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scholar's note: in 1917, weber delivered a speech on "academia as a career" in munich. he described the difficulties that young scholars may encounter in academia with keen insight, pointing out that it is impossible for academic workers to make a living. under such circumstances, it is difficult for young scholars to adhere to their academic ideals. as a profession, academia is extremely difficult, and young scholars who devote themselves to it are tantamount to joining a reckless gamble. in his speech, weber compared the differences between the academic systems in germany and the united states, and made a very prophetic analysis of the shortcomings of academic operations under modern bureaucracy and digital management. these judgments have not only become a reality today, but have become increasingly serious.

recently, many young scholars have unfortunately passed away. most of them are in their 30s and 40s, which is the golden stage of their academic careers. although we do not know all the reasons for their sudden death, from sporadic reports, we can feel the hardships and pressures these young scholars faced in their academic careers. we often wonder, how should a young scholar "survive" in the ever-increasing vortex of difficulties? is there an opportunity for change?

we interviewed ruan wei, xiaoxiang scholar distinguished professor at hunan normal university and director of the western culture research center at shenzhen university, on a topic. this interview was completed with the participation of scholar volunteers li mei and zhao yixuan.

scholar: recently, several young scholars have died of illness, the youngest of whom was 34 years old. although the specific "cause" has not been specified, it is easy to think of the problems of overwork, involution, and high pressure among young scholars. according to your observation, what are the main pressures young scholars face in the current academic environment?

ruan wei:i do research in the humanities and social sciences, and the following remarks are only aimed at humanities and social sciences scholars in universities, especially humanities scholars.

it is absolutely true that young scholars in our country are overworked, involved, and under great pressure. it has been observed that their teaching workload may be twice that of an associate professor, twice that of a professor, or even more. in addition, they have to do many chores and trivial matters, otherwise they have to be done by senior people, which is impossible in china's social and cultural environment. their scientific research has not yet fully entered the state and is full of difficulties. publishing is especially difficult. in order to pursue citation rates, journals naturally tend to publish articles quickly and frequently by well-known professors and doctoral supervisors, leaving fewer opportunities for young scholars.

in addition, the professional title promotion policies formulated by more prestigious universities will have clauses such as: if you cannot get a national-level project, no matter how good your other work is or how good your publications are, it will be considered unqualified and you will not be evaluated at that time. professors or even associate professors may leave. however, the number of national-level projects is limited after all. not everyone can get it if they want to, nor can everyone get it within the specified time, so everyone feels great pressure.

in a word,young teachers are under great pressure in both church and scientific research, and face much greater pressure than senior teachers. in terms of salary, their income may be only one-half or even a fraction of that of senior teachers.people of this age group tend to be older and younger. in this case, survival is a miracle. nowadays, many people’s response is to remain unmarried and have children. what does this mean for the prospects of the country and the nation?

therefore, i believe that the top priority is to align with international standards and abolish the harsh rule that scholars in the humanities and social sciences must obtain national-level projects, otherwise they will be expelled. at least it can be more flexible. for example, it can be replaced by other achievements, such as teaching awards, publishing recognized valuable research results (which can be determined by the special professor committee), etc. regulations on the level and number of papers should also be relaxed. i know that the practice of european and american universities is to mainly measure a scholar's research results by monographs within six years. in china, if you only read papers, there are too many problems.

scholar: if the general social environment and the external evaluation mechanism are difficult to change for a while, how should young scholars who have already entered the game adjust themselves and find their own way to deal with it?

ruan wei:there is no way to "adjust" it. the academic system and units are extremely selfish. why are there so many unreasonable regulations? because every unit is pursuing the false academic gdp and wants to be in the top position. they only care about their own selfish interests and do not consider and cannot consider the long-term interests of the country and the nation. they do not consider how much harm this will cause to young scholars and how much damage it will cause to the sustainable development of the academic community.

therefore, youth scholars must fight for their own rights and strive to abolish or amend bad regulations; especially people in decision-making positions should face the problems head-on, admit the problems, and work hard to solve the problems, mostly for the sake of young people, the country, the nation, and future generations. consider, at least, making unreasonable policies somewhat reasonable. we must integrate with the world. connecting with the world itself is an important reason.

scholars: many of the young scholars who passed away made remarkable achievements, such as publishing dozens of papers in just a few years, many of which were highly cited. there is a saying that a scholar's academic life span is based on accumulation. the more he accumulates, the more likely he is to produce results. what do you think of the current academic research environment? pressure seems to stimulate the potential of young scholars, but it also seems to exhaust the potential?

ruan wei:my observation is that quantitative improvement does not represent academic progress, in many cases it may be regression. but the huge and rapid increase in quantity must be forced by overwhelming unreasonable regulations. this can only result in the level of involution reaching new highs and a large amount of brain power being wasted on meaningless and worthless writing and publishing. in recent years, i have often encountered articles like this. the arguments and expressions are extremely refined, flawless, and even perfect. it is not difficult to imagine how great benefits can be obtained in exchange for such "results", but it will not contribute at all to the improvement of the cognitive level of the industry and even society as a whole. a high degree of involution will inevitably lead to this consequence.

