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The lecture is the only thing that matters, it is this for which credit is obtained. There is no discussion over essays no community of interest in societies and games, and so there does not arise that spirit of social service and cooperation which gives character and quality to an institution.
It is doubtful whether a University situated in the capital of China can very well escape political influences. Students and staff are likely to be courted by office seekers who desire the backing of educated men and they in return naturally look for certain rewards. The atmosphere of the University is likely to be vitiated by serious partisanship and political rivalry and this is fatal to calm dispassionate academic work.
My interest lay however in the important department of this University for the training of Teachers. There was a four years' course and it was meant to provide teachers for the middle schools and also future administrators. The Chinese system stresses the technique or the training side to a greater extent than the European system which requires first of all an educated and cultured person, that is one who has studied his subject in the ordinary way and graduated in it. The Chinese system, which is based on the American system aims at securing the trained teacher, the person skilled in the technique of his job. In this connection there was an article in a recent number of Harpers Magazine, which cynically suggested that a very rich man might buy up Yale and inscribe on its gates the following: "By the munificence of Mr. Robt. Lock this University is closed in the interests of education." The universities it was argued were producing in all departments, merely trained and not educated men and women.
As though to protest against this absorption in modern science and useful knowledge, we were summoned to an exhibition of Chinese art in one of the halls of the Central University. The pictures were the work of Yu Yu Jen, chairman of the Board of Censors one of the chief yuans of the Government at Nanking. This statesman was apparently maintaining the old tradition, according to which Mandarins sought solace and escape from the anxieties and burden of their office by studying philosophy, writing poems, and painting pictures. The works which were very numerous and very beautifully done, gave one the impression that this statesman, however, did not allow his governmental duties to interfere too much with his recreations, for the quantity and quality of that which was shown must have represented very considerable effort.
We passed on in the same city to the University of Nanking which is much smaller more compact and more delightfully situated than the larger and older national university about which we have just been speaking. This institution received its charter of incorporation from the Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1911 and the deed entitling it to Government registration in 1928. It has three faculties or colleges Arts, Science and Agriculture. The Government refuse to recognise any institution a University unless it has a college of scienèg and at least two other colleges. This contrast with the European tradition is too striking to be passed over. In Oxford Duke Humphrey's gateway into the Bodleian leads up to 3 doors over which is inscribed respectively Law, Medicine and Theology but the latter occupies the central and most important position. The supreme position today in China is officially reserved for science, which thereby displaces Ethics and Morals as the main theme of study in China.
It was in this college that Pearl Buck wrote "The Good Earth", that delightful and convincing picture of rural life in China. There is here as in Ling nam and in Chengtu a strong section dealing with agriculture where the scope is obviously very great for the introduction of improved methods. The only doubt that assails the mind after visiting such an institution as this is whether the living standards and the general level of equipment etc. with which the student is familiarised does not unfit him to return for work among his people. With the new system of registration however it is probable that this aspect of higher education in China in foreign institutions will be dealt with.
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