Principal's Message

Hao Chen

Academic Principal

Principal's Message

Distinguished Guests, Respected Teachers, and Dear Students,

As an academic principal, or someone in the principal's team who is responsible for learning, I would like to try to talk about this issue. First, to make money, or more deeply, to advance or maintain social class, the latter, in Bourdieu’s terms, class reproduction. This should be the most direct and most concerned purpose for everyone who studies for further education. Needless to say, first of all, make money. Read a book, get a good diploma, find a good job, and get a good salary. The latter is more complicated. It can be said that many people's families are already very rich and have enough food and clothing for the rest of their lives. It is no problem for their children not to work, but they are not satisfied. They hope that their children will be educated, be able to talk and laugh like scholars, and have no idle contacts. This is called cultural capital. Okay, if you can already chat and laugh with Hongru and agree with this purpose, and your study is also serving this purpose to some extent, then it will be self-consistent. This is the case for many people in Oxford. The most direct symbol of cultural capital is academic qualifications.

Then someone wants to say, I am not so utilitarian, I just like to seek knowledge, so what should I say? It depends on the situation. Some people enjoy the joy of acquiring new knowledge, and the joy of making progress every step of the way. I call these people scholars. When I was working as a translator, I met several friends like this. They were well-read and thought deeply. Their seriousness in translating every word was admirable. If you can stop here and enjoy the joy of seeking knowledge in daily life, you will also be a self-consistent and lovely "bookworm". But I don’t know many people who can do this. I feel that most scholars are miserable.

Here comes another situation, knowing so much, what next? Going further is the question of the abyss. Some people will say: "The more I know, the less I know." What we know is like a circle, and what we don't know is like the square outside the circle. This is coming from those who have thought about these issues. In fact, it’s similar, after making so much money, what next? With so much culture, then what? Once you realize that you are in the snake's logical cycle, the phrase "and then" will be like a curse, telling you that your existence is actually like Sisyphus pushing the stone up the mountain. Either don't ask, or it will be painful if you ask.

At this time, you have to do something. This is also where the really wonderful things begin. If you ask me where seeking knowledge leads, I would say it leads to a moment when you feel that there are some contradictions here, there is something unnatural, and you know that only you can solve these problems. This is your life. It's you and no one else. What you have learned and experienced will become your springboard, allowing you to jump from the limitless to the limitless. From knowing, go to the vast sea of ​​ignorance.

In fact, this has been the case from the beginning.

Knowledge is actually a hindrance.

If this is a message from the principal, it must be a very strange one. I believe that school should not be an end, it can be a means (or not). We spend most of our lives in school, from our teens to our twenties, but unfortunately, many of us are unhappy in school. I think the best education is like this. The teacher just reminds the students to do what they can do. And everyone can originally.