scholar: the current academic evaluation mechanism and social culture do not seem to encourage slow work and careful work, and do not pay attention to high quality but promote high quantity? what impact might such a research orientation have on academic development?

ruan wei:the answer is clear. in a highly distorted environment,working slowly and carefully is tantamount to self-destruction，paying attention to high quality is nothing more than chronic suicide. under the pressure of college rankings or "catch-up" strategies, we will always do some extremely unintelligent things. returning to common sense and integrating with international standards, is it so difficult to do academic work with a normal mind? i hope that in the next twenty to thirty years, doing academic work with a normal mind will no longer be a luxury.

@Benjamin Voros on Unsplash

scholar: according to media reports, a young scholar was born into a poor family and almost had to rely on his own efforts to both engage in academic research and take care of his family. between the moon and sixpence, where should young students with academic dreams go?

ruan wei:scholars who have academic dreams should "enter the game" very early, such as after graduating from college, that is, they should choose academics as their lifelong career. there is no "moon and sixpence" dilemma for them. if you have two ends at the beginning and find it difficult to choose, it is impossible for such a person to embark on an academic path.the real test is whether you can still sit still when an official position comes your way.

scholar: in 2013, the death of the talented young scholar zhang hui aroused the attention of the academic community. in a subsequent interview, you also mentioned that the current high-pressure assessment style in china's academic circles has not only not improved, but has intensified. the loopholes in the system will inevitably create its victims. faced with every sacrifice, we inevitably feel sad and helpless. when do you think there will be opportunities to improve the living environment for young scholars in chinese academia?

ruan wei:a few years ago, many ministries and commissions issued a red-headed document titled "bro wei", which shows that policymakers at the national level have recognized the problem and are trying to solve it. at this level, departmental and personal interests are obviously different from those of universities, so they can be relatively objective. however, these documents are only some guiding opinions or "spirit" and are not equal to hard policies. schools below have their own "legislation" and may or may not listen to the opinions or "spirit" of the upper level, and may or may not implement them. in many cases, execute at a discount.

however, compared to not issuing any documents, issuing these "breaking only" documents is definitely of positive significance. i know that before this, the "double first-class" review was vigorous and vigorous, with a fast-moving attitude. after the document was released, it almost died down. in the end, the review results were not announced. this shows that the ministry of education is very clear that it can no longer encourage an academic arms race, which is harmful to academic development but not beneficial.cooling down, not heating up, is the way to go.

but when it comes to individual colleges and universities, the situation is different. they all want to be in power. without leadership, there will be no political achievements. and what does the power have to say? obviously we cannot say that the teaching quality of my school is world-class. this is difficult to evaluate. we have to look at academic gdp, that is, how many articles we have published, how many projects we have won, and how many awards we have won. so it is not unreasonable to continue to implement the old policy. of course, some adjustments may be made, but the magnitude of the adjustments is small and can be ignored.

it seems that to fundamentally solve the problem, the economy must be further developed and the social environment must be further improved. if the income of young scholars can be significantly increased and the society is generally sympathetic to them, they may not be so easy to succumb to unreasonable policies. this will force policy formulation to become more relaxed. this is impossible in the short term, but what will the situation be in ten or twenty years? i'm cautiously optimistic.

@Business Insider

scholars: in a modern society where bureaucracies and systems are intertwined, scholars are required to become specialists in “knowledge production” and “education dissemination” rather than the eclectic enlighteners of the past. but today’s knowledge and education are more like standardized products, which to a certain extent deprives young scholars of the time and space conditions for long-term thinking. are you pessimistic or optimistic about the future of this trend?

ruan wei:as far as the inheritance and production of knowledge is concerned, in any country and in any era, the knowledge inheritors are the majority and the knowledge producers are the minority. every scholar cannot be required to become a true knowledge producer or a universal enlightener.

at present, the conditions for young scholars to engage in long-term thinking are very poor, but it does not rule out that a small number of them will eventually be able to do this kind of work. after all, young people will become middle-aged, middle-aged people will become old, and the young daughter-in-law will eventually become a mother-in-law, and their situations will change accordingly. china has a huge population base, and there are always a very small number of people who can do truly valuable work. we should not be overly pessimistic just because a few young scholars died young.

scholar: among many disciplines, some fields of knowledge rely more on the support of the so-called "university system", such as medicine, humanities and social sciences. the commonality may be that this knowledge provides fewer resources to "live for oneself" outside the university. this makes it seem more difficult for young scholars in these fields to leave university. what do you think of this issue?

