The Symposium on the Culture of Chinese Overseas Education on Saturday

NATIONAL leaders joined scholars and officials in Zhuhai during the past two days, examining how hearty Chinese adventurers travel abroad to foster and still are contributing toward, a bright future for the country today.
The Symposium on the Culture of Chinese Overseas Education opened Saturday at the Zhuhai Holiday Resort.
This city just had to be the venue, because long before becoming the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone in 1980, this was the birthplace of the brave child, and others who would follow, that went to learn about the other side of the world.
Given the heritage of Rong Hong (Yung Wing), born in Nanping, just across today’s bridge from Gongbei, and father of the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM), the city set up the Overseas Returnees Venture Garden in 2001.
Initially, just more than 40 returnees settled there. Today, however, there are 1,200 entrepreneur-scholars engaged in enterprises at the location.
The symposium, Mayor Zhong Shijian noted in his welcoming speech, would be of great significance in delving into and promoting the culture of overseas education. He cited Zhuhai’s rapid social and economic growth: a GDP of 88.68 billion yuan ($12.67 billion) in 2007, up 16.5 per cent from the previous year -- the sharpest rise since 2004.
The mayor urged promotion of Zhuhai so as to draw more overseas returnees to the historic birthplace of their protégés going abroad.
The symposium was co-sponsored by the Western Returned Scholars Association of China, the Zhuhai People’s Government, the Macao Foundation, and Jinan University.
Contributing were the Municipal Committee Publicity Department of the CPC, the Zhuhai International Culture Association and Jinan University’s Culture of Overseas Education of Chinese Research Institute.
Three-hundred officials and representatives of national and provincial departments, the Western Returned Scholars Association, Chinese Overseas-Educated Scholars Association; and from Hong Kong and Macao, additional universities, and senior city officials, and guests, participated.
Huang Xiaodong, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee, who is also director of the Publicity Department and president of the Zhuhai International Culture Association, presided over the opening ceremony.
Unable to attend, Han Qide, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and president of the Western Returned Scholars Association of China, conveyed his encouragement.
Han Qide wrote that since Rong Hong went to study abroad in 1847, generations of students followed his example and then returned to contribute enormously to Chinese modernization. They played irreplaceable roles in history, he said, adding that the symposium would boost research into Chinese overseas education.
Feng Changgen, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Science & Technology, delivered the opening speech. He cited the overseas returnees as priceless national assets. Then he asked representative to diligently research the culture of Chinese overseas education, share their achievements, and contribute to the course of betterment.
Keynote speeches were presented by Professor Zhou Mian of Xuzhou Normal University (XNU) and director of its Centre on XNU Overseas Students & Modern China Studies; Miao Danguo, chief of the Overseas Education Division of the Department of International Cooperation & Exchanges in the Ministry of Education; Tang Shaoming, great-grandnephew of Tang Guo’an, who was the first president of Tsinghua University and had been former executive vice-president of the National Library of China; Liang Zanxun, grandson of Commissioner Liang Puzhao, third-detachment CEM student and former secretary general of the China Aviation Industry Corp Science & Technology; and Professor David Zweig, associate dean of Humanities & Social Sciences, chair of the Division of Social Science and director of the Centre on China’s Transnational Relations, plus three other scholars.
Li Xisuo, director of the Centre on Overseas Students at Nankai University College of History, pointed out that research on Rong Hong is of great significance for the development of overseas education.
Rong Hong stands out in both modernization and nationality, Li said. He solved the critical problem of Chinese westernization -- talented personnel -- by arranging for 120 young Chinese students to study in America. Meanwhile, he was deeply patriotic, returning home to serve his country after graduation from Yale University.
It took him 18 undaunted years to convince the Qing government to launch the CEM. The Chinese overseas education initiative that Rong Hong had initiated diversified the structure and life values of the Chinese nation, Li said, suggesting that a complete Rong Hong biography and chronicle of his life be compiled in Zhuhai.
In addition to Rong Hong, his contemporary Zhuhai native sons include Huang Kuan (Wong Foon), the first Chinese to study in Europe; and Tang Bao’e, the first to study in Japan. In addition, China’s first English-Chinese dictionary, Sino-Japanese dictionary, factory, mine, railway, non-English newspaper, and many other modernizations were created by Zhuhai natives.
The number of overseas students has reached 1.1 million since the time Yung Wing -- as Rong Hong is better known abroad -- embarked on his quest. Of them, 320,000 have returned to China.
