来，让我告诉你什么是会商制度

Let Me Tell You What the Consultation System Is

> By Justin Sun · 2011-03-27 · [Original link](http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_78c7e7eb0100sx5t.html) (Chinese)
> Our translation from the Chinese original.

Come, Let Me Tell You What the Consultation System Is

Sun Yuchen

Having read the many replies from classmates yesterday, and Peking University's official response on the consultation system, I feel there's still a need to write something.

The consultation system divides Peking University students into ten categories in total: "academic difficulty, extreme thinking, psychological fragility, economic poverty, changes in student status, living independently, internet addiction, employment difficulty, suffering from a serious illness, having received a disciplinary sanction", and carries out corresponding "consultation" treatment for these ten categories of students [Translator's note: the original writes 对着十类, apparently a slip for 对这十类, "for these ten categories"].

"Consultation", in the official wording, is called:

> "So-called consultation means that, in situations where students find it hard to overcome difficulties by their own strength, and even the teachers engaged in student work have limited strength, the school organizes the relevant parties, such as teachers from teaching, academic affairs, psychological counseling, logistics services and other departments, and even invites outside experts, to carry out a comprehensive, in-depth analysis and scientific assessment and judgment of these students' academic situation, and thereby formulate and implement a targeted plan of help and support."

This passage is very long, and surely nobody will read it carefully. It's the same as our government work reports: you can't read them for the surface text, or you won't understand a single word. Below I'll explain to everyone in detail what consultation is.

As everyone knows, a country will have many vulnerable groups. For our country, vulnerable groups, in the Anti-Rightist period, meant the people who had the "Rightist" hat put on them; in the Cultural Revolution, they were the people labeled "active counter-revolutionaries". Older people are certainly no strangers to these. Our country's Premier Zhu Rongji was also of Rightist background, a State Chairman was also once abused to death, and many senior officials of the Communist Party still have the tragic scenes and the catastrophe of the past vividly before their eyes. If there are classmates who don't understand the so-called Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, then teacher Jiang Yu's words will be very helpful to you: the fate of having a hat put on you and becoming part of a vulnerable group is "don't use the law as a shield; no law can protect you."

We may feel all this is very distant, but in fact in today's China vulnerable groups are also everywhere. A vulnerable group is often the result of state organs identifying people by a concept. There will be a red line: say you believe in a certain religion, say your family's house gets in the way of national construction, say your speech isn't to certain people's taste. The mark of a vulnerable group is that you are no longer an individual, and any decision about how to deal with you needs no consent from you (although it is usually a suggestion), even if the decision is to tear down your family's house, forcibly send you somewhere, or lock you in prison. Just like the Jews under Hitler: they were no longer people, and any deprivation of their property and lives was legal, just and beyond dispute. One can [imagine that] older people hearing all this will have their hair stand on end, while younger people, perhaps because they haven't lived through it, can still face it. [Translator's note: the original reads 可以年纪大的人听到这一切会毛骨悚然; a word such as 想见, "imagine", appears to be missing after 可以.]

And in the university, too, there are vulnerable groups. These people are the so-called internet addicts and the so-called people with learning difficulties. As far as I know, and as teacher Zha Jing said, the consultation system is starting the knife with them first. Of course the great majority of classmates will agree that internet addicts deserve it (though how internet addiction is defined is vague), and that people with learning difficulties also deserve to be consulted, even deserve to be expelled, because the school has formal rules and regulations for advising students whose GPA is below a certain value to withdraw. The school has no organs of violence; it can't lock students in prison, or tear down students' family homes; withdrawal and expulsion are already the greatest punishments.

I fully agree that the people of the student-affairs system consult people with learning difficulties out of goodwill, and I also believe that the student-affairs system's consultation of people with learning difficulties usually aims to avoid advising the student to withdraw and to help him complete his studies smoothly. But what I want to point out is that once you have the hat of so-called internet addict or person with learning difficulties put on you, then the consultation system's "comprehensive, in-depth analysis and scientific assessment and judgment" of you, and thereby a "targeted plan of help and support", is something you probably have no strength to refuse, even though this plan may be only a suggestion. To some extent this is a kind of exemption from responsibility: after the school has consulted you, even if you drop out and go blow up the earth, it has nothing to do with the school. At the same time, what if the suggestion of the consultation is to withdraw? When the great majority of people think you deserve to be consulted and deserve to be expelled, you shouldn't expect a better result, even if they want to help you.

