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Campus deaths spark call for better morals
By Wan Lixin |
April 24, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A spate of recent campus deaths, some resulting from poisoning or stabbing by roommates, prompts reflection on the state of our much maligned education system.
Huang Yang, a graduate student at Fudan University Medical School, died of poisoning on April 16. He had been in a coma since April 1 after drinking water from a dispenser in his dormitory.
The suspect, one of Huang's roommates surnamed Lin, also a graduate student in medicine, apparently deliberately contaminated the water with a chemical taken from the university laboratory. Police said Lin bore a grudge against Huang over "trivial matters."
Both were said to be excellent students. Huang had already been admitted into a doctoral program prior to the poisoning.
Another death
Another death happened on April 16, in a campus of a college affiliated with Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
A student surnamed Yuan was playing a computer game when his roommate surnamed Jiang, who forgot his key, knocked on the door.
Too wrapped up in the game, Yuan did not open the door. When Jiang managed to get in and found Yuan there, they began trading bad words. In the ensuing scuffle, Yuan sank a fruit knife into Jiang's heart and killed him.
Both Yuan and Jiang had a good academic record. Apparently before the incident they were getting on well with other classmates, and probably with each other.
These university years are often known as a halcyon period in one's life, when earthly strife and troubles are yet unknown.
Thus campus life is often conducive to the fostering of genuine friendships ? those not based on utilitarian or pragmatic principles.
So many Chinese, when looking back on their carefree student days, will recall tender memories of innocence and purity of sentiments.
Relationships from those years are among the most enduring and important in life.
These deaths make a mockery of that perception.
So much so that a heightened sense of humor is needed to fully grasp the much enriched new-age relationship among classmates.
Parodying a cliched slogan, some bloggers warn "Be wary of the hazard of theft, fire, and roommates." Some expressed tongue-in-cheek gratitude, "I thank my classmates for having the kindness to not kill me!"
Some parents are becoming genuinely alarmed. "When it comes for my kid to apply to a university, I must check first to see if it is safe," one mother reportedly said.
Ironically, some of these fatalities have taken place in some of the country's best universities.
The recent poisoning case at Fudan University revived memories of a similar poisoning case at Tsinghua University in 1994, when a student became paralyzed after being poisoned with thallium, allegedly at the hands of one of her roommates ("Call to re-examine similar case in 1994 that remains unsolved," April 20, Shanghai Daily).
Being accepted by universities like Fudan and Tsinghua is nearly every Chinese student's dream, and to be accepted by either will make parents extremely proud.
As Xiong Bingqi observed in a commentary in Wenhui Daily ("The Dislocation of Knowledge and Morality," April 17), this recent case at Fudan reflected how utilitarian tendencies have skewed Chinese education.
Yang Yuliang, dean of Fudan University, observed in 2010 that "If a school education is narrowly focused on imparting knowledge, to the neglect of cultivation of moral principles, the more knowledgeable the graduates, the more dangerous they are."
Yang's words echo what Sima Guang (1019-1086) observed at the beginning of his masterpiece, "The Comprehensive Mirror for Aids in Government." Sima Guang suggested that experts not guided by a moral compass are worse, and more dangerous, than immoral but ignorant people.
Moral correctness
There are good reasons why more emphasis should be on moral correctness than expertise in our education, but in many spheres of our life, "red before expert" has long been understood as a hallmark of an ossified view of socialism incompatible with the market credo.
No truely conscientious educator today can pretend not to be alarmed by how our education system tends to be judged and justified by its usefulness.
Anything that leads to higher scores, better employment, or studies overseas is believed to be an asset, and everything else is fast being marginalized or becoming obsolete.
Student competition used to be cutthroat in the years immediately before the college admission test. But now the spectre of examinations loom at each step in our education system, from kindergarten onwards.
From very early on, teachers have learned to divide their students on the basis of their scores: a select few good students, the middling multitudes, and the bad, with the latter legitimate objects for humiliating remarks.
Pride of place
When a student learns that his or her whole worth and dignity is pegged to his exam scores, they cannot but do their utmost to achieve that pride of place, viewing the rest of the class as competitors, or enemies to be eliminated.
A top student enrolled at a top university has a long list of triumphs and trophies, but fresh fights await him or her in that arena.
