2019’s Outstanding Research Awards has been awarded to Professor Kim Sung-moon, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), Professor of the Department of Public Policy and Director of the Centre for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy to recognise and reward his excellence in research at CityU.
Professor Kim’s research interests include Confucian democratic and constitutional theory, comparative political theory, and the history of East Asian political thought. Some of his impactful normative research looks at how justice, democracy and citizen participation should be in Confucian societies including Hong Kong.
Based on his research, Professor Kim suggested to “reinvent” ancient Confucius practices, which include recruiting young “remonstrators” into the government. “Young people are fresh-minded, not so socially conservative. They keep closer tabs on evolving public sentiment. Recruiting them not only helps them to understand the complexity of public decision-making but also makes the government more accountable to the public,” Professor Kim said.
He added that other core values in Confucian ethics, including deep thinking, self-cultivation and mutual respect, bring about political negotiation and compromise. If both the government and the community adopt these values, a stalemate, which tends to be the result of self-righteousness and which may turn into a violent conflict, could be avoided.