IN A case with eerie overtones of the Cultural Revolution, a Chinese professor has become the target of a police investigation after two students informed the authorities that his teachings were “counter-revolutionary”.
Yang Shiqun, a professor of ancient Chinese language at East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai, wrote on his blog how he was questioned by university authorities, who informed him that two female students had reported him as a “reactionary” for comments he made in the class about contemporary Chinese culture and politics.
The two students had tears in their eyes as they demanded how the professor could possibly criticise the government in such a way, he wrote, to which he replied that he had a right to express his opinion.
“If you don’t feel like listening to me in class, then you don’t have to choose to attend my class,” Prof Yang said.
During the period of political hysteria and extremism known as the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when Mao Zedong unleashed his Red Guards against intellectuals, rightists and reactionaries, there were regular struggle sessions by students against university lecturers who were often paraded in front of their class in humiliating garb and publicly chastised or bullied.
Thousands of educated people were exiled to the countryside and Chinese academia is only now beginning to recover from the horrors of the era.
Chinese students and staff enjoy high levels of academic freedom these days and the case has prompted an outcry online and also in the media against the students’ behaviour.
Moreover, the crime of “counter-revolution” was abolished in 1997, so Prof Yang is unlikely to be charged on this basis, although there is always the fear that the charge of “incitement to subvert state power”, which has been used to jail leading dissidents such as Hu Jia, could come into play.
Most people have taken the professor’s side, saying he should be allowed to say what he wants, especially in a university which needs ideas to live and breathe.
“This is bizarre. While revolutionary, counter-revolutionary and reactionary were among my first English words added to my vocabulary in the 1970s, they have rarely been used since 1978, when the country opted to forget slogans like: “Never forget class struggle!” ran one commentary in the China Daily.
“By accusing their professor of being a reactionary, the two female students have done nothing but opened old wounds on such crimes that once tore apart our nation,” the commentator added.