The construction of the Chinese academic system: Its history and present challenges

Abstract

The rise and development of China’s academic system is a process that started from “passively accepting Western Learning”; to today’s “catching up with Western Learning and even exceeding it”;. In the last century, China experienced a turbulent and unstable social environment in which academics and politics have always been intertwined. As a result, the internal logic of China’s academic system shares similar characteristics with its Western models, but is unique in certain ways at the same time. In the complex and inseparable relationship between academics and politics, which involves both love and hate, the logic that academics must serve political needs, on one hand, establishes the co-existence of the academia and the government, which provides a relatively stable environment for academic activities within the system; on the other hand, it also jeopardizes the ecological environment in which the academics can develop according to its own internal logic. For exactly the same reasons, even at present, internalization means something special and complex for Chinese academia because, on one hand, it truly represents academia’s strive to meet international standards; on the other hand, the pushing factor behind this “voluntary”; stance is still state and political power.

摘要

现代学术制度在中国的肇始与发展, 经过了一个从“被动接纳”;到“主动赶超”;的过程。在这百年动荡多变的社会环境中, 因为学术与政治间始终存在着割舍不断的因缘, 中国学术制度的内在逻辑与它的西方摹本间既具有某种一致性, 同时又存在巨大的张力。在学术与政治纠葛不清的爱恨情结中, 学术为政治服务的主导逻辑, 一方面促成了学术界与国家间的共生关系, 因而使得体制内的学术获得了相对稳定的保障; 另一方面, 又破坏了它自主构建的生态。 也正因为如此, 在今天, 国际化对于中国学术界而言有着更为特殊的复杂内涵, 它的确代表了学术界所谓与国际接轨的一种姿态, 但在这种“主动”;姿态背后的主要推手却依旧是政治与国家。