Sorry for the sabbatical…post-Olympic malaise plus the start of a new semester and a few key research deadlines, conspired to push my little hobby to the back burner.
I know he’s a divisive figure, love ‘em or hate ‘em, but he’s always worth reading. Check out this piece in The American Scholar by Ha Jin on “The Censor in the Mirror.”
Rigid censorship not only chokes artistic talent but also weakens the Chinese populace, who are forced to be less imaginative and less inventive. The crisis in education has been a hot topic in China for years. Why are so many Chinese students good at taking tests but poor at analytical thinking? Why are many Chinese college graduates less creative and innovative than college graduates in the West? Besides the commercialization of education, the absence of a free, tolerant environment has stunted the intellectual growth of students and teachers. People often ask how many great original thinkers and artists modern China has contributed to the world, and how many original products China has created on its own. Very few, considering that the country has 1.3 billion people. True, China is richer than before, but its wealth relies on duplicating and