 Good afternoon. Happy Friday. This is Kaui Lukas with Hawaii is my mainland and Today we're focusing on a different part of the world that is having ever more increasing impact on Hawaii. I mean certainly China and Hawaii have a more than century old relationship. I'm not sure how but we're coming More than two centuries. It's got to be closed. Yeah Actually, one of my ancestors took the first boat from the Hawaiian kingdom to China. Captain Alexander Adams. Yeah, so But now things are it's a very different world and even more sort of present in this political climate the discussion of ethics and usually the Idea of business ethics one doesn't normally jump immediately to China as a Paragon of business ethics. We they get a bad rap, but Soon enough in Honolulu. We are going to have a series of events here exploring and dialogues and talking about the importance of ethics in in the quest for peace and I'm really excited to hear about this and Running into you at the Capitol the other day. So there's a lot going on Tell us of what's what's the series of events that are that are happening? Okay? There's a series of events starting on December the 12th that involve Joe and Lai and His wife Deng Ying Chau. He was the first premier of modern China and she was his wife and That's called deep love It's an exhibition and then there's a seminar that comes out of it the business ethics seminar And deep love is based on the idea that two people meet at the beginning of a revolution when they're 18 and They decide they're going to devote their lives to that revolution and to transforming the world They spend the next 60 years doing that together And it ain't easy Because it's the 20th century and it's China You've got revolution. You've got civil war. You've got war with Japan. You've got the cultural revolution famine disease disaster assassination and Also great triumph great vision and the establishment from the ruins of the Chinese Dynasties of emperors of 6,000 years the establishment of a new modern oriented China which has Let go of all of the vestiges of feudal Culture and is trying to face forward trying to become part of the world But in a very Chinese way, right? China is not they will they do not want to copper copy America They do not want to copy Europe. They know and respect America Europe and all the countries of Asia But China, you know the word China jungle in their own language means the center You draw a circle and a line through the middle. That's China Okay, so from their point of view. They are the oldest continuous civilization on the planet they have a longer history longer set of culture and religion and Literature and so on that then anybody else then practically everybody else put together, right? Okay, so they are now Reestablishing themselves at the head of the table of nations along with all the other leaders So when you grasp that you understand What Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingqiao Accomplished with of course many many thousands of others But Zhou Enlai was the first Premier and Foreign Minister and Deng Yingqiao was the leader of the women's movement She transformed life for women in China so The event in here in Hawaii is going to be they'll be talk about the exhibit at The capital yeah, the exhibit was developed by The people at the Zhou Enlai National Memorial in Huai'an which is where he was born in central China and Some of the leading scholars from Huai'an and from the Central Committee in Beijing will be here To talk about how their relationship Endured, you know, they didn't have the usual stresses that you and I have with our relationships, right? You know sustaining a marriage over 60 years. You get a gold star anyways Anyway, regardless, right? But they you know, they almost died many times in each other's arms They lost children. They saw massacres. They were pursued in the middle of the night They had their friends and neighbors executed because they were their friends and neighbors There were many times there were people who deliberately tried to break their hearts to break their resolve and yet they continued and At the very end of life Zhou Enlai wrote a poem as he did throughout their 60 years together he wrote a poem to her and said Now my old red heart Will cease to beat But our love has never decreased so Michael north you I are the co-founder of the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute here in Hawaii Does it have a corollary in China? Is there yes? Yes, okay? We have a Beijing office as well Okay, so that you're you're working to bring this this powerful love story To our our capital that's I mean kudos for just having having the thought of that much less making it happen and some this a beautiful integration really a beautiful integration So and then that is also that same idea the integrating ethics and business. So they're on Tuesday will be the Ethics in business. Yes on the morning of Tuesday December the 13th at Shamanad University They have a nice conference center called called the Qing Conference Center Yes by one of our leading local Chinese entrepreneurs who built it. Yes and purely by chance it's being held there and Both of these events are free open to the public and just free reservations online to get your confirmed tickets the idea of Ethics goes deep into the heart of who Zhou Enlai