Cai Guangtian is the proid owner of a plush new nightclub across from Shanghai's Jinjiang Hotel, a relicof the Chinese port city belonged to the French.
Cai's club, modeled after the karaoke polular among Japanese businessmen,will be the home of monthly soirees attended by 400 of the city's mostprominent government officials , business people the Chinese government is pushing in its post-TiananmenSquare campaign to return the Communist Party to itsegalitarian ideals.
But Cai, a wealthy 68-yeaar-old Shanghai entrepreneur whose vocal honesty landed him in the fields and in prison during Mao Zedong's stormy regime, is used to raising eyebrows. Andhe's confident that the polularity of his adulteducation programs will keep him on the right side ofChinese officials.
"I's very well known in China and even though the Chinese officials are not so satisfied with my views, they must be very careful, "the energetic gray-haired educator said through an interpreter.
CAI CHOOSES HIS WORDS and actions carefully, having already paid dearly for his forth-rightness. During the massive student unrest that led up to last June's bloody confrintation in Tiananmen Square, he warned his staff and students to keep their faces in their books and not participate in politics.
Cai said he wanted his students to understand that politics wasn't the only way thet could change their world.
"You can do good in other ways, " he said.
Cai's reputation comes from his Qian JIn College of Cintinuing Education, one of the country's largest educational institutions, boasting 18 branches and 20,000 part-time students. Founded in 1983, Cai's private school provides technical training in foreign languages, cooking and medicine.
One of the school's specialities is training students for the Test of Englist as a Foreign Language exam, required of students who want to study in the United States. Five thousand of Cai's pupils have gone on to study in America.
Cai's has been pushing the Communist Party for official recognition since the school's formatin on the grounds that the country needs private schools to handle the overflow from the crowded public school system. But the party has yet to give up control over an education system that historically has been an important propaganda tool.
But the party has yet to give up control over an education system that historically has been an improtant propaganda tool.
Cai belongs to the National Committee of the 2,000-member Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a group that advises the government on policy matters. He said he has gotten an enthusiastic response from his colleagues on a proposal to allow the establistment of a private university.
Cai has yet to hear from the onc that matters - the communist Party. But he's willing to wait. "There will be some difficulties but finally I hope I will succeed," he said .
Cai , a self-described "Chinese millionaire," also keeps his five secretaries and eight assistants busy by coming up with new ways to make money to support his pet project. The karaoke bar was just the latest venture. He also operates three companise involved in trade, construction and electrical andmechanical work.
"If I emigrated to the United States there would be no problem as far as the material standards are concerned," he said, "But I want to use my intelligence to save China . I have two goals - to raise the educational standards of people and to do whatever I can to raise the Chinese economy."
CAI WAS IN SEATTLE last week ot talk to Seattle University officials about setting up student or faculty exchanges. He already has establisted affiliations with a number of U.S. schools,including the University of Miami and American Universityin Washington D.C.
The Chinese educational system badly needs and infusion of information and peolpe from abroad, according to Cai. He dreams of opening up a joint venture university whose faculty and students would include Chinese and foreigners.
Cai sympathizes with the chines government's concern about brain drain, the loss of return. Buthe believes work five years before studying overseasin too harsh.
"It's not good for young people ot be away from school for hat long," He said."There's lots of adventages ot sending students abroad, they bring back hign technology and new languages. "_______________" Pacific Current ," a report on issues concerning the people of the Pacific Rim , appears every Monday in the P.1.