老木匠

来源Understanding China\'s academic woes
译者moonstruck
The Economist is among those to have said that Chinese academia is marked by fraud and poor academic ethics.包括《经济学人》在内的各种声音都批评说，中国学术界充满欺诈，学术道德低下。

"You just don't understand China!" This has become a daily exasperation as I debate with my Chinese colleagues on some aspects of their country. I arrived in Zhejiang four months ago as a visiting researcher on Chinese foreign policy, and my long-suffering colleagues have gone beyond the call of duty to help me come to terms with China's politics, society, worldview and how they themselves understand it.
“你不了解中国！”这是我和中国同事辩论某些中国问题时最常听到的气话。四个月前，我以访问研究者的身份到达浙江，研究中国外交政策。我的中国同事们受尽折腾，甚至尽了份外的努力帮助我了解中国的政治、社会、世界观，还有他们眼中的中国国情。
China has just surpassed Japan as the second largest economic power in the world. It is also known for its work-obsessed students, who each year compete to earn a much sought-after place at university. As prestige is closely associated with education, you would imagine Chinese universities to be centres of excellence and critical scholarship. You would be wrong.
中国刚刚超过日本成为世界第二经济大国。痴迷于工作和学习的中国学生同样名声在外，每年，他们为了在大学里赢得不错的地位，互相之间竞争激烈。既然名望与教育密不可分，你或许会认为，中国大学精英荟萃，学术严谨。然而，你想错了。
An article in the Economist has recently highlighted a fact that is well known in China, but less so in the western world. Chinese academia is marked by fraud and poor academic ethics, which may hamper the country's drive for an innovative economy and its continual rise to "great power" status. What in the west is considered serious misconduct (cheating at exams, fabricating research data, ghostwriting or plagiarism come to mind) are routine practices and seldom punished. I wish I might tell you otherwise, given how warmly I am received here, but an independent, free and critical academia does not yet exist in China.
《经济学人》最近有篇文章关注了一个在中国人人皆知、在西方却不甚被了解的话题。中国学术界充满欺诈，学术道德低下。在中国努力成为具有创新精神的经济大国的崛起之路上，学术问题或许会是一块绊脚石。西方国家眼中的一些恶劣行为（考试作弊、捏造研究数据、代笔、剽窃）在中国却屡见不鲜，很少受到惩罚。我在中国 受到热情款待，我也希望能够告诉你事实并非如此，但是，目前在中国还不存在一个独立、自由、具有批判性的学术界。
Chinese universities are modelled after civil services where most of those who are in charge are party members, not scholars. The chancellor of a top national university enjoys the equivalent ranking of a national government minister, and provincial universities' chancellors, provincial government ministers. Instead of being isolated ivory towers of academic research where quality research is the ultimate criterion for recognition, Chinese universities are places of hierarchy, patrimony, control and power struggles where personal networks outweigh academic ability.
中国大学的特点是行政化，管理层绝大多数是党员，而非学者。国家重点大学的校长级 别相当于国家部级官员，省级重点大学的校长则受到省部级待遇。大学本应是学术研究的象牙塔，不受其他因素制约，高质量研究是根本的评价标准；但在中国，大学却等级森严，成了金钱、控制和权力斗争的中心，人际关系压倒学术能力。
In my experience, interviewing established professors is sometimes akin to having an audience with a ranking mandarin. They respond anecdotally from a position of superiority, confident with their privileged access to information, their influence on policy and their status in society. Attempts at engaging in academic debate are often dismissed with sighs of "you just don't understand China" and if pressed a little harder, accusations of western imperialism are almost inevitable.
就 我的经历而言，采访知名教授有时就好像在与中国高官谈话。他们的奇谈怪论源自自身优越的地位：既有权通过特殊渠道获得信息，又能影响政策，在社会上有名有份，所以自信满满。一旦卷入到学术辩论中，他们往往叹着气，以“你不懂中国”的论调不屑一顾，如果进一步施压，几乎必然会招来“西方帝国主义”之类的批评。
Some of the younger generation of scholars complain privately of having to produce research on demand, of having to censor themselves on "sensitive topics" and having to deal with an unfair system that recognises seniority rather than originality and quality. But those who are unhappy with the system are in the minority; the majority of them are satisfied with their lot and are biding time until they too take up more senior positions.
部分年轻学者私底下抱怨说，他们不得不按照需要来做研究，不得不自我过滤“敏感话题”，不得不与一个资历大于原创和能力的不公平体系打交道。不满意学术体系的终究只占少数，大部分人还是安于命运，耐心等待，直到自己也获得更高的地位。
The roots of the dismal state of higher learning in China today can be found in the cultural revolution. The current generation of professors began their careers just after a generation of intelligentsia, many of whom learned in both Chinese and western scholarship, were purged as counter-revolutionaries. The current generation have navigated their academic careers with the utmost care and diffidence, with little mentoring from previous generations and isolated from critical scholarly communities beyond China.
今天中国高等教育的现状令人悲哀，其根源可以追溯到文化大革命。当年，学贯中西的知识分子被划为反革命而受到清洗，而现在这批教授的职业生涯恰巧开始于那之后不久。现在的教授们在学术上小心翼翼，十分收敛，他们很少受到上一辈的指导，也与具有批判性的国外学术团体关系隔膜。
A recent comment by Premier Wen Jiabao that Chinese universities need to transform and be converted from a government civil service to centres of research was met with strong resistance from entrenched interests. Speaking as representatives of the National People's congress and as committee members of the Chinese people's political consultative committee, university chancellors argued that dissociating universities from government structures will lessen the value and effectiveness of Chinese education.
Wen Jiabao总理最近指出，中国大学需要转型，要从行政化大学变成学术研究的中心，但这番评论却遭到既得利益者的强烈抗拒。大学校长们作为代表在全国人民代表大会和全国政协会议上发言，声称让大学脱离政府机构会削弱中国教育的价值和有效性。
A strong and independent intelligentsia and academia reflects a stable and mature society – one that is secure enough to listen to criticism, reflect and reform. In its ideal form, the core of academia is freedom to debate. In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill argued that no opinion ought to be censored as "… if the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and the livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error".
知识界和学术界是否强健而独立，能够反映出社会是否稳定而成熟。在一个稳定而成熟的社会里，批评，反思，改革的意见都容易被人接纳。学术界最理想的状态就是 允许完全自由的辩论。约翰•斯图亚特•穆勒在《论自由》里写道，没有哪种意见应该被审查，“……（因为一旦被审查，）如果意见是正确的，它们就失去了为真 理拨乱反正的机会；如果是错误的，人们就失去了通过正误冲突来更加清晰、生动地了解真理的机会，而这本来就是错误意见的一大好处。”
Presented with this ideal, my Chinese colleagues respond that this is a grand ideal but it cannot be done in China – I disagree. Perhaps I don't understand China after all.
我向中国同事们描述了如此一个理想的图景，他们回答说，这是宏大的理想，但没法在中国实现。我不同意。或许我根本就不了解中国吧。