分类存档：Thoughts

Share: What Are You Going to Do With That?

The essay below is adapted from a talk delivered to a freshman class at Stanford University in May.

The question my title poses, of course, is the one that is classically aimed at humanities majors. What practical value could there possibly be in studying literature or art or philosophy? So you must be wondering why I’m bothering to raise it here, at Stanford, this renowned citadel of science and technology. What doubt can there be that the world will offer you many opportunities to use your degree?

But that’s not the question I’m asking. By “do” I don’t mean a job, and by “that” I don’t mean your major. We are more than our jobs, and education is more than a major. Education is more than college, more even than the totality of your formal schooling, from kindergarten through graduate school. By “What are you going to do,” I mean, what kind of life are you going to lead? And by “that,” I mean everything in your training, formal and informal, that has brought you to be sitting here today, and everything you’re going to be doing for the rest of the time that you’re in school.

The Countercurrent against Pan-Internationalization

The willingness of renovating the website had always been incubated, which, was just about to break the shell after viewing Yayoi Kusama (an Japanese artist) ‘s homepage.

Getting up in the “morning”, I spontaneously typed in Google Search: “Multilingual”, for I suspected, that the internet will in the end dominated by international visits, including my site. Were Kusama’s pages written in Japanese, possibly I would not even try automatic translation before closing the tab.

AVO Preface: If The Dream Has Never Been Soul-Stirring

I have been pondering over a question: what have we done voluntarily and innovatively as a group of students? Alternating between school and homes from nine to five, we are either coping with today’s homework or tomorrow’s assignment, proceeding with the formulae drawn up by the school and the society. We are artistic and creative individuals. Our school’s Byng Arts program, though filled by talents in music, drama, and visual art, only function didactically: all the programs promote arts under the teaching of a school teacher. We have our own management competence and action power. Multitudinous school clubs link closely between school life and the outer society through fundraising and public service activities. However, none of them presents a sense of innovation. Fundraisers as mentioned, merely resell merchandises to the school and benefit from price difference. Following the path of others, how can we find our own values?