Myron J. Pereira SJ
The Director of XIC pays a visit to six Chinese universities and is
astonished at what he sees

In late October 2007, I visited China as the leader of a delegation of universities and schools of journalism and communication from India. This delegation was organized by the India China Alliance Centre, New Delhi, a nongovernmental body which fosters contact between the two countries in the area of trade, commerce, education and culture. There have been already two visits by groups of business schools organized by ICAC. This was the first visit by a group of communication schools.

We were 19 members in the group, representing 1 5 institutions. Karnataka had the largest presence in the group. As the head of the Xavier Institute, which has a national reputation as a professional communication school, I was requested to lead the delegation (over the heads of three vice-chancellors, a matter of upset to some of them!).

We flew out of Delhi on Monday, Oct 29, and returned on Mon, Nov. 5 - a total of eight tightly packed days. Our visit took us to three cities - Beijing (Communication University of China, Tsinghua Univ.), Shenyang (aka Mukden) (Shenyang Univ., Liaoning Univ.) and Shanghai (Fudan Univ., and Jaiotong Univ.). In addition, at Shenyang we met with the head of the Shenyang Education Bureau. All our meetings had been planned well in advance, with the information about the organizations we were representing as well as the personal CVs of the delegates, in the hands of our Chinese hosts. In every instance except one, we were given a warm welcome, and our questions and suggestions were well received. All our discussions were bilingual (except one, at Jaiotong School of Media and Design, where our Chinese hosts were comfortable with English). On our side we had a very knowledgeable and congenial interpreter, Surinder Kumar. On the Chinese side, the head of the International Relations department in each university usually sat with the Dean of the communication school and facilitated the exchange.

The pattern of the visit was always something like this: on arrival at the university, we were taken by our Chinese hosts to a conference room or a hall, and we placed ourselves in a circle around a large table. As mission leader, I usually sat opposite my Chinese host. In two cases, they were women heads of school; and there were almost always women who led the international relations dept. Often other members of the communications faculty were present, though they never spoke unless requested. Keeping to protocol, the Chinese side spoke first, made us welcome, and gave us a brief description of the university and their interests. I would then describe the purpose of our visit — to make ourselves familiar with the current situation in China regarding professional education in media, design, journalism and communications; and to explore opportunities related to faculty and student exchange and joint research. I would then ask each member to introduce themselves briefly. (Later we dropped this exercise, partly because of the repetitive-ness, and partly because with Indians, there is no such thing as brevity!)

After about an hour of exchange, we concluded with an exchange of gifts, a group photograph (or many), a short walk around the school (usually our hosts were keen to show us their TV production and transmission facilities, which were invariably state of the art), and in two instances, a small lunch. Some quick impressions:

1. The universities we visited were all in the major league, some of them with histories longer than most Indian universities: Tsinghua (Beijing, 1911), Fudan (Shanghai, 1908). Some of them like Shanghai's Jaiotong have evaluation systems which are acknowledged worldwide. Even little Shenyang, no more than a provincial capital (of Laioning province) has campus buildings whose scale and quality made us all green with envy.
   
   For all these universities have an impressive infrastructure: wide spaces, clean and beautifully landscaped campuses, spacious buildings with modern furniture and equipment, and faculty members with master's and doctoral qualifications. And their students are numbered in the thousands, many of whom live on campus in the numerous hostels. (At Fudan, the student dining facility comprises three halls, each larger than the Xavier's college hall, where students are served simultaneously.) And everyone contributes to upkeep.
   
   I saw no janitors lolling about in the backyards, chewing paan and gossiping. Compared to them our institutions look so inferior: seedy buildings, mediocre faculty, inadequate space, shabby environment (poorly maintained rooms, canteens, lobbies, class rooms, and always dirty, dirty, dirty...!)
    

2. It's true that the government is pouring money into China's education, and this makes it easier. So the campuses look brand new in their glass and granite structures. But to my mind, money is only part of the solution. The other is attitude: there is an attitude of dynamism, efficiency and national pride among the Chinese which is worlds away from the laid-back smugness of our upper-class students, and the angry caste politics of our working class students.
    

3. Another detail which doesn't escape the foreign observer is the ubiquity of the Chinese language (Mandarin, putong-hwa). It is everywhere. Occasionally, you will see English signs in second place with Chinese, but you will never see English anywhere without Chinese. I cannot help thinking that in this we in India have failed.
   
   Our regional languages have all but yielded to the dominance to English to the degree that they have become little more than local dialects, with almost no representation at the tertiary level of education. So there is a self-sufficiency about China which challenges the outsider.
    

4. Another detail which foreigners will always notice is the confidence, intelligence and ease with which Chinese women project themselves. Usually they were the ones who spoke English better than the male faculty members. At some universities they were the senior faculty members, and in two places in Shenyang we met with them as directors. It is rare that Indian women in mixed company assert themselves as confidently as their Chinese counterparts.
    

5. I’m aware that our value to the Chinese student lies in our know-ledge of English. I had mentioned this as XIC’s selling point: faculty exchange for English-language teaching (which may include journalism subjects), as well as learning English online through Telexed. It remains to be seen if these offers will be picked up.
    

6. I pressed for the vidcon method of learning for student and faculty acquaintance. This appealed to both Jaiotong and Fudan. In additional, Dr Wang (Jaiotong) who also heads the Global Research Institute there, expressed interest in an international seminar via video conference. Jaiotong's dean of the School of Media and Design has also issued a letter of intent expressing the school's openness to collaborative ventures.
    

7. One final remark. When I visited China for the first time two years ago, I was struck by the obvious wealth and abundance of its consumer products, and the size and efficiency of its urban infrastructure (transport, housing, energy supply, food and clothing...). All that I have seen in this past week confirms my view that China is no longer the developing society I had once thought, but rather a first world society, and on a scale as large as Europe. That there exists disparity between the city and the countryside is true. And also it’s true that with economic growth this disparity is growing — for the first time we saw many beggars in Shanghai,—and this is a matter of growing concern to the government.
   
   We don't know what the future will bring. But as far as we are concerned, I feel China is so far ahead of us that we cannot compete with it any more. We should rather ask ourselves how it is that they could do in about 20 years what we have been unable to do in 50. And the answer is not in the trite and basically false reply that we are ‘more democratic’, but that rather that we Indians still cling to retrograde feudal values in our public and personal lives.
   
   November 6, 2007