A top Chinese computer scientist had recently been accused of fraud and intellectual theft by stealing plans for digital signal processing computer chips from a Western company, designs he had previously claimed were his own. The word 'glory' caught my eye, for similar language was used to describe the fall of the S.Korean scientist who worked on cloning, late last year. I can't blame the NYtimes for employing words like shame, glory, and pride. That's just Asia, folks.
Money quote: "In a society where honor is particularly important and where the fear of public shame runs especially deep, the story of Mr. Chen has a profound resonance. Now, after all the honors and accolades bestowed on this 37-year-old favorite son, who returned home to China from the United States with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin six years ago, people here are beginning to question whether China is pushing its leading thinkers too hard to innovate and catch up with the West. Could Mr. Chen's downfall, they ask, represent an example of how even smart and successful people in China are being forced to cut corners to meet the nation's hyper-ambitious goals?"
Sounds familiar? It should. KV rings a distant bell here, too. Of course, KV is American, but her South Asian roots smack of similar codes for honor, pride, and unrealistic expectations.
More money quotes: "'Professor Chen is really unlucky," said a male student named Wu, who asked not to be further identified for fear of recriminations. "He lied and was caught. I think there are other people faking their research, but they haven't been caught yet. He's probably not the worst."
"Another male student named Wang, who also would not give his first name and cited the same reason, said: "I'm not surprised by the scandal. Now a lot of professors are like businessmen. They are good at talking and promotion, and many of them have their own companies and make as much money as they can."
This is alarming to say the least, because these students are the future Chinese scientists in training. But the problem is not restricted to China. The decrepid state of Asian scientific research ethics has been discussed at length within scientific circles, which I need to find sources for to cite here. Still, from what I gleamed, the discussions usually lament the foundation of Asian work ethics that are top-heavy, defferential to authority, and especially, based on the concept of shame vs. honor. These concepts are detrimental to the sciences, fields that demand teamwork, openmindedness, and the ability to accept failure. From many accounts, Chen Jin is a very smart man, and is well educated. True, he has demonstrated much greed and contempt for the very nature of intellectual inquiry. However, shaming him into oblivion will not help China's problems, but will perpetuate the same pressure cycle that will lead to the very 'shame' these cultures claim to abhor.
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