Wu Guangqiang

    I WAS agog as I watched a young Indian man speak at a TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) lecture at MIT, expounding his ingenious concept of integrating the physical world with the digital.

    The gist of this idea is that any object in the physical world can be a medium to link us to cyberspace, making a seamless connection between currently separate realms. Once realized, the invention will surely revolutionize all aspects of human life, as did the computer and the Internet.

    What thrilled me was not the brilliant idea itself, which may take a long while before it is materialized, but the power behind such human wonders: imagination. It is imagination that has made man what he is today.

    Sadly, China, dubbed the world’s manufacturing center, has not yet found a place in the global arena when it comes to creativity and originality. Chinese high-tech products appear in every corner of the world, but hardly any of the credit for modern inventions goes to Chinese people. The core know-how and technology are in the hands of others. Of the 20 major inventions that have influenced humanity in the 20th century, none of them was the fruit of Chinese efforts. We are known as smart imitators, but mere imitation will never win us respect.

    Some Chinese e-businesses are doing well, but they are just copies with some revisions. We see eBay in Alibaba, Google in Baidu and ICQ in QQ.

    Our glorious inventions seem to be confined to a few ancient accomplishments: gunpowder, paper making, the compass and movable type. Another sore spot for Chinese, intellectuals in particular, is the absence of Chinese mainland scientists in the Nobel Prize honor roll, though a number of Chinese living outside the mainland have had that honor.

    China doesn’t just lag behind in science and technology. The fact that American blockbuster movies invariably sweep the Chinese box office reflects public disappointment in domestic offerings for their similar genres and styles, drab plots and shoddy production.

    Who on earth stole our imagination?

    Two primary factors are to blame.

    One is our creativity-strangling education system. From toddlers to postgraduates, the only goal for them is nothing but high academic scores. In and out of classroom, students are force-fed facts rather than learning with their own mind. They are brought up to be good listeners and copiers instead of thinkers and creators. Millions of hardworking students toil all day long on math, physics and chemistry hoping to become a second Einstein, unaware of Einstein’s famous remark: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

    The other is the lack of intellectual property rights protection. Creative thinking is the hardest work of all, any fruit of which may take years, decades and even an entire life to complete. If the hard-earned result is not properly protected, or if the property owner is not amply rewarded for his/her painstaking efforts, human beings will cease to advance intellectually. Though, like developed countries, China has laws and regulations to safeguard intellectual property rights, the enforcement of existing laws is lax. Theft of inventions, designs and business secrets is rife.

    The consequences are devastating. A survey conducted by an international education evaluation group in 2009 showed that of 29 countries, Chinese children’s calculation abilities rank first in the world, while their imagination ranks last, and their creativity ranks fifth from the bottom.

    If China is to rise as a superpower, the first and most important task is to return curiosity and imagination to the kids.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)