Posted on 06/26/2007 1:41:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Beijing — IT was like watching a man try to swim up a waterfall.
Professor Tao Xiuao cracked jokes, told stories, projected a Power Point presentation on a large video screen. But his students at Beijing Foreign Studies University didn't even try to hide their boredom.
Young men spread newspapers out on their desks and pored over the sports news. A couple of students listened to iPods; others sent text messages on their cellphones. One young woman with chic red-framed glasses spent the entire two hours engrossed in "Jane Eyre," in the original English. Some drifted out of class, ate lunch and returned. Some just lay their heads on their desktops and went to sleep.
It isn't easy teaching Marxism in China these days.
"It's a big challenge," acknowledged Tao, a likable man who demonstrates remarkable patience in the face of students more interested in capitalism than "Das Kapital." The students say he isn't the problem.
"It's not the teacher," said sophomore Liu Di, a finance major whose shaggy auburn hair hangs, John Lennon-style, along either side of his wire-rim glasses. "No matter who teaches this class, it's always boring. Philosophy is useful and interesting, but I think that in philosophy education in China, they just teach the boring parts."
Classes in Marxist philosophy have been compulsory in Chinese schools since not long after the 1949 communist revolution. They remain enshrined in the national education law, Article 3 of which states: "In developing the socialist educational undertakings, the state shall uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought and the theories of constructing socialism with Chinese characteristics as directives and comply with the basic principles of the Constitution."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Capitalism doesn't equate to political or religious freedom.
I wish Marx would start losing currency in the United States.
Yes. Problems aside, in many ways the China of today is like the America of the 1950’s. American movies are popular, classical music is becoming big with many homes purchasing pianos for the kids, and there are other similarities that escape me. Truly, China’s future, if indeed Communism eventually loses its choking grasp, is as bright as or brighter than America’s at that golden time, the way things are going. That is not in itself bad - esp. considering what some of those people have been/are going through.
Well over half of the businesses in China (~ 150,000) are yet owned by the state. The PLA moves large numbers of people by force, whenever it so desires. Organs are extracted from living dissidents in prisons. China censors public information. China is building a navy in order to conquer neighbors and control ocean routes.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
True, but I don’t think the two can coexist long.
People who get a taste of economic freedom won’t settle for a political straight jacket. In addition economic freedom leads to power in itself, power that won’t be given away easily.
Hopefully, a day will come when a free China is an ally or at least not as much of a threat as it is today to its neighbors and the United States.
“Capitalism doesn’t equate to political or religious freedom.”
Capitalists just want your money. Marxists want your soul.
I hope.
In congress, specifically.
I’ve been to Bejing recently. The country is an odd hybrid of the Capitalist and the state controlled communitst at this point. The model works though. The rate of growth and the rate of change are absurd there.
I think the theory that China is evolving into a fascist state is pretty accurate.
Nazi’s were supported by many capitalist in America. National Socialism is big on business.
The Chinese are not stupid people. They understand how things work and marxism doesn’t fit their world now. NICE!
My thought for some time is that we must focus on the Chicaps rather than the Chicoms.
People's Daily Online, 23 Aug.,, 2004
"Comrade Deng Xiaoping is a great man of the world," said Chinese President Hu Jintao at the meeting, "whose remarkable achievements and scientific theories will, as they already did, continue to change and influence China and the world at large."
Such commemorations "will further inspire the whole Party and nation to push forward the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics," said Hu, also general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. . . .
If capitalism is bringing good times for all why is there a "floating population" of unemployed estimated to number between 100 million and 200 million?
Why are there a reported 70,000+ confrontations between citizens and authorities each year?
Why was Deng so interested in Lenin's New Economic Plan and how Lenin suckered in Western "useful idiots" to transfer money and technology -- Deng even grilled Armand Hammer about his personal experiences in Lenin's Russia.
The newspaper's employee typed in, today's China is, in some respects, less socialistic than much of Western Europe, with a moth-eaten social safety net and a wild free-market economy.
Western Europe has the "moth-eaten social safety net and a wild free-market economy?" Or is the newspaper's employee referring to the demise of Red China's "iron rice bowl" and Red China's version of a "free market?"
Regardless, the article begs the question IMO, why the horror stories about Red China's products, real capitalists cannot afford to sicken and kill off their customers?
Who cares if professors are having trouble teaching Marx to students? The ChiComs are just that, and their goal has not changed. Whether they will be able to pull off their plan (because of economic interdependence) is another story.
Today’s hotbeds of Marxism-Leninism include Berkeley, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Cambridge, Mass., Burlington, Vt., and Georgetown, DC.
“Classes in Marxist philosophy have been compulsory in Chinese schools since not long after the 1949 communist revolution.”
We have the same thing in American universities, although it’s not always “compulsory”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.