Max Caruso speaks at the graduation ceremony. [Photo provided to en.wuxi.gov.cn]
Recently, I stood before the graduating class of 2026 of the Wuxi United International School (WUIS) and spoke of Yung Wing (容闳) — who in 1847 sailed from Guangdong province to America. Ninety‑eight days at sea. A language he barely spoke. He became the first Chinese student to graduate from Yale, then returned to launch the Chinese Educational Mission, sending 120 boys abroad. Those boys came home to build modern China. Today, every overseas Chinese student walks in his footsteps — including our WUIS graduates.
That speech led me, a Roman Italian who found comfort from living within China's ancient civilization, to a larger question: what kind of talent should we be fostering for the next 20 years? Not talent defined by test scores alone, but talent shaped by the deep cultural currents that have flowed through Wuxi for 3,000 years.
Max Caruso poses for a group photo at the graduation ceremony. [Photo provided to en.wuxi.gov.cn]
The two crises that redefine "talent"
The Future of Education Report, Special Edition (2026) identifies two parallel crises. First, a cognitive crisis: collapsing attention spans, students outsourcing thinking to AI, producing polished answers without understanding. Second, a skills gap: 87 percent of companies worldwide recognize a skills gap now or within a few years, with the most urgent demands being critical thinking, problem‑solving, and working well with others. In an age of instant answers, the most valuable human capacities are those that cannot be automated: judgment, empathy, adaptability, and genuine creativity.
Yung Wing did not succeed by memorizing Western facts. He developed this concept, synthesizing cognition, (drawn from neuroscience and psychology), holding two civilizational frameworks in his mind, not choosing one over the other, but creating something new. He became a living third space.
The 'third space' and the resonance of place
The 'third space' has deep pedagogical roots. As it draws from Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development — the space between what a learner can do alone and what they can achieve with guidance. Extended to cross‑cultural learning, the third space is where different cultural frameworks meet and interact. My own resonance, a Roman‑Italian finding familiar depth in Shanghai's millennia‑old rhythms, was a lived example.
Donglin Academy in Wuxi. [Photo/Donglin Academy]
But Wuxi holds an even more intimate claim to this deep resonance. The Donglin Academy, established in 1111, captured an ethos that still shapes generations: the sound of wind, rain, and reading all enter the ear; family, state, and all‑under‑heaven matters are held in the heart. Then there is the Rong family, whose guiding principle of establishing schools to cultivate talent and bring benefits to one's hometown led them to build a dozen schools and, in 1947, found Private Jiangnan University, bringing in the great historian Qian Mu as dean. This spirit of combining enterprise with education runs deep in Wuxi's soil.
Thus, the talent we might aspire to foster is neither the rootless cosmopolite nor the insular provincial. It is the grounded cosmopolitan, the young person who carries their Chinese heritage as an anchor, who has absorbed the traditional virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, yet who also possesses the cognitive agility to build bridges to any culture, anywhere.
The qualities that endure
First, curiosity that never settles — the habit of asking "why" and "what if", of seeking beneath the surface. Rooted in the Confucian virtue of wisdom, this restless questioning is our best defense against passive AI consumption.
Second, openness to different views, the willingness to listen and grow from disagreement. As a Chinese saying puts it, the sea admits a hundred rivers. True strength comes from embracing many tributaries.
Third, reflective self‑examination, the discipline to ask, as Confucius taught: Every day I examine myself on three points: Have I been faithful? Have I been genuine? Have I learned from my experiences? Reflection turns experience into wisdom.
AI-generated image visualizes the concept of a grounded cosmopolitan. [Photo/en.wuxi.gov.cn]
Ubuntu and Ren: A meeting of rivers
In my graduation speech, I introduced the African philosophy of Ubuntu, I am because we are. It finds a natural companion in the Confucian concept of Ren ("Benevolence"). Confucius said: The man of Ren, desiring to establish himself, establishes others. The classical ideal of Datong ("Great Harmony") envisions a world where when the Great Way prevails, all under heaven belongs to the people. Ubuntu says I am because we are. Ren says I become fully myself by helping others become themselves. These are not competing philosophies; they are tributaries flowing into the same river of interdependence, benevolence, and shared prosperity.
Reflections on a way forward
These are thoughts, reflections and considerations from years in international education and influenced by my time here in WUIS. If a city like Wuxi were to consider what talent to cultivate, one might gently suggest: valuing deep attention as a learning foundation; imagining a shared vision of a graduate, not a bureaucratic checklist, but a community conversation that includes the five virtues alongside critical thinking; celebrating local heroes like the Rong family, Qian Mu, and the scholars of Donglin Academy; and turning everyday interactions into 'third space' practice.
Closing thoughts
At the end of my graduation speech, I quoted Herman Hesse: When you have moved beyond desire … then peace has reached your soul. Yung Wing returned. He gave back. He built. So do the great sons and daughters of Wuxi.
The future will not be shaped by those who can access answers fastest. It will be shaped by those who can think most deeply, feel most fully, and adapt most wisely, while never forgetting where they came from. That is the talent worth fostering: grounded stars, who shine globally yet remain anchored in the ancient resonance of this city, carrying Ubuntu in one hand and Ren in the other.
From Xie He to the stars, and back again to Xie He. That is the circle of true transcultural education, unfolding in Wuxi for centuries.
References:
Caruso, M. "Ancient Resonance". CIO Today Magazine (2025).
Future Design School. The Future of Education Report (Special Edition) (2026).
Vygotsky, L. S. Mind in Society (1978).
Confucius. Analects.
Book of Rites (concept of Datong).
The author is the co-principal of Wuxi United International School, a son-in-law of Shanghai, and a Roman Australian educator who has spent three decades building bridges between civilizations.
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