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Confucian virtues and Chinese adolescent development: a conceptual review

  • Daniel T.L. Shek EMAIL logo , Lu Yu and Xiao Fu

Abstract

Despite the fact that different Chinese communities have already undergone industrialization and urbanization, Confucian virtues are still regarded as developmental ideals in Chinese culture. Unfortunately, while Confucian virtues are commonly discussed under Chinese philosophies, they are rarely examined in the context of developmental research. In this paper, several key Confucian virtues are discussed, including loyalty (“zhong”), filial piety (“xiao”), benevolence (“ren”), affection (“ai”), trustworthiness (“xin”), righteousness (“yi”), harmony (“he”), peace (“ping”), propriety (“li”), wisdom (“zhi”), integrity (“lian”) and shame (“chi”). These Chinese traditional virtues are also linked to the concepts of character strengths and positive youth development constructs highlighted in Western culture. It is argued that Confucian virtues provide an indigenous conceptual framework to understand character strengths and positive youth development in Chinese culture. Furthermore, when service leadership is considered in Chinese contexts, these virtues should be regarded as important cornerstones.


Corresponding author: Professor Daniel T.L. Shek, PhD, FHKPS, BBS, JP, Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Room HJ407, Core H, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, P.R. China, E-mail:

The preparation of this manuscript was developed within the Service Leadership Project, which is financially supported by the Li and Fung Foundation.

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Received: 2012-3-1
Accepted: 2012-4-21
Published Online: 2013-3-27
Published in Print: 2013-12-01

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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