Slop.

ITT americans with an education system that leaves 28% of the population illiterate argue that their education system is better.

China's [...] foreign aggression

probably for the same reason Kissinger got the Nobel Prize

when you mention a country that is not part of :

No you have to understand I'm an American who went to a gifted program and I need an excuse as to why my watching anime 36 hours a day makes me smarter than the child of semi-literate peasants from Guizhou who was taught Lagrangian Functions at age 4.

I was thinking about the classes I've taken with Chinese professors, and it's definitely the case that they have a teaching style that focuses more on memorizing things and understanding complex systems by breaking them down bit by bit. In practice, that means students spend some time just accepting some things as true until they see how everything fits the big picture at the end; Western education is a little more top-down where you start with the big picture, then look into the details. It's a mistake to think that the former approach doesn't teach students as much, or that it's "rote-learning." You learn things more thoroughly that way! It just requires more effort, too, and you gotta actually trust the professor to tie things together (one advantage of the top-down system is that if you have a trash professor that only sufficiently covers the big picture but leaves out the details, you can more easily read the literature on detailed information).

the education system in China is imo one of the worst things about the country. i get that that's not really what this is about, since the USA (and many other western countries) also have awful education for most people, and still manage to produce nobel prize winners. however,

Chinese students are subjected to rote learning—memorizing and obeying rather than questioning or thinking independently.

is something I sort of agree with (but could be worded better). but,

Thus, while Chinese students and researchers excel at replication and refinement of existing work, they are poor at true creativity.

is turning a cultural institutional problem into borderline racist rhetoric (and i say borderline but knowing this is some redditor they probably would march the whole way into overt racism if you prod them)

China's artificial sun achieved 1066 consecutive seconds of steady plasma loop literally 6 months ago, more than doubling the previous record of 400 seconds. Which was also held by China.

maybe it's because the Nobel prize is awarded by western chauvinist bourgeoisie in Sweden

"The reason is that the Nobel committee is racist and Eurocentric."

"The reason is that Europe is the center of all civilization and ~~racially~~ culturally superior."

Fascinating point. Would you like to see my mine shaft?

They really think they're being so clever when they swap "race" and "culture" and act like that makes the same arguments acceptable and not at all racist.

Literally all of that describes lol

First, you need to understand why so many Chinese people worship Elon Musk and people like him.

There is a popular discourse that has been circulating in China for many years, which is “0->1 and 1->100”.

It is well accepted that Chinese people can take 1 to 100, and there is simply no competition there. Once anyone has made a functional prototype (usually with unusually high investment in cost, time and effort), Chinese people will eventually make it better than anyone else and perfect them (while drastically lowering the production cost).

However, it is also well accepted that most 0 to 1 (typically basic/fundamental sciences, or the initial prototyping of a concept) has come from foreigners. These people are seen as visionaries who can turn concept into reality, and are seen as highly prized talents for many Chinese academia.

BYD had been investing in attempts to make EV prototypes for years, but nobody (important) gave a damn about them. Until Elon Musk brought Tesla into China in 2014.

Why? Because Elon Musk is seen as this “visionary genius” (lol, but I’m not joking! he really is worshipped like that) who can turn “0 to 1”. This is why people like him are so well regarded in China.

(Context: At the time, many Chinese internet companies were going through their golden era and had accumulated a huge mass of profit, and were looking for avenues to pour their investment into. This coincided with the start of 14th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the government was looking to reduce the overcapacity issue and used the prioritization of green tech to incentivize the local governments to reduce the productive capacity of lower end industries. Under the confluence of 14th FYP and internet company money, Elon Musk (no joke) inadvertently became the “grandfather” of Chinese EV breakthrough)

The Chinese leadership was so enamored by Elon Musk that they gave huge subsidies for Tesla to open its superfactory in Shanghai, and became the only foreign automobile company that did not have to partner up with a domestic company.

Once the Tesla plant began its production in 2019, it has essentially achieved its effects of spurring the EV research and development in China. Chinese EVs began to be churned out at rapid pace starting in 2020-2021, and the rest is history. Everyone knew that China can turn 1 to 100, once the initial base of EV development has been established. But people like Elon Musk, are seen as the pioneers in the field.

There have many debates over the years about why we are behind in the “0 to 1” fundamental breakthrough, some think it is the rote learning aspect of the education system that deprives creative thinking. I am not an expert in the topic so will not be speculating the reasons, but I do agree that rote learning is part of the problem. The system does need to change if we want to encourage students to innovate and provide them with a space of academic freedom to pursue basic research.

Also, a fun fact: there has been no Nobel prize winner from China in the sciences since the educational system reform of the 1970s in the reform and opening up era.

The answer is western racism

Chinese students are educated to understand that capitalism is a tool to be used and not an altar to worship at.

Well, obviously, based on bone structure tests on their skull they have no cerebral organ for producing great artists and lack the same propensities and sentiments of the superior European skull.