China needs — no, it deserves — its own Harvard (and Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, and so on)

"Chairs in Chinese Studies — both in China and the West — have become extremely valuable assets, as political as the highest political offices, and have become monopolized by patriarchs and their acolytes."

Elite universities like Harvard in the United States are a growing lure for well-heeled Chinese students. The attraction to the Ivy League is enhanced by high-profile donations from mainland businesspeople and a two-way traffic in visiting lectures by professors. The downside of sending top young scholars to the West, writes Thorsten Pattberg, is that China’s own elite universities lose out on some of the best talent. [READ AT GLOBAL ASIA (Online-Registration required)]

China reveres foreign degrees more than its own diplomas - Shanghai Daily

Shanghai Daily, May 6, 2014

"Remember this, in a healthy and developed society the following order prevails:

First you value your home-grown talents, and then those foreigners who want to learn from you;

followed by distant foreigners who are somewhat innocent."

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2014-05/06/content_32300521.htm

Michelle Obama Visited China's Mother Lode of Higher Education

BEIJING - Michelle Obama, the wife of the US president, loves to do things in a big way. What better place to talk about the future of education and academic exchange between the two superpowers during her trip to Beijing than visiting China's mother lode of Higher Education -Peking University.

READ AT STRAITS TIMES Michelle Obama champions freedom of expression at Peking University

This event will long been used by the sages of PKU to boost their prestige in the world, as Wang Enge, the current president of PKU (also known as 'Beida' in China) and other leaders have invested greatest efforts in attracting some of the most visible and renowned speakers (from world leaders to economists, professors, and celebrities) of all walks of life to hold lecturers here. The speaker's fee of Ms Obama was not disclosed (if there was any) -but it isn't uncommon that (instead of cash) valuable gifts or favors are presented. President Wang Enge allegedly offered admission of Ms Obama's two daughters to Peking University should they decide to study in China in the future.

READ AT BIG THINK Chinese top universities plagued with corruption

Peking University recently crashed down on democrats and dissident voices, fulminating into the dismissal of Xia Yeliang -an outspoken critic against corruption in China's academia.

Note: The Stanford Center is pretty posh; usually underused. It's two levels underground. You can see the daylight falling in through the ceiling. Great picture!

Image credit: FLOTUSSinChina via +Veooz 

You can follow me on BIG THINK, my Website, or on Twitter.

Chinese migrants are taking corruption abroad

ONCE you lived in China for a bit longer, you start seeing truth, honesty, and trust in a very uncomfortable light. In order to get by and rising in the ranks, many Chinese lie, cheat, embezzle, and bribe whenever they can, and I don't mean that as an offence because it's the only way, I believe, to survive in China. Naturally, many continue their crooked ways when applying for going abroad.

READ MORE Asylum Fraud in Chinatown: Industry of Lies -by Kirk Semple, Joseph Goldstein, and Jeffrey E. Singer

There once were lectures on corruption at Peking University, with several case studies. To our surprise, Chinese scholars mostly thought nothing wrong with rent seeking, forgery and bribery. Students were oblivious to fraud, with over half of them in one class I witnessed at Tsinghua University admitting that they employ 'agencies' that ghostwrite their applications and personal statements for studying abroad. Zero feelings of guilt. Everyone is doing it, they say. It is the herd instinct, or, shall we say, the will to succeed in such an ultra-competitive culture at all costs.

READ MORE Chinese Top Universities Plagued With Corruption  -by Thorsten Pattberg

As may forms of corruption like the abuse of officialdom and the wining-dining-doing-favors culture are institutionalized, many young Chinese scholars think this is simply how the world works. Moreover, it confirms their daily experiences and they way they were brought up. At that was Peking University, mind you! In fact, many Chinese want to quit China for the West because they are tired of all the stress, cheating, callousness, exploitation and abuse in the Chinese society or, worse, they are afraid of getting caught in Xi Jinping's recent anti-corruption campaign.

READ MORE Author: In China, 'everyone is guilty of corruption' -by Zhang Lijia

We are going to witness hundreds of thousands of new corruption scandals in the coming years. [Here is today's latest]. It won't look pretty, but it needs to be done. This is a very rotten society, and the Chinese people deserve better!

