American Universities’ China Problem

The other day my American friend (who was my roommate) came with me to visit that country and we had a pretty interesting conversation on the taxi cab from the airport to the hotel. My ex's dad worked in the government and his role was essentially censor the press (and my ex was particularly hush-hush about that). Now on my ex's views, she said her dad has no illusion about how shitty the situation is, either. In her description of his job, that is to walk the thin line to allow the press to say as much as possible without making anyone really pissed off (and take revenge on the journalists). My American friend, predictably, didn't like that and thought that was just an excuse.

My dad, like many people of his generation, refused to work with that government. He refused to take any higher-up position. He is just a college lecturer for all his life. To him, taking upper management jobs means he will be corrupted just like the ones he despited. Now he is a disgruntled, angry old man who now faces the fact that there is absolutely nothing he can do to change anything in that shitty system. I believe if he took the job, he would have been able to do more good to the students than the corrupted people he despited.

One of the things that Vietnam has over China is that the internet is much much freer. We get access to Facebook, Google, etc. without problems. That was thanks to someone who worked in the government basically convinced the higher-ups to open up the internet and "fix problems as they appear."

I talked to one of my Chinese graduate friends who has a dad who did essentially what my dad did. I feel bad for both of them.

I feel that in dictatorship countries, making something happen is better than nothing.

I still don't know what to think about my ex's dad, but I owe my gratitude to whoever worked in the government to get the internet to Vietnam so I can be in the USA today to do really great, great work and to speak freely. But I only write this because I had the choice to get the fuck out. My dad and my friend's dad, they had a family to feed and couldn't get out due to many reasons. In that case, for their owns' good, I wonder if making a compromise and "do what you can" is a better choice for both the person and the common good. This is one of the cases where I ask whether the black-and-white, absolutist thinking of good-and-bad what was a too simplistic view of the problem. I believe many scholars in China didn’t say things directly because they were brainwashed or cowards. They know their priorities.