China is the country with the most creative people in the world. That is a truism in a country with 1.3 billion people. In the past China showed the world the way to creativity: compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing, all are Chinese inventions. So why are copyright piracy, counterfeit trademarks and patent infringements that origin from China so rampant? I have written about some of the extra-judicial factors before, see here (chapter 8), but I have overlooked one of the fundamental flaws that China has to fix: its educational system.
I assume that for an educational system that fosters creativity the following factors are of crucial importance:
- Idle/play time;
- Combining factors that have not been combined before;
- Atmosphere where experimenting (or put it another way: critical thinking) is possible.
Based on these assumptions are my hypotheses:
- Most students work too hard and too long and learn too much by rote (learning by repetition) to develop their creativity;
- Many students limit themselves by focusing exclusively on what is relevant, but often it is hard to know ex ante what the ingredients for success are going to be, and following the downtrodden path is not helpful for making new combinations or to "think outside the box" or to be open to serendipity;
- Most schools do not give enough room for experimentation;
- Although there are many ways to Beijing, parents, teachers and society at large expects students to excel and go to the Chinese Ivy League schools and universities. This puts students under immense pressure.
Of course these Hypotheses need to be tested.
I am interested in your views. Let me know. ipdragon at gmail dot com.
UPDATE:
IP Dragon thinks this educational problem is shared by countries such as Singapore, Korea and Japan. Since these countries are no longer known for their rampant infringements of intellectual property rights the explanation becomes more convincing that China's low level of intellectual property enforcement is caused by the developmental phase it is.
UPDATE 2:
Carven, a student of St Joseph's College in Hong Kong, and member of the project affairs department of the 43rd Joint School Science Exhibition Preparation Committee wrote in the Young Post of the South China Morning Post of November 18, the article 'Lack of Creativity Limits Knowlegde'.
"The educational system in Hong Kong - in which students are spoon-fed information - has often been criticised. It leads to students having no idea how to be creative in the pursuit of knowledge."
2 comments:
What the Chinese young students are missing is also shat I would call "everyday living experience". They often stick to rules and procedures listed in newspapers or school books but reach a mature age without having learned the "practical side" of life. A couple of years ago my children who attend an international American School in Hong Kong had a field trip to the supermarket. When I asked the teacher why such a trip, he explained that the majority of chinese children have never been to a supermarket or very seldom do because this task is handed to their helpers. Therefore they have absolutely no idea of how to search for food, read the labels, find out where the food comes from, how it is stored, etc. These are the basic down-to-earth things everybody should grow up knowing how to do and this is the part of education that is lacking in the Chinese culture.
I agree with what you write and, below.
- Many students limit themselves by focusing exclusively on what is relevant, but often it is hard to know ex ante what the ingredients for success are going to be, and following the downtrodden path is not helpful for making new combinations or to "think outside the box" or to be open to serendipity;
- Most schools do not give enough room for experimentation;
- Although there are many ways to Beijing, parents, teachers and society at large expects students to excel and go to the Chinese Ivy League schools and universities. This puts students under immense pressure.
Of course these Hypotheses need to be tested.
I am interested in your views. Let me know. ipdragon at gmail dot com.
I've heard and read in-Chinese caucasian teachers say that Chinese students are suppressed, say around age 10 (it's said differing ways).
But I haven't actually found/seen that. I think they are ground down by the memorization of set materials and the long hours AND non-creative teachers and parents. And not actually making anything. It's a cultural pattern.
The most creative students I've worked with were in a Canadian pre-uni school just outside Guangzhou. One was Chinese from Vietnam. The Chinese put him in a dumb class (class 3 out of 4. 4 dumbest class. Maybe, we didn't know, the smartness was based on math skills), but he was smarter and had better English, eager, and creative. He bypassed the cultural barrier by being in Vietnam until pre-uni. He was interested in graphics, on and off the computer. He did things with his computer, where the normal kid just did games and QQ.
The other was not so smart, lesser english, endlessly warm and friendly.
She drew truly great cartoons - I would say (not my forte) professional quality. All kinds of cartooning on the Japanese model. She quite liked Japanese and was headed there later. I didn't learn her background. Both she and he had different body language, interactions, and expectations than the others.
I've visited maybe 8 kindergartens in Shenzhen and some in Guangzhou and they are often beautiful with delightful imagery and gardens and play areas. Chinese treat their infants as gods. They have areas where the kids can make things. Drawing, clay etc.
I think after some age Chinese kids are 'overworked' and do set things.
No cooking, no creative writing, no drawing, etc.
bye
vic
www.windwaterwine.com
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