Chinese education in foreigners’ eyes

Background:

Pisa test is the Programme for International Student Assessment. This test is used to measure children’s skills in reading, calculating and science. It has become the leading international standard.

  Yesterday, I read an article on BBC News. The title is “China: the world’s cleverest country?” I found it interesting and want to talk about it today.

In the article, the person who is responsible for Pisa test said that, China’s results are remarkable. The findings indicate that China has an education system that is overtaking many Western countries.

There has been intense interest in China’s economic and political development. this provides the most significant insight into how it is teaching the next generation. An American said, on a recent trip to a poor province in China, he saw that schools were often the most impressive buildings while in the West, it is more likely to be a shopping centre. He said that you get an image of a society that is investing in its future, rather than in current consumption.

There were also major cultural differences when teenagers were asked about why people succeeded at school. North Americans tell you typically it is all luck. They will say ‘I’m born talented in mathematics, or I’m born less talented so I’ll study something else. In Europe, it’s about social heritage. They will say ’My father was a plumber so I’m going to be a plumber’. In China, more than nine out of 10 children tell you: ‘It depends on the effort I invest and I can succeed if I study hard.’ They take on responsibility. They can overcome obstacles and say ‘I’m the owner of my own success’, rather than blaming it on the system.”

  I think the writer has some misunderstanding in Chinese education to some degree. The actual situation may be not so terrific as they explain. Maybe the reason of the intense interest in economics and political development is the money worship, but not the government’s insight into how it is teaching the next generation. Maybe the reason of children’s investing effort is that they become numb forced by the education system, but not they take on responsibility and be the owner of their own success.

  We all know that China has a lot of problems in copying, fake, creativity, education, and so on. And for a more than one billion people country, we cannot make an immediate change if we want to solve these problems. But we should not feel ashamed. We should not lose confidence. As long as we keep working on solving these problems even though we know China is not perfect, can we make it a better and really feel proud of it.

Whatever is, is right

“Whatever is, is right.” This maxim reveals the process of development. Something comes into being because it is “right” enough while something disappears because it is “wrong” enough. Whether something is right or wrong does not depend on its inherent attributes, but depends on  the contradiction between it and its environment. If something gets along harmoniously with its environment, it can develop to a bigger scale. Conversely, it would disappear gradually if it has enough conflicts with its environment. That is, as long as the environment keeps changing, nothing on earth is always right or definitely wrong. Something used to be wrong may be right one day. For example, in hunting and gathering age, women enjoyed relatively higher status than men because women could collect more food by gathering while men got less by hunting. There is right enough for women to enjoy a higher status. However, as planting develops, men gradually become the main bread winner of the family. The contradiction of the state that women enjoyed a higher status but men were more productive grows bigger and bigger so that women lose their status in feudal society. When knowledge grows in importance and labor is not crucial in production, the ability to produce is similar between two genders. Therefore, there is enough contradiction to alter the inferiority of women and there is enough reason for women to promote their status. In some sense, we should not criticize the state of women in the past, because it is right enough at that time.

Differences between Generations

  Every generation of people is different in important ways. I think the principal differences between my generation and my parents’ generation are in how they relate to others. My generation is more tolerant of other people’s choices, less concerned about what others think, and more self-centered.

  My parents’ generation has stricter standards about what kinds of behaviour are acceptable. They sometimes have a hard time accepting the fact that other people may have different ideas about what is right and what is wrong. My generation thinks people should have a lot of choices. For example, they choose whom they want to live with, whether or not to have children, whether or not to practice a particular religion, and what to do for a living.

  My parents’ generation is much more concerned about what other people think of them. Many grew up in tightly knit communities where people knew each other’s families. Filling in meant that you had to react a certain way. Many of my generation grew up in loosely knit communities, where we only knew about our closest neighbours. We did not care what the rest of the community thought of us. Also, we were a very rebellious generation and often did thing just to shock people.

  Wherever we grew up, most of my generation did not have to worry about having enough to eat or a roof over our heads. My parents’ generation did. For this reason, my parents did not have time to analyse their feelings of think about their inner selves. They were too busy trying to get by. Children of my generation were well taken care of by their parents. Because of that, we had time to think about ourselves and our place in the universe.

  When I think about our actions, it seems that my parents’ generation is more outer directed and my generation is more inner directed.

