Time we woke up to power of our values | To the Point | Cheng Huan

The choice of subject was not mine but that of the Rotary Club of Malaysia. It had asked me to make an online speech about "Evolving values in a changing society," a subject I had never thought much about.

We live a fast-changing world, especially in the field of communications, and it is difficult to imagine that social values have ever evolved so fast in human history. This is as true in Hong Kong as it is in Malaysia.

Wherever the internet and social media roam, values and social interactions are in flux as never before.

I hope my thoughts on the subject are of as much interest to a Hong Kong readership as they have been to a Malaysian audience.

Once upon a time, values reflected society's distinctions between right and wrong and how best to live our lives. Values were the ultimate guide for responsible behavior. But social media, especially in America and Europe, is now having a malign influence on values and creating divisive splits.

New social values, spawned by social media, are movements such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, Occupy Central, Gender Identity and the weird radical left-wing creed known as Woke. These new values are causing destructive social disharmony and even riots in many western cities, particularly in north America.

Happily for us Hong Kong and people elsewhere in east Asia, the Woke movement, gender identity and such like have had little impact and old-fashioned family values still count the most.

In Chinese societies we continue to adopt values derived from our parents and the people who are closest to us. In turn our family values normally are derived from our social and cultural values. I think this is why social life in our part of the world will remain stable and harmonious compared to a growing antagonism and restlessness in the West.

The definitions of Woke and gender identity are Woke: aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice; gender identity: one's internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female.

Incredibly, Facebook has more than 50 options beyond male and female for users to describe their gender identity, such as "gender questioning," "neither" and "androgynous."

As children we Chinese are fortunate to learn the value of obedience to parents. Those educated according to the principles of Confucius, who said "filial piety is the root of virtue and the basis of philosophy," also appreciate the importance of respect for ancestors.

As a Buddhist, my social values are likewise rooted in family and filial piety, both often mentioned in ancient Buddhist texts. In Christianity too believers are taught to "honor your father and mother" and to respect elders. We value good manners, appreciation and gratitude by saying such simple remarks as "good morning" or "thank you."

Of course, some values have changed over time, even in China. Women no longer bind their feet. Thankfully, the horrible Indian practice of suttee (a moral duty for widows to be burned alive) was abolished.

Worryingly, female genital mutilation remains a social value that is still practiced in a few places.

At the universal level, the United Nations has always promoted social values through organizations like Unesco and the International Red Cross and documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Finally, let us not forget those ultimate values: charity, kindness and love. Charity and kindness are the highest forms of love, and without love humankind would never have made any progress at all.

Cheng Huan is an author and a senior counsel who practices in Hong Kong