WAMU this morning (in fact right now) is doing this program a favorite book that you have read. My favorite book has to be Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. I, like most people, am blinded by the popular myth that ancient texts are no longer useful anymore. They have been outmoded by modern speech and writing. It is difficult for me to find wisdom or wit, or even knowledge (I often find over-educated people spewing prejudices). I just want to read a book that is simple, direct and really delivers a message.
Since the May Fourth Movement, many people (including Lu Xun) have bashed, criticized and gave up reading Confucian texts, Taoist texts. They said on many occasions that these texts had been used by feudalists to promote their ideology and oppress ordinary people. The way I see it, these texts are the very things that lay a solid foundation for our Chinese way of thinking and living. Think you can find TRUTH in other foreign texts (they are supplements)? Being a Chinese, I UNDERSTAND that I need to read more about our own culture, our own values.