我缘何放弃继续在中国深造学习？

本文作者是一位美国留学生，在中国一所名校获得硕士学位，但放弃了继续在中国攻读博士学位的打算。本文谈及他对中国高等教育弊端的一些看法，虽言辞可能让我们不太舒服，但却也不失公允。

我将它翻译了过来，供大家参考阅读，或可引起我们的反思。

After three years full of excitement, fun and mind blowing experiences I finally decided that I cannot stay and study in China anymore. It was nice and all. But when it comes to building your future, staying in China to do a Doctoral Study is not a good option.  Actually I have finished my master degree in China, and before moving to China my main objective was becoming an expert on East Asian politics with a focus on China. I still have the same objective. But ironically, I don’t think China is the best place to learn about China unless you want to take everything given to you as absolute truth.

在中国度过了有趣开心、兴奋刺激的三年后，最终，我还是决定放弃继续留在中国学习。客观上说，在中国生活，确实很棒。但若论及构建自己的未来，那么，留在中国继续攻读博士学位就真不是一个好的选择。实际上，我已在中国获得硕士学位，而我之所以来中国，首要目标就是想成为一名中亚政治—中国问题研究专家。这一初衷，仍未改变。不过，极具讽刺意味的是，现在看来，中国却反倒并非是研究中国的最佳之地了，当然咯，除非你愿意将别人塞给你的东西视为绝对真理。

I think here I will criticise the policies regarding education and partially the culture that has been growing among the Chinese scholars and students. But here my intention is not to blame anyone but putting forward a number of points that will lead to a more solid and analytical method regarding the higher education in China. Yet, of course that is just my opinion.

下面，我将就与教育相关的某些政策，尤其是中国学者与学生之间形成的那种师生文化，进行评论。不过，在这里，我并非打算批评或指责谁，而是希望从自身感受出发，提出几点浅薄意见，以期中国高等教育最终能形成一套更加扎实严谨、更具思辨理性的学术方法。当然，这些仅代表我的个人观点。

I have faced a number of difficulties in China when I first came to China and tried to understand the education system –by the way I have done my master degree in “so-called” one of the most prestigious universities in the country. I have failed to comprehend how the classes were assigned, how the grading system worked, what are the mandatory courses, which classes can be chosen, how many classes and etc. 

初来乍到之时，真是够呛，我碰到了很多问题，为了弄明白中国教育体制究竟咋回事儿，可谓绞尽了脑汁。顺便提一句，我攻读硕士学位所在的学校，是中国“所谓”最顶尖的学府之一。我始终没能搞清楚课程是怎么安排的，学分制又是如何实施的，必修课有哪些，能选修什么课，又到底要上多少课…..

No! There is a package program and you need to take it. There are some elective courses and you’ll be assigned to them if your supervisor sees appropriate – I didn’t have a say here, because apparently I didn’t understand Chinese culture and China as I was told every time I tried to intervene. Nevertheless, this is the first point. Higher education is much like kindergarten. They will tell you what to do and it is very certain you are the student; hence you have to obey, you don’t qualify to have a say in what you wanted to be educated about.

不过，也不需要搞清楚！因为学校都统一帮你打包好了，你接受就行。有一些选修课，只要你的导师认为“于你有益”，就会要求你必须学。在这些情况下，我毫无发言权，因为，每次想反抗、进行干涉时，就会有人对我说，“显然，你还没搞明白中国文化，还不了解我们中国嘛。”这是我想说的第一点，中国高等教育更像是幼稚园教育。老师告诉你做什么，你就必须遵守，因为既然你是学生嘛，在想要学什么上，你可就没有资格“说三道四”。

My second point is, about my major. After all politics is a very complicated and very sensitive issue. I have never seen politics as a subject that can be studied like science, but analysis is in the very heart of Political Science as a major. In that regard, when you study Chinese Foreign Policy and Chinese Politics you cannot just accept the texts written in newspapers. You need to ask “why did they write about this”, “is that what really happened or is it a subjective understanding” – of course much more complicated questions but I suppose you get the main idea.

