From the NYT (subscription may be required, you can always use bugmenot): China Luring Scholars to Make Universities Great.
Parts of the article hits too close to... um... home.
China has already pulled off one of the most remarkable expansions of education in modern times, increasing the number of undergraduates and people who hold doctoral degrees fivefold in 10 years.
"First-class universities increasingly reflect a nation's overall power," Wu Bangguo, China's secondranking leader, said recently in a speech here marking the 100th anniversary of Fudan, the country's first modern university.
The model is simple: recruit top foreign-trained Chinese and Chinese-American specialists, set them up in well-equipped labs, surround them with the brightest students and give them tremendous leeway. In a minority of cases, they receive American-style pay; in others, they are lured by the cost of living, generous housing and the laboratories. How many have come is unclear.
Well, almost. At least they believe in their own people. To some extent.
Mr. Yang, who leads a small experimental university in Ningbo, also criticized the lack of autonomy given to many Chinese researchers.
"At Princeton one mathematician spent nine years without publishing a paper, and then solved a problem that had been around for 360 years," Mr. Yang said, a reference to Andrew J. Wiles and his solution to Fermat's last theorem in the early 1990's. "No one minded that, because they appreciate the dedication to hard work there. We don't have that spirit yet in China."
Similarly, Ge Jianxiong, a distinguished historical geographer at Fudan, said Chinese culture often demands speedy results, which could undermine research. "In China projects are always short-term, say three years," he said. "Then they want you to produce a book, a voluminous book. In real research you've got to give people the freedom to produce good results, and not just the results they want."
I don't want to get sued, so I won't comment further.
Students here are not encouraged to challenge authority or received wisdom. For some, that helps explain why China has never won a Nobel Prize. What is needed most now, some of China's best scholars say, are bold, original thinkers.
Hear, hear.
"We need a new revolution to get us away from a culture that prizes becoming government officials. We must learn to reward real innovation, independent thought and genuine scholarly work."
Enough said.
***
Before the publication of this article, we had a conversation about this in one of my classes. My professor, who's foreign born, posed us this question: Why is it that countries like Japan and Germany teach math and science far better than Americans do, but America is leading in math and science research?
The perspectives from my class is interesting, especially since my class is pretty international. As in, international. International does not mean half the class is white and the other half is from one particular region in the world. There are people from Eastern Europe, East/South-east Asia (South-east Asia being me) and South America.
The Americans were diplomatic (and I guess not wanting to push any politcal incorrectness buttons, seeing how ridiculous the "thou shalt not be offended if thou is not white and male" campus atmosphere is).
The best scientists from all over the world come to America.
There is a lot more research funding in America.
Yeah, there's also a lot of research funding in biology in Singapore.
The international students provided more interesting perspectives.
In America, being a college professor is considered prestigious. Unlike his home country, I believe.
Some may come to America for the material comforts and research funding.
My prof said, But what about math? For math you just need pen and paper. (Unless you're an applied mathematician who can convince grant agencies to give you a lot to buy a computer.)
But in (home country), you'll starve if you want to do mathematics.
In America, it is considered prestigious and viable to be a research scientist.
And my prof's take?
In America, individualism is encouraged. In contrast, in countries like Japan and China, conformity is encouraged.
For some time, an idea has been lurking in my mind - sending a postcard to my grandfather. You see, my uncle migrated a long time ago, and my grandfather is overjoyed every time he receives a letter, in ever deteriorating Chinese. Lately hanyu pinyin has been appearing in the letters. The only thing is, my grandfather's preferred language of communication is Chinese, and when he receives a postcard from me in Chinese, he'll go, "Wtf? So this is the result of all my efforts to get my children and hence grandchildren to know Chinese?????" I'll probably be a lot more comprehensible in French - and, my grandfather knows French.
He was a Chinese language journalist during his time, a pretty influential one I hear. After he retired he continued writing a column for many years that had a good following. One of my Chinese tuition teachers mentioned his column before, and was surprised to hear that he's my grandfather. She was probably thinking, And this is the standard of his granddaughter's Chinese??? Anyway, he took French classes at the Alliance Francaise before, and even won a scholarship to study French in Paris for a year. When Carrefour first opened, he was correcting all our pronunciations. That was before I studied French. When I told him that I was studying French, he offered me his French-Chinese dictionary, which I politely declined. Firstly, I'll need an English-Chinese dictionary to use in conjunction, and he having it around might keep his mind alert - another source of intellectual stimulation.
M says my family has a lot of atypical characters. Of course I never thought of it that way, I mean, who thinks of their family as odd? Maybe that's why my sense of what's "normal" is somewhat skewered. For one, "you should study a course that would get you a highest paying job" isn't a mantra in the family - guess why my uncle migrated? His job is not available in Singapore, not because of bureaucratic narrow-mindedness, but because there is really no such job (make a guess). My dad is in a profession that is closest to his real interest - give ya a clue: in his youth, he and his friend nearly blew up his friend's house.
My grandfather was pretty forward-looking for his time. He knew that English is the language of communication, but he wanted his children to be grounded in Chinese. So he put them in a Chinese school (one that's progressive for its time - math and science classes were held in English, humanities in Chinese) up to secondary level, and literally begged the RI principal to take them in for pre-university. So yeah, my dad is one of the few effectively bilingual people I know around, and I never read the Chinese dailies available at my place. Well, actually he used to know ancient Greek as well - he took a correspondence course in divinity during his NS days, which involved reading the Bible in the original languages. He didn't continue the program when he got to the Old Testament.
And this is just the immediate family on my father's side. My mum is probably one of the few women of her generation with a graduate degree (well, I guess many women in my grandma's generation had to work to supplement the family income). My grandma used to be a ballet dancer (in addition to her real job as a schoolteacher - in Chinese as well. Actually both my grandmas were Chinese schoolteachers. Don't ask any more about my command of Chinese.) My other grandfather was intimately acquainted with Prague in its heyday. And beyond the immediate family, there are other crazy characters, like 70 years young granduncle and aunt who go parasailing in Malaysia, driving in South Africa, and volunteering as English teachers in villages in China.
- I've Moved
- Liberal arts degrees
- Boycott
- Yet another rant on studying Chinese in Singapore
- Degree Duration
- On Insularity
- What am I getting myself into?
- On cultural interactions & studying overseas
- Irresponsibility
- Search Strings redux
- June 2005
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