Ying Xing | Academy of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University
【Introduction】The recent intensification of the epidemic has touched people's hearts, and the domestic academic circles have also triggered public discussions due to a big storm. This paper starts from the unique perspective of "intergenerational" and gives an analysis of the strange situation in the academic community. The author analyzes that in the context of the discontinuation of the academic circles in the late 1950s to the late 1970s, the "new three sessions" after the reform and opening up began to expand their territory in the academic circles under the absence of "fathers", and some of them soon became scholars who occupied the mainstream position, as well as the "new fathers" who controlled resources, led the trend, and led many students. However, the author also points out that congenital malnutrition determines the weakness of their learning, and the rapid entry into the academic world, which makes their energy fall into the quagmire of meetings, factions and resources early; the twists and turns of their early years and the embarrassment of entering the early stage of the academic world make them eager to seek compensation, which is often manifested as a fascination with power and greed for resources; although the confusion at the bottom in the early years makes them have a strong ability to deal with the operation of mundane affairs, they often consciously or unconsciously make academic customs.
At the end of the article, the author frankly does not put hope naturally on young people, because if the academic spirit is not seriously reflected and re-laid, if the academic system is not seriously criticized and profoundly transformed, and only by natural intergenerational change, it is impossible to overcome kitsch and impetuosity. On the contrary, under the influence of this atmosphere, those rookies who have undergone standardized training since childhood and hold the title of famous universities at home and abroad will more skillfully and skillfully take over the survival technology and style of the "new fathers" of the academic world. Today, how to be a "father" in the academic community is still a topic worthy of serious consideration.
This article was originally published in "Cultural Perspectives", originally titled "Look at the Decay of the "New Father" in Today's Academic Circles", which only represents the author's views and is for the reference of all kings.
Look at the decay of the "new father" in today's academic circles
Unlike the natural family, the succession of social families is more likely to be interfered with by various social factors, so the phenomenon of generation breakage occurs from time to time. For example, the Chinese academic community has continued for 11 years since the suspension of university enrollment in 1966, which has formed a large fault line. If we count from the imprisonment and impact of the anti-rightist movement on the academic circles in 1957, the abolition of chinese academic circles for 20 years is enough to constitute a generational rupture.
The "New Third Session" of that year began to expand its territory in the academic circles under the condition of the absence of "father". In the blink of thirty years, they have become the fathers of today's academic circles: controlling the resources of the academic circles, leading the trend of the academic circles, and dominating many students. So, how exactly are they fathers today?
These new fathers in the academic world have been lost since childhood and grew up eating wolf's milk. They show such a distinctive characteristic: rich social experience, keen experience and intuition, skillful interpersonal relations, clear awareness of problems, strong viability and pioneering spirit. As a result, they were able to camp and bear fruit in a short period of time after entering the academic world, and in about 10 years they gained academic achievements and academic status that would normally take 20 years or more to obtain. Some media praised it as the "new three myths" that its glory could not be copied.
Although the academic status of the new fathers of the academic world today is indeed brilliant, their academic achievements and personality qualities seem to be far from brilliant.
First of all, congenital malnutrition determines their weak academic strength, and entering the academic world too quickly to become famous makes their energy fall into the quagmire of meetings, factions and resources early. They laid the foundations for learning too late, but entered what David Lodge called the "little world" too early—which doomed their learning to the next level.
Second, the twists and turns of their early years and the embarrassment of entering the early years of academia made them eager to seek compensation. Their pride in giving up their lives in their youth, after experiencing the memories of starving their bodies, the grinding of going to the mountains and going to the countryside, and the embarrassment of "hanging upside down", now often manifests itself as a fascination with power and greed for resources.
Third, although the early years of confusion at the bottom gave them a strong ability to deal with the operation of mundane affairs, they often consciously or unconsciously made academic mundane. Being able to squeeze into the one-wood bridge of the university from the bottom of the army, and then occupy the university seat, and then do their best in the academic circles, shows that they are smart enough to mix society, but they often lack the real reverence for academia, and even lack the bottom line of being a person.
