馮達旋
Da Hsuan Feng
Global Brain
Movement: An Asia-
Pacific Perspective

“If you want to
understand today,
you have to search
yesterday.”
你假如要了解今天,
你必需要追尋昨天
賽珍珠
Pearl S. Buck

What are our challenges﹖
• We need history as our anchor
• We need to understand Chengda’s
position in the Asia Pacific context and
global context
• We need to understand Taiwan in the
Asia Pacific context and global context

Breaking News!!

Entrepreneur Task Force for Asia
Pacific (ETAP) for Incubator
Center for Southern Taiwan
Science Park
• Michael Devlin, Co-founder and Managing
Partner, Pharos Funds, a $500 Million VC
firm
• Oliver Cheng, CEO and President of Aurora
Imaging Technology Inc, a $50 million
annual revenue medical device corporation
and former investment banker

A small test
• Keep right
• Keep left
• Keep right and keep left

My Family

Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum today

57 years later
Asia Pacific then
Asia Pacific now
How much water has passed under
the bridge

Augustus D. Julliard
founded Julliard School of Music in 1924
My mother 謝佩貞
one of the first Chinese women students of
this institution.

NYU Law School
馮國禎)
馮國禎
Paul Feng (馮國禎 JD 1937
馮亦恆)
馮亦恆
Ian Feng (馮亦恆 JD 2009

History of universities
My discussion will be science and
technology centric, but I am confident
that it is more generic than specific

孔夫子Confucius
孔夫子
551 BC – 479 BC
孔子一生從事教育
事業，相傳有賢弟
子七十二人,弟子
三千人

成均館大學 – founded 1398 as an
institution to promote Confucius canon

From 10 Century to Renaissance
十世紀到文藝復興
University of
Bologna
1088
Oxford
University
1096

Many historians state that
universities and cathedral
schools were a continuation of
the interest in learning
promoted by monasteries.

Before Renaissance,
Asia Pacific, especially
China, led the world in
science and technology.

Crab Nabula
1054
(observed by
Chinese
astronomers)

鄭和 (馬三寶 )
Cheng He
1371-1433
Eunuch
哥倫布
Christopher Columbus
1451-1506

吳京部長

Time
Asia Edition
2001
8/21-27
Special Edition

Renaissance and
universities

Renaissance
Rise of the European
intellectual powerhouse in
modern scientific
methodologies

牛頓 Isaac Newton (b. 1643)
1667: Fellow of Trinity College in
1669: Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
Francis Bacon (d. 1626)
Fellow of Trinity College

Galilei Galileo 伽利略 (d. 1642)
1589 Chair of mathematics
University of Pisa

大清
• Qing dynasty started in
1644
• One year after the birth of
Sir Isaac Newton
• Two years after the death
of Galilei Galileo

19 century
• Not surprising, European universities, with
several hundred years of Renaissance as
their underpinnings, became the envy of the
world in their intellectual, especially
technological supremacy.

In my opinion, one of the
greatest scientific and
technological achievements in
the19 century is the
introduction to mankind the
Maxwell equations!

Sir James Clark Maxwell
(1831-1879)
Another member of Cambridge University
Trinity College

Maxwell 1831 - 1879
Chopin 1810 - 1849

Maxwell Equations Chopin Nocturne

Maxwellian and Newtonian science
developed what we now refer to as
theoretical sciences…This was an area
where European universities absolutely
excel and Asia Pacific intellectual
communities, under reclusive Qing
dynasty, did not develop. Japanese
under Minji Restoration absorbed this
totally!

First half of 20 century

First half of the 20 century: USA and North
America was a secured castle with a moat
(護城河) known as Pacific Ocean (太平
洋) and Atlantic Ocean (大西洋)

珍珠港 1941

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
山本五十六
• I fear all we have
done is to awaken
a sleeping giant
and fill him with
a terrible resolve

護城
With the “moat (護城
河 ),” US research
universities became
powerhouses in the 20
century

Albert Einstein
1879-1955
John von Neumann Herman Weyl
1903-1957 1885-1955

Eugene Wigner
1902-1995
Enrico Fermi
1901-1954
Edward Teller
1908-2003 Theodore von Kármán
1881 - 1963

The Dutch Boys: Uhlenbeck,
Kramers, Goudsmit at the University
of Michigan 1928
Rockefeller
University

Supreme excellence !

Asian universities in the
end of 19th century and
the first half of the 20th
century

Meiji Restoration
明治維新
(1868-1912)
Move Capitol from Kyoto to Tokyo
Increase wealth富國富國
Built a military power 強兵
Create great universities
(Imperial University of Tokyo and
Imperial Kyoto University)

Japan:
Yukawa, Nobel 1949
Tomonaga, Nobel 1965
Kyoto University
Columbia University

李政道 楊振寧
(T D Lee and C N Yang)
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1957
From 3rd world mentality to 1st world
mentality
Confidence

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
जवाहरलाल नेह
First Prime Minister of India

“If China and India hold
together, the future of Asia is
assured.“
Nehru to Paul Feng on January 19,1946
Manoj Das
“Forging an Asian identity.” It was published in The Hindu
on January 7, 2001

\"because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and
beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he
has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own
English words, a part of the literature of the West“
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Nobel in literature 1913

C. V. Raman
(1888 – 1970)
Nobel laureate 1930
FIRST ASIAN TO WIN THE NOBEL PRIZE IN
SCIENCE

Indian Institute of
Science
• Raman was distinguished
professor
• Premier graduate research
university in India

