Now that I’m living outside, and apart from the department forum I don’t browse BBS boards anymore, there are many things I inevitably find out only after the fact. Today I only learned that the Triangle Ground had actually been torn down!
Of course, the real Triangle Ground died long ago; what exists now is only a “ruin,” but this ruin has after all borne witness to the old Peking University’s freedom of thought. Even though it had already become a bulletin board crammed with all sorts of messy advertisements, such a “Triangle Ground” still carried forward something of the old Triangle Ground—no matter who you were, whatever you wanted to post, you could post it. That is why there were so many things that made the “Peking University president” feel they “damaged Peking University’s image.”
What, exactly, is Peking University’s image? Neat and uniform, orderly and tidy? If it looks like a military academy, that would probably suit the president’s taste best, would it not? Hmm? Or are you really taking a duck farm as your model? Hmm?
“Freedom of thought, broad inclusiveness” is Peking University’s image, after all. As for certain people who deserve a smack, what on earth is it that damages Peking University’s image?
What a fine “it’s only an information board.” Certain people who deserve a smack, do you really have even the slightest reverence for history? Then why don’t you go on and tear down Boya Tower too—it’s only an old, outdated water tower, isn’t it? Why don’t you simply go and demolish the Great Wall as well? Aren’t they just bricks? There’s no problem of nomadic tribes harassing us anymore, so those piles of bricks standing there are so inconvenient, aren’t they? Tear them down! Tear them down! To borrow a phrase I saw on Liu Huajie’s blog, the word China is great—“tear it down” (拆呢)!
What a fine teaching evaluation. It should be what it is; why bustle about making a show of tidying up and currying favor? So what if Peking University gets a DDDDDDD…? If that were really the case, it would only show that the evaluators’ standards are terrible. Does a score lower than some certain university prove that Peking University is worse than those universities? For the sake of so-called “Peking University’s image” and that bit of financial interest, can we at Peking University even trample our own self-respect underfoot?
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/southnews/jwxy/200711020505.asp
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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