Ongoing Projects
History of Political Thought; Democratic Theories; Traditions of Pluralism; Multiculturalism; AI Ethics and Governance, etc.
(An academic work habit experiment in “slow motion multitasking” in 2025 annus mirabilis.)
Simone in the Red Chamber,
Senate of Canada
Simone Mao's Statement
I remain profoundly grateful to Canada. Here I found the principles I had long been searching for. These principles enjoy fertile soil in Canada. I appreciate that these principles were established through the Constitution and are actively defended. They are the embodiment of the values I have sought—after surviving a life-or-death ordeal, enduring cultural displacement, exclusion, and racial discrimination myself, and long reflecting upon the human history of religious wars, conflicts of belief, and potential civilizational clash. That is why I say that my departure from my origin was because of my faith, not for other reasons.
My faith is not a particular set of doctrines or religious rules, but a belief that different convictions can be expressed freely, respected sincerely, and allowed to coexist peacefully—when supported by the appropriate social and governance conditions and by sustained public endeavours. Given the opportunity, with the necessary conditions created, civilizations do not inevitably clash. Such a multicultural faith is built on trust, dialogue, mutual understanding, and collective efforts across generations.
I deeply appreciate it as Canadians provide an inclusive environment in which my ideas can grow and flourish. They were the first to recognize my work, share my ideals, and offer me a home after my ordeals, displacement, and tumultuous journey across continents. I believe that many people from the seven God’s continents who cherish peace and human dignity will one day recognize my work and ideals as well. I’m humbly grateful that they have been recognized by UNESCO.
My way of thinking and my system of beliefs are unlike anyone else’s. I do not accept others projecting their own assumptions, upbringing, or worldview onto me, nor do I accept being interpreted through that lens. As Spinoza observed, people’s various dispositions and love of contradiction cause them to be habitually inclined to distort and condemn what differs from their own accustomed ways of thinking, however rightly it may have been said. Every church is orthodox to itself, yet often seen by others as erroneous or heretical. Part of human nature inclines us to gather instinctively among those who resemble ourselves while remaining reluctant to understand those whose convictions or identities differ from our own.
From an evolutionary perspective, this tendency likely reflects adaptations that favoured cooperation within small, closely bonded groups. It is a legacy of humanity’s tribal instincts rather than an immutable law of our future. Nothing in human life remains unchanged. The Stone Age brain could not have imagined the technologies that now shape our daily existence. Evolution has shaped our predispositions. It continues to unfold, as new social realities create new selective pressures, giving rise to new adaptive dispositions. One of the most significant adaptations of our increasingly interconnected world may be the ability to cooperate across differences of culture, faith, and identity. Not only for addressing global challenges, but it may, in the distant future, become the new norm of human living. If our ways of living can change so profoundly, there is little reason to regard any certain inherited tendency as an unalterable essence of a vague, elusive, equivocal “human nature,” just as there is little justification for essentialism in our understanding of cultures.
Like Spinoza, I have never forgotten how differences in thought and values can become so profound and grave. The inevitability of my departure from home has demonstrated how deep and ingrained human attachment to long-held convictions that only they alone are right can be. Yet being deep-rooted is not being wise. The future belongs to a world that is prepared to learn, in earnest, how to live with otherness and with its neighbours. It belongs to civilizations that possess both the will and the capacity to respect difference.
When the vision you seek to realize is unlike anything people have ever encountered, when the possibilities you envision lie beyond people’s previous experience, and they have never imagined, they naturally interpret it through the lens of what they already know, projecting familiar categories and their own assumptions onto it and, in doing so, misunderstanding it. Yet the future is always something to be created. Fortunately, people’s lived experiences, the governance, constitutional, and cultural practices of countries such as Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and others, provide valuable points of reference and living blueprints for such a future that may be imagined and built.
Simone's View about Her Emigration and Sacrifices Safeguarding Her Ideas
Chinese tradition often emphasizes one’s belonging and attachment to the native soil—“fallen leaves eventually return to their roots”. But why not learn from the Jewish people, who offer another model: culture can be carried wherever one goes. Civilization, essentially, is not bound to any one territory but resides in the living peoples who embody it. It endures wherever there are people who inherit it, live by it, and pass it on. The wisdom some peoples have cultivated through centuries of diasporic life might offer a valuable example for an increasingly pluralistic and interconnected world where more and more individuals and peoples dwell side by side as neighbours, not bound to certain territories.