Innovation and weakness, pioneering and greed, pragmatism and kitsch – this is the two sides of the new fathers of academia. Although this duplicity has always existed, it has manifested itself differently at different times. Bounded by the mid-1990s, some important changes to their can be seen:
In terms of their relationship with the system, they have undergone a change from criticism to collusion. In the 1980s, when they first entered the world, they were at a time when the tide of reform was rising and the call for new enlightenment was high. The spirit of criticism of the system and the sense of reshaping the Taoist system made them quickly emerge. Although the long-term and miserable living conditions have made some people go to the sea to find another way to make a living, more people still adhere to their posts with a certain ideal spirit. However, since the mid-1990s, especially since the new century, with the great enhancement of the central financial resources, the state has adjusted the governance technology of the academic circles, on the one hand, it has increased the investment in the resources of the academic circles, on the other hand, it has enhanced the administrativeization of the university through the "management of numbers and words", and consciously guided the academic circles with various special funds including various topics, bases, degree points, awards, etc. at all levels. Today, the university has become a new gold rush. If the new fathers were able to grit their teeth and overcome poverty, then in the face of a large number of resources that can be fought for with academic achievements, they could no longer hold back and actively participated in this protracted resource war. In this process, a group of academic upstarts with fame and fortune were born, who not only had various titles and honors on their heads, but also lived in mansions and drove famous cars. However, behind these dazzling brilliances, there is an unprecedented degeneration: although their works are equal, under the guidance of the subject scholarship, they are unrighteous, empty, and plagiarized, and the study style is corrupt; although they are surrounded by honor, they are at the cost of completely destroying the principle of avoiding suspicion or initiating the "unspoken rules" of interest exchange and balance; although they have won doctoral points, key bases, and key disciplines, they have paved the way with naked bribery. The corruption in academia is no less profound than in business and politics, and what is especially worse is that corruption in academia is rarely investigated by the system.
In terms of their relationship with academia itself, they have undergone a change from self-talk to international integration. The 1980s was an era of flourishing ideas, and the new fathers of the academic world were concerned about their keen problems and wrote books and lectures. Although the self-talking academic product is still only a semi-finished product, it more or less contains a grasp of the real problems of Chinese society. However, since the mid-1990s, with the advancement of the process of globalization, the voice and pressure of China's academic circles to integrate with the international community have become increasingly loud, and the requirements for academic standardization have become higher and higher. This change is indeed conducive to building a platform for international academic exchanges and promoting academic progress in form. However, blindly integrating discourse has also made today's Chinese universities gradually lose their independent academic spirit, relaxed and free academic atmosphere, and local academic feelings. Under the slogan of international integration, these new fathers of Chinese academia have consciously become crappy followers of the US-dominated academic market. Academic "achievements" are emerging in large quantities, but academic real money is shrinking; the academic market is bustling, but the academic atmosphere is extremely impetuous.
In terms of their relationships with students, they have undergone a change from mentor to boss. In the 1980s, when the new fathers of academia were just teachers in undergraduate classrooms or at most mentors for master's students, they were mostly committed to guiding students to think through reading. At that time, they were all looking forward to one day being able to guide doctoral students to climb the peak of scholarship. After entering the 1990s, the new fathers of the academic world have successively become doctoral supervisors. However, by this time, "doctoral supervisors" are often just a symbol of their personal qualifications and status in the academic world. As for their relationship with students, they have changed from the original tutor who guided the reading to the boss of the project contract. After the new fathers have received countless topics, they have no interest or energy to guide their students to read, and they must rely mainly on graduate students to complete the projects. As soon as graduate students enter the school, they are assigned to different topics of their supervisors, becoming the cheap but main labor force of the project, and using this as their graduation thesis; and the bosses allocate a dime from the project to the graduate students as a small remuneration, they gladly sign their names in the first place in front of the students' papers, and then go to the operation of publishing in the core journals. The subject cannot achieve the purpose of truly cultivating people, it requires only skilled technicians. Around the time of the new century, Chinese universities were caught up in the frenzy of upgrading and merging, with colleges becoming undergraduates, colleges becoming universities, and universities becoming super universities; however, under the guidance of "subject scholarship," today's Chinese universities have almost all become advanced technical schools.
The teacher's way does not exist, the learning is disrespectful, and the scholar's abolition is long-lasting. Behind the apparent unprecedented prosperity of the academic world today, what cannot be hidden is a serious impetuous and even shameless degeneration. Of course, by the new father of academia, I mean scholars who occupy the mainstream of the system. Perhaps the real hope of the academic circles is in those who are in a very low position and have a very small voice, but belong to Lu Xun's so-called "hard work", "hard work", "ask for the people's life", and "sacrifice their lives to seek the law". However, I did not naturally place my hopes on young people as Lu Xun did in his early and middle-aged years. If the academic spirit is not seriously reflected and re-laid, if the academic system is not seriously criticized and profoundly transformed, and if it relies only on natural generations, it is doomed to be unable to overcome the kitsch and impetuous atmosphere of scholars. On the contrary, those rookies who have undergone standardized training since childhood and held the title of famous universities at home and abroad will be more ingenious and skillful in taking over the survival technology and style of the new fathers of the academic world. How the academic community should be a "father" is still a topic worthy of serious consideration in front of scholars.
This article was originally published in the August 2009 issue of "Culture Horizontal", originally titled "And look at the decay of the "new father" in today's academic circles", welcome to share personally, media reprint please contact this public number.
