Never Stop Learning

Submitted by Soraya Somarathne on Sat, 2006-10-28 05:49.
Tags: Coffee Corner

I read this really interesting blog by Shauna Xie, a consultant in Beijing, focusing on education in China. The blog is called Never Stop Learning and follows:

I studied architecture in China for two years before transferring to the University of Toronto. That really changed my view of myself. My classmates there were a lot more creative than I was, artistically, and I think that's probably because of the way I was educated in China. Our whole education system is focused on learning knowledge from textbooks and isn't focused on individuals and their special interests. Rather than just focusing on textbooks, I want Chinese students to have more practical social experiences, to understand how society works, and to be able to experience things that are really their true passion.

China also needs better continuing education for adults. A lot of people say relationships are key if you're doing business in China. They're key because Chinese people are not straightforward with one another. They don't tell their true feelings, and you have to guess a lot of the time. A lot of this is really just soft-skills training. I've thought about starting a for-profit night school or continuing-education school. I would want to make this a viable business, targeting young professionals who have the purchasing power and the desire to develop skills such as public speaking, giving and receiving feedback, and managing effective interactions with people. I've also thought of doing human-resources consulting, providing corporate training for Chinese companies to help their employees communicate better.

I want to know other peoples' views on this. I feel I can relate to a lot of issues Shuana Xie has brought up. Whilst I find working with the Chinese can be a very simple and comfortable process on the surface, it gets very complicated if one tries to go a little deeper. People are not straight forward with each other and I agree that the level of interaction is severely lower than in the West. This leaves me feeling very lethargic and unsatisfied, particularly as I work in an industry which thrives off generation of ideas, discussion and human interaction. Will this barrier ever be broken down or will business in China be compromised by this challenging level of communication and what appears to be a lack of desire to adapt to practical social behaviour, for global markets and on a global scale??

Things Are Getting Better

Submitted by Alex on Sat, 2006-11-11 05:58.

It depends on who you are working with. "Sea turtles" (Chinese that have had some form of education in the West but returned to the Mainland) tend to have a much better idea of what is required in creative industries, but how well they implement that tends to positively correlate with the amount of time they spent abroad. Creativity and individualism as skills or characteristics tend not to be taught in state-operated schools in China. This is partly because they are not recognised as important, but is also down to the fact that China is a very collectivistic society. This means that it is considered better to maintain social harmony in your extended network of friends, families and colleagues etc. by knowing your place/status and acting accordingly, than to stand out and disrupt what everyone in that network has grown accustomed to. Ultimately, if we are to move forward, it's about understanding and respecting this difference, but gently pushing individuals' boundaries. For example, for those locals in your office who have not had "the benefits" of any Western education, you need to entrust them with small creative tasks and let them know that whatever they do is not going to be wrong, but that you do not want to see something you have seen before. This will probably require a good deal of time and patience (so don't apply this to a time-critical project), but hopefully by the third time they come back to you (yes they will have brought you things you've seen before), you will have something both new and creative. Prior to this though, you should have them research the field for existing works (both within China and internationally) and have them present to you the similarities, differences and general trends of that particular genre. With a solid background knowledge and having reviewed existing works, they will then be able to look at their own pieces to see where their work fits in and stands out. - Alex

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