problem solving and insight (similar to the U.S. standard), and genuine ad-
vancement of one’s field or historical impact of the whole society. One re-
spondent expressed that “it’s more important to use one’s knowledge. Like a
physics student with perfect exam scores is not as excellent if he doesn’t know
how to fix electronics as someone who has his exam scores but also can fix
electronics.”
The third standard is unity of knowledge and moral character, which is
also shown as one of the four kinds of achievement in Fig. 14.2. Consistent
with the purposes of moral and social self-perfection, acquisition of knowl-
edge for self, and contribution to society, achieving the unity of the cogni-
tive–intellectual with the social–moral is only natural. Respondents articu-
lated that “excellence must include both the moral character and knowledge
of the learner because one’s moral character is more important” and “a well
rounded person with her moral character placed before intellectual and phys-
ical development.”
As alluded to previously, these achievement standards are inherently re-
lated to each other. Acquisition of depth and breadth of knowledge can en-
able the person to better apply such knowledge, which in turn can broaden
and deepen one’s knowledge. So long as the learner also continues to self-
perfect morally and socially, he or she will likely continue to seek breadth and
depth of learning, which loops back to his or her ability to use his or her
knowledge in life.
Affect. Like affect in U.S. beliefs, Chinese affect also showed both posi-
tive and negative types. Four most commonly mentioned positive affects
were found: (a) commitment (establish one’s will); (b) love, passion, and
thirst for learning; (c) respect embedded in expressions of purposes and learn-
ing processes; and (d) calmness and humility for achievement. Two negative
affects were found for purposes and learning processes: (a) lack of desire and
(b) arrogance. For lack of achievement, there was also only one general nega-
tive affect of shame and guilt.
Similar to their U.S. counterparts, Chinese respondents did not present
purposes, processes, and achievement apart from feelings and emotions. In-
stead, they provided well-integrated descriptions. The notion of commit-
ment,lizhi(establish one’ will) in Chinese, is part of one’s learning purpose.
This concept aims at helping the learner, often during secondary school, to
start pondering about his or her life’s purposes in order to come to a clear
personal vision (zhixiangorbaofu). This process is deliberately designed and
practiced to lead the learner to imagine or envision something greater than
his or her current (temporal sense) and own (individual sense) life. It is orient-
ing oneself in learning toward one’s future (parents and teachers frequently
engage adolescent children in this discussion). In doing so, Chinese learners
believe that they will not only find a more specific path to focus on (e.g., I
408 LI AND FISCHER