉得在现代中国，人们对老师的尊重程度高吗？ A． 非常高 B. 高 C. 一般 D. 低 E. 几乎不

8. • 你认为员工一般不敢反对上司的意见。 A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

9. 当下属遇见上司时， 下属理应向上司打招呼： A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

   上司可以直接走过： A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

10. • 你觉得和你的上司距离感有多强（情感上的疏离感，或是地位上不平等）？ A． 非常强 B. 强 C. 一般 D. 低 E. 几乎不

11. • 想象你已结婚，父母年迈，你认为自己应该和父母住在一起以便照顾他们。 A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

12. 你觉得相较于哥哥姐姐，你更有义务照顾弟弟妹妹（假设有的话） A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

13. • 你认为相比起男方，女方应该在家庭方面付出放更多的时间和精力。 A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意

14. 你是否经常听到类似言语，“你应该/不应该做这个，因为我是你的父母/老师/长辈？” A. 从不 B. 很偶尔 C. 有时 D. 经常 E. 非常频繁

15. 你认为即使父母做了违法的事，你应该依然站在父母一方，为他们开脱或者包庇。 A. 非常同意 B. 同意 C. 中立 D. 不同意 E. 非常不同意