tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post5250517125021430012..comments2024-03-12T14:31:50.264-07:00Comments on Bits and Pieces: Beijing, and South CarolinaHarry Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-40135494936058057842014-05-31T03:03:36.965-07:002014-05-31T03:03:36.965-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03534265011325768326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-8730233386686891062014-03-19T22:54:10.061-07:002014-03-19T22:54:10.061-07:00Interesting questions, Jim. I was told that my tal...Interesting questions, Jim. I was told that my talk was being video recorded and would be made generally available, but I don't know if that will actually happen. I left copies of my slide deck in several hands, some official and some not. The slides include nice quotes like "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives" (Madison) and "[The people] have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers" (Adams), as well as “A healthy society needs truthful voices. And truthful voices come from truthful people. A lot of people say a lot of things, but they don’t believe these things, they are just echoing other people. China is full of noise, but it’s silent. You don’t hear real voices.” (Wang Hui of Tsinghua U.) I explained that inoffensiveness is not a strong value in the US or in American universities--I used as examples John Winthrop touting his theory of earthquakes in lectures at Harvard in 1755, and Scott Brown's condemning as "dangerous thinking" their conference on a one-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, calling on Harvard to cancel the conference -- which of course Harvard did not do. <br /><br />I don't think my talk will be bracketed. As I said, I had a very pleasant meeting the next mooring with the top officials in the university, who expressed the hope of possible longer term collaborations.<br />Harry Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-8892001959643028912014-03-19T10:16:16.513-07:002014-03-19T10:16:16.513-07:00There's a second "money" quote in th...There's a second "money" quote in this stimulating post: <br /><br /> "The difference between propaganda and promotion of civic virtue is far from obvious when 'harmony' is a matter of law." --Harry Lewis<br /><br />A few of my Yale students from China bowl me over with their thirst, their eagerness, to understand and engage liberal education. I'm forwarding this post to two of them right now. <br /><br />But it's a paradox, isn't it, that guest speakers like you, Harry, get to say things in China that, as you rightly suggest, would be much riskier for you or other such speakers to affirm and to act on, if you entered into longer-term arrangements with the hosts, as NYU has done in Shanghai and Yale has done in Singapore. Is there at least a chance that talks like yours last week in Beijing will make things better for the longer-term visitors? Or are presentations like yours "bracketed" somehow in your Beijing listeners' minds? Jim SleeperAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-44575410659925718022014-03-18T21:40:35.374-07:002014-03-18T21:40:35.374-07:00"So overall it was an inspiring visit, not on..."So overall it was an inspiring visit, not only for what it taught me about the aspirations of Chinese academics but for what it reminded me about how lucky I am to be a professor where I am, in a country that puts academic speech out of range of government censors and propagandists."<br /><br />Professor, thank you. This is why I tell my 12 year old son that there is only one school he needs aspire to.<br /><br />Thomas Pindelskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06706095561536978366noreply@blogger.com