Q: What was it like under the Nazi occupation? A: Well, we weren't... especially the Slavs, we weren't regarded as a part of the human race. We were submensch ("untermensch"): Czechs, Poles... Russians, we were sub-humans. They (the Germans Nazis) were ubermensch and we were nothing. "Harmony Without Uniformity" This Confucian ideal underscored 2025's 11th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations in Qufu, Shandong. The Forum's theme of "Beauty in Diversity: Nurturing Understanding Among...

昨夜西风凋碧树，独上高楼，望尽天涯路。 衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴。 众里寻他千百度，蓦然回首，那人却在灯火阑珊处。 "Who am I, really?" It’s the first unit title of the Beijing Foreign Language Press Oral English textbook used in my sophomore EFL classes at the University of Jinan, Shandong, China. The core unit reading is a brief introduction to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, specifically to ground Chinese student understanding of Maslow’s concept of “self-actualization”. Essentially a Western rather than Eastern theory, in feedback after group...