Qing, Li, Fa: Why Chinese People Settle Disputes with Feelings First and Law Last
In 1992, Zhang Yimou's film The Story of Qiu Ju won the Golden Lion in Venice: Qiu Ju appeals her case up the ladder and wins in court, yet when the village head is taken away, she stands at the head of the dirt road, utterly lost—because what she wanted all along was not a verdict but a public acknowledgment, "a statement of what is right." That ending puzzled Western critics for thirty years, and it holds the key to how Chinese people settle disputes: feelings first, then reason, and only at the end, law. From Confucius's ideal of "no litigation" to Judge Bao's gavel and chalk circle, from the Six-Foot Lane to the Fengqiao Experience and the divorce cooling-off period, this ordering has not changed in two thousand years.
