Bruce Alexander, Yale Vice-President of New Haven and State Affairs, with the Yale 100 delegation in China. (Bloemen/TYG)

It was an apt message for his audience, the “Yale 100” delegation. On a visit to Yale in 2006, Hu had invited the delegation, which was to consist of 100 students, administrators, and professors, to visit China and participate in an intercultural dialogue on education. Just a year later, standing before the delegation he had invited, Hu explained his motivations. He said that students can play a vital role in maintaining a peaceful and constructive relationship, especially between the world’s two principal economic powers.

“‘People to people’ diplomacy, in the form of interaction between students from the U.S. and China,” Hu claimed, “is an untapped tool for fostering international understanding.” The Yale delegation spent ten days in China on President Hu’s invitation, with an itinerary that took it to four of China’s most prestigious universities to meet Chinese students and administrators. The discussions that ended up taking place demonstrated a traditional though unfamiliar view of the country and its schools. While many Yale participants anticipated the highly structured schooling system and the government’s control over education, they left with an unexpected picture of a new and changing China—a China that, given its increasing significance in the world, is willing, if not eager, to undertake the risk of reforming its old educational traditions and structures.

Overseeing Education

The Chinese students the delegation met had been admitted to their prestigious universities on the basis of a competitive entrance exam taken by more than seven million high school students each year. The exam is just one example of the importance Chinese culture places on education. Another can be found simply by looking at the universities themselves. Each campus the delegation visited had newly built buildings and walkways.

Yet many Chinese students did not seem to enjoy university life or even their studies. While appreciating the educational resources available to them, they still claimed that their schooling fell short of the U.S. system in terms of freedom and flexibility. For instance, seminars are almost non-existent; classes usually involve professors lecturing without providing time for questions or dialogue.

Because students are unable to explore topics with much freedom or depth, some hope to pursue further study in the United States. At Xi’an Jiaotong University, a philosophy student spoke enthusiastically about his dream of studying there. He explained that, although he was eager to learn more about his favorite French philosophers, “his Chinese philosophy classes almost exclusively focused on the virtues of Marxism without mentioning any philosopher from abroad.”

The head of the Jiaotong philosophy department agreed that a strong emphasis in Chinese universities is placed on Marx while other philosophers are hardly explored. Studying Marx is not simply a trend— Marx is actually built into the curriculum.

As one computer science student, herself a Christian, explained, students must pass a test on Marxist values in order to graduate. During her test, one question forced her to make a choice between her Christian beliefs and the politically correct answer. Unwilling to sacrifice her college degree, she silenced her own reservations and answered the question as the administration wished.

Karen Xinyue, a Peking University sophomore majoring in Chinese language and literature, has encountered similar difficulties. She participated in a summer program at Yale—an experience that “opened the door to a wider mind.” When she returned to Peking University, she acted on her new feelings by joining The Peking Globalist, of which she is now the editor-in-chief.

But Karen had not anticipated the difficulties of running a student magazine in China. Not only was it difficult to find money, but it was also difficult to find story ideas that could meet the approval of the government or the administration. Education authorities encourage articles on “soft” topics, such as the lives of international students in China.

But whenever Karen attempts to publish or assign an article with a larger scope or more critical stance, it proves impossible to find funding or even information. Indeed, while the Chinese government is making education a priority, the exploration of controversial topics remains discouraged.