标签：China

On Plagiarism (A Zero Without Appeal and Unsparing Mockery)

History of Science & Scholarship2018.06.30
On Plagiarism (A Zero Without Appeal and Unsparing Mockery)
The deadline for submitting assignments for the History of Technology survey course has now passed. Although I had already previously talked about plagiarism, it still wasn’t enough, so I’m posting a special article here to explain the matter and to lay down rules for how I will deal with plagiarism in the future. This time there were 29 students in the course altogether. One student withdrew from the class (not taking the exam and not submitting the assignment), so the actual number was 28. Looking at their midterm assignments now, I found a total of 5 plagiarized pieces! That’s almost one-fifth! Of course, among them were 2 international students (though…
China scholarship course paper
阅读全文

2018年6月30日
Undergraduate General Education Course: “A General History of Technology”

Teaching & Courses2018.02.24
Undergraduate General Education Course: “A General History of Technology”
This semester (Spring 2018), I will be offering an undergraduate elective at Tsinghua: *General History of Technology*. Basic Course Information Course number: 00691572 Time: Every Tuesday, period 4 (15:20–16:55) Note: Classes start on February 27 Location: Building 4, Room 4202 Assessment: Reading notes / short paper + open-book final exam Note: I hope every student can write a relatively complete paper (more than 6,000 Chinese characters), but past experience shows that many students still lack adequate academic training, and the papers handed in are often a miserable patchwork. So this time I am considering allowing reading notes, with a more flexible format, to substitute for the paper; but students who…
China technology history of science course
阅读全文

2018年2月24日
The “Entrepreneurial Spirit” That Breaks the Balance

Culture & Public Commentary2018.01.29
The “Entrepreneurial Spirit” That Breaks the Balance
This article was published in China Science Daily (January 29, 2018, p. 1, major news). When it was published, a few sentences were deleted, but the key content was all retained. The reason I framed it around the report to the Nineteenth National Congress was that this was required by the commission, but I can accept this kind of accommodation; especially since my final paragraph was not cut, the critical stance remains quite clear. [caption id="attachment_7189" align="alignnone" width="212"] China Science Daily[/caption] The report to the Nineteenth National Congress proposes to “stimulate and protect entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging more social actors to devote themselves to innovation and entrepreneurship.” In this way, “entrepreneurial…
China technology commentary economy
阅读全文

2018年1月29日
The “Entrepreneurial Spirit” that Breaks the Balance

Culture & Public Commentary2018.01.29
The “Entrepreneurial Spirit” that Breaks the Balance
This article was published in Science and Technology Daily (2018-01-29, p. 1, News) and, at the time of publication, a few sentences were deleted, but the key content was retained. The reason I focused on the report to the Nineteenth National Congress was simply that the commission requested it, but I can accept this kind of accommodation; especially since my final paragraph was not cut, the critical stance remains quite clear. [caption id="attachment_7189" align="alignnone" width="212"] Science and Technology Daily[/caption] The report to the Nineteenth National Congress proposed to “stimulate and protect entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging more social actors to devote themselves to innovation and entrepreneurship,” thereby elevating “entrepreneurial spirit” for the…
China technology commentary economy
阅读全文

2018年1月29日
An Interview on Science and Technology in the Magazine China Youth

AI & the Future of Technology2018.01.24
An Interview on Science and Technology in the Magazine China Youth
This is a written interview that was published in the first issue of China Youth magazine in 2018. When it was published, it seems several questions were deleted, but the answers that were used were scarcely edited at all (especially the last answer), though a few sentences were added for me in a couple of places. Here I am posting the original version. 1、By the end of June 2017, among the world’s top ten internet companies by market capitalization, five were Chinese, and among the world’s 221 emerging “unicorn” companies, Chinese firms accounted for nearly 30 percent. In contemporary China, technological力量 represented by the “new four great inventions” (high-speed rail,…
China technology history of science philosophy of science
阅读全文

2018年1月24日
How Technology Has Shaped Our Daily Life: Getting Out of Bed

Teaching & Courses2017.08.10
How Technology Has Shaped Our Daily Life: Getting Out of Bed
The previous post on the first week’s class only wrote half of it. In fact, the first half of that class was the introduction, and the second half discussed the first case study, so I’ll continue that here. As for the second week’s class, the original plan was for four classmates to speak for half a class each, and for me to speak for half a class; but the classmates’ sense of participation was too strong, and the time wasn’t strictly controlled either (since it was the first time, I deliberately didn’t try to force control), so the three classmates’ reports, together with discussion, took up a full two hours….
everyday life China technology history
阅读全文

2017年8月10日
The Blame for “Health” Scams Shouldn’t Be Put on the Audience

Culture & Public Commentary2017.06.25
The Blame for “Health” Scams Shouldn’t Be Put on the Audience
Yet another commissioned piece from *China Science Daily*. Last time, I finished the commissioned piece in half a day; perhaps that efficiency left a good impression on the paper. This time they came looking for me again to write something, and lately I’ve been so busy I’m almost falling ill. I had originally meant to refuse, but after taking a look at the topic and thinking I’d probably be able to dash off something fairly quickly, I tried writing it. In the end I finished it in two hours, meals included. It was, after all, just an essay, so the standards didn’t need to be too high, and that was…
China science commentary science communication
阅读全文

2017年6月25日
When Reading Joseph Needham, Do Not “Buy the Casket and Return the Pearl” — A Review of *The Titration of Civilization*

History of Science & Scholarship2017.03.26
When Reading Joseph Needham, Do Not “Buy the Casket and Return the Pearl” — A Review of *The Titration of Civilization*
Titrating Civilization: Science and Society in East and West This book review was written last November. It was commissioned, but after I submitted it there was no response. I only asked about it recently and learned that it had not been used, so I’m posting it here first and then I’ll look for somewhere else to submit it~ Before Brother Bo Tianshi translated The Grand Titration, I had long heard of this book and read some introductions to it, but I never quite understood what the titration business was all about. Only after reading it myself did I begin to make some sense of it, and I feel it…
book reading China science history of science
阅读全文

2017年3月26日
Is It Worth Building a Super-Large Particle Collider?

Culture & Public Commentary2016.09.07
Is It Worth Building a Super-Large Particle Collider?
Recently, Mr. Yang Zhenning published an article opposing China’s construction of a super-large collider, turning the matter into a hot topic. The director of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Wang Yifang, has already rebutted Mr. Yang’s arguments point by point, so I’ll just make a few offhand comments on what the two of them have said. Mr. Yang Zhenning is a clear-headed man, and has always tended to think from the standpoint of ordinary people at the bottom. I remember that when he gave a lecture at Peking University and spoke about the comparison between Chinese education and American education, he thought that the usual saying that American education…
China science commentary value
阅读全文

2016年9月7日
Is It Worth Building a Super-Large Collider?

Culture & Public Commentary2016.09.07
Is It Worth Building a Super-Large Collider?
Recently, Mr. Yang Zhenning published an article opposing China’s construction of an ultra-large collider, turning the matter into a hot topic. The director of the High Energy Physics Institute, Wang Yifang, has already refuted Mr. Yang’s arguments point by point, so I’ll just offer a few casual comments on what the two of them have said. Mr. Yang Zhenning is a clear-headed man, and he has always tended to think about problems from the standpoint of ordinary people at the bottom. I remember that when he gave a lecture at Peking University and spoke about the comparison between Chinese education and American education, he said that what people commonly call…
China science commentary value
阅读全文

2016年9月7日