and get with it, dear fellow Singaporeans!

founder n publisher

The following is an extract from asia! Magazine’s website http://www.theasiamag.com/ and written by Lee Han Shih the founder, publisher and editor who has Mr Lee Kong Chian and Mr Tan Kah Kee as his paternal grandfather and maternal grreat grandfather respectively. 

“Westerners are attracted to China for one reason: its economy, which could in a decade become the second largest in the world after the US. Suddenly reading and speaking Chinese has become a good skill to have. In the West, many universities now offer Chinese as part of their core programmes. But given the high cost of education – US$150,000 for a four-year undergraduate course in a good US university – more students are turning to a more viable alternative. They study Chinese in China, in a total immersion environment and at much cheaper rates.

“Would these foreigners stay on after their studies? Many would, as China is where the action is today. Others may be attracted by the culture and lifestyle to put down their roots. Just as Chinese foreign students are gradually changing the societies they study in, China itself is being slowly changed by the many foreigners it has accepted into its midst…”

For the complete article, go to http://www.theasiamag.com/patterns/education-in-china-is-a-two-way-traffic

For more of such thought provoking and insightful essays about Asia by Asians, go to the home page.