hicks had also became a student of confucian humanism, and she was particularly attracted to the thought a second harvard professor, tu wei-ming, a new confucian philosopher, who became a second new mentor to hicks. hicks attended tu's seminars and the two corresponded over some months. with tu's influence added to that of ben-shahar's, hicks began to exhibit an increased new confucian influence upon her thinking, and she soon turned in her occasional "straits times" columns to criticising singaporean society from the theme. in one piece, she expressed dismay about the "lack of understanding of confucianism as it was intended to be and the political version of the ideology to which we [as singaporeans] are exposed today." just before hicks' death she had submitted what editor richard lim recognised as her most mature column ever to "the straits times". the daily posthumously published "i think and feel, therefore i am", on 28 december 1997. in it hicks argued,