Source: Guangzhou Daily 2012-08-31 Page A4
Written by: Luo Hualin, Xiao Guilai

2012 Guangzhou Forum · New Urbanization Development Summit Forum, co-sponsored by Counsellors’ Office of the State Council, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC and Sun Yat-sen University, was held in Guangzhou today. Yesterday morning, several experts and scholars from universities in Guangzhou gathered together in Sun Yat-sen University to offer advice and suggestions in their respective research areas to warm up for Guangzhou Forum.

Chen Chunsheng (Executive Deputy Secretary and Vice President of SYSU, Professor)

Guangzhou Forum Upgraded Every Year

As one of the originators of Guangzhou Forum, Prof. Chen Chunsheng, Executive Deputy Secretary and Vice President of SYSU, first introduced the original intention of Guangzhou Forum. He said that in 2009 at the policy making consultation conference of Guangzhou Municipal Government, many experts proposed that Guangzhou should refer to the practice in Beijing and Shanghai and host a forum of its own to attract distinguished scholars at home and abroad to offer advice and suggestions on urban development in Guangzhou. Subsequently, at the suggestion of SYSU Party Secretary Zheng Detao, Guangzhou Forum officially came into existence in 2010.

According to the introduction, the first Guangzhou Forum was held in January, 2011, and its theme was “Building World Famous Cultural City”. The theme of the second Guangzhou Forum in 2011 was “Guangzhou and the World”, putting Guangzhou in a global perspective and international context. The previous two forums centered on culture, highlighted the profound cultural accumulation of Guangzhou and enabled Guangzhou citizens to have a deeper understanding of their own culture.

“Guangzhou Forum gets upgraded every year,” said Prof. Chen Chunsheng, “compared with the previous two forums, this year’s forum has received a lot of attention and is at a higher level. At the invitation of Guangzhou Municipal Government, Counsellors’ Office of the State Council and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences become cosponsors of the forum, and some internationally renowned scholars such as Honorary Professor of Harvard University Tu Weiming will offer his advice and suggestions.”

Xu Junzhong (Vice President of Guangzhou University, Professor)

Increase Confidence in Local Culture

At the beginning of the discussion, Prof. Xun Junzhong, Vice President of Guangzhou University, stated the proposition of “building confidence in local culture”. He said frankly: “Many places in Guangdong want to build European towns, in fact, what we need are not European towns but Lingnan towns.” Xu Junzhong also said: “In the process of urban development, reform and opening-up, we lost cultural awareness and confidence. Urban development should emphasize the balance between the local and the world, between tradition and modernity.”

During the discussion, Prof. Xun Junzhong said that at present, Guangzhou University is mobilizing a batch of scholars to dig into and protect the local culture in Guangzhou mainly in the following aspects: first, inheritance and protection of Lingnan dance; second, protection of historic buildings in Guangzhou; third, protection and “active inheritance” of Lingnan arts and crafts, such as Guangzhou colorized ceramics, Guangzhou embroidery and olive nut carving; fourth, compilation of Guangzhou canon and studies of Guangzhou’s urban history.

Xu Junzhong also said regretfully: “At present, the protection of historic buildings run into difficulties: ancient architecture might as well disappear in the process of protection.” The protection of historic buildings should be based on a profound study of their cultural significances, building materials and building techniques. Do not move ancient architecture blindly, otherwise, it may disappear. Meanwhile, as to the question of the protection and development of Cantonese opera, Xu Junzhong thinks that the crisis of Cantonese opera lies in its lack of basic talents such as dramatists.

Dong Xiaolin (Former Vice President of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Professor)

Walk on two legs

"New urbanization is a systematic project. Economy and culture are‘two legs’of the new city,” said Prof. Dong Xiaolin, Former Vice President of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He summarized the core content of new urbanization briefly, “Guangzhou should boost economy and culture to promote new urbanization.”