was Zhou Enlai was born before the emperors were gone He so he was born in the imperial time. His family Were advisors to emperors going back hundreds of years right at the very center of the Imperial Court in Beijing and Yet he grew up saying we're gonna throw off all of that All of that primitive feudal structure in which there's a very few people at the center Of the society in Beijing who literally never see anybody else That's why they call it the forbidden city because it's forbidden for anyone to go in They only see foreign diplomats ordinary Chinese people never even see The emperor that's really a good way to keep control on things. Yeah, and they Zhou Enlai took the United States as one of his models for creating them for creating a new tradition of Freedom and openness for China He studied the the League of Nations and the United Nations Charter and he brought a lot of those things into it And he and others wrote the Constitution of modern China now Have they been perfect in executing the high vision and principles of the Constitution of China? No They would admit that Has the United States been perfect in executing the high principles of our Constitution, which is 250 years old No, I think most Americans would concede that. Yes. Is it a worthwhile? Effort and a vision to continue to try to reinvent ourselves and come closer and closer to those high standards Yes on both sides of the Pacific here and in China and having spent a lot of time there over the past number of years and through the Zhou Enlai peace Institute being able to meet with a number of very prominent people in Chinese society business and government and legal and academic and so on as well as Many many just ordinary people I know in my heart. I'm convinced That the Chinese people are as sincere in their will to peace as the American people Fundamentally are. Are there strands? Are there times? Are there places and people that Seem to pull in another direction? Yes Are there such here in America? Yes So seeing that what is our responsibility? You and I Seeing that seeing those contradictions, but also the high standard and vision our duty is to do what we can to Build a people's diplomacy that people's I read that in the literature that the person-to-person diplomacy, but the sort of the the fundamental I mean underpinnings of peace sort of there's a there's a presumption that there's some sort of justice there and I mean at least that's the way we see it. I don't pretend to know anything about the Chinese mindset Just that at least here we Have that assumption that without without justice there there really isn't peace And is that would that be accurate to say that's very consonant with both? Traditional Chinese philosophy going back to Confucius and coming forward to today That the word justice may be translated in different ways may be represented in different ways, but let me give you an example Joe and lie wrote five principles of peace He was at a moment of despair in 1954 Because it looked like everything that they had tried was going to be Go away in ashes. They were just a few years away from the Second World War, right? Europe was still in ruins Asia was still crippled Japan was still on its back All the colonial empires were all falling apart and the Korean war was going on the viet the indo-Chinese war Right in in Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia was raging the colonial empires were trying to hold on to what they could and What did we have we had thermonuclear weapons on both sides of the Soviet Union and the United States? facing each other it was a time probably one of the most hopeless times in history and He asked himself the question is there anything that we could all agree on is There anything that's so fundamental that nobody would argue with it and he proposed as the first of the five principles he proposed That people have the fundamental right To live and work and walk on the land in which they were born Wow, love it, which is Yes straight into Hawaiian would you repeat that and then we're gonna go to a break people have the fundamental right To live and work and walk on the land in which they were born I love that. We'll be right back Hello, this is Martin de Spang. I want to get you excited about my new show, which is called humane architecture For Hawaii and beyond and it's gonna be on think-tank Hawaii from downtown Honolulu on Tuesday afternoons 5 p.m And we're gonna talk about to make architecture more inclusive on the islands, which is what you which was one of the definitions of humane Which is being tolerant of you know, many people of nature of many other influences So we're gonna have some great guests like today's guest for example my collaborator David Rockwood Who is the author of the awesome? Manifestation of humane architecture in the background. So see you on Tuesdays 5 p.m. I look forward to Welcome back to Hawaii is my mainland. I'm Kaui Lucas and with me today is Michael North who is the co-founder of The Joan Lai Peace Institute here in Hawaii along with his gorgeous wife Xiaofang I'm sorry. She isn't here to join us, but she'll probably be here for the festivities She will she's coming back next Tuesday and she knows a lot about this Right, it's in her blood. It's in her blood. It's he was her great. Joan Lai was her great uncle There we go. There