From Citydreaming to Ithaca

《中国纪事》节选

－－做一个中国人到底意味着什么令人深深困惑。我们曾经是狂热的政治动物，而现在则是一心寄托于物质增长的物质人，但显而易见，它们都无法提供我们所需的身份确认。经济的增长、中国的崛起为这一代中国人提供了新的自信因素，但多年以来的民族受挫感却仍未消失。在一个日益变幻的世界，寻求认同愿望没有减弱，反而变得日益强烈。一个自信、自满的中国，却发现自己的脚下空空荡荡。

－－一个国家像一个人一样，她赢得尊敬的方式，不在于她生产了多少物质，而在于她是否遵循某种准则，是否具有胸怀，是否为世界贡献了某种截然不同的东西，是否启发了世界不同的思想方式......很不幸，在这些方面，中国对世界的贡献仍乏善可陈。

－－如果没有伟大的大学，我们会有一个伟大的国家吗？如果一个国家最著名的大学，都缺乏反省精神，缺乏对自己使命的明确认识，这个国家能寻找到自己的方向感吗？

23号，回Ningbo参加了我的小学加初中同学的婚礼，见到了很多久违的面孔。大家也都发生了很大的变化，从事的职业也各种各样，有当中学老师、公务员的；有在银行的、做对外贸易的、还有自己创业的。婚宴期间大家在一起聊了很多小时候许多有趣的往事，不时的会发出阵阵地狂笑声。觉得要是童年的时光能够让我们重新经历一下那该是多么美好啊？此刻，恨不得阿布马上就变成多拉A梦呢，^_^

最近心情也同样有点复杂吧，其实本来已经放下很久的东西，现在突然又重新拿起来了，结果时间没有多久，又要重新放下！说实话真的有点舍不得的，但是该放下的还是要放下的说，做太多的补救可能还是起不到很好的效果。好的东西可能很多时候不能捏的太紧，捏的太紧就很容易碎的呢。

于是“我有一个梦想”也快成了在我的脑海中出现频率很高的一个词。好吧，那阿布就来“盗版”一下吧。

回学校已经两个星期了，时间也过的挺快的，转眼间09的2月份就快要结束了。回来以后实验每天还是挺顺利的说，唯一有点遗憾的是去年跟我做了半年的那个小师弟被老板发配去做转基因了，一个好的助手就这样飞走了说，真是不要太可惜啊！8过，出来混总是要还的，有失去的时候也就有收获的时候，周二的时候来一个我们实验室做毕业设计的竺院的ssgg，问了他一些情况，发现他曾经去Purdue当过4个月所谓的“苦力”，在那边干的就是那些构载体的活，现在手里还有一个Cornell的offer，以后也是做植物的，真是太好了！！偶需要的正是这样的熟练工呢，看来实验进度的提升又有指望了。最近CLS也是喜讯不断呢，时不时的报料出谁谁又发了牛Paper，让偶们这些还在处于累数据的人们心里不免有些压力呢。

An online row highlights the need for Chinese universities to fix their hiring policies.

In October, an online war broke out between Yi Rao, a neuroscientist and Peking University's dean of life sciences, and Keming Cui, a plant biologist and professor emeritus at the university who has a string of positions on academic and awards committees and editorial posts on Chinese journals to his name.

Cui retired from Peking University four years ago but kept his laboratory there. This year he tried to have his associate professor formally take over the lab. Such transfers of power are common in China, but they are also criticized as a way for powerful professors to hold lab space beyond their tenure. Rao refused to acknowledge the transfer of authority. Instead he planned to drastically cut the lab's size.

Rao, the first Peking University dean to be hired through an international search, says he wants to ensure that the university hires the best faculty members through appropriate evaluation. He also wants to ensure that qualified outsiders are considered and that an inbred academic system is avoided. Rao says that the associate professor will have a few years to prove himself before he is evaluated for promotion and to see whether he can keep the laboratory.

On 9 October, Cui began writing a string of entries in his blog, which became widely read when copied by other websites and the online bulletin boards of Peking University. Cui described Rao's action as belittling his field of plant anatomy because it was not a 'hot' area. He made a stand for basic science. The blog drew some sympathetic comments from students, who copied it to more widely read student blogs. Rao, whose own blog normally gets about 2,000 hits per entry, immediately posted his defence, which picked up 10,000 hits.

Newspapers hesitate to pick up such hot potatoes, so the debate devolved to the blogs. Although they offer a platform for such discussion, blogs also make irresponsible name-calling possible. After alleging that Rao was trying to cut off support for a discipline of science, Cui compared Rao's efforts to the activities of Trofim Lysenko — the Soviet 'state scientist' who in the 1940s used his close connections to the Soviet leadership to crush scientists who opposed his views.

Both scientists are in all likelihood doing what is natural to them to promote the next generation of scientists. The situation is further confused by Peking University's lack of clear guidelines on how to proceed in such situations, leaving new regulations set against old customs. When Rao took over as dean in September 2007, the university made it clear in writing that such hiring decisions would be his to make.

Deans and university presidents in China are watching to see how the situation is resolved. Will Cui, who worked at Peking University for more than 40 years, be able to raise public support and use his connections with senior colleagues to get his way? Or will Rao be able to stand his ground? It should, and looks as if it will, be the latter.

But further changes are needed. China and its universities now have the money to undertake proper recruitment exercises, and more universities should be seeking candidates beyond their walls and outside China's borders. They need clear, consistently applied guidelines on who has the authority to make those decisions. Of course, although a clear policy would be good, vesting that much power in one individual's hands, as Rao recognizes, requires caution. So regulations that check and make transparent the actions of those given decision-making power will also be needed.

(PS:这则消息登在Nature上，确实应该引起我们的思考和重视)