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Synonyms

Culture; Rote learning; Values

Creativity and Confucianism

Confucianism – the ideas of the teachings of Confucius (551–479 B.C.) – prescribes the practical ethics of daily life without religious considerations. Confucianism is the major cultural influence in Asian societies including China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Confucian cultural tradition and values have served as the ethical and moral foundation for East Asian thinking, permeating every interaction, from business to social to family. Confucian values contrast sharply with Western values, which encourage individuality, individual achievement, and various means of standing out, such as displaying creativity. Confucianism, with its emphasis on rote learning, hierarchy, and inequality, has traditionally dampened creativity. Though various forces have worked to diminish Confucianism’s impact in recent years (Kim and Pierce 2012), considerable differences in conceptions of creativity have...

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Correspondence to Kyung Hee Kim Ph.D. .

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Kim, K.H., Pierce, R.A. (2013). Creativity and Confucianism. In: Carayannis, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_18

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