Comments on: The China Synopsis

By: My Second Week in China - Beijing | Cosmic Variance

My Second Week in China - Beijing | Cosmic Variance — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 09:14:42 +0000

[...] A few days ago I promised I’d report on my second week in China, so here goes. [...]

By: Cosmic Variance

Cosmic Variance — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 09:10:53 +0000

My Second Week in China – Beijing

A few days ago I promised I’d report on my second week in China, so here goes.
On Saturday the 21st, we flew to Beijing and checked into the Jade Palace Hotel, near the Institute for Theoretical Physics, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The same…

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 18:26:42 +0000

Yes Hektor, ludicrous indeed. That’s why I’m not doing it, and instead am just reporting on what I experienced. Try to read what I wrote before putting fingers to keyboard please. Don’t put words in my mouth or assumptions into my head.

By: Hektor Bim

Hektor Bim — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:52:42 +0000

Mark, I don’t really want to get into a long political discussion about China either. But it is ludicrous to assume that the larger political and cultural forces in a country won’t have an effect on the way education occurs in that country. So if you are genuinely interested in how and why Chinese education works, you can’t avoid the larger political, cultural, and economic currents in Chinese society.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:45:40 +0000

I don’t wish to get into a long political discussion about China, Hektor, but let me just point out one clear observation. In my very short experience with students these last two weeks, what was very clear to me, was that the Chinese faculty in the two universities I visited were bending over backwards to encourage the students to ask questions and questions the speakers.

By: Hektor Bim

Hektor Bim — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:27:52 +0000

I imagine part of the reticence one sees in Chinese students probably results from growing up in a dictatorship that in the past systematically murdered millions of its own citizens. It’s pretty clear that rebelling against authority or asking questions are not encouraged in China.

By: Moshe Rozali

Moshe Rozali — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:46:10 +0000

Oh boy, I certainly did not mean to say anything deep, just recalled not being able to express myself very clearly at first (though apparently things have not improved much…) .

Anyhow, the trip sounds fascinating, I’ll look forward to reading more.

best,

Moshe

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:16:38 +0000

You’ll have to disrupt the supply of tinfoil, leaving your enemies hatless.

And order more black helicopters.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:06:29 +0000

Adam, you have perceived the deep meanings hidden behind my politically correct rhetoric! How can we forces of leftist hegemonization hope to prevail in the face of such powerful truth-telling?

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:02:27 +0000

So what you’re saying, Sean, is that Mark is an old-fashioned racial supremacist?

Reading between the lines, and all.