We should probably be more prepared that the fights can be bloody sometimes. We have come too far from the Confucian view that "What the great learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence."
Huang Yang, a graduate student at Fudan University Medical School, died of poisoning on April 16. He had been in a coma since April 1 after drinking water from a dispenser in his dormitory.
The suspect, one of Huang's roommates surnamed Lin, also a graduate student in medicine, apparently deliberately contaminated the water with a chemical taken from the university laboratory. Police said Lin bore a grudge against Huang over "trivial matters."
Both were said to be excellent students. Huang had already been admitted into a doctoral program prior to the poisoning.
Another death
Another death happened on April 16, in a campus of a college affiliated with Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
A student surnamed Yuan was playing a computer game when his roommate surnamed Jiang, who forgot his key, knocked on the door.
Too wrapped up in the game, Yuan did not open the door. When Jiang managed to get in and found Yuan there, they began trading bad words. In the ensuing scuffle, Yuan sank a fruit knife into Jiang's heart and killed him.
Both Yuan and Jiang had a good academic record. Apparently before the incident they were getting on well with other classmates, and probably with each other.
These university years are often known as a halcyon period in one's life, when earthly strife and troubles are yet unknown.
Thus campus life is often conducive to the fostering of genuine friendships ? those not based on utilitarian or pragmatic principles.
So many Chinese, when looking back on their carefree student days, will recall tender memories of innocence and purity of sentiments.
Relationships from those years are among the most enduring and important in life.
These deaths make a mockery of that perception.
So much so that a heightened sense of humor is needed to fully grasp the much enriched new-age relationship among classmates.
Parodying a cliched slogan, some bloggers warn "Be wary of the hazard of theft, fire, and roommates." Some expressed tongue-in-cheek gratitude, "I thank my classmates for having the kindness to not kill me!"
Some parents are becoming genuinely alarmed. "When it comes for my kid to apply to a university, I must check first to see if it is safe," one mother reportedly said.
Ironically, some of these fatalities have taken place in some of the country's best universities.
The recent poisoning case at Fudan University revived memories of a similar poisoning case at Tsinghua University in 1994, when a student became paralyzed after being poisoned with thallium, allegedly at the hands of one of her roommates ("Call to re-examine similar case in 1994 that remains unsolved," April 20, Shanghai Daily).
Being accepted by universities like Fudan and Tsinghua is nearly every Chinese student's dream, and to be accepted by either will make parents extremely proud.
As Xiong Bingqi observed in a commentary in Wenhui Daily ("The Dislocation of Knowledge and Morality," April 17), this recent case at Fudan reflected how utilitarian tendencies have skewed Chinese education.
Yang Yuliang, dean of Fudan University, observed in 2010 that "If a school education is narrowly focused on imparting knowledge, to the neglect of cultivation of moral principles, the more knowledgeable the graduates, the more dangerous they are."
Yang's words echo what Sima Guang (1019-1086) observed at the beginning of his masterpiece, "The Comprehensive Mirror for Aids in Government." Sima Guang suggested that experts not guided by a moral compass are worse, and more dangerous, than immoral but ignorant people.
Moral correctness
There are good reasons why more emphasis should be on moral correctness than expertise in our education, but in many spheres of our life, "red before expert" has long been understood as a hallmark of an ossified view of socialism incompatible with the market credo.
No truely conscientious educator today can pretend not to be alarmed by how our education system tends to be judged and justified by its usefulness.
Anything that leads to higher scores, better employment, or studies overseas is believed to be an asset, and everything else is fast being marginalized or becoming obsolete.
Student competition used to be cutthroat in the years immediately before the college admission test. But now the spectre of examinations loom at each step in our education system, from kindergarten onwards.
From very early on, teachers have learned to divide their students on the basis of their scores: a select few good students, the middling multitudes, and the bad, with the latter legitimate objects for humiliating remarks.
Pride of place
When a student learns that his or her whole worth and dignity is pegged to his exam scores, they cannot but do their utmost to achieve that pride of place, viewing the rest of the class as competitors, or enemies to be eliminated.
A top student enrolled at a top university has a long list of triumphs and trophies, but fresh fights await him or her in that arena.
We should probably be more prepared that the fights can be bloody sometimes. We have come too far from the Confucian view that "What the great learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence."
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