Give a lecture at the Central Party School

Bei Danning once jokingly asked the listener in the class if he could give a lecture at the Central Party School. The listener answered without thinking: NO! But it didn't take long for the listener to send him an invitation.

"I wonder, can a foreign political science professor really give lectures at the highest institution of China * * * Production Party?" Bei Danning's eyes were wide open.

“YES！” The auditor solemnly replied, "The Central Party School is revising its past policies. As long as it is approved by the vice president, foreigners can now give lectures at the Central Party School. "

However, both sides hesitated for a moment on what to say. Still a clever listener, he opened his mouth and said, "You can talk about how to improve your English."

Bei Daning smiled. "I know nothing about it! Do you know that I learned from novel English? What is the reference for China students? "

The audience encouraged him: "Don't refuse, you are a big professor and you must have something to tell. It's a deal. I'll pick you up tomorrow. "

This is a strange experience for Bei Danning and the Central Party School: Bei Danning is interested in the history of the campus and the school. He met several girls who spoke Tibetan and was surprised to learn that they were likely to be senior cadres in Tibet in the future. When he stood in line in the student canteen, the students looked at his expression as "both curious and ridiculous".

Of course, the topic of the speech is not the political philosophy that Bei Danning is familiar with, but how to learn English. I'm actually talking about my experience in learning Chinese. Bei Danning's eyes flashed a smile, a little proud like a child. A girl asked him how to improve his English as soon as possible. He immediately told the audience that you can find an English-speaking boyfriend or girlfriend. "It was after I met my wife that I began to learn Chinese. She gave me a lot of help. But I don't know that the girl who asked me questions was actually sitting next to her. "

Some students asked whether we should listen to BBC or VOA in English learning. Bei Daning replied: VOA is a propaganda tool of the US government, so it may be better to listen to the BBC. Many people in the audience couldn't help laughing. "I didn't expect a foreigner to talk like this."

According to the students of the Central Party School, the atmosphere that day was "quite humorous". Some people also asked questions about communitarianism. "In fact, we are no different from other schools except that there are guards standing at the school gate." A student of the Central Party School said, "In fact, our class discussion is quite active. Students have a wide range of interests and read English books. Perhaps only in the eyes of Professor Bei Danning, the Central Party School is still shrouded in a mysterious color. Perhaps this is why he always talks about coming to the Central Party School as a glorious thing. "

In fact, there is a certain gap between them: Bei Danning was surprised when he heard that a professor from the Central Party School had read his book "The East Meets the West".

After the speech, several girls stayed to continue the discussion. A student jokingly asked him if he should go abroad to find an English-speaking man and never come back. Bei Danning immediately replied, "It's easy to find an English-speaking man and then bring him back to China, just like my situation."

everyone present burst into laughter.

"Owl that takes off at dusk"

"When I talk about politics, my mind will immediately think of those dogmas that are memorized in primary schools, middle schools and even the college entrance examination. Why does Tsinghua now invite foreigners to teach politics? What are the similarities and differences between the politics he teaches and the politics we used to learn? " In fact, the question of Xiao Kong, a student of Tsinghua Automation Department, is also a question that most people will have when they hear that "foreigners teach politics in Tsinghua".

In the view of Professor Wan Junren, the head of philosophy department of Tsinghua University College of Humanities, this is nothing strange. Hiring foreign teachers is one of the important measures to implement the plan of "World-class University" in Tsinghua. Among the liberal arts disciplines, economics, management science and so on began to hire famous foreign professors many years ago.

Many scholars at home and abroad often confuse the 42-year-old Betanning with another 87-year-old daniel bell, who is famous in Harvard University. In order not to cause more misunderstanding, Bei Danning resumed using his middle name, Daniel A. Bell. Although Belchand of Tsinghua can't compare with Bell of Harvard in contemporary international academic circles, it is this Bei Danning who is recognized by western academic circles as "the representative of the new generation of communitarianism".

After graduating from McGill University, Canada in p>1985, Betty got her doctorate from Oxford University. His works have been published in the publishing houses of world-class universities such as Oxford University in Britain and Princeton University in the United States. His representative works Communitarianism and Its Critics and East Meets West have been translated into Chinese, Japanese and other languages several years ago.

