The Financial Times of the UK published an article on June 13 titled "The 'Siege' of Chinese University Education," which compares the differences between university education in China and the United States from a Korean perspective. The main points are as follows:
I previously attended an undergraduate program at a small private university in the Midwest of the United States, which had only 1,250 students in a local population of just 8,900. This university is called GRINNELL COLLEGE, which I had never heard of before. I decided to attend this university for two reasons: first, a guidebook titled "College Guide," published by a former New York Times editor, introduced some of the top universities for psychology majors, and this university was among them; second, the university offered scholarships for international students. At that time, I was interested in this major and needed the scholarship.
On the first day of classes, after the lecture, I ran into the professor who had just taught me in the hallway. "Hello, Li Chengxian!" he said with a smile as he greeted me. How did he know my name? I was quite surprised and deeply touched. That day's experience completely changed my impression of the university; although I was in a strange foreign land, it made me feel warm and human. I spent the happiest four years of my life at this university. At that time, I even thought that if I ever had children, I would definitely send them here to study. Later, I attended Harvard for my master's degree, but that thought never changed.
In order to quickly adapt to the local culture, in addition to studying psychology, I also took a course in American history. Most classes at this university were small and centered around roundtable discussions. The history teacher was a PhD graduate from Yale University and was an expert on the Vietnam War. To be honest, I found it hard to tolerate this class at first. Every time the class began, the teacher would criticize America, discussing how early Americans massacred Native Americans, how Chinese workers were mistreated during the westward expansion, and how the descendants of Japanese Americans were mistreated after World War II, etc. When it came to the Vietnam War, his expertise shone even more as he detailed the wrongdoings of American soldiers in Vietnam.
Each time I attended his class, I learned a new piece of American "misdeed" history. His one-sided criticism of America was uncomfortable even for me as a foreign student. I wondered why the university would hire such a teacher. Sometimes I even suspected he was an undercover agent sent by a hostile country to America because he expressed great sympathy for socialism, stating that his father was an immigrant from the former Soviet Union.
Finally, during a conversation with an American classmate, I shared this thought with her and asked for her opinion. This classmate was from Chicago, and her parents were middle-class. I asked her, "What do you think of this professor?" She replied, "I’m paying so much money for college to learn this kind of real history. These topics are generally not covered in high school. If we don’t engage in self-reflection, we will make the same mistakes as in history." Many years have passed since I graduated from college, but I still remember that conversation. Her answer inspired me and made me realize why America became the world's strongest country and why it attracts people from different countries and diverse values. The reason lies in America's strong ability to self-correct, and university education plays a leading role in this process.
In American universities, I am never afraid to criticize America because Americans criticize their own country’s shortcomings more vigorously than I do. In this open and relaxed environment, I discovered not the shortcomings of America, but its strengths.
I have some understanding of the Chinese education system. After arriving in China, I graduated from two universities: Beijing Foreign Studies University and Tsinghua University. Recently, I’ve noticed that many Chinese people are comparing the American education system with the education methods of Chinese parents and Chinese universities. China has its own national conditions, culture, and educational traditions. Some Chinese people are wary of advocating the advantages of American education, believing it is a form of American cultural invasion, aimed at disrupting Chinese educational traditions and causing Chinese children to lose their patriotic education tradition.
Understanding this concern helps to comprehend why the Chinese government recently issued the "Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Ideological and Political Work of Young Teachers in Higher Education." According to Chinese media, this is intended to "encourage young teachers to establish a more resolute confidence in China's development path and to further promote patriotism in higher education institutions." It is clear that this is a form of "preventive measure" by the Chinese authorities. As China becomes increasingly open and the internet develops, external information is more easily accessible than before, which is highly infectious for young university teachers with an active critical spirit. If the political thoughts of young university teachers do not align with China's national conditions, their roles as university instructors could influence Chinese students' patriotic spirit.
However, from an outsider's perspective, this kind of approach is difficult to understand. On one hand, China is becoming more and more the center of the world stage and increasingly integrates with the international community; on the other hand, it continually attempts to establish a safety barrier, like a "siege" to protect Chinese university students from being influenced by Western ways of thinking. To effectively carry out such work, they have specifically provided ideological education for young university teachers, intending to cultivate them into "ideological engineers."
The classical Chinese text "The Great Learning" emphasizes the importance of being broad-minded and tolerant, stating that "a prime minister's stomach can accommodate a ship." This applies to individuals and even more so to nations. Ancient Chinese philosophy stresses "cultivating oneself, regulating one's family, governing the country, and promoting peace in the world" and "when in hardship one should nurture oneself, and when prosperous one should seek to benefit the world," believing that benevolent individuals will have the world in their hearts without personal prejudice. Both individuals and nations cannot thrive well apart from the "world." After China has shaken off the "century of humiliation," it is striving to restore its international leading position of "promoting peace in the world" and "benefiting the world." The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also proposed to firmly establish confidence in our path, theories, and system. This confidence stems from the tolerance, openness, and innovation, as well as the ability to face criticism calmly, adopting a healthy attitude of "correcting what is wrong and encouraging what is right." These are the virtues that universities should encourage students to cultivate.
Upon entering university, American students learn an open mindset of criticism and self-criticism, while Chinese students learn a "siege mentality" wrapped in "patriotic education." The president of Harvard tells graduates to "change the world!" The president of Peking University tells students to "serve national strategies." The former's stage is the world, while the latter's stage is the nation. Therefore, what kind of mentality better aligns with China's traditional spirit of taking the whole world as one's responsibility?