Academic Frontier

In the 35 years since he first left China. Author Lin Yutang (The Importance of Living) has become a familiar figure in international literary circles--an intellectual nomad to whom "all the world is home." But last week Author Lin was packing up his books and belongings to return to the Far East. He not only has an important new post to fill but a mission to perform. As the first chancellor of Singapore's new Nanyang (South Seas) University, he will be in a position to strike a blow at Red China's campaign for the minds of Asia's non-Communist students.

The 3,000,000 Chinese citizens of Singapore and Malaya have long been worried about that campaign. Each year, between 200 and 300 students, unable to get into such places as the Universities of Malaya and Hong Kong, succumb to the blandishments of the Communists and go off to school in Red China. The Communists offer them everything from free books to free clothes. "And so," says Lin, "parents never see their children again. It is very sad." Last year, under the leadership of Rubber Tycoon Tan Lark-sye and Lien Ying-chow, managing director of Singapore's Overseas Union Bank, the city's merchants and businessmen began raising money for a new university, decided on Lin Yutang as chancellor because of his international prestige. By last week, Nanyang University had 20 million Singapore dollars (about $7,000,000 U.S.). Swarms of engineers, surveyors and carpenters were already hard at work on its buildings.

When Nanyang opens in the fall of 1955, it will have only three colleges: arts, science and business. But eventually, its founders hope it will be an intellectual center for all of free Southeast Asia. With a cosmopolitan faculty, Chancellor Lin and Sponsors Tan and Lien are agreed that the student body should be interracial. As such, they think, Nanyang may well become free China's academic frontier, the conserver of its culture, its link with the West. "I say this humbly," says Tan, "but into the diverse cultures of the South Seas -- Burma, Thailand, IndoChina--it was the culture and civilization of China that brought the rule of law, of ethics, the written language. We want to preserve this, to give our children a chance to learn and study this heritage. And we want others, if they wish, to be able to do the same."

Adds Banker Lien: "There has been so much suspicion, so much misunderstanding, between East and West in the past. But perhaps, by bringing the two into close contact, we can bridge, or even eliminate, our misunderstandings."

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