Happy birthday to me

       In the morning, when I went to Gang Eng Seng School for give program, my partner Ji Yi suddenly told me, “happy birthday!”Hearing this, I was stunned at first. A few seconds later, I replied, “thank you!” At that time, this congratulation was really strange to me even though I could still clearly remember the voice of the last birthday greeting for me, but it as if happened in the many years ago. Then I was lost in the thoughts of my past life.

       When I was young, the word “birthday” was not similar to me because there was almost nobody would remember my birthday, including myself. My parents were busy with working and my friends did not care about me too much. The only one on earth who would remember my birthday was my sister. At many times, I lived an “ordinary day” as usual, my sister suddenly said to me, “Happy birthday, my lovely brother!” and then represented me a gift. As we have little pocket money at that time, the gifts were very simple, for example a pen, a notebook or a wallet. Although they might be worthless, they were undoubtedly priceless to me.

       Maybe I had dressed in school uniform for too long, I was weak in how the decide which shirt should go with the trousers. And my sister always complained about my weird dressing. In most time, I would reply an excuse, “In fact, I know what I should dress in but I just have no time in it.” Another interesting thing is about buying clothes. Certainly, I was a great fool in this part. Once a time, in order to buying some clothes for me, I accompanied with her to the shopping mall. She drew me from shop after shop. And each time I tried on some clothes, she would deliver a speech on what I should dress in and how others dress. Before long, I cannot stand her endless words any more. “Enough! I choose clothes on my own,” I shouted out. She was angry and kept in silence right away. Then I looked at the bewildering clothes. After about five minutes, I said to my sister, “E…it would be better if you could give some advice.”

       In addition, when I received the greeting, I felt that she just like my sister. Hahahaha……

Why do I want to choose Physics as my major

There is an astrophysicist. Every time he is
asked “what do you do?” by the person sitting next to him in a plane, he
responds “I’m an astronomer” if he feels like talking. If he doesn’t want to be
disturbed, he will answer: “I’m a physicist.”
During the recess week, a lot of my friends
asked me “what are you planning on majoring in”. I answered them “Physics”.
Most of them couldn’t hold the surprise on their faces and said “Are you
crazy?” “Why would you do that?” “What will you do with a physics degree?” Many
people may think physics is boring and abstract. This makes them have a
negative attitude toward Physics. However, I have some special reasons to
choose physics.
First, I love Physics definitely. It teaches me
to understand how things work, the reasons that things happen the way they do,
which requires the ability to analyse problems. It’s not the matter of
knowledge, but the matter of how to think. In NUS, engineering students study
parts of Physics only in a week, but Physics students have to spend two months.
As a result, engineering students only know how to use the formulae but don’t
know where they are from. A physicist got a banking job in the United State
with his physics PHD. He asked his employer why he was chosen. His employer
simply said: “we need people who can really think and solve frontiers problems,
not people who can only use application of some formulae.” Believe it or not, an undergraduate degree in
physics tells prospective employers this person has what it takes to succeed.
The Times also suggested that Physics was in fact the most employable of
degrees.
I always want to try something in different
fields during different period of my life. The skill in Physics is highly marketable
and it is applicable to a wide range of careers. Physicists go on to fields
like medicine, finance, marketing, music&TV, engineering, often quite
successfully. The connections between Physics and these fields are explained
below.
Medicine: Surgery is now carried out
using lasers. Our body are imaged using X-rays, ultrasound, NMR(nuclear
magnetic resonance). And, there are some new techniques, such as using nanobots
to target individual cancer cell or using infrared light to monitor our blood.
Finance: in finance, it is a
physicist’s ability to model complex systems which is particularly important.
Billions of pounds rest on predicting the future behaviour of global markets.
Marketing: you can watch the speech
“What physics taught me about marketing” on TED given by Dan Cobley who is the
marketing director at Google.
Music&TV: Whether you want to be
in front of the camera or work behind the scenes, understanding physics is
useful for many careers in television and music. From the sound engineer who
controls the mix at a music concert to the special effects technician working
on the latest action movie, many of the people that work in the media industry
need physics know-how.
To tell the truth, what I said before will be
accepted by most western countries especially America
but maybe not by Singapore
or China.
However, there are many Singaporean students having education in western
countries every year. Nobody knows what will happen in the next four years. I
still want to have a try. Learn Physics to open my eyes, open my mind, open
doors to my future, and really make some differences.

