Embracing Cultures: Ideas that travel

Can ancient wisdom still illuminate the world of today? AI, work-life balance — what would Confucius say?

In the latest episode of Embracing Cultures, Gary Sigley — an Australian Sinologist who once served as director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Western Australia and now teaches at Beijing Foreign Studies University — shares his lifelong journey with Chinese classics. He explains why ren (benevolence), junzi (the exemplary person), and he er bu tong (harmony without uniformity) still matter today.

The conversation ranges widely — from The Analects to Zhuangzi to Dream of the Red Mansions, from Confucius to Socrates to Marcus Aurelius. Gary Sigley has always believed that a classic endures because it continues to resonate in every age.

Ancient wisdom never grows old. It simply finds new ways to travel through time.