I have just read the editorial "A failing grade for Academia Sinica, (page 12, July 14)" and wish to differ with the key point of the article, and I quote: "Anyone who has taught at a university knows that teaching and research are two antagonistic arenas that can never be properly balanced. Professors who are serious about teaching, and devote much of their time to students, hardly do any meaningful research while any professor working hard on research and churning out one paper or book after another cannot devote much time to teaching."
This is an antiquated view of the '60s through the '80s. As a matter of fact it is in teaching, when one has to explain in simplest terms possible a difficult subject, that one gains insight to the fundamental aspects of a research problem. And it is in teaching that one becomes more sensitive to the broader significance of a seemingly highly specialized research topic.
I would not go so far as saying that teachers who do not do exciting research cannot transmit the excitement of pursuing knowledge, but certainly students can be inspired to explore uncharted territory if they are exposed to such activities daily. There are those who prefer to stay in the lab and churn out papers only, but many would like to find ways to encourage the few students who are willing to follow the not-so-lucrative but very satisfying career of a a research scholar.
There are certainly teachers of history, literature or even sciences who, through charisma and oratorical skills, can catch the attention of a large number of students at large lectures and inspire them in one way or another. This is one of the many definitions of "good" teaching.
But there are also those who can teach and inspire a small group of students how to explore new frontiers of knowledge. These are also good teachers. I believe that the latter is the kind of teaching Taiwan sorely needs, in addition to other kinds, and this is what Academia Sinica is trying to offer. I have taught geophysics for more than 30 years in a university.
I enjoy teaching but I cannot be satisfied if I only teach out of books or even recent research articles. I have to engage in research. I can understand the anxiety of the Taiwan universities regarding the graduate initiative of Academia Sinica. They perhaps feel that one slice out of a whole pie for Academia is one slice less for the universities.
But I think Taiwan must face reality: the research community needs new manpower and some innovations may help greatly.
Francis Wu
New York
Zhu Bangzao is an idiot
It appears that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao (朱邦造) has become the most recent victim of his own, self-styled duplicity. Three weeks ago he pressured authorities in the UK to revoke an invitation granted to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to speak at Manchester University and he squelched US critics of China's negotiations with Israel for a US$250 million radar sale by saying no third country had the right to interfere with China's internal affairs. At the same time, he said that China would attempt to bar Lee from traveling to Japan. Now, we know that Israel has called off the sale of AWACS to China under pressure from the US.
Zhu's said after the cancellation of the radar sale that "[no] other country has the right to interfere in the bilateral cooperation that China has with other countries," and that "[any] agreement and understanding between states should be honored."
Were we to bring to light for the vociferous Zhu the inherent hypocrisy of his statements and China's actions, I trust the taste of his foot would be more savory than any attempt he might make to justify his stance.
China's rulers are bent on keeping their great nation divided -- they are an emerging economic and military powerhouse, but their political bungling and paranoia seem better adapted to the workings of the Middle Ages.
Charles McClellan
Kaohsiung
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
A Pale View of Hills, a movie released last year, follows the story of a Japanese woman from Nagasaki who moved to Britain in the 1950s with her British husband and daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was born at a time when memories of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II and anxiety over the effects of nuclear radiation still haunted the community. It is a reflection on the legacy of the local and national trauma of the bombing that ended the period of Japanese militarism. A central theme of the movie is the need, at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday used their legislative majority to push their version of a special defense budget bill to fund the purchase of US military equipment, with the combined spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.78 billion). The bill, which fell short of the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion request, was passed by a 59-0 margin with 48 abstentions in the 113-seat legislature. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), who reportedly met with TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for a private meeting before holding a joint post-vote news conference, was said to have mobilized her
RSS