Xu Yuesheng (Director of Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Computational Science, Professor at School of Mathematics & Computational Science, Sun Yat-sen University)

Place emphasis on cooperation and originality

Prof. Xu Yuesheng at School of Mathematics & Computational Science, Sun Yat-sen University thinks that new urbanization in Guangzhou should place emphasis on two issues, namely, originality and teamwork.

Xu Yuesheng participated in the study of supersonic flight, one of the subprojects of a NASA scientific research project. He thinks that originality is a key factor in the survival and development of a city. In terms of originality, Guangzhou is still lagging behind at present. "Meanwhile, as far as my experience of teamwork is concerned, Chinese experts are not inferior to foreign experts in terms of the individual, but there is still the problem of inadequate team coordination.”

Xu Yuesheng also said: “In the history of urban development, a city is situated at the foot of a mountain and beside a river. Each city has a mother river. Modern urban development relies on high performance computing and high performance information technology. A well-established high performance information platform is crucial to the new development of a city.”

Tu Chenglin (Director of Guangzhou Development Academe, Guangzhou University, Professor)

Raise awareness to participate in global city competition

As an expert team member of Guangzhou new urbanization development policy-making consultation, Tu Chenglin believes that new urbanization indicates the direction of the way forward for Guangzhou.

Prof. Tu Chenglin thinks that urban development in Guangzhou is now in the transition from the pursuit of quantitative growth to the upgrading of contents. “As the capital of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou should have metropolitan awareness. Guangzhou is a leading city in the Pearl River Delta city clusters, so it should have the sense of obligation: to lead and spread urban development in the Pearl River Delta. Meanwhile, as the only provincial capital national central city, Guangzhou has the responsibility and obligation to represent China to participate in global city competition.”

"How to develop a traditional ancient city, many cities in the world can provide experience for Guangzhou. Manchester in the UK was an old traditional industrial city in the past, but now it is a capital of creativity. The East End of London used to be a poor area, now it has become a new creative hub.

Clash of Opinions

Is SCI the reason for difficult docking between university and enterprise?
Response: SYSU will make new attempts.

Reporter: With regard to scientific innovation, Guangzhou has a new problem at present: the research resources are highly concentrated in the university, but the enterprise lacks such resources. The two sides are not well-connected, where is the main problem?

Xu Yuesheng: There are two reasons: one is the idea, and the other is the system. With respect to the system, at present, the evaluation system in the university does not encourage professors to conduct small invention research projects in the enterprise. This reveals lack of confidence in our culture. In science and engineering, publishing papers in SCI journals has become an important evaluation system of assessing Chinese professors. If we don’t change this, our universities, our original and innovative research cannot develop. If they cannot get their papers published in SCI journals and cannot be promoted to higher professional titles, the scholars will regard it as a loss of face. I hope we will have our own evaluation system.

Chen Chunsheng: At present, Sun Yat-sen University is making new attempts to add new evaluation systems besides SCI so as to open up a wider road for science and engineering researchers. SCI is like GDP, we can’t depend solely on it, but we can’t completely ignore it. What we can do now is to provide more reference standards.   

How to equalize public service?
Response: The society should have olive-shaped structure.

Reporter: In the difficult economic situation, how to realize the equalization of public service?

Dong Xiaolin: This year’s difficult economic situation is mainly due to international factors. For example, if Guangzhou produces 100 yuan of fiscal revenue, it can only retain less than 30 yuan for its own use. Under the circumstance, if we still emphasize equalization of public service, I think we should be vigilant because we cannot realize equalization before we are rich. In my opinion, Guangzhou should be middle-class-oriented and form an olive-shaped social structure. If the city wants dynamic economic growth, it should first ensure that it has a strong and growing middle class.

Tu Chenglin: Indeed, Guangzhou has limited public service capacity, if it not only takes care of local residents but also meets the needs of migrant population, there will be fiscal difficulties. Under the circumstance, on the one hand, we can only increase public service facilities to meet the demands of local residents and migrant population; on the other hand, through policy inclination enable the enterprises to provide better welfare.