Reviving Confucius: How Yu Dan Made Confucianism Popular Again

Guess what’s the bestselling book in China? No, it’s not Harry Potter, another top seller with millions of copies already sold. Nor is it a self-help book holding the secrets to earning a fortune in the competitive Chinese economy. 

It’s Yu Dan’s Reflections on the Analects, with 10 million copies sold in less than a year and an estimated 6 million pirated copies.

That’s right. Confucianism is experiencing a surge of popularity all thanks to Yu Dan, a savvy, articulate woman with no nonsense short hair and a PhD in media studies. Her refreshing interpretation of The Analects has not only made Confucianism more applicable and appealing to modern Chinese society, but has also launched Dan into nationwide stardom.

The book, in fact, encompasses only a part of Yu Dan’s Confucian revival.  The book is actually based on a series of Yu Dan’s popular TV lectures, whose popularity matches American hits such as “Desperate Housewives” and “The Devil Wears Prada”.

Dan’s revival of Confucian teachings is no small achievement. Indeed, while Confucianism was deeply revered and sustained in Chinese society for thousands of years, it was rejected and deemed obsolete after the oppression of the Cultural Revolution and the agnosticism of China’s economically driven modern society.

Indeed, the popularity of Yu Dan’s book is comparable to St. Augustine’s Confessions topping the Da Vinci Code.

However, Dan’s work has had its fair share of criticism. Confucian scholars have dismissively dubbed her ideas, “fast-food Confucianism”, arguing her interpretation is watered-down and has little to do with real Confucianism. For this, though she has received fanfare among the masses, her work has had harsh reception in the academic realm.
"She distorted a lot of Confucius's principles...in order to serve a lot of purposes of hers." Professor He Zhao at the Confucius Institute in George Mason remarked. 
"She was very popular among the ordinary viewers programs, but once she was trying to deliver a speech in Peking University, one of the best universities of China, and she was driven off the stage, " Zhao laughs. "Because the audience and the students refused to listen to her."

In her defense however, Dan responds that her book gives an opinion, not facts and can be accepted or rejected accordingly. In reality, Dan’s ultimate goal is to clear the distorted image of Confucianism as too conservative or irrelevant.

“He teaches love and tolerance, for example, and don't force others to do what you would not want to do yourself, how to develop harmonious interpersonal relationships. Are these ideas really that out of date? Are these not useful to our lives today?”