“Apple may be one of the hottest aspirational brands in China, but students from the country’s most prestigious university are accusing the company of invading precious study space by opening a promotional center inside a campus library,” David Pierson reports for The Los Angeles Times.
“The glass-enclosed Apple Experience Center will occupy about 430 square feet in a former study area on the third floor of Peking University’s main library, according to the People’s Daily,” Pierson reports. “Students will get to tool around on Apple gadgets to help with their studies and order products at a discount, the state-run newspaper reported.”
Pierson reports, “But some students say the center inappropriately combines consumerism with academics –- a mix that is already more than familiar on American campuses… Other students noted that competition is fierce for seats inside the library and that the center would only make a shortage of study space worse.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]
Student #1: Chairman Mao says Americans are bad!
Student #2: Chairman Mao also says an apple a day is good for you!
Student #3: In America, consumers go to Apple. In China, Apple come to you.
Student #4: Chairman Mao says bourgeoisie American goods will contaminate communist China’s thinking!
Student #5: Steve Jobs is my hero! I came to Peking University to study his capitalist roader ways!
Student #6: All of you shut the hell up! Would you rather consume Steve Ballmer’s shit instead?
SILENCE.
Excellent!
Living quarters at Beida are usually 6 to a room, so there may be only one desk. The library is usually packed. Mao used to work at the library and had a statue out front that was torn down in 1988. I saved a few pieces.
Sounds like they need to build some study halls.
How is it China is building entire empty cities but is not building enough study and housing for their universities?
There is no requirement for it to be inside a library. This would be better in a student union type facility.
When they realize that the library’s entire contents can, in theory, be served up on an iPad, perhaps they’ll be more sympathetic. And there will be lots of free space where library shelves used to be.
Don’t tell me Google digitized all of the Chinese books too.
Cultural awareness, sensitivity, respect?
Sorry grasshopper. You lose. It’s called power.
If space is that tight, they may not have room for any expansion. But if they did have space, Apple should offer to build additional study space and incorporate the “Experience” into the expansion; make the study area 50% larger than the Experience area. Win-Win.
Bunch of whiny socialist do nothings! Expect everything to be handed to them. They must have voted for Obama! (Well somebody had to post a Tea Party rant!)
What the U.S. needs is a Coffee Party.
Irish Coffee.
Grow up.
Yuh?
Foxconn is hiring
Just to be clear, it’s NOT Apple that is doing this, but a retailer. Also, it’s quite small at about 20×20 feet. They should have made it a computer lab, and perhaps a little less commercial, then there’d be fewer complaints. And, as others have noted, building more study space would eliminate any issues.
If it is actually an Apple retail space, perhaps Apple could increase the goodwill by building more library space, as a gift to the students. I understand all the Chinese Apple retail spaces out-sell American space by somewhere around three to one.