David Cowhig sent this text to CDN: “In a recent article I found published on the law database website Lawbase.com.cn, Zhu Suli, dean of the Beijing University Law School speaks up for the public intellectuals.
Zhu admits sure, they are not perfect, but these public spirited people are making real contributions to China. China may not have another generation like them, since the public intellectuals, many of whom grew up during the Cultural Revolution, were in some ways self-taught. They think more broadly and came to their views based on their own experiences. Having had a broad experience of life, they express themselves much better then many younger intellectuals. They are very different from many of the narrow scholars that Chinese universities produce today. Zhu analyzes the background of the public intellectuals. Most are in the 40s or 50s, many have studied outside of China. Some may criticize them, but the public intellectual is in line with the tradition of the broadly educated Chinese scholar who is concerned with the well being of the people, writes Zhu.
In these days we hear about suppression of contrarian views, it is nice to hear that some people still speak up.”
Thanks, David. The original Chinese article is here.