This means that very possibly in the future, every student who withdraws will first have to go through the identification of the consultation system, and the power over withdrawal and even sanctions, which originally belonged to non-student-affairs departments, will, with the establishment of the consultation system, gradually shift to the student-affairs system, and the right to suggest will also gradually become a power to compel. Of course, at this point the great majority of classmates will still think that internet addicts and those with learning difficulties deserve to be consulted and deserve to be expelled; and as for the first stage of the consultation system, teacher Zha has already explained in detail: people with learning difficulties are the key targets of governance of the consultation system at present.

But we will think: after the people with learning difficulties have all been consulted and have left this school with regret and loneliness, who will be next? There are nine categories of people, because we know that if these nine categories of people weren't going to be consulted, they wouldn't be written into the system; once written in, they are destined to be consulted. The next wave of classmates may be, as in teacher Zha's example, some classmates whose hearts are fragile because of a breakup.

A fragile heart is naturally very hard to explain. The criterion might be that you go back to the dorm and complain a couple of sentences, that you hate that woman to death and wish you could kill her; or it might be crying under the covers for three days after a breakup. When you've cried for three days over a breakup, are suspected of a fragile heart, and are brought into the scope of consultation, you'll discover two things with astonishment. One is that almost overnight you've had the hat of "fragile heart" put on you and become a "fragile-hearted" person, a target of the consultation system; although you'll receive more care, not one bit of all this has your consent. You immediately become an alien, a marginal figure; all this is the mighty power of hats and conceptual definitions. The second thing is even more terrifying. You cried secretly under the covers for three days alone, thinking no one knew, but it had long since reached the heavenly court above. After the consultation (though it may be secret), your three roommates in the dorm suddenly all seem extraordinarily strange to you. Who told all this? Maybe the Party member, maybe the one who's been against you, or maybe the most unremarkable one. In short, the friends you trusted most begin to drift further and further away, and they may suspect you the same way, because the confidentiality of the consultation system leaves you no way of knowing whether the other has been consulted. Your friendship is gone without a trace.

The worse situation is that, although the consultation system is confidential, somehow it still gets spread until everyone knows. Then you completely become part of the marginal crowd, a person with a fragile heart who may affect their studies, and may even be at risk of suicide. You may have no friends, and even if you have one or two they'll be suspected of informing. But what's strange about that? A person with a hat put on him, a marginalized person, isn't supposed to have any friends anyway. At this point, even if, thanks to your active reform, the "fragile heart" hat is taken off you and you're taken out of the consultation system, you're nothing but a "Rightist with the hat removed", a "formerly consulted" person. Of course, this is much better than expulsion; we should view it correctly and treat this school's system optimistically. Of course, here I've left out the people whose fragile hearts led to learning difficulties and even withdrawal; they'll be a bit worse off.

Of course, at this point some classmates will say: my studies are up to standard, I don't date, and even if I date I have a heart of iron and stone and am never moved by feelings; on the first day after a breakup I throw myself tightly into scholarship and serving the people; it's just that usually when the canteen raises prices by two mao I complain a bit, and even pay some attention to all sorts of sensitive words in the country. Then I dare say for sure that your fate under the consultation system will absolutely not be better than that of the fragile-hearted [Translator's note: the original reads 绝对不会被心灵脆弱者更好, apparently a slip for 比心灵脆弱者更好, "better than the fragile-hearted"]. Because, actually, as I see it, the consultation system was designed precisely for you: the lovable people with extreme thinking.

Of course this is my judging of motives, so just ignore it. As with the fragile-hearted, you'll find that your complaints about price rises and your words of concern for justice and fairness have, at some unknown time, long since reached the heavenly court above, and you've been designated a target of consultation. As everyone knows, this kind of student is rather hated in the school; with a full stomach and nothing to do, caring about fairness and justice is in itself a sin in this land. The greatest sympathy for you will be no more than "an arm can't twist a thigh, so why bother". So I believe that whatever help is given to you, no one will sympathize with you; what awaits you will be suggestions of help that can't be refused. Of course, I hope this is only organizing you to study the People's Daily, hand in thought reports regularly, or keep watch on the classmates around you, and doesn't go as far as canceling scholarships, recording demerits or expulsion. Though we know that, through the consultation system, the student-affairs system may very well already possess the above rights.

