youthful chapter: becoming a teacher for the first time丨the struggle of a “young professor”: staying up late to do scientific research, persistence will always produce results
2024-09-07
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
editor’s note
they dedicated their youth to the podium and left their love to their students. they became teachers for the first time and dedicated their first job in life to the cause of education. they love this profession and are working hard to write a brilliant chapter of youth on the land of the motherland. on the occasion of the 40th teachers' day, the paper launched a special plan of "brilliant chapter of youth·the flourishing youth" - becoming a teacher for the first time, to pay tribute to these new forces who have firmly chosen the cause of education.
looking back on all these years of hard work, liu ang thought about it again and again but didn't know where to start.
september 10, 2023, is liu ang's first teacher's day. this rational and methodical science and engineering man is no different from usual. even on weekends, he goes to school to work as usual. on the contrary, his wife wang yin is more excited than him - after 4 years of doctoral studies and 3 years of postdoctoral studies, liu ang finally got a result. he became a teacher at a 985 university in east china.
they have experienced confusion and hesitation, but finally found the shore. working in a favorite city and doing a favorite job is their goal in recent years. many young people now like to say that life is not a track but a wilderness. but they think that ordinary people cannot easily reach the wilderness. getting on the track is to lead to the wilderness and make life wider and wider.
a "big gamble"
being a university teacher has been liu ang's dream since he started his doctoral studies. in order to become a university teacher, he gave up many job opportunities, including high-paying positions in internet companies and stable jobs in scientific research institutes.
in comparison, being a university teacher is an "adventurous" attempt. when he graduated with a doctorate at the age of 30, his classmates had already started families, had decent jobs, high salaries, and formed happy families.
he has to give up the job opportunity that is right in front of him, the hard-earned stable life and income, and choose to be a postdoctoral fellow, working hard to write articles, do projects, apply for funds, and accumulate results. the answer is unknown. after a few years, when the postdoctoral fellow leaves the station, the school will decide whether he stays or goes.
if you can't stay, you will have to find a job again in your 30s, or even move to another city and start all over again. it's like a "big gamble", betting your youth and unknown future.
he decided to give it a try. renting a house in a first-tier city was expensive, so in order to save money, he and wang yin rented an apartment on campus. during those years, he worked and did scientific research almost all year round, often staying in the laboratory until after 11pm before going home.
many nights, wang yin woke up from her sleep to find liu ang turning on a small desk lamp with the brightness turned down very low, and the computer screen was filled with dense words. he was quietly reading scientific research papers or writing and revising his own articles. when she looked at the time, it was already two or three in the middle of the night. looking at this silently working figure, wang yin couldn't bear to disturb him, so she pretended not to know and fell asleep.
wang yin was worried about his health and reminded him not to stay up late at night. liu ang explained that he needed to be busy with various things during the day, and the quiet night was suitable for thinking and he could be more focused on scientific research.
one night at around 3 a.m., the entire neighborhood was shrouded in impenetrable darkness, and there was total silence. suddenly, there was the rustling of keys opening the door, and wang yin knew that liu ang had returned home. the rental house was relatively small, and he took two steps at a time. as soon as he put down his backpack, he excitedly said to wang yin, "today's experiment went very smoothly, and i'm very happy. if i wasn't afraid that you would wait for me, i would have gone home a little later."
his wife, who was getting a little impatient and wanted to lose her temper, swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue when she saw his heartfelt smile and his passion for scientific research, and slowly uttered, "take a shower and go to bed quickly."
wang yin also asked him, "is it worth it for you to do this? if you don't get the results you want, will you regret it?" "sometimes choice and timing are more important than hard work. will you compare yourself with others? are you afraid of making the wrong choice?"
it was the last day of 2022, and they were walking and chatting in the community. liu ang replied calmly, "in my opinion, hard work is more important than choice. it doesn't matter what you choose, as long as you stick to it, there will always be results. even if i don't get the results i want at first, there will be better opportunities later."
life in first-tier cities is stressful. in the first few years after they arrived, they put most of their energy into their careers, worked hard together, and made progress together, trying to plan for the future. they don't want to be forced to leave at the age of 35 because they have no choice and no way out.
after landing
after more than three years of hard work, liu ang finally "made it" and got a formal teaching position at a 985 university in east china.
in his wife's view, liu ang can finally take a breath. but he doesn't think so. "the result of hard work has become a thing of the past. i am planning for the next five years."
every step is not easy. even if he has a youth science foundation project and successfully completes his three-year postdoctoral research and gets a teaching position as an assistant professor, he still has to face a promotion-or-leave assessment. he needs to win more national natural science foundation projects within a fixed number of years, and his papers must meet the assessment standards. then he can apply for associate professor - tenured associate professor - tenured professor, and climb up the "academic ladder" step by step.
although the pressure is not small, liu ang still approves of this career development model. compared with enterprises, universities have clear promotion paths, clear assessment requirements, relatively few factors of human interference, and more open and transparent rigid standards.
in his first year at work, liu ang had to apply for general projects. the number of applicants increased every year, and the competition was very fierce. according to the "national natural science foundation of china 2023 departmental final accounts" (hereinafter referred to as "final accounts"), in recent years, the scale of funding for natural science funds has increased year by year, but the scale of funding for general projects has not achieved synchronous growth. the proportion of general project funding in the natural science fund has dropped from the highest point of 53.76% to 31.53% in 2023. the number of applications for general projects has continued to grow in recent years, and the funding rate has continued to decline - from a peak of 25.35% in 2014 to a minimum of 16.99% in 2023.
fortunately, opportunities for young people are also increasing. the "final account" shows that the average age of the general project leaders newly approved for funding in 2023 is 42.26 years old. the proportion of general project leaders under the age of 40 has increased from 36.09% in 2011 to 49.52% in 2023, and the proportion has increased year by year.