我想说的第二点，关于我的专业。不管怎么说，政治始终都是一个复杂而敏感的话题。我从来不认为政治该像自然科学一样进行研究，但政治学则不一样了，作为一门专业，政治学的生命一定是判断分析。从这种意义上说，研究中国外交政策及中国政治时，你就不该完全接受、全然相信报纸上所写的。你需要多反问一下，“他们为什么这样写”、“所写是否真发生过，抑或仅是主观判断？”当然，其中或许还有更复杂的问题，我想，你懂的！

So, whenever you try to make a critic you face with a comment “Let’s focus on positive sides”. Well... I am saying institutions of higher education in China, regarding social sciences, do not necessarily function as the factories of knowledge, but more like the consolidator of the mainstream understanding. I believe that is not fully because there is an institutional censorship but also because some professors do not know how to react to your questions and comments. Likewise, they might be refraining from finding themselves in trouble. But, that I don’t know.

因此，无论何时你想提出质疑，都会有人赶紧发表意见，“让我们关注好的一面吧。”怎么说呢，中国的高等院校，论及社会科学教育，与其说是知识生产厂，不如说是主流价值观加固器。我认为这并不完全因为存在着一个机构审查制度，也与许多教授不懂如何回应学生的问题与评论有关。也有可能，他们只是不想给自己添麻烦。不过，谁知道呢？

Another point is the education method. When you look at the course descriptions and functionality, you’ll see it is just fine. Different texts, discussion sessions, assignments... But in the classroom it is just that the lecturer lectures and students listen... In fact, it cannot really be called listening as most of students are on their phones or sleep to be honest. Also, you cannot find almost a single student who has read the texts for the lecture or who has an opinion on what is being taught. I would like to criticize Chinese students here especially.

另一点是关于教学方法的。若单从课程描述和课程框架设置上看，每门课程也都没什么问题，配有不同的教材，设有学生讨论环节，还留有课后作业……但真到了课堂上，就纯粹变成了“老师讲，学生听”了……不过，实际上，客观上讲，说“学生听”也不贴切，因为大多数学生只顾埋头在手机上，或者干脆趴着睡觉，根本没在听。同时，很难有学生提前阅读讲义，或对老师上课的内容发表自己的意见。在这里，我真想特别批评下中国学生们。

They attend to every single class, every single lecture, discussion session. But they only sleep, watch a movie or just look at their phones like a zombie. To be fair, they really comfort the professors by constantly filling their water bottles, lighting their cigarettes –yes in the classroom of course – or agreeing with every single word that comes out of their mouth. I don’t remember a single Chinese classmate who has asked a question during the lecture or joined the discussions among foreign students.

他们会去上每一堂课，去听每一场讲座，去参加每一次讨论。但到了现场，他们却只是睡觉，或者看电影，或者像僵尸般不停刷手机。不过呢，也得说点公道话，他们也确实做了些事：不时跑跑腿，将教授的水杯倒满，或为教授点火燃烟，没错，在课堂上！要不然，就是对教授口里吐出的每一句话点头称是。我还真记不起来，我的中国同学中，有谁在讲座中提出过问题，或去参加过外国学生的讨论。

Finally, I would like to point out to the understanding of “academically” qualified education and works. While I was writing my thesis –it is to note that my original thesis topic was ruled out by my professor and another research question was later assigned by him- I have used dozens of resources. It took me a year to do research and six months to write. But my brilliant classmates did all this work in Spring Festival, I think in two week to be more specific. And they got really surprised when I told them I wrote my thesis myself. Because what they did was to find two or three man sources and combine them which as a result created an “original” work in their understanding.

