The Confucian Academy as a Confucian-religion-supporting Organization: Its Role in Education and Policy-making in Hong Kong as well as Its Influence on Mainland China

Confucianism was the largest religion in traditional China before the 20th century. It was supported by three main types of organizations: government institutions, family clans, and Confucian schools. All these Confucian-religion-supporting-organizations collapsed in the 20th century in mainland China. But Hong Kong is different. The Confucian Academy (Kongjiao xueyue, ) has existed in Hong Kong since 1930 and has enabled Confucianism to survive as an organized religion in contemporary Hong Kong society. This research project attempts to discover the ways in which the Confucian Academy exists as a Confucian-religion-supporting-organisation in Hong Kong, to analyze the role it performs in Hong Kong’s education, to examine the function it plays in the formulation of Hong Kong’s public policy, and to explore its influence on the rise of the private Confucian schools (Rujia shuyuan, ) in mainland China today and to compare their different features. The knowledge gained from the literature review and interviews that will be conducted by this project will add significantly to our understanding of the role of Confucianism as a religion or a way of life in contemporary Chinese societies specifically in terms of its role in education and function in public policy. It will also provide heuristic information and the knowledge needed for appraising the proper and possible role of Confucian-religion-supporting-organizations in contemporary Chinese societies.