Through discussion of the conceptual metaphor of facing a crossroads, Professor Zhang Longxi of City University of Hong Kong will first establish the necessity of comparison in a general sense, and then will use another conceptual metaphor of killing a Chinese mandarin to explore the ethics of comparison, the issue of the relationship with one’s own group versus relationship, or the lack of it, with outsiders and strangers. As the world becomes increasingly globalized, the physical and psychological distance of human beings from one another is shrinking, and so is the possibility of moral indifference toward others outside one’s own group. This talk is sponsored by the University of Otago Research Theme for Cross-Cultural and Comparative Studies. 10 October 2014