There are 890,00 overseas students studying at present, according to Xu Peixiang, director of the Returning Home Office of the Department of International Co-operation & Exchange of Ministry of Education.
Huang Xiaodong noted that historic Zhuhai figures such as Rong Hong, Tang Shaoyi and Tang Guo’an greatly boosted political, economic and cultural development in modern China, whereas a new generation of Chinese overseas returnees is playing an important role in hi-tech.
“Our slogan is: Zhuhai is cradle for overseas education and paradise for entrepreneurship of returned overseas scholars,” Huang announced.
There are 1,200 overseas returnees registered in Zhuhai, and some enterprises founded by them have since been listed.
The Chinese Overseas Education Museum, Overseas Students Education Centre, Overseas Students Exchange Centre and Overseas Students Homeland facility will be constructed for the sake of academic research and exchange.

Discussions
Yesterday afternoon’s discussions looked into the relationship between overseas education and social development, China’s overseas-study history and culture, Rong Hong’s historic achievements, the impact of returned scholars on China’s economy and culture; the formation, transformation and development of China’s overseas education policies, and so on, in the afternoon.
Li Zhigang (the Rev Lee Chee Kong), chairman of the Christian Cultural Society in Hong Kong, impressed the audience by asking if those who failed to graduate from overseas universities could be referred to as “overseas semi-scholars.”
For example, he said, Huang Sheng (Wong Shing) who had studied in America along with Rong Hong and Huang Kuan, returned to China due to illness. Once recovered, he worked at a newspaper in Hong Kong. He went on to co-found the first charitable hospital in the British enclave.
Some Chinese overseas students, who might otherwise have accomplished nothing outstanding, the reverend said, were still of great value in rendering service to their country due to their experiences with western culture and education.
Professor Zhao Libin of the Sun Yat-sen University Centre for Historical Anthropology is dedicated to oral history. He proposed that elderly people be interviewed in the neighbourhoods where historic Zhuhai figures were raised.
That would help bring to light society and history in modern times, while deepening research into those historic figures, he said. By tracking folk memories, he implied, one can explore how such personalities developed.
Such a survey could also bring deeper insight into the historical and cultural resources of the city, he added.
Professor Chen Changgui of the Institute of Higher Education of Sun Yat-sen University noted that the first new phase of Chinese overseas education, which resumed in 1978, saw policies established and improved. The second phase, 1986-91, was a time to accumulate experience and solve problems. The third phase, starting in 1992, was to encourage overseas scholars to return home for mutual benefit.
“It’s more flexible and practical and more likely to bring overseas returnees to full play,” he said of the process.
Analyzing the study, life and behaviour of students in foreign countries would benefit cooperation and exchange between universities, Li Xisuo of Nankai University College of History, pointed out.
He said that Chinese overseas students are a new-type source of knowledge exposed to indigenous as well as foreign culture. Therefore, scholars must research the Chinese overseas students with an international angle, he noted.
Yang Yunzhong (Jeong Wan Chong), senior rector of the University of Macao and acting director of the Centre for Macao Studies, stated that overseas study allows not only the learning of foreign language, culture and advanced technology, but also dissemination of Chinese language, advanced experience and fine ideological and ethical trends at the same time. It is two-way, so overseas students should serve as envoys of cultural exchange, he said.
Exploring the culture of overseas education involves institutional, material and value culture, Meng Hong, professor of German at the School of Foreign Languages at Renmin University, asserted.
Chinese overseas students explained Chinese policy and social development to western countries, including submitting fair-and-square comprehension and coverage to the western media during the Olympic torch relay. “They help the world understand China and they serve as envoys of China’s future development and bridge Chinese and western cultures. They are an important talent reserve in social and economic development for China in the future,” she noted.
Strengthening research into overseas Chinese education and the relationship between education abroad and social development at home will help people to acknowledge contributions made by those who have come back.
Jia Zhijie, advisor to the Western Returned Scholars Association and former secretary of the Hubei Province CPC Committee, said such reinforcement would also help provide evidence and guidance for the leadership of China to make decisions about overseas education once again.
Time and zeal, he implied, are limited.
Symposium attendees later visited the exhibition “Zhuhai & China’s Early Overseas Education” at Zhenxian School, which was founded by Rong Hong; the Yang Family Shrine in Nanping Town where the Historic Zhuhai Figures Statue Park is sited, and the Meixi Royal Stone Archways in northern Qianshan on Sunday morning.
The symposium was closed Sunday afternoon in Jinan University Zhuhai.