Nanjing++by+Shamshuddin+Jusop_2744

Nanjing
Here I come
Shamshuddin Jusop
Travellouge Series

Nanjing
Nanjing Here I come
Shamshuddin Bin Jusop
Mention China in any meeting everywhere in the world, right away
something comes out of our mind. First and foremost, China is a
new industrial giant in the East that matches the might of or could
bring United States to its knees in not too far distant future. That
it is so is evidenced by her rapid rate of industrialization and
economic output comparable to none in the East and West.
Be that as it may, China is generous and willing to share her
wealth/bounty with the rest of the world, especially with the people
in Southeast Asian countries, e.g. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Recently, I was in Nanjing to attend a forum and to meet as well as
having a meaningful discussion with my research collaborators in
Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU).
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Nanjing
Let me say this, if I may. For all you know, right now NAU is one of best in business in the field of
agricultural sciences in China. The 2019 International Forum on Innovations in Food, Land, Energy
and Water System in Asia held at Jiangsu Conference Center, Nanjing on May 22-25, 2019 was a
special initiative to show to the world that China is keeping her promise.
I went to China this time around to get to know the prime movers and others attending the very
important Nanjing meeting and to take note of what was going on in the meeting. Hopefully,
Malaysia would be joining them in future meetings or dialogues.
My trip to Nanjing was made possible by a special fund, courtesy of Professor Ziaorong Fan from the
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing.
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Nanjing
A special photo taken for the album with Professor Fan (middle)
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Nanjing
I have been told that NAU is one of best
agricultural universities in China. Well, it
sure is considering its strategic location in
China – Nanjing is one of the former
capitals of the imperial China. With the
student population of about 40,000, NAU
has what it takes to be a university par
excellence in future.
I have visited the laboratories where
Professor Fan was working and I was
impressed by the kind of research and
development the academics and students
there were conducting, trying to solve the
problems facing agricultural production in
the country.
By the way,
Professor Fan is
a trained and/or
renowned
molecular
biologist in
China. I may
not understand
much of what
she has being
doing in the
sophisticated
laboratories of
the College of
Resources and
Environmental
Sciences of
NAU, but we
can rest assured
that the results
of her
research/studies
have
contributed
greatly to
nation building
for the good of
mankind.
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Nanjing
At the Main Gate of NAU with Professor Fan and her colleague
This trip to Nanjing was my fourth to China. The first one was way back in mid-1990s to attend the
30
th
International Geological Congress which was held in downtown Beijing, the current capital city of
China. The next two trips were to attend soil conferences in Guangzhou.
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Nanjing
I was impressed by the rapid growth in Chinese industrial and economic development – to me it is
second to none in the East, except Japan. Thanks to the good leadership in the government whose
great vision was responsible for starting industrial revolution at the beginning of the new century. It
will continue to be so in the future that will make China great, like it once was. I am sure it will.
In the afternoon of May 24, 2019, I took a break from the forum to visit the well-known Imperial
Examination Museum of China in Nanjing. I was by accompanied by three NAU students – a man and
two ladies. We walked through the streets of Nanjing to get to the popular tourist destination in
downtown Nanjing.
The museum, dedicated to the Imperial Examination System, is big by any standard. It is known that
the best few students who passed the examination were rewarded with good job by the emperor to
serve the empire. Some of them were even o ered a hand in marriage to princesses. For that very
reason, many had tried their luck by taking the examination.
A picture taken at the Main Gate of Nanjing with two NAU lady students
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Nanjing
Me with Choi Yoon Soo who is Professor Fan’s PhD student from Korea
The two ladies (students) who showed me around in the museum
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Nanjing
The scholars in full concentration to answer the examination questions
I was dressed to kill by wearing the special costume meant for the graduates
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Nanjing
When the imperial examination was done and over with
Besides attending the afore-mentioned forum, Professor Fan requested me to deliver a
seminar on my recent work to the academics and students of the College of Resources and
Environmental Sciences, which I did on the morning of May 25, 2019.
Professor Sun Yue working in Beijing whom I was
supposed to meet in Nanjing came to listen to
the seminar. I was glad to see him there. Later,
he and I accompanied by another lady student
went to the world-class Nanjing Museum.
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A photo taken in front of the poster announcing the seminar I was going to deliver
A photo taken after the seminar with Professor Fan (2 from left)
nd
and Professor Sun Yue (2 from right)
nd
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Nanjing
In my view, the visit to Nanjing Museum was equally interesting. Professor Sun told me that the
museum of antiquity was the 2
nd
biggest in China. See, Professor Sun is a professor of English
Literature at the College of Foreign Languages, Capital Normal University in Beijing, which is a 4-hour
train ride away from Nanjing.
I was introduced to him by Mr Chee Keong Tan, who is an o cial of the Ministry of Education in
Putrajaya, Malaysia. Both Professor Sun and Mr Tan are interested in Big History. Mr Tan knew that I
was going to NAU for a conference/meeting on May 23, 2019 and asked Professor Sun to meet me
there if he could.
After my seminar at NAU, I gave Professor Sun a copy my book “The Earth Story”. He wanted to take
a few points on the creation of the universe from the perspective of Islam, which I wrote in the book.
During the visit to the museum, Professor Sun explained to me a lot on the history of the imperial
China of which he is an expert. We talked a lot about other things as well, including life, nation
development and the use Big History for the good of mankind. It was really good to get to know him
and we talked as if we have already known each other for many long years. How amazing!