during the winter vacation every year, university teachers dare not take a break. the deadline for submitting the first draft of the national fund application is generally around march. there is no class during the winter vacation, which is a good time to prepare the application. in order to carefully polish the application and increase the chance of passing, many university teachers do not even have time to go back to their hometowns to visit relatives during the spring festival.
after liu ang and wang yin hurriedly held their long-delayed wedding banquet, they began to prepare for the application of the general project. after several months of anxious waiting, he finally received good news that the general project was approved. this gave him a "peace of mind" that with the support of the fund project, he could do scientific research and teaching with more peace of mind.
busy "green pepper"
liu ang chose to be a university teacher partly for the sake of his family. wang yin has her own ideas about career development, and the two hope to maintain a dynamic balance between work and family. university teachers have free time and decent work, and he hopes to do a good job and take more time to take care of his family.
however, this job is even busier than he imagined. the busyness of each school year starts as early as the summer vacation. the professional courses he teaches require taking students to other campuses or cities for practical learning, which usually takes a week to half a month. he also has to evaluate and give feedback on students' internships.
immediately after the college entrance examination results are announced, a fierce competition for students will break out among the top universities. liu ang and other teachers are assigned to recruit students in a certain province, traveling between different cities, counties and high schools to give recruitment presentations, answer students' questions and help them get more high-scoring students.
even during the summer vacation, he had to attend academic conferences in various places, and was busy with the application, defense, research, revision, docking, etc. of various projects at hand. sometimes he returned from a business trip and did not get home from the airport until 12 o'clock in the middle of the night. he received a notice to revise the materials on the way home. when he got home, he did not have time to pack his luggage, and he started to stay up all night to revise the materials and submit them before 7 o'clock the next morning. the moment the materials were sent, he dared to relax the tension and collapsed on the bed to rest.
after the start of the school year, teaching is the top priority of his daily work. in addition to teaching undergraduates, he also serves as a tutor for master's students and a class teacher for doctoral students. he constantly switches between multiple roles. every day when he opens wechat and email on his mobile phone, there are always a lot of messages that he can't finish processing.
"green pepper" is a nickname for young college teachers on the internet. they are characterized by high academic qualifications, busy work, high assessment pressure, but low salary. his wife was puzzled, "with your busy level, you can get several times higher salary in internet companies, is it worth it?" when liu ang was free, he often read the complaints about "green pepper" on zhihu, but he didn't seem to care whether it was worth it or not, nor did he complain about anything.
compared with repetitive, rigid clock-in work, he prefers to freely explore his favorite scientific research fields and ponder some cutting-edge topics. when he is thinking, he doesn't like to be disturbed, as if he wants to be isolated from everything around him and not make any sound for several hours in a row.
when inspired by some innovative ideas from his peers, he would read scientific literature and take notes as carefully as if he were digging for treasure. sometimes he would become more and more awake and unable to sleep because of thinking about the problem. sometimes he would suddenly get an inspiration late at night, get up from the bed and write down the ideas in his mind.
he has many ideas about scientific research, but he pursues minimalism in life and has low material desires. every summer, he buys several identical short-sleeved shirts in the same colors: white, gray, and blue. the pants are all the same style. if they are worn for a long time, he can buy the same ones again, which saves time for thinking and choosing. he is "smug" about his cleverness. wang yin can't persuade him, so in order to reduce family conflicts, she can only let him "let himself go."
bring back lost students
young people nowadays tend to be mentally exhausted, but wang yin doesn't seem to see this in liu ang. he is often busy working around the clock, taking care of both work and family, and has very little free time, which may be squeezed into only a few moments before going to bed, but he is happy and satisfied.
"people should clearly see their position in the tide of the times, and there is no need to be entangled, waste time, or feel anxious," he would say.
in order to get to know liu ang better, wang yin often went to his office for a while. his daily life was concrete and fulfilling. in addition to preparing lessons and teaching during the day, he also had to take care of scientific research and guide students. he would neatly put students' test papers and final papers on the table and carefully revise them.
if students encounter any confusion in study, life or scientific research, he will call the students to his office to discuss. sometimes the discussion will last for half an hour, or even one or two hours, and it is not too late even if it is 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening.
students would worry about not finding a suitable job before graduation, and would be hesitant about whether to stay in the big city or return to their hometown. he treated students like friends, with a gentle tone and humble attitude, patiently listened to students' ideas, and then gave them some suggestions.
during this year's graduation season, a student named li ji was under great psychological pressure due to a family accident. he failed to revise his graduation thesis and defend it in time, and he almost failed to graduate. liu ang took him to his office, carefully took care of his emotions, and whispered to him, "if you encounter any difficulties, you can tell me. i will try my best to help you. don't worry too much."
under liu ang's guidance, li ji gradually let down his guard. after listening to his explanation, liu ang knew that he had been suffering for the past few months. he did not blame him, but tried to encourage him and help him rebuild his confidence. liu ang took a few days to call li ji to his office alone and accompanied him to revise his graduation thesis. they revised it until 11 or 12 o'clock in the middle of the night for several consecutive nights, until the security guard came to urge them to leave.
with the meticulous help of his tutor, li ji finally completed his graduation thesis, met the requirements, found his ideal job, and graduated successfully. he told liu ang, "if it weren't for you, i might still be 'wandering' on the wrong path. thank you for pulling me back."
perhaps, this student will never have any contact with him again after graduation, but liu ang feels that perhaps a little bit of what he has done will also affect a person's life. teaching students knowledge and being needed by students is also what he feels makes this job quite fulfilling.
(liu ang, wang yin and li ji are all pseudonyms in this article)
the paper reporter wu yi
(this article is from the paper. for more original information, please download the "the paper" app)
