Stories about competing to be international universities

The western and eastern imaginations of being "international" are so different. At least in China and Hong Kong, to be international means to develop at the expense of history, culture and environment, which is so contradictory to international trends. And it is sad to see even universities, the institutes for knowledge production, are caught up in such developmentalist imaginations.

Peking University: international English standard and golf court

In order to catch up with the "international English standard", Peking University decided to change its Official English name into University of Beijing. The university officials claimed that a noun indicating a place should not be placed in front of the word "University".

The change of official English name would indicate a change in the university logo which was designed by the most famous and influential intellectual Lun Xun since 1917.

A critic, Jiang Bojing, in Financial Times speculated that the University was reacting to the competition from Hong Kong. more...

Apart from the name, the university proposed to have a golf court to build a world 1st grade university. Fortunately the Government withheld the project. However, what is the relation between a golf court and a world 1st grade university?

A blogger Xueyong has the following explanation (zh):

"the mission of 'the world's first grade university' is to cultivate leaders for the society. Beida's (Peking University's) mission would be the same. For a person to become society’s leader, they have to distinguish themselves from ordinary people, they have to play something not afforable to ordinary people, for example using public money to play golf. Since Beida cultivates the upper class, students need to have upper class habitus. When they are well-trained in golf, they know how to live a corrupted lifestyle. When they are in the site, they know how to play the game. In present day, who don't want to live a luxurious life? Many students would certainly be interested in golf. So it is a practical need. The university of course is doing students' service. This is the best speculation I could induce from Beida's proposal for the Golf Court."

So much about Peking University, how about its Hong Kong competitors?

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: internationalized ghetto

The University keeps competiting for more self-financed students from mainland China, however, without proper dormitory rooms. This year, the university renovated a student activity room to accommodate 72 mainland students. The "dormitory" has no desk, and only equipped with 3 toilet-bathrooms. In one of the rooms, there are more than 40 male students living together.

Chinese University of Hong Kong: language policy and campus destruction

Since last year, the university wanted to change its language policy, prioritizing English as teaching language in order to attain the "international status". The proposal had resulted in great resistance from teachers, students and alumni, and a language committee was formed to draft a new proposal for the university's language policy. The consultation paper has been released this week. According to the guideline, subjects with universal nature would be taught in English; subjects about China and Chinese culture would be taught in Mandarin; and sujects about local community culture would be taught in Cantonese.

The oppositional voices argued that the change of language policy was not for internationalization, but to compete for more Mainland China self-financed students who dislike local dialect. Besides, the Chinese University's language policy of two written and three spoken languages has been a cultural resistance to the previous colonial government; the new proposed framework would be undermining the official status of (written) Chinese in the University and the flexibility in the use of Cantonese as teaching language.

Apart from language policy, the university has to prepare for a rapid increase of students. It plans for 4 new colleges and now starts preparing for the infasturcture, which means chopping away old trees and replacing historical buildings with modern gigantic buildings. (see photo above)

A plan to chop away 35 old trees in order to widen a road earlier this year was successfully stopped by a tree-preservation campaign organized by a coalition of teachers, students and alumni. However, the campus' only natural stream was destroyed in a slope stabilizing project initiated by the campus development office, which is now nicknamed as campus destruction office.

These stories are just tips of the iceberg under the crazy idea of "internationalization".