There is a traditional Chinese proverb “百善孝为先” meaning that “filial piety is the most important among hundreds of virtues”. Filial piety is one of the fundamental virtue and primary duty in Asian culture, which means that being good to one’s parents. This idea is often used to guide how children should treat their parents in terms of comforts and welfare. Further, filial piety is a culturally embedded social norm, which allows parents to shape their children’s value, attitudes and behavior (Wang et al. 2010, 22). Numerous researches have done to describe its importance in Asian contexts and explain the virtue of filial piety in different perspectives. In this essay, I will briefly explain the virtue of filial piety in East Asia (China and Korea) based on the idea from Buddhism and Confucianism and focus more on how filial piety is understood and practiced in contemporary societies. In order to do so, filial piety will be examined in the deeper meanings beneath based on the ‘ice-berg model’ which is composed of causes (values), the conditions (attitudes, behaviors) and effects (contributions and implications).

Causes of filial piety
This is the ice-berg model that I created, we can see that there are many factors (causes) that influence our values, attitude and eventually leads to effects (our behavior and practices). The lesson from ‘ice berg model’ is that there is nothing in the world that doesn’t have reasons behind; all things are interrelated with some relationships.