major

At present, we are brought to a cross where we have to choose our majors. And this choice may influence our lives significantly. Thus, it will never be too discreet in making this choice. In my opinion, there is four main points that we should consider, including interest, gift, aspiration and development. The development means whether the major can help with a promising future. But in this blog, I just want to talk about gift. Gift is the worthless treasure to a person. Take math for example, there are many people interesting in it but fewer people really has a gift in it. And the people who achieve great success in math mostly have a gift in it. You may argue that if one isn’t interested in a subject, it would be painful for this people to learn it. And it is impossible for him to achieve success. However, one isn’t interested in it is not equal to one have to learn it painfully. And learning it painfully doesn’t mean one cannot achieve success. For instance, Mozart learnt music painfully as his father strictly demanded him, but he was talent in it so that he succeeded finally. Indeed, a strong interest should not be ignored, but a gift is even more incapable to be neglected. If you have a gift in some subject, please don’t hesitate.

My change in attitude toward family

After coming to Singapore, I considered a lot about what I will get and what I will lose because I have to spend ten years learning and working here. What I thought most was my family.
I love my grandparents very much with whom I spent quite a lot of time in my childhood. Unfortunately, my grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease who cannot take care of himself and my grandmother has a serious heart disease. I can’t imagine what will happen on them in the next ten years. Furthermore, if I can’t company with them during the hard time of their life or can’t see them one last time before they die, I would be very sad and consider whether I made a good choice to come to Singapore with such a big sacrifice. There is an old saying in China: “people want to repay their parents while their parents may not be alive.” I’m afraid I won’t have the chance to repay my grandparents after ten years. One of Mengnan’s friends even gave up the chance to come to Singapore because of this reason.
However, I changed my mind these days. Why should I repay them after making enough money? Why should I concern so much about the future? I cannot give them a lot of money. I cannot heal their diseases. I cannot make them live longer. However, I can try my best to make them feel happier, more satisfied, and more meaningful everyday. I taught them how to eat in a healthier way, how to get happiness from petty things in their daily life, and how to consider in a positive way.
My grandmother told me that she really felt better. I think these are the best things I can do for them now.

Be careful to medias

Some people may be surprised at that the advertisements are everywhere. But few people are aware that behind they are medias actually.This may because people don’t feel they as offensive as advertisements. But evennow you may not realize that how tremendously medias affect us. As the saying goes, “If you control the straits, you control the ocean. If you control the ocean, you control the land. But if you control the money, you control the world. However, if you control medias, you control everyone.” I think that this saying doesn’t exaggerate. People live in a world of medias. No matter what happens or what changes around you, you are mostly told by medias and form an opinion basing on the information you get from the media. However, there is almost no media purely state the fact without any stand. Mostly, it has been colored with the emotion of the editors before it is published. That is, what you get is somewhat distorted, not a fact strictly. Thanks to good writing of journalists or other writers, the partial thinking is hidden between the lines. It may be the most powerful mesmerist. Moreover, the media can choose what to emphasize on and what to be vague. For example, when I read the Wikipedia, I was impressed by the power struggle and the tactful trickery of Deng Xiaoping. Because Wikipedia seems to find it interesting to focus less on what Deng had achieved but seize any chance to describe something else of Deng, like some words he said in the letters, which may sounds cheap. If I don’t know something about it before, I would be more likely to conclude that Deng is a tactful politician, let alone another leader of China. Therefore, I conclude that we should be critical to the media. That’s all.

Will you sacrifice your life for love?

----问世间情为何物，直教人生死相许
In the oral presentation, someone said that she was willing to sacrifice her life for love as the saying goes, “Ask what on earth love is, that makes lovers vow to stick together in life and death.” However, personally, I don’t dare to make such a promise at present.
In my opinion,everyone should be afraid of death because only when we are scared of death can we know the true meaning of life and cherish it. It is ridiculous to be indifferent to losing something we cherish much. Besides, I believe that from the time when you are born, your life is not only belonged to yourself, to some extent, but also belonged to the people who love you deeply, like your parents.Everyone is born with responsibilities, including the responsibility to fulfill the ultimate promise of cherishing your life and loving your being. Have you thought about what would happen to your parents if you die? Are you so ruthless to see your parents live in grief in the rest of their lives? Even if you are to save another life, have you decided to exchange the happiness of your parents for the fortune of another family? Whether you are responsible to your parents who love your deeply and bring you up toilsomely. Don’t take it too easy! You don’t have the right to sacrifice your parents’ happiness. Be the most cautious,please!
In addition, you may regard me as a coward, but I think that, to be a true brave man is not to
be fearless to death, but willing to sacrifice one’s life when the thing worths it even though this man is afraid of death very much.

