Why The Chinese Educational System Is Not More Conducive To Creativity: Some Hypotheses

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.

Read also 'How To Create The New Generation of Copyists (The Shortcut)'

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."

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Chinese Courts Are Getting More Independent, But Rule Of Law Needed To Enforce IPRs Is Far Away

In my thesis 'Paper Tiger or Roaring Dragon' I come to the conclusion that the lack of effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in China can be partly explained by some extra-judicial factors, such as:

- no rule of law (where the rule of law has the supremacy, instead of the government);

- lack of transparency;

- lack of an independent judiciary;

- non-uniform application of laws;

- local protectionism;

- corruption and lack of education;

- lack of expertise in and respect for intellectual property;

- market access restrictions.

Professor Stanley Lubman has an interesting article, see here, about legal reform in which he refers to 'China's Courts: Restricted Reform', an excellent paper written by Professor Benjamin Liebman. In it Professor Liebman determines that Chinese judges are much more educated then ever before and that in case of a difficult case courts are often consulting other courts at the same level (horizontally) instead of asking advice of a higher court (vertically). This makes the judiciary more independent and less usable as an instrument to implement the policies of the government. Professor Liebman contends that therefore the government uses the media to influence the opinion of the population in some cases, so that they can mobilise popular protest against a court decision. With the result that some court decisions are overturned because of the "vox populi".

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From the Trenches of IP Education in China

It is great when practitioners of IP law in China share their knowledge with the next generation. Mr Stan Abrams, working at DLA Piper in Beijing made time for teachting at Central University of Finance and Economics (a co-operation programme between Cai Da, the University of Maryland and the University of Maastricht). Mr Abrams' students are from the US, EU and China. Average classes are about 20 students. The IP lectures are part of a "China legal issues" class that includes a lot of other stuff. IP was five hours.

IP Dragon asked Mr Abrams about the educational goal he wants to achieve.
Mr Abrams: "I wanted to impart some practical lessons instead of just repeat what the law provides for. I also wanted to relate current law and legal reform to economic development policy and politics. I think there is a strong correlation between the two and can tell us where things are heading. Finally, I also wanted to give them not only the practitioner's perspective, but also that of foreign companies doing business in China, i.e., my clients."

Hear hear for this lofty goal. And for those who cannot attend Mr Abrams' classes, tune in at his excellent blog China Hearsay.

UPDATE: IP Dragon had contact with Mr Daniel J. Mitterhoff, Director, CUFE-Maryland-Maastricht, the Collaborative Law Student Exchange Program. Thank you Mr. Mitterhoff for adding the following information:

Our program at the Law School of Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) is currently entitled the CUFE-Maryland-Maastricht Collaborative Student Exchange Program. Its long term mission is to create a bilingual learning environment (if not a bilingual law school) with students from around the globe participating. In the short term, it works like this: Students from University from Maryland School of Law and Maastricht University Faculty of Law come to CUFE in the autumn semester. They are grouped with students from CUFE, most of whom have already be designated to visit Maryland and Maastricht in the spring semester. This year we also have students from other schools visiting China, but they are not part of the exchange. The students study together and even conduct joint research.

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