Monday 7 March 2011

exams, winners, and losers

We should rethink the conventional assumption that an undergraduate university course should be full-time at age 18 or 19. Perhaps we could change social norms so that it is usually part-time, made more accessible to more people, and undertaken later? That would reduce the insane pressure that the demands of university entrance at 18 or 19 now put on student at school, a pressure so antipathetic to the ideal of education for autonomous well-being. It would free up those years from 14 or so for pupils to throw themselves into all kinds of worthwhile pursuits - to lose themselves in them. This would be a far cry from the exam-dominated regime they have to suffer at the moment. It would also do something to prevent the education system becoming a device for separating Life's Winners from Life's Losers. (p. 15-6)
From John White's, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education, University of London, "What does it mean to be well-educated?" Think, Vol. 10 (Summer 2011), pp. 9-16.
Apparently, the ideal education system is one thing and the society another. The cruel fact of the society is that it celebrates winners and keep mercy out of the possible reach of losers and is by all means a winner-take-all playground. Pick winners sooner and kick losers not later.

point of view

After a number of years of teaching and communicating with university students, I found the following observation sound and true.
Most undergraduates arrive on campus with fairly well formed political beliefs. The students drawn to our views are always those who already share them. We put ideas out for consideration. They can take them or leave them. Then we each get on with our lives. (Cary Nelson's No university is an island: saving academic freedom (New York : New York University Press, 2010), p. 14)


Friday 4 March 2011

Hongkong and others

鄭宏泰、黃紹倫:〈香港歐亞混血買辦崛起之謎〉,《史林》,2010年第2期,頁1-14。
Shu-Yun Ma, "The Making and Remaking of a Chinese Hospital in Hong Kong," Modern Asian Studies Advance Access, 2011, 24pps. Tung Wah Hospital's role from the bubonic plague in 1894 to the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Flore Chevaillier, "Commercialization and Cultural Misreading in Dai Sijie's Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise," Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access, 2011, 15pps.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Emotions

Nearly a year ago before setting off to Shanghai and then Edinburgh in May and June respectively, I made a list of papers, not too long I think, to read after the summer.

One of them is "Forum: History of Emotions," German History, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2010, pp. 67-80. The forum was formed by Frank Biess (University of California, San Diego), Alon Confino (University of Virginia), Ute Frevert (Max-Planck-Institut fur Bildungsforschung), Uffa Jensen (Universitat Gottingen), Lyndal Roper (Oxford University), and Daniela Saxer (Universitat Zurich/ETH Zurich).

from cultural turn to an "emotional turn" in cultural studies in light of massive increase in interest in emotions among historians, humanists, and natural scientists.


Tuesday 1 March 2011

國民黨在香港

抗戰以來,香港地位日形重要。僑港同胞數逾百萬。雄於資者富商巨賈、饒於力者技術專才、社會中堅、國中耆碩薈萃於此,盛極一時,潛蓄力量至為豐厚。
惟是分子複雜,意向紛歧,各自為營,漫無中軸。依違之間,端視吸引有如素絲隨薰成染。苟能及早運用黨國力量,收而納之於抗戰建國之一途,無形之中蔚成黨力,效果所至,未可限量。
敵方近亦有見及此,正積極運用其懷柔政策,妄冀與我爭取民眾,廣布諜網,肆意活動。意志薄弱者流,最易墮其殼中,殊屬可慮。夫城可棄,士可焦,民眾萬不可失。此誠千鈞一發之時也。
故香港一隅之在今日,就資源、力源之接濟,儼成重要之後方,而就政治上我敵間之尖銳暗鬥,又隱同緊張之前線。故黨力之及時運用於香港,在整個抗戰方略中實佔重要之成分。

羅翼群、區芳蒲:〈港澳黨務視察報告〉(1939年3月25日),《朱家驊檔案 ‧ 香港黨務》(檔案2號30-3),台北中研院近史所。引自金以林:〈戰時國民黨香港黨務檢討〉,《抗日戰爭研究》,2007年第4期,頁85。

弟[吳鐵城,港澳支部主任委員]奉總裁[朱家驊]密命來港主持黨務,指導一切,另由中央常會第一一九次會議決推派弟任駐港宣傳專員,辦理關於閩、粵兩省戰區宣傳事宜。此間辦事處已於東日成立,開始工作。印刷公司及報紙亦正在積極籌備,至遲月杪必可出版。港方黨務未能公開活動情形,兄所探知。在此情況之下,對內推動並無問題,而對外名義須預為假定,以求適應環境,庶可推行盡利。(〈吳鐵城致朱家驊快郵代電〉(1939年5月4日),專引自金文,頁89)
總支部對外名義決定為「西南圖書印刷有限公司董事會」(〈高廷梓[港澳總支部書記長。廣東新會人,北大哲學系畢業,哥倫比亞大學博士]致朱家驊函〉(1939年5月22日,專引自金文,頁90)

西南圖書印刷公司作為國民黨宣傳書刊的印刷所,印刷及出版多種書刊,如董顯光的《總裁傳記》(1938),葉靈鳳的《忘憂草:散文隨筆集》(1940),馮焯芬的《政治改造》(1941)。又,國民黨在港機關報《國民日報》(1939-),是於1939年7月成立,陶百川任社長,由攞花街二十五號余大年督印。另外,印行廣東文物展覽會的《廣東文物》(1941)的中國文化協進會,大概與國民黨也有點關聯吧?

又可參考李盈慧:〈淪陷前國民政府在香港的文教活動〉,載港澳與近代中國學術硏討會論文集編輯委員會編:《港澳與近代中國學術研討會論文集》(台北:國史館,2000),頁441-476。劉維開:〈淪陷期間中國國民黨在港九地區的活動〉,《港澳與近代中國學術研討會論文集》,頁477-499。