China is what China is. Her imperial influences is not new to the Southeast Asian region or the Malay
Archipelago, if you like. Trade and collaboration, political or otherwise, had existed since time
immemorial. It was in 15
th
Century that trade thrived well between the two regions when Melaka
Empire of the Malay World was at its height. Ships from the East, India and Arab lands met at Melaka
Port to exchange goods of all kinds, including silk, spices, etc.
The legend has it that Sultan Mansur Shah of Melaka (1456-1477) had a marriage of convenience to
Princess Hang Li Po of Imperial China; it was during the time of Ming Dynasty. The lady from the
Court of China was believed to have been sent to Melaka after the Sultan requested for help to stop
Thailand from disturbing the newly established kingdom in the Malay Peninsula. After the marriage,
there was no more disturbance from the Thais and the kingdom continued to flourish.
The princess together with her followers were accommodated in a special settlement (a hilly area
known as Bukit China). But please take this story with a pinch of salt. There is no written record
whatsoever has been found either in Malaysia or China. However, if this legend is anything to go by,
China and Melaka, a state in the present day Peninsular Malaysia, had already involved in some kind
of military collaboration/alliance even in the 15
th
Century. Hence, my proposed study on sustainable
rice cultivation using sea water a ected soils in Malaysia with the help of the academics of NAU is a
continuation of what was once existed between the two empires.
To start the research collaboration between NAU and UPM, Professor Fan and her team of researchers
paid a courtesy visit to UPM in late January 2019. She explained elaborately the purpose of the visit
and showed us via a seminar the work she had been doing at her university, NAU.
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Nanjing
Based on her presentation, we were excited/impressed and willing to be part of the winning team
working on rice production. A research proposal has been submitted to the Chinese government to
get fund to study rice production on sea water a ected soils. This is what I called a “Long-Term
NAU-UPM Research Collaboration on Rice Production”.
What happens if the application for the research fund is rejected by the powers-that-be? Such being
the case, we should be thinking about an alternative research project to keep things going between
the institutions.
The rational of such a new project is that global warming results in significant sea level rise
throughout the world, especially in Southeast Asian countries. Future sea level rise in the region is for
real. During pre-Industrial Revolution period, the concentration of CO 2 in the air was about 250 ppm.
Now it is more 400 ppm and it continues to rise by the years. The increased concentration of CO 2 in
the air is one of the factors causing global warming, which in turn, results in sea level rise. In
Malaysia, 0.5-1.0 m sea level rise is expected by the year 2100.
This phenomenon results in sea water inundating the low-land areas in the coastal plains of the
country. Hence, rice fields along the coastal plains will be flooded severely by sea water that
negatively a ects rice production. This will threaten food security in the long run. The solution to the
problem is growing sea water tolerant rice variety in the a ected areas.
There is a worry though of the viability of such a mammoth project due to so many scientists needed
to realize the dream. Is it possible to set up a credible team of researchers from NAU and UPM to
work on the project within a reasonable time frame?
To be successful, a rice variety that can withstand sea water stress has to be produced by the end of
the study. Soon thereafter, it has to be tested on the soils in the a ected areas to determine its yield
and the cost of production.
A project of this nature requires many scientists specializing in:
1) Molecular biology and genetics;
2) Marine sciences;
3) Agronomy and postharvest;
4) Plant protection;
5) Soil science and/or land use;
6) Plant nutrition; and
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7) Agri-business –
to evaluate the viability in terms of production and cost. To be cost-e ective and sustainable, this
research has to be conducted in both China and Malaysia. This is because sea level rise is a global
phenomenon. Everybody will be a ected in some ways or another. Working collaboratively among the
a ected nations is the way forward. Well, it is up the would-be sponsor to consider the proposal.
Remember, food security in the world is threatened by the calamity; hopefully, the proposed project
will find a solution to the problem.
If a project of this nature is over ambitious, we can always modify to suit our dream without
necessarily abandoning the set objectives. For sure, it requires a lot of brain power to come out with a
comprehensive proposal that will satisfy the sponsor. We never know, in the end it may need
government to government intervention.
But no harm is done trying, I guess. In my view, if we want to serve mankind and to be known for a
lifetime, this is one of the projects we should be thinking about and doing for the next many years of
our academic life. I guess not many in the world have given a serious thought on conducting a
research of this nature yet. Thus, let NAU-UPM research on rice production during the di cult time
be the pioneer. It will be great.
As far as NAU is concerned, it is a true-blue agricultural university in the East. For all you know, a set
for agricultural production is not complete without the services provided by agricultural engineering
(designing machinery and mechanization) and veterinary medicine (looking after animal health).
In fact one of the biggest structures within its city campus in Nanjing is Veterinary Medicine and
Animal Science Building. It shows how important animal production is to the country. So under the
Look East Policy, which the Malaysian Government is now promoting, we should not only look
towards Japan/Korea, but also to China for advanced education in S&T.
Thus, I suggest Universiti Putra Malaysia should sign MoU with Nanjing Agricultural University in due
course so as to strengthen the collaboration in R&D between the two institutions. The results of the
research collaboration that followed would benefit mankind throughout the world.
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Nanjing
Professor Fan showing a helicopter designed by NAU agricultural engineers
equipped with data logger using drone tech to monitor crops growing in the fields
during her seminar at UPM in January 2019
Nanjing