Yu Lizhong: an educator with a social media wit

Yu was born in 1949, the year the People's Republic of China was founded, in the relatively modern metropolis of Shanghai. In his youth, he was sent to the remote and poor countryside in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province as part of the ‘learn from the peasants’ movement that saw young people from the cities dispersed to the countryside. During his time as a farm laborer, Yu relied on writing letters to keep in touch with his family. These letters often took weeks or even months to arrive. For nine years, he dreamed about the day when he could return home to Shanghai and have the chance to go to college.

In 1977 when Yu was 29, China's college entrance examination, called the gaokao, resumed after an 11-year freeze. He sat the test and was admitted to East China Normal University, which was among the few schools that left the door open for older students. On campus, he was all work and no play, as he was busy quenching his thirst for knowledge. It was there that he met his mentor, Liu Fonian, who was then the president of the university. It was from Liu that he received his inspiration and inherited the spirit of liberal and independent thinking. Yu has been striving to pass this torch onto his peers and students.

The schools called ‘normal universities’ are responsible for training most of China’s teachers. The leading normal universities, such as Peking Normal in the north and East China Normal in Shanghai, churn out the best teachers in the country. After getting a PhD in geology at the University of Liverpool, Yu came back to China and joined the faculty of East Normal to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to teaching. He was passionate and content with his role, and life was peaceful until he was selected by the school to become a candidate for an important management position. It seems like a universal phenomenon that scholars often find administrative and managerial jobs a formidable challenge, and Yu was no exception. He tried to refuse the promotion, but failed.

At that time, China had just begun opening up to the world and was in desperate need of talent in every trade and field, due to the arrival of the era of mass education. Yu came to accept that he had to answer this life's calling, and he did. Once he made up his mind, he threw himself into this new position. By the time he retired from East China Normal, he had risen up the ranks to be school president. It was then, in 2012 at the age of 63, that he was entrusted by the school to serve as the first chancellor of NYU Shanghai. This was the first China-U.S. research and higher learning institute, which was supported by the Pudong district government in Shanghai and was administered by both East China Normal University and New York University.

Yu Lizhong, the chancellor of New York University Shanghai [Photo: provided to China Plus]

NYU Shanghai was born at the time when China was embarking on a new round of education reform. Having studied both at home and abroad, Yu was the right candidate for this task. He says the advantage of Chinese education lies in its solid foundation of basic knowledge, while Western education is better at fostering innovation and creativity. NYU Shanghai wants its students to benefit from the advantages of both approaches. To achieve this, the school has been experimenting with new approaches in recruiting, teaching, and management since day one. So far, three classes have graduated and are being tested by the competitive human resources market in China and around the world. When recounting how his students got their top-notch job offers and how heavily sought after they have become, he was all smiles, the sort of broad smile you see in his Weibo and WeChat photos. Seeing him so clearly satisfied with his achievements, I asked him to give himself a score for his performance. To my surprise, he gave himself a score of 120 out of 100. This reflects his satisfaction with his job, himself, and most importantly, it reflects his confidence in the future of NYU Shanghai and China's educational reforms.

Facing such a confident educator, I wondered what qualities a good student should have in his eyes, and how his own son judges him as a father. "Does your son consider you a good father?" There was a slight hesitation in his voice as he responded: "I don't know. But I am satisfied with my son, though on his upbringing I missed out on a lot by not being there with him."

Yu started at university relatively late, and was married with a son by the time he went to Britain to pursue further study. Due to his tight budget, it was impossible to bring his family abroad with him. In order to pursue his dreams, he did what many others have done and placed his son in the loving hands of grandparents. But unlike many parents from his generation, Yu has on many public occasions openly expressed his satisfaction with his son. As an educator, he believes that academic and career success requires the following three qualities: being psychologically and physically healthy, having an optimistic state of mind, and having a strong sense of responsibility. These three qualities are needed in order to become a well-rounded person, which is why their development is part of his teaching.

Yu also accepts that all people are different and deserve their due respect and love. Diversity, respect, and equity in education are what people need. Therefore he is against physical punishment. The traditional Chinese way of teaching, “棒打出孝子” – you need to beat a child with a stick to make him a dutiful son – is, he is quick to point out, no longer popular. After China adopted the one child family planning policy more than three decades ago, Yu said people tend to spoil and overprotect their kids, which is his greater concern now. At the same time, Yu believes that a good education is one that suits the needs of the individual. Every child needs to be carefully cultivated by one or more mentors, as that’s the best way for young people to bloom and to reach their prime.

Yu Lizhong, the chancellor of New York University Shanghai [Photo: provided to China Plus]

Most of us have all benefited from role models and mentors, whether it is a parent or teacher, a colleague, or even someone who was a stranger met by chance. Exam results have a role to play in our progress through life, but they are mistakenly and misleadingly used as the key measure of meritocracy. At the same time, people are less interested in teaching jobs, and mentors are hard to find. Yu belongs to those who still staunchly believe in education and are still willing to dedicate all their lives to this cause. When asked if he had any reservations about his career choices or if he would change anything if were given a chance to go back in time, he didn't hesitate to say that he would have chosen to stay in education. Technology like artificial intelligence will take jobs away from some people in the future, but Yu believes that teaching is among the careers that will remain in the realm of people, not machines.

But it’s also not an exaggeration to say that education worldwide is in crisis. When asked what his take was on the news that as many as half of London’s teachers wanted to quit within five years, Yu said firmly that this is only a transitional phase, and that, given time, people will come to see that teaching is a valuable profession. It might not bring great profit, fame, or imminent material gratification, but Yu believes that people will understand what’s important, and that education is important because it turns our hope for the future into a reality.

It's also encouraging to see that Yu believes not only in education and but also in the importance of expressing love. Yu grew up in a culture in which loved ones seldom expressed their affection for each other. "No romance, no process, only results are how we became couples," said Yu, describing how people in his generation formed families and got married. Even today, "I love you" are words difficult for many Chinese people to utter. Yu still finds it difficult, but he has gone out of his way to use social media to express his love for his students. In return, his students love him back openly and wholeheartedly.

For young people that grew up in the Internet age, expressions of love are no longer so difficult. Yu has become popular among both domestic and overseas students because he used social media to interact with them and show that he cares about their development. But when I pressed him with the question of whether he says “I love you" to his wife and son, he turned shy, saying hesitantly: "Yes, but not that often", but was quick to emphasize the importance of love.

He explained that the love we are talking about is not romantic love, but a love of life, culture, animals, plants, and the environment. I was amused at how he tried to hide his slight awkwardness when it came to talking about love in its narrowest sense, and his relative ease and comfort in talking about it in its broader meaning, of universal love. I realized he still belongs to his own generation but what makes him stand out from his peers is his pioneering spirit and that he dares to think and act out of the box.

To be a mentor to students and help mold them into well-rounded people, Yu had set a good example by becoming such a person himself before he became a professional educator. He is healthy and much younger looking than many of his peers. He is optimistic, as his ready smiles attest. And he takes his professional responsibilities seriously, because at the age of 70 he is still blazing a trail in education, exploiting new paths for China's educational reform that benefit both domestic and international students.

Interviewed in 2018

Article updated in 2019