It’s that time of year again for new-student registration. As usual, I won’t be going to welcome the freshmen tomorrow, though I’ll probably go take a look at the lively atmosphere on campus.
Back when I came to register, I didn’t see any senior students coming to greet us either. After handing in my materials, I headed straight for the dormitory. I suppose there are probably more seniors involved in welcoming freshmen now—especially the sophomores who have just come back from military training. If military training and freshman welcoming hadn’t conflicted back then, I definitely would have gone to welcome the freshmen when I was a sophomore too.
Thinking back to that year, what did it feel like when I first came to register at Peking University…?
At the time, all five of us in the family came up to Beijing together, arriving a day early. We first stayed at the Zhongguancun Hotel opposite the South Gate—a terrible and expensive hotel that, rumor has it, will close next year. We had our main meal that day, and breakfast for the next few days, at the “Chenghuang Temple” across from the South Gate. Back then I was quite moved that there was such a friendly little eatery right next to Peking University, though in the years that followed I rarely went there again.
The day before registration, we took a rough stroll around the Peking University campus, found the dormitory, and also discovered the so-called “Philosophy Building”—only later did I learn that it was actually the territory of the Department of Psychology……
What was my first impression of Peking University? It can be summed up in one word: “chaotic.” Things are much better now. When we entered the university, the issue of the South Gate had not yet been resolved, and what greeted us at the entrance was a scene of utter disorder. Inside the campus it was even more chaotic, with vendors selling trinkets all over the streets, the “shopping street” run-down and shabby, and the bookstores there selling only pirated books (at the time I didn’t yet know of the existence of Boyatang). The campus was full of all kinds of people—monks, nuns, Daoists, hoodlums, beggars, madmen, thieves…… all sorts and conditions were represented, no shortage of any of the three religions and nine ranks. The buildings on campus were also haphazard, old and new mixed together, with styles that clashed jarringly. Even the famed library and other beautiful buildings where tradition and modernity supposedly blend together looked, to be honest, rather hard to compliment. The campus area was pitifully small too, nowhere near a match for the one next door! Only the scenery around Weiming Lake and Boya Pagoda was nice—probably because I hadn’t seen many lakes before. In Wu Lao-shi’s words, it was: “How can that be called a lake? Isn’t it just a pond.” All in all, Peking University gave the impression of being neither grand nor beautiful, neither orderly nor harmonious; it was simply uneven and chaotic through and through. Strange as it may sound, I didn’t seem the least bit disappointed at the time. In fact, I want to say that this is precisely Peking University’s distinguishing feature—freedom and tolerance. Freedom has to be bought at the price of disorder. Tolerance means being inclusive toward all sorts of messy things, and Peking University’s architectural style is precisely an expression of its character, just as the neat and attractive campus next door expresses its own
Here I have to mention the difference between Peking University and the place next door. Ordinary people only know “Peking University and Tsinghua,” “Tsinghua and Peking University”; I’ve even heard it said that some people think these refer to the same school. Before my second year of high school, I too only had a hazy understanding of the difference between the two. Only later did I realize that these two schools are in fact vastly different. The differences in departments and majors go without saying; the size of the schools, their environments, facilities, and financial resources are all enormously different too, and the atmosphere of humanistic spirit and freewheeling ease is worlds apart.
There is always a process of adjustment from high school to university, and this process is typically reflected in our way of life during the first few weeks—our dormitory actually got up before 7 every day and went together to Xueyi for breakfast! Ahem…… over the course of the years that followed, the number of times I went to Xueyi for breakfast probably still wouldn’t add up to even a fraction of those first two weeks…… Of course, I’m not saying university life is all about sleeping in and skipping breakfast. Skipping breakfast is still bad for the body. But the point is that a typical Peking University way of life is certainly eclectic and not bound by fixed rules.
Many students may need to readjust in many more ways; as for me personally, entering Peking University felt like a fish returning to water, as if I had come back to the place where I ought to have been all along, and naturally there was nothing uncomfortable about it. What left many students unaccustomed was that university is almost entirely unconstrained—there are no longer fixed seats or classrooms for classes, and even more crucially, there are no fixed courses—most classes are chosen by oneself; not only can you choose when to attend, almost everything about which classes to take is freely arranged, and it’s even possible for students in the same dormitory to have no overlapping courses…… Taking different classes means running back and forth across campus to different teaching buildings. Fortunately, the number of classes is much smaller; sometimes there are only one or two classes a day, and it is not difficult to end up with a three-day weekend or even a four-day weekend. Even more crucially, there is almost no control over daily life and routines either—this sounds perfectly normal, of course, since adults are supposed to take care of themselves. But what would people think when they hear that in university dormitories it is often possible for members of the opposite sex to reside there long-term, and that if you hang a curtain over the bed, anything goes? Staying out all night is simply an everyday occurrence; most people will have experience of staying up all night studying off campus or partying all night, and if you disappear for half a semester, probably nobody will even care. Skipping one or two classes is too commonplace; skipping class semester after semester starts to be slightly Orz, but at most it only makes people sigh a little.
Freedom requires self-discipline. Someone accustomed to obeying rules and regulations, and studying in a step-by-step manner, will certainly find it hard to adapt to Peking University’s environment. Because here there are almost no rules to follow and no discipline to observe; one can only rely on oneself to legislate for oneself. I’ve heard some classmates say that they will stick to their own direction without being disturbed by the outside world. Actually, that latter half of the sentence is rather optional—if after a few years at Peking University you still aren’t disturbed by it, and don’t pick up at least a bit of a free and easy temperament, wouldn’t that be rather dull? Of course, at Peking University there are also more and more people who treat university as merely an extension of senior year of high school; at Peking University, you won’t be lacking in any kind of person.
Of course, many people, including myself, complain that Peking University has been too deeply drawn into the modern commercial society, drawn into too much of the vulgar and snobbish atmosphere. Yet if you think about it the other way around, as a world that is inclusive of everything and contains all things, wouldn’t it be perfectly reasonable for it to have a small clique of snobs? It’s just that some despicable people are gradually gaining power, and that is a worrying matter.
In short, I hope that those who come to Peking University will cherish the environment here. Whether you like it or not, places like this are becoming fewer and fewer in today’s society.
2007-09-01
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2007-09-01 18:18:54 Anonymous 211.166.9.17
I’ll probably manage to get a Tsinghua meal card within 7 days.
A prestigious university of its stature, yet its students have fallen so low as to trek to another university for meals—how tragic… - Gu Chi
2007-09-01 20:33:05
Whoa…… why put yourself through that…… in my view Peking University’s food is still pretty good, and when my family came they were full of praise……
Which Tsinghua canteen are you planning to eat at? Running from Peking University to Tsinghua’s dining plaza is nearly 2 kilometers, right? That’s much farther than my home. Besides, from what I’ve experienced, Tsinghua’s food is only so-so too, though I’ve only been to one or two places.
Though Peking University’s canteens are a bit few in number, what’s truly tragic is that a school of such stature doesn’t even have many sports facilities. I’ve heard that the only football and volleyball venue, the May Fourth Stadium, is even going to be rebuilt into a parking lot, though]
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Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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