Cultural Differences as Seen by a Scholar
《爱老师但别怕老师》
About this time 10 years ago I received an invitationfor me to become president of Nottingham Universityin Britain. 7 years ago, a counterpart of theuniversity was established in Ningbo, ZhejiangProvince of China. In the course of these things I gotplenty of chances to understand how culturalexchanges were made between the East and theWest.
大约十年前的这个时候，我接到了英国诺丁汉大学的邀请担任校长。七年前，宁波诺丁汉大学在中国创办。在这个过程中，我充分体会到中西文化是怎么交流的。
I'd like to cite an example to illustrate my point of view. The university we wanted to establishin Ningbo planned to enlist 4000 students. Ningbo authorities provided us with 900 mu of landfor the school, but the British sponsor didn't accept the offer. The latter held that, accordingto the Chinese legal regulations, the land allocation ratio should be one mu for ten students,then 400 mu for 4000 students was the right number, how could they accept 900?Consultations between the two parties were conducted six times without any result. At last acompromise was reached. The assigned land would be divided into two parts, one part (400mu) was the school asset, the other part (400 mu) should be the site of the school'sinstallations such as sports ground etc. this example shows a very strong factor in Britishculture, that is, things should be done according to legal regulations.
举一个现在很难想象的例子。当时我们计划招4000名学生，宁波方面说可以给学校900亩土地。没想到英方不要，六次谈话六次拒绝，因为英方认为按照中国的法律，十名学生一亩地，4000名学生400亩地，他们怎么能够接受900亩呢。按照法律办事，这是英国文化中非常强的因素。最后的折中方案是，中间划一条河，这边的400亩算资产，另外的400亩搞运动设施等。
The school of Athens can be described as a picture with a teacher and a student sitting in thecenter and many scholars around discussing on a certain topic. There's a famous saying in theWest: I love my teacher, but I love truth even more. The first part of the saying can be found inConfucius' teaching but the second part can rarely be found in China. The result is that theChinese students are rather afraid of their teacher, afraid of raising questions or evokingdisputes. On the contrary, students in the Western countries like discussions, for example, aschool boy of 8 in a primary school can raise 8 questions in a class. Would such things happenin China?
雅典学派是一张画，这个画的中间是两个人：老师和学生，旁边有很多学者都在议论。有一句名言，吾爱吾师，更爱真理。前面一句话，孔子学派里面有，但后面一句话中国少了一点。少的结果就是我们比较怕老师，不大敢提问题，不大敢争议。在西方的一所小学里，一名八岁的小孩在一堂课里面提了八个问题，这会发生在中国的小学里吗？
This reminds me of Qian Xue-sen, a contemporary Chinese scientist. When he studied inAmerica, he had once a heated dispute with his professor, a very famous rocket expert. Ratherenraged, the professor threw his book and left abruptly. But the next day the professor cameto Qian's office and bowed to him, saying, "I was wrong. You were right."
这让我想起了钱学森。钱学森的老师和他争得厉害，老师到后来都有点恼了，说他都讲了多少次了，然后把书往地上一扔就离开了。但是，第二天，钱学森的老师、一位那么有名的火箭专家，跑到钱学森的办公室，冲他鞠了一躬，说"你是对的，我错了"。
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