Interestingly, my impression is that this is exactly the strategy that Asian-Americans _don't_ use.
While I completely agree on your argument, I don't see many people driven by the beauty fo the craft itself. My guess is that competition and shortcuts are simply much more effective in quickly reaching success.
The sad fact might be that it is perfectly possible to master a field or craft without a passion for the subject. Simply because passion is not competitively passable.
My experience with Chinese college students this last month has given me essentially the same impression. The interesting part though is that, widely, they are very self aware and frustrated by this.
It's hard not to draw a line directly between exam-based curricula and these sorts of techniques.
from the comment to which this reply is attached: Chinese college students
I take it that both of these statements refer to an ethnic group specified as "they," that is to people who have a different ethnic identity from the person posting the statement. I too am not Chinese, but I am a speaker of the Chinese language and am married into an (ethnically) Chinese family and have lived in east Asia for six years and I think these statements are too superficial and based on insufficient acquaintance with Asian-American and Chinese people. There is plenty of pursuit of art for art's sake and desire for deep understanding of a subject among Chinese people. Perhaps this is not noticed by Westerners who have not had enough curiosity about Chinese language and culture to have had many deep encounters with the behavior of Chinese people.
The above wasn't meant to be a judgmental statement, though I realize now that they way it was written came off that way. More appropriately I should have written something to the extent:
Many of the Chinese students I have met over the last month have expressed this same concern (without and without provocation) that educational systems in China stress too heavily testing and rote memorization. Additionally, at least at PKU, there is an increasing motion toward "western" teaching and evaluation methods, especially in post-graduate studies, which are considered an improvement. The same critiques have been provided by American college students, of course, but comparatively the systems seem to suggest that American colleges produce more "real life" experiences which aid students especially in research settings.
I agree entirely that there is plenty "art for art's sake" practiced every day here. A simple example includes the man who teaches his child calligraphy several mornings each week outside painting it in water on the concrete. My Chinese isn't strong enough to have a deep conversation with this man, but it was plain that he's doing it just because he loves his art and wants to show that to his son.
Finally, I'd like to refute the pigeonholing: I've studied Chinese for two years and am here now both to do research and have those deep encounters you refer to. I can't say I have anything comparable to your experience, but I also feel I'm on the side of trying not to make superficial generalizations.
I don't mean to pick on you personally, but the fact that you responded to that rather profound comment with a borderline racial slur is indicative of what's wrong with this thread and this entire class of conversation and article. It makes me want to walk on the other side of the street.
Edit: I guess I should be more careful in putting this. I like frankness and don't believe in imposing ideological rules on discourse. But I also observe that discussions around this stuff tend to be of low quality. Your comment struck me as a nice example because the first sentence seemed nasty and jarring and the rest of the comment was just fine.
With "Asian-American" I meant international students temporarily studying abroad, NOT Americans of Asian descent. I see no racism when referring to the first group, since the Chinese education system (I'm only familiar with the Chinese and Thai education system) is too a much larger extent composed around pure memorization of either language or math.
I'm very sorry if what I posted came out as racial slur. It was not my intention, since I certainly do not identify myself even remotely with that kind of arguments.
This seems far better attributed to the drive of certain ethnic groups to sustain upward mobility in a stratified society, than to any disregard intrinsic qualities of craft.
While I completely agree on your argument, I don't see many people driven by the beauty fo the craft itself. My guess is that competition and shortcuts are simply much more effective in quickly reaching success.
The sad fact might be that it is perfectly possible to master a field or craft without a passion for the subject. Simply because passion is not competitively passable.