Education reform or education revolution?

I am not faulting him. I'm sure he's a great guy, especially after your commendation. Your assessment of his situation is where lies the problem:

"However in the field of Chinese academia he realizes he must have the paper background (degrees) to support his theories in developing new and better teaching methods in the Chinese university system."

It is this "change the system from within the system" idea that is the death of many a true reformer. What kind of degree did Mao receive to qualify him to start a revolution? What degree did Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have to qualify them to revolutionize technology? What degree did Li Yang have to qualify him to launch a new English teaching methodology in China?

And of those highly degreed individuals who are in China, what new thing have they brought into academia? I am currently using a book to teach a college intermediate-level English class which was written recently by an American PhD who lives in China. It is the most complicated thing I have ever used. You have to be a native English speaker just to understand the explanations. There is no hope for my students to understand it.

Every Chinese person today who is involved in business has gone out and got themselves an MBA. Great. Now there's a million MBA holders. Everyone is doing the same thing. No one is thinking differently. They are all marching lock-step in the same direction.

I knew a couple Americans who came over to China after graduating from a University of Texas course on Entrepreneurship. They were going to start a business here. They lasted six months. Haha! By the time universities start teaching it, it is not revolutionary. It's too late to go back to Jobs' and Wozniak's garage and start Apple again.

I felt a spark in his message. There was a spark of someone who is not afraid to do something different. I wanted to fan the flame a bit. But you cannot be different by doing things the same. I am not criticizing him, I'm pushing him.