China's dramatic transformation in the past two decades is the most
important story of the 20th Century and will rank in overall
importance in history with the Renaissance and the Industrial
Revolution, Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers said
in a speech May 14 attended by some 1,000 students at
Peking University in
Beijing.
"No country in Europe, no country in North America, has ever grown
nearly as rapidly in a decade as China has grown in the last decade
and in the decade before," Summers, 48, said.
China's transformation as will as the phenomenon of globalization
reflect a deeper transformation in the world, Lawrence said: "And
that is this: knowledge is becoming more central to every aspect of
human activity that it ever has been before."
A
former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States who became
president of Harvard last
July, Summers focused his talk on the need all organizations,
especially institutions of higher learning, to respond to the
transformations that characterize our times.
"I
was asked at a gathering earlier in China what advice I would give
to someone who was trying to create the best possible university.
And I said there was really in the long run only one thing that
mattered to having the best possible university. And that was
having the most creative, the most intellectually engaged, and the
smartest faculty."
The achievements made by Harvard, Summers said, are due to its
farsighted education that not only emphasizes popular sciences in
great demand, but also pays great attention to the development
trend and prospect of a discipline. Harvard's endeavors to be
ranked among the best universities of the world include aspects of
separation from politics, competition and external scrutiny,
ruthless competition for talent, and strong leadership, Summers
said.
In
the tide of globalization, Summers said universities are confronted
with five challenges: 1. Grappling with globalization and spreading
excellence 2. maintaining a sense of community and autonomy as
knowledge becomes in wider demand 3. maintaining a commitment to
areas of knowledge that don't appear instrumentally valuable in the
very short run 4. universities must adapt to the changing
organization of knowledge 5. universities must adapt to the
changing opportunities that the changing world brings.
Summers admonished students of Peking University to know clearly
what they are going to do in the future, to know how to do it, and
more importantly, to know how to do it better.
Also in attendance were Peking University President Xu Zhihong and
Vice-President Min Weifang along with 13 Harvard faculty members --
the largest delegation of Harvard faculty ever to visit China --
who accompanied Summers to attend the Second Conference of the
Association of Harvard University Alumni Clubs of Asia.
(Edited and translated by Sara Grimes and Shao Da from sources
including 中國青年報
[China Youth Daily], for china.org.cn, May 21, 2002)