we go. So she grew up in the center of Beijing and grew up at a time when It was not a good thing to be a person of power in China People were always being torn down, you know There was there was an ethic that was created that all old things are evil That everything has to be destroyed before we can create anything new we have to destroy everything of the old and It was a very challenging time and Joe and Lai stood for a different Approach a different approach that he integrated some of the old That integrated the heart the essence the purity the greatness of the old and yet Eliminated all of the inequities and injustices So what at the IUCN I was in one of the Breakout sessions and there was a a German professor who was talking It was about it was about ethics in the environment and business actually and He's been a professor in at a I'm not sure it's the University of Tokyo, but a Japanese University for many years and he said that Was a Confucian principle, which I claim to know nothing of That that there has to be a you know for it for it to really matter that there has to be a Financial component in other words if there's a lawsuit you can't claim damages for Emotional or or something else that you have to have Some kind of financial harm that you're not really doing something bad to somebody else unless there's a financial component to that And I thought wow is that really true? Is there is there some sort of Confucian thing that that does that make sense? Maybe I'm not asking the right person. I don't know yes and no You know there are layers of Confucian philosophy there. It's thousands of years deep many interpretations If you go back to the source same way as in Christianity Let's say if you go back to the source in the original Gospels and you say I'm a fanatic Christian When it comes to that kind of interpretation. I'm a real fundamentalist right, but not in the churchified way Necessarily I respect all churches and religions and so on but in that way Joe and lie was a fundamentalist Confucian and he would say that equity and mutual respect are the fundamentals of justice right so Another one of his five principles was Just because you may be bigger or richer than me We are still equal So even the largest countries are equal to the smallest countries Even the most powerful and the wealthiest are equal to the most Marginalized and the poorest even the healthiest are equal to the sickest. This was a principle of equity Mutual respect is the other one Mutual respect. I guess see I mean if you don't have that why why sit down together So speaking of sitting down together so next week at Chaminade in the Qing conference Center There will be a morning of Discussions around business and ethics. Can you can you kind of give the the framework for that? Yeah So there will be both Chinese and American speakers one of the speakers from China is Li Qingping who's coming from Beijing and he represents the Central Committee and he will be talking about The principles that I'm talking that I'm referring to that are Fundamental to Joe and lie that everybody in China is taught and especially if you're going to go into being in the Diplomatic core in China. You have to learn these principles first and foremost And he'll be talking about the fact that In order for us to sustain peace between us. It's not enough for us to have treaties It's not enough for us to to hold each other at bay militarily It's not enough for presidents and prime ministers to meet It has to be fundamental in the hearts of the people because in the end governments can only do what the people support them to do and So he'll be talking about if we have business respect and mutual Trade and so on from which everyone gains that will create not only the mechanics of Mutual self-interest, you know, like you're my customer. I'm your client. I pay you you pay me we make money That's just the mechanical part of it. It will create the fact that these folks come to Honolulu from Beijing and Shanghai and Suzhou and Shenzhen and Xi'an and other places and We're gonna sit with them and talk to them face-to-face. We're gonna share a meal We're gonna share tea. We're gonna talk about our families We're kind of talk about our kids about our education. We're gonna talk about our dreams We're gonna talk about these fundamental feelings and standards that we have once we've exchanged that in the context of business we have a foundation for peace that is unshakable because When I know someone in China and have that kind of respect and equity for them and then somebody comes along From the news media or from a Twitter feed or something as sense says something that is Angry and reactive and hostile to China. I will not only be able to say stop Think I'll be able to say stop think I know Mr. Chen From Shanghai. I know his family. I know their story. This is not who they are They're not attacking us. They are expressing their identity and they want to do so in a dignified way and Mr. Chen when he gets the same kind of propaganda on his side of the ocean Which happens by the way There are people in China who are equally as ill-informed as some of our people here. Mr. Chen will say Wait a minute. I know Kauai Lucas. I've met her. I know who she is This is not the fundamental of America and here's why that will create a break on reactions for peace and