Professor Wan Junren's academic research focuses on modern and contemporary western ethics and political philosophy. As early as the early 199s, he noticed the research results of Betanning. Later, they got to know each other better through international academic conferences.

"I have made many friends with western scholars. Why did I hire him?" Professor Wan Junren asked himself, "Ethics and political philosophy are the key philosophical disciplines that we choose to give priority to. Mr. Bei attached great importance to China's classical political philosophy and Confucian ethics, and had a unique study. His sympathy and understanding of China's culture and education, as well as his own intention and time schedule are all reasons. At the same time or even before we hired Mr. Bei, Peking University and other universities had been in contact with him. The reason why he finally decided to accept our employment is also closely related to his own recognition of our academic group. There is no doubt that Mr. Bei's participation has a very positive significance and influence on the development strategy of giving priority to ethics and political philosophy in Tsinghua Philosophy Department. "

In response to many doubts about Tsinghua University's hiring foreign philosophy teachers to teach political philosophy, Professor Wan Junren explained: "If you know the knowledge system and historical evolution of philosophy, and if you have a deep understanding of the socialist reform practice in contemporary China, you will understand why we hired Mr. Bei. As a science of wisdom, philosophy has always been regarded as the most important category of humanities knowledge in the western world. Any decent university has its own sound philosophy discipline or philosophy department. Ethics was once regarded as the' first philosophy' by westerners, and political philosophy and ethics have always been regarded as the wings of philosophy, the owl that takes off at dusk (Hegelian language), and the two eyes that philosophy pays attention to the life world and practical problems. The philosophy departments of some of the most famous universities in the world focus on these two directions. There are 16 teachers in the philosophy department of Harvard University, more than half of whom are engaged in the teaching and research of political philosophy and ethics. This is also the basic reason why Harvard philosophy can be synonymous with American philosophy and form the ideological core of American spirit. "

Professor Wan Junren believes that Mr. Bei Daning's ethical research and courses on social and cultural unity, political research and courses on international wars, and his research and courses on modern democracy and equality have provided unique and beneficial mirror images of foreign knowledge for teachers and students of Tsinghua Philosophy Department.

"Political philosophy is not equal to the political activity itself," Professor Wan Junren particularly emphasized. "I don't think there are any difficulties and restrictions other than academics in studying political philosophy in China. On the contrary, I believe that today's academic and educational circles in China not only provide an unprecedented good environment and conditions for various academic studies, including political philosophy, but also our reform practice and experience and lessons provide us with unique and rich practical resources and theoretical motivation for the study of political philosophy and ethics. "

He said: "After more than 2 years of reform and opening up, our country is no longer a self-enclosed country. I can say responsibly that we will not manage university education by administrative or even political means. On the contrary, we have been trying to explore and seek a management mode of teaching and scientific research that is in line with international practice and the reality of China universities. As far as I know, Tsinghua has never done anything like reviewing teaching plans, whether it is for foreign teachers or local teachers. "

"I can also tell you," Professor Wan Junren's joy is beyond words. "Over the years, I have visited many philosophical colleagues and famous scholars from Harvard University and Princeton University in the United States. They not only know about Bei Danning's books, but also are surprised that Tsinghua University can hire him to teach formally. You should be able to imagine my joy and pride as his China colleague! "

He is becoming more and more "China"

The first question many people ask Bei Tanning is, what language do you have classes in?

He said, I hope it is Chinese, but in fact, English is still the main language. "In the first class, nearly 1 students came, and less than 2 people came for the second time. I was a little depressed. Later, I heard that many people came to my class in the hope of practicing English. After finding that they didn't understand, they stopped coming. "

With the improvement of Bei Danning's Chinese level, the proportion of his Chinese teaching is increasing. He also began to accept Chinese questions because he could understand most of the contents. But if the questioner has a strong local accent, or if the question is long and not closely related to the teaching content, he will have to ask to repeat the question.

