Coke Dealing on Chinese Campuses

Recently, Shanghai Daily ran an editorial bad-mouthing the presence of soft drink advertisements on college campuses. I could go either way as to my opinion on whether the critique is justified, but I do find some of the rhetoric employed to be a little weak. For example:

Defined by English statesman Benjamin Disraeli as "a place of light, of liberty and of learning," a university should be a home to liberal pursuits in humanities and sciences, a temple of the Muses. The Chinese term for university is Daxue. Da means "large or great," and xue means "learning." A Daxue per se is a place for studies on great, elevating and enlightening subjects. Commercial advertisements, on the contrary, do not fall into the category of great or enlightening subjects.

I am certainly not an expert on Chinese linguistics, but I find this etymology a little suspect given that it ignores the fact that the 大 in 大学 seems to mostly serve the purpose of distinguishing that sort of school from 小学 and 中学. Further:

Professor Sun was a visiting scholar from 2003 to 2004 at Yale University. He described with delight the neo-gothic Common Room of the Graduate School of Art and Science, the lunch times and coffee breaks there, when students, teachers and scholars shared their views and thoughts in refined conversations. "All these would be nullified, if you raise your eyes and see an ad for Coca Cola on the wall of the Common Room," he said.

Now, perhaps Yale really is quite special in this regard, but in my experience as a student at a top-tier school, our ability to share a meal with a professor was not hampered by the presence of advertisements. In general, I think the argument of this editorial would be far more effective if it didn't rely on such poetic discourse but stayed within the realm of discussing the pros and cons of commercialism.

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