He is now calling for Taiwan to place more emphasis on the relationship between an individual and society.

In an opinion column on Taiwan’s economic development published on local media,  Stan Shih reflected on a recent experience in which he attended a university graduation filled with students offstage who were not respective of customary dialogue mannerisms during the event. He claims that when guests or professors are speaking, there is not much regard from the audience to pay attention to their speeches without engaging in “raucous” monologue that “represents disrespect for the guests and professors and disrespect toward fellow audience members”.

“I believe this is a lack of respect for social relations and toward other individuals,” Shih wrote.

While he placed emphasis on slowly building Taiwan’s relationship between an individual and society, he notes the ironic contrast between educated university students and audience members attending elementary school graduation ceremonies, such as his granddaughter’s ceremony at a local Japanese language school. “Each graduating student had an opportunity to address teachers, classmates and parents about their schooling experience, which brought a wave of emotion throughout the audience.”

He admits a much stronger emotional connection to this type of representative dialogue where each student was given an opportunity to express their reflections on without being interrupted by unruly fellow students or negligent audience members.

Shih associates some of these attitudes with current trends in the global Internet based society, with themes including cyber bullying and the rampant spread of false information through unaccredited news sources. The relationship between an individual and society can only be cured when people begin to realize the golden rule for what it actually does – when we benefit others, we benefit ourselves, in a way where both the individual and the society can develop a closer, more cooperative relationship.