Tang Jianhua: Yang Zhenning should be more critical
On the afternoon of October 30, world famous physics master, winner of the physics Nobel prize Yang Zhenning, gave a speech at the conference hall at Dong Nan University. After the speech, with regard to a student question "How to look at mainland university education", Yang Zhenning explained that in terms of undergraduate studies and social contributions, most Chinese universities are doing a good job." I firmly believe that Chinese universities have been doing better than the best American universities in terms of contributions." (<<Xiandaiyingbao>> October 31st)
Even though Yang Zhenning brought up the issue of Chinese graduate student education being behind education in other countries, in his lectures last year in Urumqi he said with regard to "How successful undergraduate education is in China",that Chinese universities are contributing more than American universities. The feeling this gives people is that all the positive discussion of Chinese education has been only by Yang Zhening.
Actually, it is his freedom, how he sees Chinese education, and all of the positive talk about Chinese education is not without facts, but the problem is, him being an intellectual, giving speeches about how good Chinese education is in a public area isn't very appropriate.
While intellectuals enjoy "special treatment", they should fulfill their public duties. They should side with the public, and their comments on real social issues should have a public and critical nature. In reality, people who approve of Yang Zhenning's speech about "Chinese undergraduate education is very successful" are in the minority, and "Chinese universities have been much more successful than American universities in terms of contributing to the development of their countries" many fewer people agree with this.

by reporter Tang Jianhua