Learning from experience

“ Experience is the best teacher” is an old saying, and I definitely agree with it. The most important, and sometimes the hardest, lessons we learn in life come from our participation in situations.
Some people say that we can learn everything from book. Of course, learning from books in a formal educational setting is also valuable. It is in schools that we learn the information we need to function in our society. We learn how to speak and write and understand mathematical equations. This is the information that we need to live in our communities and earn a living.
Nevertheless, I think that the most important lessons can’t be taught; they have to be experienced. No one can teach us how to get along with others or how to have self-respect. As we grow from children into teenagers, no one can teach us how to deal with peer pressure.
This shouldn’t stop us from looking for guidelines along the way. Teachers and parents are valuable sources of advice when we’re young. As we enter into new stages in our lives, the advice we receive from them is very helpful because they have already had similar experience. But experiencing our own victories and disasters is really the way to learn how to deal with our own life.

Gender Role in Japan

We talked about Japanese women in class last week. I wondered why Japanese women have such a low social position. After learning some Japanese histories and cultures, I seem to know the answer.
Gender had been an important principle of deciding social position in Japanese history. In the twelfth century, women in Japan could inherit property in their own names and manage it by themselves. However, under feudal government, the status of women declined later. Even though peasant women still continued to have freedom of movement and decision-making power, upper class women’s lives were subject to their father or husband. This kind of thought was supported by the government as part of its efforts at social control. With early industrialization, young women participated in factory work under unhealthy working conditions without gaining personal autonomy. In the Meiji period, the development of industrialization and urbanization reduce the authority of fathers and husbands, but at the same time, the Meiji Civil Code denied women legal rights.
After World War II, the legal position of women was redefined. Individual rights were given precedence over obligation to family. Women as well as men were given the right to choose spouses and occupations, to inherit and own property in their own names.
Although Japanese society has changed a lot, the histories and cultures are still influencing Japanese people in their deep heart.

what men should do facing the changes?

As women become more and more competitive in study and work,some men have been aware of the subtle changes in their positions and family roles.In the sense of foresight,it is time for us to think about what we need to do in facing this inevitable trend.In short,I have concluded two basical strategies--positive stategy and passive strategy.
The positive strategy for men is to try their best to recover what they have lost.It requires men to make more effort in school or in their occupations,which makes our society more competitive.And more intense competition means a faster development. It seems to be the better choice.However,it goes against the trend, which make it more difficult for women to develop their career so that it will slow the progress. Going upstream is always difficult. By contrast,the passive strategy is much easier.Since you cannot and should not stop the process,why not change youself to adopt to the changes?Especially,you need to do a lot of housework,just like your wife. That is, it time for us to learn how to cook. However, things never be too easy.On the one hand,we should prepare ourselves to accept the new roles. On the other hand, we should struggle to be more competitive in work.This is the "march on can attack,draw back can defend" strategy.

Goddess' tears

It's said that at the time the universe was created，a goddess named Nuwa was born.She was in charge of all living creatures great and small and was destined to bring vitality to this desolate land.As long as she passed by,flowers would bloom and birds would sing sweetly.Thanks to her great love and blessing,the world became full of life.She is actually the mother of all the life.

However,as the world was at its begining,there was no enough gods to maintain its regulation but too many demons which brought disaster and misery to all creatures.Suffering was everywhere.As all the livings just liked her children,Nuwa could feel their suffering.Each time she saw some creatures in pain,she would be very sad and streamed with tears.Because the tears contained her universal love and all-encompassing compassion ,the land which her tears dropped down upon would be revitalised.Wither trees would grow new buds.Faded flowers would get a new lease of life.And dead animals could back to life again.So magical her tears is,as great as her fraternily.

One day,Nuwa passed by human being' tribe and saw some people died in the disastar.Their relatives was crying bitterly aroud the lifeless bodies.Out of great compassion,she well out tears.As soon as her tears dropped down, all the dead were revived.All the people were shocked by this strange and formidable lady.They prostrated themselves in worship and chanted"holy goddess" except one person stood beside.

He was stunned by the scene and totally attracted by this fairy lady.You may wonder why he dare to stand by while others all kneel down.Because he was also a great one.He is called Fuxi,the king of all the original human being,who used to be a god but rebirth as the wisest human later. He was destined to lead all the human being to live a happy life .

