East China's Shandong Province has announced it will stage a
grand ceremony in Hong Kong next month to commemorate Confucius,
China's most famous thinker, philosopher and teacher of all
teachers.
Shandong, the home province of Confucius, will take the
opportunity to commemorate the 2,557th anniversary of his birth, as
well as to introduce his teachings to the world, a spokesman with
the provincial government said on Saturday.
The province will send a 180-member team to the attend the
memorial activities in Hong Kong, which will last from Oct. 2
through 7. Members of the team will consist of Confucian scholars
as well as singers, dancers and executants of a professional troupe
at the Confucian Temple in his hometown Qufu.
The memorial activities in Hong Kong will include a Confucian
culture exhibition, an international symposium on Confucianism and
its significance in the present-day society, and a grand public
memorial service scheduled for Oct. 7 -- the largest ever Confucius
memorial in Hong Kong.
The events will also draw Confucian specialists from the United
States, Russia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea as well as Hong
Kong, Macao and Taiwan, according to the Qilu Evening News, a local
newspaper based in Shandong's provincial capital Jinan.
Confucius (551 BC-479 BC), or Kong Fuzi in Chinese, has had a
great impact on both Chinese and world cultures for more than 2,000
years. His doctrine of love, fidelity, modest and self-discipline
has been the mainstream thought in the minds of people in East
Asia, including China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2007)