Exploration of wisdom and empathy through art, diplomacy and religion

"Empathy is not a momentary feeling — it is a lifelong practice." - Master Wang

1EarthVillage hosted a cross-cultural dialogue titled "A Dialogue with Three Distinguished Elders on Questions for our Times: East-West, Empathy & Wisdom" on Tuesday 30 June 2026 at Hobart's Henry Jones Art Hotel, exploring themes of cultural fusion and understanding through art, diplomacy and religion.

The dialogue brought together three distinguished elders: renowned Chinese painter Huang Azhong, celebrated for his fusion of Eastern and Western artistic traditions and who is visiting from Shanghai; diplomat and scholar Professor Jocelyn Chey, a longtime influential figure in Australia–China relationship and appreciator of Chinese culture; and Master Wang, President of the Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia. 

Drawing respectively on their perspectives of art, diplomacy, and religion, the three elders engaged in a wide-ranging conversation touching on the differences and connections between East and West, wisdom for a divided world, the cultivation of empathy, Australia as a place where cultures meet, and a message for the younger generation.

Painter Huang Azhong opened the dialogue by reflecting on the connections and resonances between Eastern and Western art, observing that although the two traditions differ in outward form, they ultimately reach toward a shared sense of beauty. He suggested that eastern art tends to emphasise mood, atmosphere, and the artist's inner state of mind, while western art has traditionally emphasised the faithful representation of objective form. Western artists observe with the eye and render by hand what is seen, whereas the eastern artists turn inward, using scenery or objects as vehicles for personal thought and feeling — an art of meaning rather than mere likeness.

He also noted that religions such as Buddhism, though originating in India, were gradually sinicised after reaching China, blending with traditional Chinese thought to produce a distinctively Chinese aesthetic sensibility. Traditional Chinese art often seeks to render nature itself in its fullness, sometimes incorporating natural elements directly. Western art, by contrast, historically focused on depicting the object itself, only beginning to emphasise the artist's individuality and inner expression with the rise of Impressionism. His observations over the past half-century is that western art has increasingly absorbed eastern concepts into artists' personal expression. Huang concluded that while Eastern and Western art will always differ in form, both ultimately point toward a shared human pursuit of beauty and nature — a sensibility traceable to classical Chinese philosophy of over two thousand years ago, in the thought of Confucius, Laozi, and Zhuangzi.

Diplomat and scholar Professor Jocelyn Chey then reflected on her diplomatic career representing Australia in China. She recalled the times when she began studying Chinese history, language, and culture at a time when people often asked her why — China was not yet a significant trading partner, and since the 1949 revolution had been undergoing a difficult and controversial economic transformation under Mao Zedong. She spoke of the hardships of that era, including the "three difficult years" of the early 1960s and the subsequent Cultural Revolution, both periods marked by great loss of life. Despite frequent questioning of her choice, Professor Chey said that for her, China represented an entirely new and different world, unlike anything she had studied before — and this, above all, was what drew her to it.

Master Wang then opened his response by drawing on a verse from the Chan Buddhist chronicle Jiatai Pudeng Lu: "the moon casts its reflection in a thousand rivers". It symbolises that while East and West differ in outward form, both are illuminated by the same moon of truth. He also referred to the 'indra net' as described in the Avatamsaka Sutra, in which each jewel reflects the light of all others, to show that civilisations are already interwoven rather than opposed.

Turning to the divisions and discord of today's world, Master Wang cited the Buddhist parable recorded in the Agamas Sutra of the 'two arrows': "the first arrow is the suffering that circumstance inevitably brings, but the second — resentment, anger, and bitterness — is the arrow we fire upon ourselves".

He urged all to dissolve self-attachment through boundless kindness and shared compassion, offering three concrete practices: the harmony of a monastic community, likened to water blended with milk; deep listening, in the manner of Avalokiteshvara, whose name itself means 'hearing the cries of the world'; and honouring others as future Buddhas, following the example of the Never Disparaging Bodhisattva from the Lotus Sutra.

On the cultivation of empathy, Master Wang pointed to the practice of compassion and the teaching of "exchanging self for other", through which empathy can be extended from loved ones to strangers and even to those who have caused us harm. He offered five concrete steps: stillness of mind, deep listening, reaching out to those unlike ourselves, small daily acts of kindness, and reflection on impermanence.

Addressing Australia's vision of multicultural harmony, Master Wang longs for mutual respect, active understanding, care for the vulnerable and newly arrived, and dialogue in place of silence and division. In his closing remarks, Master Wang offered the younger generation these words:

Where the heart holds no walls, the world holds no enemies; when others are seen as ourselves, the human world itself becomes a pure land.