1. giving birth to his father in prison.

2. Against Mr Shi is the rivalrous (['raɪvəlrəs]) nature of academia and China’s tradition of conservatism ([kənˈsɜ:vətɪzəm]).

3. wants China to become an intellectual power as well as an economic one.

4. Its campus is now up and running.

5. In his favour is the explicit endorsement of the venture by China’s leader,

6. As the dean of a department at Tsinghua—as high up the Chinese academic ladder as you can go—Mr Shi has a lot to lose if Westlake does not work.

7. Our future success will result in the establishment of many more.”

8. Mr Shi believes that if elite universities select students on the grounds not just of their test scores, but also of their intellectual maturity and social responsibility, this will influence the way pupils are taught at school, and change the way they think.

9. Mr Shi laments ([ləˈment]) that China’s contribution to science and technology in the past 400 years has been vastly below what it could have achieved. “There’s something etched into our brains: by the time we get to college, students have lost a major portion of their innovative potential,” he says.

10. Mr Shi’s ambitions reach beyond the bounds of the university. His aim is to make China more innovative by adding a dimension to the current educational system.

11. Xu Li, another returnee ([rɪˌtɜ:ˈni:]) from America, says of other Chinese universities: “They are chasing good publications but not meaningful research.”

12. “I was very moved by Shi Yigong’s dream,” says Hongyun Tang, a researcher who previously worked in America. “The academic culture is like the States. We’re all dreaming of doing something big.”

13. The point （目的） of Westlake is in part to carry out more ambitious research than happens in state universities.

14. property-based conglomerate.

15. the university also has private donors

16. the board of governors will have ultimate authority.

17. Three of the 12 seats on the managing council are taken by party officials who will play a “significant” part in decision-making.

18. It is private in two ways.

19. Westlake, for now in temporary premises ([ˈpremɪsɪz]), will move into a grand purpose-built campus in three years’ time.

20. “This is the first ever research university supported by both government and the private sector in the People’s Republic of China,” he says. “We’re making history.”

21. has Caltech as his model.

22. who still holds senior posts at Tsinghua,

23. China already has around 700 private institutions among its 3,000-or-so universities, but most are vocational ([vəʊˈkeɪʃənl]) colleges which do not aspire to compete with the research universities at the top of the global tree.

24. It hopes, eventually, to have thousands of students,

25. The university’s first cohort of research students is around 140 strong.

26. Last month he presided([prɪˈzaɪd]) over Westlake’s founding ceremony.

27. Keen to host a top-class university, it offered Mr Shi tempting terms.

28. Hangzhou, though rich and historic, compares unfavourably with Beijing and Shanghai in terms of its intellectual endowment.

29. The local government’s enthusiasm also helped.

30. He called it Westlake, after the scenic body of water for which the city is famed.

31. Personal links drew Mr Shi to Hangzhou when he chose a location for the first private research university in China.

32. was jailed there by the Nationalist

33. Hangzhou, a city south-west of Shanghai, is freighted ([f'reɪtɪd]) with meaning for Shi Yigong.

34. He wants its students to be risk-takers

35. China’s first privately run research university is a risky venture

36. Testing the waters