That the bunch of lunatics with extreme thinking deserve to be dealt with, I don't dare object to either. But I gradually find that among the remaining "economic poverty, changes in student status, living independently, employment difficulty, suffering from a serious illness, having received a disciplinary sanction", in the end I can't get myself out from under the shadow of one of them, or I've already been dealt with under the first three. From then on, the student-affairs departments can finally hold their heads high, holding the great power of life and death, while you want to cry but can't cry, want to laugh but can't laugh, want to speak but can't speak; even your thinking will be seen through, and you're on tenterhooks, merely wanting to avoid the result of being consulted. This story seems familiar: the Anti-Rightist Campaign too, going on and on, only then found that it seemed the whole country had become Rightists; the Cultural Revolution too, shouting slogans and beating and killing, only then found it had itself joined the ranks of the counter-revolutionaries.

This story seems to become more and more familiar. Hitler started the knife with the Jews: their race didn't pass, they deserved to be cleaned out. They hunted down the communists: this bunch had extreme thinking and odd behavior, no good birds either. They hunted down the trade union members: this bunch were always striking, paralyzing the city and cutting off water and power, so that was only proper too. In the end, when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up and speak for me. As everyone knows, dictatorship and Nazism are never built in a day.

If, reading this far, your hair is standing on end, please relax, don't be afraid; the student-affairs system won't be like this. I've worked with them for a long time; they're all good people. Apart from some dark, utilitarian little thoughts about wanting promotion, they're usually very good people. They don't have any terrifying big conspiracy either; it's just that they themselves don't know why, in claiming credit and seeking rewards, they have step by step walked into a position of being enemies of freedom of thought and of inclusiveness, and time after time destroyed Peking University's most precious values and spirit. This matter is grave [Translator's note: the original writes 兹体事大, a transposition of the idiom 兹事体大, "this matter is grave"]; it concerns Peking University's reputation and spirit, and will even more affect the mood and futures of the younger schoolmates to come. The spirit is all empty, something for outsiders to look at (although the school obviously cares more about this), while the futures and moods of the younger schoolmates are what matter most.

The last few words are for teacher Zha himself. If you sincerely mean only to help students with academic difficulties, then delete the clauses on the other nine categories of people from the consultation system. If you truly want to help Peking University students, please promise that the consultation system will not take any measures of punishment or control against students, and solemnly write this into the clauses of the consultation system (I really don't believe leaders' promises). If you sincerely and truly want the good of Peking University students, please withdraw the insulting remark about potential targets of consultation, "for example, those who criticize the school at every turn because the canteen food goes up by two mao" (of course you'll say you never said it, and it's only the media's distortion). This is good for you, and good for Peking University students too.

2011/03/27

At Peking University

The following words are for students at other universities: please keep paying attention to Peking University's consultation system, because we know we are all Chinese university students. Once Peking University's consultation system is established, it will be adopted by many universities like a prairie fire, and the consultation system will very possibly become a new form of student management universally implemented in Chinese universities. You share weal and woe with Peking University's students, and we advance and retreat together with the fate of the country and the nation.

When I posted the second article, I attached this sentence, and many university students across the country gave me feedback about similar "consultation systems" at their schools. At many schools it has already taken shape, or even been fully established. Doesn't this tell us not only that the situation at Peking University is not optimistic, but that the situation nationwide is the same? [Translator's note: the original writes 全国的形式, "the form nationwide", apparently a slip for 形势, "situation".] If you have more information, Email: [email protected]. Your information will be completely anonymous. As everyone knows, in our China reporting a situation has never been anonymous, but with me, it is anonymous.

Words for the media and public figures: thank you for your exposure and follow-up; this is not an easy thing. Chinese people have long been used to indifference and numbness. When Peking University faced the consultation system, you could perfectly well have looked on coldly, as if it had nothing to do with you; it's not you who will be consulted. But you were still willing to take the risk of coming out to say something. This is a most precious courage and goodwill, and as a very ordinary Peking University student, I thank you. This is entirely a choice made by your moral conscience. As Kant said in the Critique of Practical Reason, what I hold in awe is only the brilliant starry sky above my head and the moral law in my heart; this sentence he wrote for you.

News links:

Peking University to carry out consultation for ten categories of students, including those with "extreme thinking"

http://news.163.com/11/0325/03/6VV9LSVK00014AED.html

Academic consultation: an exploration of work supporting students' studies, an interview with teacher Zha Jing of the Student Affairs Department

http://pkunews.pku.edu.cn/xwzh/2011-03/26/content_196188.htm

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