Liu Wenjia, a student, said: "Mr. Bei's ancient Chinese level is quite good, which is better than many high school students. He knows everything about moving and moving, and he can recite many famous ancient poems. " In the past two years, she has spent two hours a week helping Bei Danning learn ancient Chinese. I finished reading The Doctrine of the Mean last year, and now I am reading Mencius.

Liu Wenjia commented that Bei Danning was a "serious student". Before each class, he would preview the uncommon words, make cards and write English notes on the back. He will ask a lot of questions, some of which we would never have thought of.

It is recorded in "Under the Ugliness of Mencius" that Qi Xuanwang wants to summon Mencius, but Mencius thinks that he is disrespectful to Yao and Shun, and he is excused from illness. After reading this, Bei Danning repeatedly asked Liu Wenjia, "Are you sure that Mencius is really not sick? I said I'm sure. He asked, Mencius is not ill, isn't he cheating Qi Xuanwang and his disciples? I explained that China people think that there is a difference between good and bad, and for the sake of the great good, we can abandon the small good. But he thinks that Mencius' lying has a great influence on the integrity of saints. I think that probably has something to do with his acceptance of Kant and Christianity. "

"In ancient Chinese, there are many intertextual techniques, sometimes just for the purpose of text access. If we insist on the exact meaning of each word, it is not necessary. Sometimes, I will tell him that many of China's philosophies are literary expressions, and it is not appropriate to use western analytical methods to determine the text inch by inch. "

In Bei Danning's consciousness, Liu Wenjia should be paid for tutoring him in ancient Chinese, but Liu Wenjia politely declined. "This is another cultural difference: China people pay attention to respecting teachers and doing something for teachers, which is a way to show their respect and cannot accept remuneration. Westerners, on the other hand, make a clear distinction between academics and economics. " Liu Wenjia said.

"The teacher later solved this problem in a more Chinese way, that is, invited me to dinner." Liu Wenjia laughed. In order to be more fair, Bei Danning also came up with a good idea: teach her to read the English translation of The Doctrine of the Mean. Soon they found that there were many misunderstandings in foreigners' translation. For example, the translation of China's "sincerity" used to be "creative". "Mr. Bei will certainly agree with our point of view. At the same time, I also realize that there are many inaccuracies in the translated western philosophy we read. "

Even his wife, Song Bing, admits that Bei Danning is becoming more and more "China" in the past two years. He lives with his mother-in-law's family and gets along better than many traditional China families. Some students praised him for being handsome. He wouldn't shrug his shoulders and say "Thankyou" with a smile like westerners, but bowed his head shyly and whispered, "Where, where."

At first, Bei Danning was shocked when she saw students copying English textbooks. In his view, this is a blatant infringement of intellectual property rights. However, he soon understood that the living expenses of China students are only about $5 per month, and they can't afford the original books at all. If you copy them, a book will only cost a few dollars. After understanding this, Bei Danning simply took out his books and lent them to the students for copying.

He is used to calling his colleagues "teachers" instead of calling them by their first names like western scholars. He no longer keeps the Oxford way of "tearing each other to pieces". Like his counterparts in China, he will politely "add a few words" after the other party's speech, which is actually criticizing the other party's views and defending his own.

After living in China for several years, Bei Danning went back to Canada to visit his relatives. When he left, his mother stopped seeing him off at the door, and he was puzzled for a long time. "Why don't you take me to the airport?" It turns out that he has long been accustomed to the way people in China bid farewell at airports and stations. Only from the details of life such as playing ice hockey and not eating overnight bread can others see the traces left by the western lifestyle on him.

"Teachers in China, especially professors in famous universities, have a high social status, and their dislike of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution seems to have become a thing of the past. This is change! " Bei Danning wants to see more changes in China society, so he plans to live in Beijing permanently. He even plans to open a quiet small restaurant near Tsinghua. "It has to be a place where you can read books, discuss academics and enjoy food with friends." Bei Danning thought with relish, "Just like my doctoral thesis, it is not in a proper paper format, but two people in a cafe in Paris, eating stewed pork with sauerkraut and discussing communitarianism."