Fuxi invited Nuwa to their tribe and human all around offered the best food to Nuwa to show their worship.Nuwa was happy to be welcomed and respected by these special creatures.She was also curious about human's life thus decided to stay at the tribe for a few day.However,as time went by,she indeed lived a happy life with human so that she ignored how many days had gone.And Fuxi was always accompanied with her.

When their days turned into months,Nuwa found that Fuxi was different from others.He was the king of all the human being and deeply loved all his people. Just like Nuwa's, his fraternity was also as great as the sky. Attracted by the common thought of each other,they fell in love.Their marrige is sweet.On the one hand,they show the universal love to their people,just like the greatest god.On the other hand,they cherished their private love to each other,like the commonest couple.Under Fuxi and Nuwa's leadship,human being lived better and better.

Several years after their marrige, all the gods decided to carried out a devastating blow on demons. In desperation,demons launched revenge crazily.Human's tride was also involved. To protect his people, Fuxi led his warriors into the war. In the fierce battle, Fuxi was seriously injured.When he was carried to Nuwa,he was to die.

Seeing her lover was badly wounded, Nuwa,who was in great grief, burst into tears right away.However,as her tears dropped down upon Fuxi's body.Her lover didn't get recovered as its suppose.Why?Bcause the tears dropped down before was out of her universal love,those were goddess' tears thus magical. However,the tears that dropped on Fuxi was out of her individual love.these were a common woman's tears. And at present,Nuwa wasn't the great goddess, but Fuxi wife,no more than the commonest women.Finally, Fuxi died before Nuwa. A great goddess who could raise every creature from death cannot save the man she loved.Isn't it ridiculous?

Therefore,we could say that the great goddess Nuwa doesn't have any private love but her universal love.

Love of my Pre-existence

I got a rose on QQ for my Valentine’s Day gift. The people, who sent it to me, was not my boyfriend. However, he was my father, the most important man in my life.
There is a fascinating story in the Buddhist Scriptures saying that the daughter is the lover of her father’s pre-existence. Although my father doesn’t really believe there exists his pre-existence, he still chooses to believe this beautiful saying and never forget me when he enjoys his romantic time with my mother on Valentine’s Day.
Coincidently, I was born on 7th July in Chinese lunar calendar. It was the traditional Chinese Valentine’s Day when Mr Niu(Niulang) and Miss Zhi(Zhinv) met each other every year. As my mom said, I couldn’t wait to meet my father who was my lover of pre-existence on that day, so I chose this special day and came to this lovely world a month before the day that the doctor had anticipated.
The daughter is the lover of her father’s pre-existence. What a wonderful saying it is. Perhaps that’s the reason why the father are so unwilling when he pass his daughter’s hand to her husband. Perhaps that’s the reason why the father devotes all his love to his daughter in the whole life.

plagiarism--why it is severe in Chinese universities

Recently,as a lot of satisfying theses turned out to be some productions of plagiarism, poeple may ask that why this problem reaches such a severe point?From the perspective of a Chinese student,I think it may result from these following.

Firstly,before attending universities,they may be taught to modle on some good essays as a crash mathod to help them get a good mark in the examination.Gradually,they are not motivated to write on thier own.What is more,plagiarism doesn't get enough attention.There is no such a institution in China to check whether the theses are plagiazied so that dishonesty is always free from punishment.Moreover,it is too easy to graduate from a Chinese university.The diploma of an outstanding student is the same as that of a bad one,not like the institution in Singapore.What students need to do is just to let their theses pass for graduation.As a result,they may spend three years to flatter girls.Finally,they learn quite little but have to write theses.How to solve it?------Plagiasm!Besides,under the employment of pressure,many students are forced to study for a master's degree or a doctor's degree,which may be beyond their abilities.With no choice,whey plagiarize.At the end,in addition,all these above are my privite opinions,which is without suffient support.

English Learning

I used to memorize vocabularies with a hardworking learning strategy. Wherever I came across new words, I writed these new vocabularies and their exact definitions in Chinese on my vocabulary notebook. But all I did is just for dictation quizzes. It won’t leave a significant impression in my mind. I can’t master vocabularies because of paying too much attention on their definitions. After the class on Thursday, I learned something new about vocabulary and collocation. I can learn collocations in the form of word folks and bubble networks with my brain storm. Some internet sources such as dictionary.com and wordandphrase.info will also help. With these methods, I will gain better knowledge about how to combine words to make them meaningful. I’m sure it will greatly help me improve my English proficiency.