Synopsis

It is often said that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” As we appreciate beauty in what constitutes art, tastes, and aesthetics, we begin to discover the diverse perceptual and conceptual elements in different cultural ideas of beauty. In the human quest for truth, goodness, and beauty, we can choose to begin with the quest for beauty which encourages us to explore our common human striving towards selfhood and transcendence. It can be a pathway way to faith as we journey through the aesthetic, the ethical and the spiritual life.

Biodata

Lawrence J. C. Ko is founder-director of Asian Journeys Ltd, a social enterprise engaged in Asian cultural research through service-learning. He has been organising youths from Singapore to participate in environmental action and urban service-learning projects in Asia over the past 20 years, including the Green Desert Project in Inner Mongolia. He is author of two books on the environment and cultural anthropology, including Can the Desert Be Green? Planting Hope in the Wilderness (2014) and From the Desert to the City (2020). Lawrence is an associate trainer at the Civil Service College where he has led workshops on understanding China cross-culturally for the past 16 years.