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Plaque protest reignites college criteria row
Source: Xinhua |
September 15, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A YOUNG man who tried to mock a top university's preference for local students has triggered renewed outcry against rife regionalism in China's colleges.
Cheng Shuaishuai, 22, carried a plaque in front of Peking University last Monday with Chinese characters reading "Beijingers' University." The plaque's color, design and typeface were identical to that of a plaque that hangs outside the university's main entrance.
Cheng, a college graduate from the underdeveloped central province of Henan, said he created the plaque to protest high enrollment rates for local students at the university, as well as other Beijing-based higher learning institutions.
Cheng's plan was aborted when he and a fellow campaigner were stopped by university security, who called police after claiming that the pair had "plotted to disrupt campus order."
He was escorted to a police station, where he was questioned for seven hours before being taken back to his hometown.
Cheng's satire has made a splash on the Internet, with netizens praising Cheng's demonstration and criticizing the university's reaction.
"It's sad that one of the country's top universities, which has stressed openness and tolerance for over a century, could not bear a few words of sarcasm," read a post on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging site.
Some bloggers linked the university's response to mounting public pressure placed on leading universities, which have been criticized for using unfair criteria that prevent students from other parts of the country from being admitted.
Last year, Peking University recruited 248 students from Beijing, a city with 76,000 candidates for the national college entrance exam. However, it accepted only 72 students from Henan, which had more than 10 times as many applicants.
Cheng said he enrolled in a "mediocre" private school in 2008, studying there for three years. "I scored 510 in the college entrance exam in Henan. Had I been from Beijing, that score would've secured me a place at a top school," he said.
After he finished college last year, Cheng became an avid campaigner, staging multiple public "performances" to protest what he believes to be unfair admittance practices.
Cheng said their complaints center around China's hukou, or household registration system that essentially binds residents to their hometowns.
"If students can freely choose where to take the test, colleges won't be able to discriminate against certain regions in terms of admitting students."
Cheng Shuaishuai, 22, carried a plaque in front of Peking University last Monday with Chinese characters reading "Beijingers' University." The plaque's color, design and typeface were identical to that of a plaque that hangs outside the university's main entrance.
Cheng, a college graduate from the underdeveloped central province of Henan, said he created the plaque to protest high enrollment rates for local students at the university, as well as other Beijing-based higher learning institutions.
Cheng's plan was aborted when he and a fellow campaigner were stopped by university security, who called police after claiming that the pair had "plotted to disrupt campus order."
He was escorted to a police station, where he was questioned for seven hours before being taken back to his hometown.
Cheng's satire has made a splash on the Internet, with netizens praising Cheng's demonstration and criticizing the university's reaction.
"It's sad that one of the country's top universities, which has stressed openness and tolerance for over a century, could not bear a few words of sarcasm," read a post on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging site.
Some bloggers linked the university's response to mounting public pressure placed on leading universities, which have been criticized for using unfair criteria that prevent students from other parts of the country from being admitted.
Last year, Peking University recruited 248 students from Beijing, a city with 76,000 candidates for the national college entrance exam. However, it accepted only 72 students from Henan, which had more than 10 times as many applicants.
Cheng said he enrolled in a "mediocre" private school in 2008, studying there for three years. "I scored 510 in the college entrance exam in Henan. Had I been from Beijing, that score would've secured me a place at a top school," he said.
After he finished college last year, Cheng became an avid campaigner, staging multiple public "performances" to protest what he believes to be unfair admittance practices.
Cheng said their complaints center around China's hukou, or household registration system that essentially binds residents to their hometowns.
"If students can freely choose where to take the test, colleges won't be able to discriminate against certain regions in terms of admitting students."
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