The Mao Zedong Era Must Bear Responsibility for the Great Regression of Chinese Education!

2006/6/24 11:44:05

I have always found the post-May Fourth so-called Westernizing education of science, democracy, and vernacular writing repugnant. Yet even picking the tallest among dwarfs, from an educational perspective, the Mao Zedong era constituted the great regression of Chinese education in the last century! This must be squarely faced. Whether in science, art, literature, or any other dimension — picking the tallest among dwarfs — China's most outstanding people of the last century were all products of Qing Dynasty or Republican-era education. Even Mao Zedong himself was a product of pre-Mao-era education. By the logic of "practice is the sole criterion for testing truth," this alone suffices to prove the failure of Mao-era education.

Let me list some people cultivated in the pre-Mao era. This is not to say these people were so extraordinary, but at least not a single person cultivated in the Mao era can compare: Wang Guowei, Zhang Taiyan, Liang Shuming, Chen Duxiu, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Cai Yuanpei, the Zhou brothers, Hu Shi, Xian Xinghai, Zhao Yuanren, S.S. Chern, Deng Jiaxian, C.N. Yang, and so on — this list could go on and on. Tell me, did the Mao era produce a single person who could reach this level? Especially this across-the-board regression — it all proves the failure of Mao-era education. The Mao Zedong era must bear responsibility for the great regression of Chinese education!

Some may argue that "misfortune favors the poet" — in a well-off society, education is almost always a failure, and historically the most formidable people mostly emerged from chaotic times. This is indeed quite evident in art and philosophy. But ten years of the Cultural Revolution didn't produce any formidable figures from the chaos either. So the failure of Mao-era education has no excuse. Moreover, history's true golden ages were ones where society, economy, military prowess, and culture all advanced together — these are the truly great eras that later generations endlessly long for, such as the Han, the Tang, ancient Rome, and the like. Such truly great eras are true golden ages, the true pillars of human civilization, still remembered, revered, and commemorated thousands of years later.

Obviously, without education, it is impossible for society, economy, military prowess, and culture to advance together, impossible to have true golden ages like the Han, Tang, or ancient Rome. Without great figures, there can be no great era, and without a great era, the true rise of a nation becomes an empty phrase. History cannot be severed. No era is perfect, and no era is truly worthless. From the educational perspective, we must draw lessons from the failure of Mao-era education and carefully study why the supposedly corrupt Qing Dynasty or the Republic could instead cultivate first-rate talent. An approach driven solely by ideology will only make the nation's true strength recede ever further into the distance.

Reply

缠中说禅 2006/6/25 14:37:18

[Anonymous] Unnamed
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Weren't Deng Jiaxian and C.N. Yang in science and technology? Whether in the humanities or the sciences, Mao-era education was utterly worthless.