Thorsten Pattberg with YANG Rui, famed Chinese journalist and CCTV International Presenter

YANG RUI and Thorsten Pattberg, Beijing Forum 2013

BEIJING FORUM 2013 – No other media figure has helped to accommodate if not to shape China’s rise more in the recent decade than YANG Rui, the CCTV International Presenter and host of ‘Dialogue’, an English-speaking political TV program. Mr. Yang has been called the Larry King of China, and his show Dialogue is watched by tens of millions. He recently drew criticism in particular for his anti-foreign, xenophobic remarks on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and in general for his aggressive personality and stance against foreign media that tends to report China in an unfavorable light. I met him at the Alliance of Civilizations meeting during the Beijing Forum 2013, where he shared his views on how China should be presented and respected by international media, and how especially CCTV tries to convey a China image from the point of view of the majority of the Chinese, which is naturally and often very different from Western-based media. Mr. Yang enjoys cult-status and has attracted a huge fellowship of Chinese students who regularly flock to his CCTV show(s) not only to student current international affairs and culture trends but also to study Political and Culture English. Among expats and foreign students in China, Yang Rui is known as probably the most international and recognizable Chinese media personality of the decade. [VISIT EAST-WEST DICHOTOMY]

Thorsten Pattberg with Herta Däubler-Gmelin, former German Minister of Justice

PEKING - Ms. Däubler-Gmelin was the German Minister of Justice from 1998-2002; so, technically, she was my boss (my Minister, so to speak) during my employment at the Court of Law in Munster, NRW. Now we met in China - It's a small world. She is one of the few, very few Germans - during my long years at PKU - who is not intimidated by the Chinese Communist Party's megalomania and hubris, and she feels free to exercise criticism against any authoritarian regime where needed. She would not betray her principles. This is called integrity. That's what you learn when you work in the German judiciary. It is precisely for her outspokenness and sense for justice and the rule of law, I think, that she is respected (or feared) among democrats, human rights activists, and politicians on the left and the right, here and abroad. Just saying. [BACK TO MAIN]

China Is Hoarding Gold Like Smaug the Dragon - It's About Prestige

BEIJING - It is obvious that China is up to something hoarding gold like a dragon. In fact, it is taking a leap forward to control the world currency and to replace it with the yuan, Dr. Thorsten Pattberg, China expert at the Peking University, told RT.

China is vowing to make more reforms, among them cutting red tape and establishing the yuan as a world currency. The 7th Annual Meeting of the New Champions is opening in the Chinese city of Dalian, the gathering has become known as a 'summer Davos'. RT has talked to Dr. Pattberg about China's prospects for introducing a new world currency.

Thorsten Pattberg with Tampalawela Dhammaratana, UNESCO Consultant, Division for Philosophy and Ethics

Dr. Tampalawela Dhammaratana, a Buddhist grandmaster and Frenchand Sri Lankan national, lives in Paris and embarked on a life-long journey for the promotion of Buddhism in the world. He is currently the Director of Buddhist Links at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Thorsten Pattberg with Gary Locke, Ambassador of the United States to China

Not the average party that is attended by the distinguished Ambassador of the United States to China, Gary Locke, and his very beautiful wife Mona Locke. The diplomatic relationship between Germany and the United States in China are thankfully as good as ever. We are living in exciting times. [BACK TO MAIN]

Professor Tu Weiming Master Confucianist Funny Magic Card

This rare Professor Tu Weiming Magic Card is adorable: Make the world a more humane place, or simply steamroll your opponent with an army of your Confucian Junzi creature tokens: 

Summon the legendary cottage The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies. It let's your disciples fly:

Art Work sent in by MyaTold. [BACK TO MAIN].

Thorsten Pattberg and Iranian Gholamreza Aavani in Beijing

"For the perfect mystic, a person that made this spiritual journey, God is never absent, never has been absent, once he reached there." – Gholamreza Aavani is a leading Islamic philosopher, historian of the Persian intellectual tradition, and the former head of the Iranian Academyfor Philosophy.

Prof. Aavani accepted the invitation of Tu Weiming to conduct research and teaching at PKU during spring term 2013. (IAHS, Peking University, April 3, 2013).

Pattberg Interview in Istanbul

Pattberg on 'Building Bridges Gateway' program by Gökalp Barlan, Oktar Babuna, Ahmet B. Sezgin in Istanbul, Turkey. (March 26, 2013). Topics discussed are: globalization, cultural diversity, the rise of China, faith and brotherhood, Islam and the West, Turkey and the European Union, global language, and intercultural dialogue.

Pattberg on Building Bridges Gateway with Oktar Babuna

Pattberg on Building Bridges Gateway with Ahmet B. Sezgin

Pattberg on Building Bridges Gateway with Gökalp Barlan

On CCTV, Dec 24 2012

CCTV-4

While China Network Television CNTV came to record images of our Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies (IAHS) at Peking University, we had a group discussion on the future of Confucianism:

Pattberg at The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University

It turned out that Tu Weiming was about to get awarded with the CNTV Personality of the Year 2012 prize for disseminating Chinese Culture to the world.

Pattberg: Ruxue, also know as Confucianism, is little understood in the West; that is because Western scholars use erroneous biblical and philosophical translations, instead of adopting China's originality and concepts.

Santa Confucius and Christmas in China, anyway!