Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is inviting universities to share their views on driving innovation and fostering budding scientists as part of its Shanghai Science Communication Forum.

QianXuhong, president of East China Normal University, was the first to give a speech over the weekend about how Chinese and Western people think in different ways.

Chinese people stress dialectical thought, which leads to a neglect of science principles, Qian said, while in the West people use formal logic. That’s why the industrial revolution was born in the West, he added.

“How we think can decide how our nation develops. We should change our single way of thinking and our nation will sure grow stronger if we combine different thinking models and form one with Chinese characteristics,” he said.

The forum is a popular event and more than 340 scientists at home and abroad have given speeches.

This year, the museum says it will focus more on the latest scientific achievements, stories of legendary scientists, cross-disciplinary cooperation and science in daily life.