This morning we had a lecture on modern China. A lot of my expectations of China were proved quite wrong. There are actually very few remnants of ancient Chinese culture left in China because of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Everything ancient was encouraged to be destroyed. Also technology is quite new to China. Telephones, vehicles, televisions and other Western technology were not introduced to China until the 1980’s which seems unreal to me. This is because they were isolated from the world for practically the entire twentieth century. Although China is technologically savvy these days, I was very surprised to learn this.
Another thing I found surprising about modern China is the schooling system. In America, I believe there is a sort of stereotype that Chinese people are among the best educated in the world. This is true, however, their method at achieving this high quality education is much different. Children work incredibly hard in elementary school so that they can test into a great college. But when they get to college basically all of their hard work is done and they can relax. The education system is entirely opposite in America. Every year of schooling becomes more difficult than the last, making college the toughest time of a student’s life as opposed to the second grade.
Later this afternoon, we had a company visit to Tsinghua Solar. This is a smaller company which was founded by Tsinghua University. They produce solar powered products, primarily water heaters like the ones I observed in the country side. They also make solar powered watches, Christmas trees, and street lights. The company had a power point presentation prepared for us which was very thorough and afterwards we asked many questions. Then we went to a show room and saw the products themselves. I think this was the best company visit because it was the most professional and the material presented was well rounded concerning the technology, the business, the company history, and the products. Again, one of my predictions was proved wrong. I predicted the social environment of professional life to be very sober in China. However, the room in which we received the presentation in was equipped with a disco ball and sound system. It seems that they do have staff parties in China as well.