a number of times when I've spoken to gatherings in China, especially young people and university groups in China I've had the feeling that somewhere in that audience There's a pair of ears Maybe just one heart Who will one day grow up? To be a leader in the Chinese government and one day maybe 20 or 30 years from now the talk that I gave The sentiment that I expressed that we exchange just the look in the eyes Will come to their mind when they're at a point of making a judgment for peace and that's how the fundamentals are built Michael we have a we have a few pictures to go along with this Including the the posters about the the event so people do can go online to the Yeah, join like peace Institute org and from there you can get tickets for both of these events and they're they're free Yes, they're free. They're free and That our background tells it tells about the background That was a few months ago in Suzhou which is a city not far from Shanghai a little town of about 8 million people and Most Americans have never heard of it, but it's it's an ancient imperial capital It's one of the centers of the silk trade Marco Polo spent time there Wow, and this is one of the gardens that Marco Polo was probably at And it's been turned. It's been modernized and turned into a gallery and we went to a full evening celebration that combined some truly strange avant-garde art, you know abstract and models and Lighting and so on that could have come from a runway in New York's or Milan With some of this traditional Chinese culture and they melded together in a continuum that was entirely natural Let's have some of the other pictures. Okay So this is where the the Ching center is at yes, this is shaman ad and what else do we have that's in there? We go. This is the poster for the exhibition so you can see it's December 12th from 6 to 8 and our host will be Calvin say who is the speaker emeritus of the of the house of representatives the assembly in Hawaii? He's the oldest serving the longest serving Speaker of any state legislature in the country. Wow, that's awesome Yeah, and at the bottom you can see the real the the URL there Joe and live peace Institute.org Okay, and then and then we had a cute shot of the there's actually a shortcut That's some people might like China peace project calm and it goes straight here. Okay. All right And this is the this is the forbidden city in the heart of Beijing So in the foreground where we are is Tiananmen Square But this is the ancient capital and in the center is the throne where the emperor was and no one was allowed to see him Why I wanted to show this picture is because in 1949 when China became independent there were millions of people who wanted to storm that place and They wanted to loot the place. They wanted to take away all the ancient Jade and the carvings and the and Joe and Lai stood in the door and said no We are going to preserve this. This is part of our culture. This is part of our dignity This is China. We're not going to lose this and he did that repeatedly throughout that time of conflict when people who wanted to tear down Everything and start over again. He was the break on that in many artistic and museums and Universities and in temples of all the religions all over China. He stood in the door and said no I Think we have pictures of the There we go. Yeah You know, this is the National Memorial to Joe and Lai in Huan and some of the people from here will be coming here on December the 12th the director of this institution will be here and Joe and Lai when he passed away. He said I don't want any statues. I don't want any memorials I don't want any sign of me just burn up my ashes and scatter them all over China Which they did out of respect But 20 years later a bunch of people in his hometown said and we want to build something So they went ahead and built it and when they opened it this facility here. They apologized I said, oh, sorry, we couldn't help ourselves. We had to do this Let's finish talking about the love story a little so who died first. Do you know? Yes, who died first? He passed away first in 1976. Okay, and she kept on Serving until 1988. So we have a better minute. Let's can we see that the one of this is there? We go the maple leaf. So tell us about this. This was the time when they were separated he was in Geneva and she was in Guangzhou and she knew that he was under tremendous stress and She sent him this maple leaf from their garden and said I want you to know that I'm thinking of you and I send this to you So he turned around and got a bouquet of flowers from a florist in Geneva and had them sent back to her in Guangzhou Oh Michael, thank you for this story. So these this these are other panels that will be that are being hung Downstairs in the chamber level of our state legislature and people will be able to just be open for the whole week from the 12th 13 14 15 16th, they'll be open during the day to the public no charge for everyone to see So take a minute if you're downtown and go have a look. It's free and the and think about the the the beautiful story of integration of love love love of city love of country love of people and how they were translated that passion into a Movement to change the world and how those are universal stories. Yes. Thank you Michael. Thank you coming. Good to see you See you next week