In exile, Confucius traveled among the principality states for fourteen years in pursuit of his political and moral ideals. At the courts of these states, he expounded his political beliefs; though he did not see them implemented, his journeys disseminated the traditions of li (which orders human relationships) and wen (which cultivates human beings) across the Chinese world, attracted many disciples, and laid the foundations for a moral vision emphasizing personal and governmental morality, harmonious social relationships, righteousness, kindness, sincerity, and a ruler’s responsibilities to lead by virtue during an age of incessant warfare, profound political and social transformation, and the erosion of the moral order. During his travels, he endured the siege at Kuang and later the starvation between Chen and Cai. Whether threatened with death or reduced to hunger, he never abandoned his commitment. In the siege at Kuang, he called upon Heaven:
“If Heaven intends to let this civilizing tradition (wen) perish, then those who come after me will no longer be able to participate in its tradition and share in its blessings. If Heaven does not intend to let this culture (wen) perish, what can the people of Kuang do to me?”
「天之將喪斯文(wen)也，後死者不得與於斯文(wen)也；天之未喪斯文(wen)也，匡人其如予何？」
The inscription derived from Confucius’s appeal to Heaven within the Harvard-Yenching Library reads “Si Wen Zai Zi” (斯文在兹)—“Here abides the living tradition/continuity of civilization.” The term wen (文) does not refer merely to literature, nor simply to culture. It refers to the civilizing tradition inherited from the Zhou, and generally speaking, (self-)cultivation, the moral and cultural order, and the enduring transmission of human cultivation and education itself. In comparative perspective, it can be rendered as the Humanities in certain contexts, and bears affinities with the Greek concepts of paideia and the German ideal of Bildung, while also sharing with nomos (Ancient Greek: νόμος) the idea of a normative cultural order. The Book of Changes (Zhouyi, Hexagram 22, Bi 賁) also states: “By observing the patterns of human culture (renwen), one transforms and brings order to the world.”
「觀乎人文以化成天下。」
Confucius was a reformist. He broke the state’s hereditary monopoly on education by founding a private school open to students from diverse social backgrounds. Like Socrates, he was a great educator. He believed that learning should be open to all regardless of social origin (you jiao wu lei, “education for all, without discrimination”). He transformed education from a privilege of the aristocracy into an opportunity available to people of talent and aspiration regardless of birth, and his pedagogy varies according to each student’s character and capacity. For this reason, Taiwan commemorates Confucius’s birthday as Teachers’ Day. Like Confucius, in my own understanding, the cultivation of character, the right to education should be open to all regardless of nation-state and ethnicity, and learning knows no boundaries.
Simone delivered the thank-you remarks for Senator Farah Mohamed at the Model Senator program’s closing ceremony on behalf of the cohort and encouraged like-minded young people. Read the full speech.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
Simone exchanged perspectives with Speaker Raymonde Gagné on women’s leadership in politics and public service, and with Senator Leo Housakos, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada, on democratic institutions and parliamentary governance. I particularly enjoyed the Leader of the Opposition’s address and the closing session, where the senators’ ideas, experiences, and personal stories offered valuable insights into public leadership, political responsibility, and democratic service.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
Simone spoke during the second reading. I had the honour of stepping into the role of a senator representing Ontario, engaging in legislative debates, policy discussions, and parliamentary simulations while learning firsthand how bills are examined, debated, and passed.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
I bring to the Red Chamber a unique perspective shaped by intellectual origins, history, idealism, global migration, and an enduring commitment to democratic institutions. This is where my decade-long journey of searching for a truth that I can believe in has guided me.
As a Model Senator in the Senate of Canada, Simone debated legislation in the Red Chamber, engaged with Canadian senators on democratic governance, reconciliation, and public leadership, and delivered the closing vote of thanks to Senator Farah Mohamed, bringing her research in democratic theory, constitutionalism, and multiculturalism into parliamentary dialogue.
Youth Senator Mao representing Ontario in the Red Chamber, Senate of Canada.
Simone with Lnu/Mi'kmaq Senator Brian Francis (Prince Edward Island), former Chief of the Abegweit First Nation, and fellow Youth Senators. It was an honour to discuss Indigenous reconciliation, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and transitional justice. I also shared my research on Canadian multiculturalism and interest in Indigenous worldviews, while exchanging perspectives on Indigenous knowledge traditions and Harvard scholars' efforts to advance historical justice for Indigenous peoples in the Americas.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
My vision is...
A future ahead in which people from different cultures, traditions, religions, and ways of life can live together peacefully in an increasingly plural, heterogeneous, multicultural (multi-ethnic), and interconnected world.
My work is ...
How can it be possible? What makes it possible? In which sense and to what degree?
“Given the opportunity, with the necessary conditions created, civilizations do not inevitably clash.”
If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.
Inquire. Investigate. Evolve.
Curiosity Sparks Reality.
Copyright © 2023 Simone Zhenting Mao. All rights reserved.
The troops exulting sat in order round,
And beaming fires illumined all the ground.
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O’er heaven’s pure azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene,
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber’d gild the glowing pole,
O’er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain’s head:
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays.
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,
And shoot a shady lustre o’er the field.
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
Whose umber’d arms, by fits, thick flashes send,
Loud neigh the coursers o’er their heaps of corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.