Sex Robots as Perfect Confucian Wives? Which Confucianism? Whose Fantasy?

Sex Robots as Perfect Confucian Wives? Which Confucianism? Whose Fantasy?

Speaker:

Professor Wang Pei

School of Chinese

The University of Hong Kong

Chair:

Professor Liz Jackson

Faculty of Education

The University of Hong Kong 

Date: January 22, 2026 (Thursday)

Time: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm 

Venue: RMS202, 2/F, Runme Shaw Building, HKU / Online via Zoom

Registration: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/USVdvD2FSAi33rnr7_AHtQ

In 2024, China’s most renowned journal of Confucian philosophy, Confucius Studies, published an article arguing from a so-called “Confucian perspective” that sex robots fulfill the Confucian ideal of the wife. In this talk, I will challenge the central claims of this article and examine their potentially negative implications for contemporary education, particularly in domains such as family education, moral cultivation, and gender education. I will begin by contesting the claim that “the Confucian ideal for a wife lies in obedience.” Then, I will demonstrate that even the most conservative Confucian theories would not support the notion that sex robots could fulfill this role. Next, I will argue that what the article presents as the “traditional Confucian view” is, in fact, a vulgarized form of individualism rather than an authentic Confucian stance. Finally, I will reinterpret relevant passages from the Doctrine of the Mean and the Book of Changes to propose a progressive Confucian vision of intimacy—one that emphasizes attentiveness to otherness and a form of care rooted in shared vulnerability and ethical responsiveness. This perspective also carries profound significance for education, as it can provide a framework for fostering moral sensitivity, cultivating empathy, and deepening understanding of human interdependence.

About the Speaker

Wang Pei is Assistant Professor at the School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include Confucianism, comparative philosophy and psychoanalysis. She is particularly interested in the philosophy of family, Confucian feminism and how traditional Confucian virtues can be morally justified in modern China. She is the co-author (with Daniel. A. Bell) of Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World, published by Princeton University Press in 2020. She is a manuscript reviewer for Polity, and has authored over thirty academic articles in English, Chinese, and French, primarily on Confucianism and comparative philosophy. Her work has been published in journals such as Philosophy & Social Criticism, China Review, Society and Jung Journal, among others.

All are welcome!