C. V. Raman NEVER
studied in the West!

Peking University
北京大學
北京大学
• Cai Yuan Pei (校長 1916-1927)
• Hu Shi (校長 1945-1948)

London
SJTU Times
Rank Rank
Hong Kong Univ Sci & Tech 203-304 53
University of Hong Kong 203-304 18
Chinese University of Hong Kong 203-304 38
Peking Univ (Mainland) 203-304 36
Tsing Hua University (Mainland) 151-202 62
National University of Singapore 101-152 33
Nanyang Technological University 305-402 69
National Taiwan University 151-202 102
Not ranked
National Cheng Kung University 305-402
University of Tokyo 20 17
Kyoto University 22 25

“Indeed, with Cai’s leadership, PKU became not just
the soul of Chinese universities, but in fact Chinese
history and culture of the 20 century. How do we
measure the “intangible impact” of PKU on the
culture of China, with Bai-Hua (白話modern
Chinese) movement, May 4th movement (五四運動,)
and so on. Is it even logical to consider that PKU is
not a “World Class University” when it has profound
impact on Chinese culture, with nearly quarter
humanity, for a century?”
DHF at SJTU Conference 2006

Teller----
楊振寧
Goudsmit---吳大猶
Theodore von Kármán ---錢學森

Lesson learned for USA
Boxer rebellion
義和團運動

Of the EIGHT countries who received
reparations, ONLY USA utilized the money to
build education infrastructure in China and set
up scholarships for the brightest to study in the
West
Someone in the Government understood making
good public policy.
• Construct Tsinghua University, today
unquestionably one of the best in Mainland
and Taiwan
• Send the brightest to the west.

Bill Boeing. He hired (1916) Tsu Wong as the company's first
aeronautical engineer to replace Boeing's original business
partner, Conrad Westerveldt. An engineering graduate from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tsu Wong became
the first chief engineer at Boeing.
Phil Condit, Boeing CEO, NAE Speech in 1997

Boeing (1916-1917)
1916 As a Chief Engineer of
Pacific Aero Products
Company
1917 Success of B&W-C
seaplane
Portrait in Seattle
Pacific Aero Products
Company in 1916

7. Tsoo Wong and Hsue-Shen Tsien
(1934-1947)
1934 Tsoo Wong was
instructor of
Hsue-Shen Tsien
1940 Tsoo Wong requested
Tsien return to China to
fulfil former Boxer
Rebellion scholarship
1947 Tsien and Ying Jiang
got married at Shanghai
1947 Tsien and Tsoo Wong
met Shanghai Longhua
Airport

Another great lesson: Rockefeller Foundation
Founded Peking Union Medical College

Second half of 20th
century
A half century of limited
wars and peace….

Recognition of the fundamental
importance of public policy
(公共政策) of the development of
knowledge
Lesson learn fot Asian Universities

Vannevar Bush
1890 – 1974

Vannevar Bush recommended the
creation of what would eventually
become in 1950 the National Science
Foundation (NSF)

The Indian government has announced it will set up a
world-class National Science and Engineering Research
Foundation at a cost of ten billion rupees (US$230 million).
It is expected to function similarly to the National Science
Foundation in the United States.
Natural Science Foundation of China

California Master Plan for Higher
Education -- 1971
• Chancellor Clark Kerr and
Governor Edmund Brown

1980 Bayh-Dole Act
• …gave US universities, small businesses
and non-profits intellectual property control
of their inventions that resulted from federal
government-funded research

21Century
Century

Nixon and Zhou holding hands
on February 21, 1972

One handshake became the genesis to remove
RED MENANCE:
Wealth is generated in Asia Pacific

With wealth, comes
universities of high quality

Purdue and NCKU
in the 60’s

With wealth, comes hightech
industries
• Samsung
• LG
• TSMC
• Chi-Mei
• Huawei Technology
• Delta Electronics
• ……

Morris Chang
Ph.D.
Stanford

Indian Institute of
Technology Kanpur
• MIT
• UC Berkeley
• Cal Tech
• Princeton University
• Carnegie Tech
• U of Michigan
• Ohio State University
• Case Institute
• Purdue

General George Marshall
(1880 – 1959)

A century of Marshall-plan
like effort from the US for
Asia
Without recognition!

Summary

Thomas Friedman
THE WORLD IS FLAT

What are our challenges﹖
• We need history as our anchor
• We need to understand Chengda’s
position
• We need to understand Taiwan in
the Asia Pacific context and global
context

Todai Taida
Kyodai Chengda

• High Tech
(CERN, IBM
Zurich,
WHO,…
• World Class
Universities
(ETH)
• Neutral site

亞洲

Charles Dickens
狄根斯
1812 - 1870

雙城記
A Tale of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all
going direct the other way--in short, the period
was so far like the present period, that some of its
noisiest authorities insisted on its being received,
for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only.”

“那是最美好的时代，那是最糟糕的时
代；那是智慧的年头，那是愚昧的年
头；那是信仰的时期，那是怀疑的时
期；那是光明的季节，那是黑暗的季
节；那是希望的春天，那是失望的冬
天；我们全都在直奔天堂，我们全都在
直奔相反的方向--简而言之，那时跟现
在非常相象，某些最喧嚣的权威坚持要
用形容词的最高级来形容它。说它好，
是最高级的；说它不好，也是最高级
的 。
. ”

How could Dickens
write about our era in
such vivid manner?