Healing with Chinese philosophical wisdom : providing an alternative for millennials to cope with anxiety

• Main Author: Du, Huizhong
• Other Authors: Angeline Yam
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Philosophy::Chinese
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77603
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Recent studies have shown that millennials suffer from anxiety at a much higher rate than generations that preceded them. In Singapore, 4 in 5 young adults experience a quarter-life crisis. According to the author’s survey results, young adults tend to talk to family or friends, do sports or recreational activities, and eat comfort food when they feel anxious. Alternatively, it is believed that having certain philosophical wisdom can help people to tackle anxiety. There are practical cases where people learned and practiced western philosophy for coping with anxiety and benefited from it. And there are many professional associations for philosophical counselling throughout the world, mostly in western countries. In the same field, the applications of Eastern philosophy are much fewer. However, studies show that traditional Chinese philosophy has its contemporary relevance and there are necessity and possibility of it to be introduced into the localisation of psychological counselling. Singapore is an Asian country greatly influenced by western culture, but its significant Chinese cultural heritage can be a favourable cultural background for young adults here to understand and study Chinese philosophical thinking in order to cope with anxiety. Through research, this project seeks to evoke millennials’ interests in understanding and studying Chinese philosophical wisdom of Confucius and Laozi as an alternative method to cope with anxiety. The philosophical wisdom is expressed through a series of typographic posters and further explained in their corresponding motion graphic videos using augmented reality.