ruan wei:it is obvious that humanities, namely language and literature, history, philosophy and art, depend on the university system. science relies on the university system, which is something that everyone doesn’t quite understand and doesn’t pay much attention to. worldwide, it is difficult to find a job in pure mathematics, physics, chemistry (and astronomy), but life sciences may be better. many idealistic students realize the problem and turn to a more practical direction early. they must have a decent job. pure medical research is different from being a doctor. it is also very difficult to find a job. it can be classified as a pure science field.

another point to note is that neither humanities nor pure science can directly create social value, unlike social sciences. the economic and legal disciplines in the social sciences (unless they are pure economic theory or pure law) can create social value. this is not difficult to see from the fact that many scholars have turned into paid economic consultants or lawyers. in fact, it is only china that regards these two disciplines as liberal arts or social sciences. in european and american countries, they are clearly distinguished from humanities, social sciences and even science.

business schools and law schools in universities are very powerful and very wealthy. social science disciplines such as humanities, sociology, anthropology, political science (or government management) and psychology, and pure science are the poor relatives they look down upon. some universities in the united states, such as harvard university, group literature, history, philosophy, and mathematics, physics, and chemistry into one college called "faculty of arts and sciences" (fas, or faculty of arts and sciences), which illustrates the problem. why? neither literature nor science are practical subjects that can directly create social value. they are very different from business schools, law schools, and medical schools that mainly train doctors rather than medical researchers. the latter three only accept students with high scores, and the students usually make a lot of money after graduation. it is difficult to change this pattern, you can only adapt to it.

in china, like the rest of the world, humanities and pure science are facing the dilemma of being squeezed by powerful disciplines, and it seems that they can only adapt to it at present.

scholar: but within and outside universities, the power structure and the problems it creates are more common. scientific research assessments between superiors and subordinates, faculty election among colleagues, and graduation presentations between teachers and students are all high-risk areas. do you think these problems are caused more by personal qualities or by the lack of written systems?

ruan wei:this issue is too complex. wherever there are groups of people, there will be differences of interest, contradictions, and conflicts. this is the case in china, and it is the same all over the world. it's better not to talk about it.

[some young scholars who died recently]

01 li haizeng

li haizeng (1990-2024.8), born in march 1990, died in qingdao on august 29, 2024 due to a sudden myocardial infarction at the age of 34. joined shandong university in march 2021 as a professor and doctoral supervisor at the school of energy and power engineering of shandong university. the subject directions are: condensed matter physics and engineering thermal physics.

02 liu yang

liu yang (1980-2024.8), born in july 1980, was a native of xuancheng city, anhui province. he was a sociology scholar and an assistant researcher at the institute of sociology of the beijing academy of social sciences. he died in beijing on august 21, 2024 due to ineffective treatment due to illness. died at the age of 44. his main research directions are grassroots social governance and national governance modernization. his representative achievements include the papers "evolution and heavenly evolution - rereading" (2010) and "bringing systemic governance back - reflection and deepening of the community diversified participation governance model" (2016), etc., and translated books such as "the origins of american social science" (2019), "the great transformation—the political and economic origins of our era" (2020), and "cities of steel: the rise and fall of the american rust belt" (2023).

03 huang yongyuan

huang yongyong (1987-2024.8), born in wenzhou, zhejiang in april 1987, is a korean historian and associate professor of the korean department of the school of international translation and interpretation of sun yat-sen university. due to a sudden illness, treatment failed and he died in seoul, south korea on august 9, 2024. only 37 years old. his research directions include the modern history of the korean peninsula, the history of china-south korea relations, and national and regional studies of the korean peninsula. during his lifetime, he published nearly ten papers, engaged in translation work, and participated in many projects.

04 fei junfeng

fei junfeng (1974-2024.9), born in jianhu, jiangsu province in september 1974, is the director and associate professor of the institute of school psychological education, graduate school of education, nanjing university. he died in nanjing on september 3, 2024 due to ineffective treatment due to illness. only 50 years old. he has been engaged in psychological education for nearly 30 years. he teaches courses such as "career planning", "health and abnormal psychology", "college student mental health", "general psychology", and "happiness psychology", and is deeply loved by students.

05 zhang qile

zhang qile (1987-2024.9), born in chongqing on september 14, 1987, is a master's tutor and associate professor at the institute of human rights (school of human rights) of southwest university of political science and law. he died in chongqing on september 17, 2024 due to ineffective treatment due to illness. only 38 years old. he has long been engaged in research in the fields of jurisprudence, legal sociology and human rights law, paying attention to the protection of the rights and interests of specific groups such as women, children and the disabled, and participated in the drafting of many national human rights documents.

06 kurbanjan abdulsi kul

kurbanjan abdulsi kul (1976-2024.9), born in xinjiang in 1976, is deputy chief physician and master's tutor of the department of infectious and hepatology at the children's hospital of fudan university. on september 1, 2024, he suffered a sudden illness at home. died of illness at the age of 47. the main focus is on difficult and rare liver diseases in children, especially in the diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases such as glycosylation disorders and alagerli syndrome (algs). he has served on the clinical frontline for a long time and is well received by patients and their families.