Harvard Students 'Decadent'---Ch'ang

Harvard students are "decadent, degenerate, and morally corrupt," according to Huang Ch'ang, associate professor of physics, Peking University, who claims to have studied for several years at Harvard during some undisclosed time in the past.

Writing in the China Youth Dally, Ch'ang adds that students here "worship money and are doped by religion." The Peking professor's unique observations were picked up by a State Department survey of the China mainland press.

Dismayed by the lack of seriousness among Harvard students, Ch'ang notes that "many children of the rich families play truant...spend their time in clubs, drinking, merry-making and indulging in orgies of debauchery."

Even worse, "To girl students the Harvard campus means a prohibited area to be dreaded. Unescorted girls dare not walk on it. It has been the scene of robberies, molestation and all sorts of bad things." (An informal poll of 'Cliffies revealed they thought that if anything, the Harvard campus is too tame.)

On the whole subject of girls, Ch'ang found they "are of a lower class. Noting that no girls are admitted to Harvard, Ch'ang reports there is "a separate institution for them." "Superficially" this might just look like segregation, but actually it is "discrimination against the girls."

A girl's education (presumably at Radcliffe) consists of "domestic science," where girls learn how to "marry wealthy husbands of their choice."

Most students at Harvard are not able to study because, says Ch'ang, tuition is too high. Only the "children of rich families" are able to meet rising school costs, he claims. The others "often work from 4 p.m. in the afternoon straight to midnight." Ch'ang points out that "the wages they get are pitifully small."

"God" is behind a lot of this, because American youth believe God is almighty. "In the United States 'God' has become a tool of the monopolist clique to dope the youth."

As to politics, Ch'ang feels that "American university students are ignorant in the extreme." The reason for this is that "the United States is a country full of secret agents. Political persecution is perpetrated in an endless stream." Ch'ang tells his readers that "whoever utters the slightest sound of discontent is immediately suspected as a communist...His fate is thus sealed!"

Naturally, "the poor academic results obtainable" from such conditions "can readily be imagined." In fact, the "low standard of American education is really astonishing."

The "dearth" of teachers is a strong factor behind these low standards, Ch'ang decides. "Any work is better than teaching; naturally they (college professors) have no heart for teaching." This lack of desire results from "very low salaries." Many teachers are forced to become "walters, to toil as farm hands, or to act as circus clowns."

In view of these numerous abuses, Ch'ang mildly concludes that "American educational enterprises are rotting!"