最后，我想指出对学术达标的教育或论文理解上存在的不同。写硕士论文时，我真是查阅了无数资料，动用了无数资源。在这里，稍微提及一下，我自己最初选定的论文选题被导师给否定掉了，之后，他又给我指定了一个题目。我花了一年时间做研究，之后又花了半年才写完。但我“聪明”的中国同学呢，一个春节，或者更精确些，两周多一点时间，就全部搞定了。听说我的论文完全是一字一句写出来的，他们真是惊诧万分，因为他们所做的，就是找来两三个作者的文章，进行提炼加工概括，便形成他们所谓的“原创论文”了。

They have also imported the bibliography from those “resources” too. But this is their business, not mine. What happened in dissertation that really bugs me. I have mentioned earlier that my thesis topic was changed by my supervisor. So during the defense another professor mentioned a few drawbacks of studying on this topic. What followed was my supervisor’s approval of him and he got even further by telling me that before choosing a topic I should have made a more broad research. Okay... Whatever, I have passed the defense. But, I and another foreigner classmate got the lowest scores, whereas my Chinese classmates that even used high school textbooks as a “resource” got grades from 95 to 100 – out of 100.

他们甚至直接照搬引用原文作者的文献资料。当然，这是他们的事儿，与我无关。真正让我生气的是，学位论文评定中所发生的事儿。我前面提到，我的论文题目最初被导师换了。但我坚持自己的选择，这时，另一位教授指出我选题的中一些缺点与不足。我的导师对那位教授的意见颇为认同，他甚至教育我，以后在选题前一定要做好充分的研究。没问题！不过，最终，我还是说服了导师，写了自己的选题。但，我和另一名留学生同学的论文成绩却是班里最低，而我那些甚至将高中课本作为论文“文献”的中国同学论文成绩竟然都在“95”到“100”分（总分100）之间。

Yeah, you may say “if you don’t like it go back to your country”, “you don’t understand China”, “you foreigners...” But no, I really love China. What I am saying is, if you guys continue like that you’ll never have the soft power you have been yearning only for so long. From the common eyes, even the lowest ranked university in US is more prestigious than the highest ranked Chinese University.

是的，兴许你会说，“既然不喜欢，那就回你自己的国家去呀”，“老兄，你不懂中国”，“哎，你们这些老外……”但，不，我真地很喜欢中国！我想说的是，如果你们继续这样下去的话，将很难形成你们标榜已久的软实力。常人看来，甚至美国最差的学校，可能都比中国最有名气的那些大学要好呢。

If you want to develop, not as in some numbers that you see on TV but have no idea what it actually means or how it works, you need to work on human development.Human development is not about buying nice clothes, going on a vacation to Europe or driving expensive clothes but it is about developing yourself – having an understanding of the world and yourself. For that reason, you need to ask questions. But with a generation that is raised a military man who is ready for orders (waiting to be told what he needs to do) there is a limit to your growth. Knowledge is power. And till you produce it you will be always subject to someone else’s rule.

如果中国真想获得发展，就不能光是获得电视上标榜出的一串串常人实际完全看不懂的数字般的发展，得致力于人的发展。人的发展，不是指买好看的衣服，去欧洲旅游，或者开上豪车，而是要升华人的内在——理解这个世界，认识自己。为着这个原由，人就得学会问问题。但是对于从小接受士兵般训练的一代，时刻准备好服从命令，习惯了被告知去做什么，自我发展就会受到限制。知识就是力量，但是直到你真地能够创造“知识”，否则你就总是会屈服于他人的意志。

As a result, I see staying in China to do a doctorate program, actually doing a doctorate program in a Chinese university – a step towards bombing your own ideas. From the first day of the PhD, you may know how you will finish your PhD dissertation. 

因此，我认为留在中国做博士课题，准确点说，留在中国大学攻读博士学位，无异于一个进一步炸毁自我的观点的过程。从博士生涯的第一天，你或许就已经知道自己将会如何完成博士论文了。