Some Confucian wisdom found its way to the Oscars this year. Chloé Zhao, who won Best Director for "Nomadland," quoted from the 13th century 三字經 / Three Character Classic she memorized as a child:
人之初
性本善
(People at birth [are] inherently good)
"Those six letters had such a great impact on me when I was a kid," she recounted. "And I still truly believe them today, even though sometimes it may seem like the opposite is true. But I have always found goodness in the people I met — everywhere I went in the world." Heartening words from a director whose film (which of course also won Best Picture!) humanizes people marginalized by economic change, exploring the tenderness and transcendence of love and memory, nature and humanity, linking the vulnerability of all of us. There are, when you think about it, no bad people in that film.
It's nice for a Chinese director to win at this time of tension between the US and China, as well as ongoing anti-Asian violence within the US. Americans don't know how to see China as a source of this kind of wisdom, insight and compassion... maybe this can be a start. The next two lines of the Three Character Classic:
性相近
习相遠
(Natures are similar, habits make them diverge)
But I'm disheartened to learn that the triumph of "Nomadland" hasn't even been reported in the home of its maker, and plans to screen it in cinemas scotched! Some foolishly patriotic people cancelled her because she tells human truth about both countries. How sad.
