Jeffrey S. Lehman: a key contributor to China’s educational reform

Envisioning the future of educational cooperation between China and the United States, Mr. Lehman is full of expectation, “We sometimes say that our ambition at NYU Shanghai is to nurture ‘bridge people.’ We want all of our students to be human bridges between countries and between cultures. And I think there will be more hope, there will be more and more experiments like ours.”

Seeking breakthroughs with an experimental spirit

It was two decades ago that Mr. Lehman first came to China. “There was a certain uncertainty about the rest of the world that came from a lack of familiarity. There was a sense that maybe there were things out in other parts of the world that were perfect and that China should feel insecure about parts of China that were imperfect,” said Mr. Lehman. But today’s China in his eyes has completely transformed.

“Because of true opening up, people understand much better that there’s no perfect country anywhere. Every country has good aspects and bad aspects. That's fine. And the goal is to be honest and open to understand what's good and bad about all countries, so that you can integrate the good parts, improve your own country, and create a world culture that integrates the best elements from all countries, all cultures all over the world.” And he feels that today in China much more than he did when he first came. He added, “The experience of reform and opening up for China over the past forty years has been vital. It's been transformative. It has been absolutely critical in this process of development and modernization for the nation.”