分类：Culture & Public Commentary

Revisiting “Natural History” (Natural Science) as a Historiographical Program

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.26
Revisiting “Natural History” (Natural Science) as a Historiographical Program
I previously wrote “Natural History as a Historiographical Program—Thoughts on Liu Huajie’s Lecture,” where I briefly raised this idea. I noted that although what I call natural history as a historiographical program differs from Liu Huajie’s “historiographical program of natural history” only in translation (I argue that Natural History should be translated as “自然史” rather than the more usual “博物学”), my conception of this way of writing history is quite different from Liu’s. Recently I chatted again with my student Wang Liang about related topics, and then I saw a conversation record between Liu and Jiang Xiaoyuan, Liu Bing, and the others about “the good should be attributed to natural…
philosophy history of science history knowledge
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2011年8月26日
What Does the Red Cross Do? What Do Public Welfare Organizations Do?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.09
What Does the Red Cross Do? What Do Public Welfare Organizations Do?
The Guo Meimei incident has been making quite a stir for a while now, and I should probably write one or two pieces about it. But as for Guo Meimei herself and the whole affair, I actually don’t have all that much to say. The significance of Guo Meimei lies in the fact that she brought this issue to light and got people to pay attention to the Red Cross Society and other public-interest organizations. But the problems of China’s public-interest organizations are deeply rooted; they have nothing to do with whether or not someone was keeping a Guo Meimei as a mistress, and they even have nothing to do…
culture China commentary government
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2011年8月9日
On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.08
On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”
Recently I saw an article in Southern Weekend, “Do Poor Children Have No Spring? — Why Are Students from Humble Families Increasingly Farther Away from First-Rate Universities?” In the past few days, while eating with my family and relatives, this kind of topic has also come up often. Today someone mentioned that Fudan University may completely abolish admissions through straight Gaokao scores next year—that is, you would have to get in through independent admissions or other such routes. Such a move will of course further increase the difficulty for students from impoverished regions to enter top universities. Just the round-trip transportation and lodging costs for making a special trip to…
culture China scholarship education
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2011年8月8日
Is High Speed a Good Thing?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.07.29
Is High Speed a Good Thing?
I’ve taken the EMU back to Shanghai, the same D31 as before. But the schedule has changed: instead of leaving a little after 11 a.m., it now leaves a little after 8 a.m.; the speed has also been raised somewhat; the dwell times at each station have become much longer; and the stations served have all changed too, basically shifted to the new high-speed-rail stations. If someone hadn’t remembered to check yesterday, I still wouldn’t have noticed these changes, and I would have nearly missed the train. As for the EMU rear-end collision, I don’t want to say much. Of course, if one says that because of this incident one…
China technology commentary Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年7月29日
Why Not Revive Confucianism?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.30
Why Not Revive Confucianism?
For some reason I suddenly thought of this—could Confucianism be revived? Of course, rather than “revived,” it might be better to say “created.” Master Xianglong has the idea of establishing a “Confucian Cultural Preservation Zone”; he says: Would Confucian culture today not last long without protection? Of course not. Although Daoism and Buddhism are also being squeezed out by modernizing culture today, they still have their “ark” and “paradise” for escaping the flood, namely their ecclesiastical communities and temples. In other words, they have their own “preservation zones.” Within that tiny bit of land around the temples, it is the abbot and the Daoist master who call the shots….
culture China tradition religion
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2011年6月30日
Some Thoughts on the People’s Congress System

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.10
Some Thoughts on the People’s Congress System
Recently I’ve started paying attention again to the matter of deputies to the People’s Congress, and the immediate trigger was reading a news interview with a “person in charge of the Legal Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress” on “independent candidates” having no legal basis. Although I had previously heard that so-and-so was going to run for deputy to the People’s Congress, I hadn’t paid much attention. But when I saw this authoritative explanation from the person in charge of “legal” work, I was startled, and so I looked into the matter. The explanation given by this person in charge is astonishing. I am not…
culture China politics democracy
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2011年6月10日
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.06
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?
(Note: the image comes from Jandan’s Boring Pictures/original link, for amusement only~) The recent drought has once again made the much-controversial Three Gorges Dam the target of everyone’s criticism: some say the Three Gorges is the culprit behind the drought, earthquakes, and even all sorts of anomalies, while the pundits say that without the Three Gorges the drought would be even worse. So which is it? Obviously, the most “scientific” answer is: we don’t know! This is not like a hypothesis in physics, where we can design an experiment with controlled variables—holding all the other variables constant and looking separately at how things develop with and without the Three Gorges….
culture China technology environment
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2011年6月6日
I Don’t Object to the “Jeanswest Building”

Culture & Public Commentary2011.05.28
I Don’t Object to the “Jeanswest Building”
Recently the “Zhenvis Building” next door has been the talk of the town, and there has been quite a lot of opposition and ridicule, but I basically don’t have much of a negative reaction. Peking University’s No. 3 Teaching Building was long ago renamed “Liu Qing Building,” but we still call it “Third Teaching Building,” and the university’s course schedules and notices still call it Third Teaching Building as well; at most, there’s just one more nameplate hanging on the wall. Tsinghua’s Zhenvis Building can also just continue to be called the Fourth Teaching Building, and it won’t interfere with everyday teaching and life. The only issue is that some…
China scholarship commentary economy
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2011年5月28日
SCI and Academic Fairness

Culture & Public Commentary2011.04.21
SCI and Academic Fairness
Last year China’s number of SCI papers surged to second place in the world; EI papers had long since already been number one. This is certainly nothing to be proud of. Never mind the average quality of the papers: even if all these papers were genuine and substantive, it still would not be something worth celebrating. In the first place, scientific papers published in English are “making contributions to all humankind (especially Americans),” and of all parties they benefit, China itself benefits the least. Since China’s science policy and environment have always devoted most of their energy to these original activities, they have never much cared about secondary development based…
China science scholarship commentary
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2011年4月21日
A Few Words on the “Salt Rumor”

Culture & Public Commentary2011.03.22
A Few Words on the “Salt Rumor”
After the earthquake, all kinds of rumors, big and small, were flying everywhere. The existence of the internet seems to have greatly strengthened the spread of rumors. Of course, we can also use the internet to conveniently search for more information and thereby dispel some shallow rumors, but most people probably do not use the internet that way. Compared with BBS forums and search engines, today’s SNS and microblogs seem more conducive to the spread of rumors, because BBS forums and search engines require a certain kind of active participation. Although posts on BBS forums can be reposted without restraint, browsing a BBS is after all an active act, and…
commentary internet sociology trust
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2011年3月22日