A native of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, 1966 entered Ximen Street Primary School in Yangzhou City, 197 1 entered Luxun Middle School in Yangzhou City, and 1976 graduated from junior high school. From 1976 to 1977, I worked as a temporary worker and apprentice for one and a half years. 1978 was admitted to the Chinese Department of Yangzhou Normal University at Grade 77. 198 1 graduated with a bachelor's degree, 1982 received a postgraduate degree in modern literature from our school, and 1985 received a master's degree from Nanjing university. From 65438 to 0985, he was admitted to the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, studied under Professor Tang Tao, and graduated from 65438 to 0988 with a doctorate. He was assigned to the Institute of Literature, China Academy of Social Sciences, and served as an assistant researcher, associate researcher and researcher. 199 1 co-founded a series of scholars with friends in * * *. Since 1996, he has been the editor-in-chief of Reading magazine, and in 2002 he was hired as a professor at Tsinghua University Institute of Humanities. He has served as a researcher and visiting professor at Harvard University, University of California, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Washington, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin and other universities and research institutions. His main works are: Resisting Despair: Lu Xun and His Literary World (1990), Wandering Without Land: May 4th Movement and Its Echo (1994), Selected Works of Wang Hui (1998), Revisiting the Dead Fire (2000). There are "culture and publicity" and "the illusion of development". Many books and papers have been translated into English, Japanese, Korean and French.
Interviewing Mr Wang Hui was an interesting experience. Because he paid attention to Grade 77 and Grade 78 from a different angle than others, he gave different answers when answering our questions. At first, we tried to reverse his thinking, but we soon found ourselves in vain, hiding a stubborn personality under his polite appearance. Just follow his train of thought. No problem. Different perspectives and different ideas may just explain the uniqueness of Wang Hui.
This "difference" probably has a lot to do with his being born in a normal college in a southern city. Although he later obtained postgraduate and doctoral degrees, many of his classmates still teach in middle schools in rural areas and counties. Wang Hui repeatedly stressed that it was the different environment that led to their different paths, and many of his classmates were excellent people. Although we are now in a completely different environment, everyone has become the backbone of our business and made great contributions to cultivating local college students. Wang Hui praised them from the heart, so that he always unconsciously repeated the "cleverness" and "greatness" of his classmates. When sorting out his interview, we had to delete the repetition again and again.
In fact, we find that Mr. Wang Hui is a very idealistic person, so he is so concerned about the bottom people in China. But we believe that he should also be a contradictory person. After all, he also agrees that "people can't leave the earth by pulling their hair." So when talking about his ideal, he said that what he really wanted was to live a wandering and free life. I hope to find a quiet place to study, without good conditions, as long as I can read books and think freely.
Q: Among the interviewees, there are only two kinds of experiences before going to college: one is fresh graduates, and the other is working or going to the countryside before going to college. I don't know what kind you belong to.
I was a worker before I went to college. /kloc-when I was 0/7 years old, I graduated from Yangzhou Luxun Middle School (now the middle school affiliated to Yangzhou University) and didn't go to the countryside. Because of my young age, I can't formally assign work and work as a temporary worker in two factories. The first one is a cannery, where I work as a meat grinder. The main job is to pull the meat from the cold storage to the workshop, and then put it into the meat grinder with a big washbasin to stir, which is hard and tiring. After working for more than half a year, I later transferred to another factory, Yangzhou Wool Mill, and worked as a baler in the parking workshop. After working for half a year, I was officially assigned to Yangzhou Radio No.1 Factory when I was old. When I entered the factory, I heard that I would resume the college entrance examination. So working there for a few months is actually waiting for the exam while working.
Q: Which university did you go to later?
I was admitted to the Chinese Department of Yangzhou Normal University. Although there is no college entrance examination in China for ten years, we are actually reading a lot of books and have great interest in literature. At that time, everyone had an unclear feeling about the college entrance examination. My parents wanted me to take the exam, and many people were preparing at that time. At that time, when I was young, I thought it would be good to go to the countryside. Going to college is just a change of environment, and I don't feel anything. In fact, it is also very comfortable in the factory.
Q: What impressed you most in the college entrance examination?
A: The college entrance examination is a very important event in our life. At that time, I had two deep impressions:
One impression is that we spent the decade of the "Cultural Revolution" in primary and secondary schools, and we were very free, unlike there is so much competition now, so we should study hard for exams. At that time, the knowledge in the class was not enough, and we had to study industry and agriculture every semester. In this process, children are in a friendly and equal relationship. Of course, there will be many other problems, such as group fights and disturbances, just like sunny days, but they are all equal. Later, when we arrived at the factory, everyone was the same. The first impression that the college entrance examination gives us is that everyone suddenly faces fierce competition: that is, ten-year graduates compete for the number of college students in one year at the same time, while the number of college students enrolled in the first year is very small. This competition made us realize the difference of our peers for the first time. In the past, everyone was the same classmate, playing together, and suddenly the students who passed the exam separated, and their fate was different. People around you have also changed their views on you. You are a college student, he is not a college student, or he is a college student in a key university. Of course it's worse now, but it seemed worse then. So this is the first competition and division I have faced, and it is a test involving the friendship between children. This is a very impressive thing for me.
The second impression is information science. My mother is a liberal arts teacher at the university. During the Cultural Revolution, liberal arts suffered the most, and liberal arts teachers received the most criticism. The problems brought by liberal arts are very serious. Including my parents, were affected to some extent at that time. Therefore, my parents are firmly opposed to my study of liberal arts, and I will never be allowed to apply for liberal arts. With my parents firmly opposed, I began to review science. But when it was time to register, someone came to my house to send the registration form, and my parents were not at home, so I took the liberty of filling it out in Chinese. But I hadn't reviewed the liberal arts at that time. So my total score in the exam is not high, only Chinese is higher.
Q: Why do you like studying liberal arts so much that you fill in the Chinese Department without even considering your parents' ideas?
A: Because I like it. I have been reading these books since I was a child. Although my parents objected, I was influenced by them since I was a child, and there were many books at home.
Q: Have you thought about what you want to do in the future before you go to college?
A: Our boyhood was spent during the Cultural Revolution. What was different then from now was that the future was particularly uncertain. On the one hand, you know that you may delegate power and go to the factory; But on the other hand, it is actually very uncertain. You don't know what you will do in the future. Nowadays, young people will think, I want to work in a foreign company, how much salary I want to get, and I want to design my life's future during the exam. But I didn't. This is really different from people now, maybe it's not just me, but the experience of a generation.
Q: What impressed me most when I was in college?
At that time, all the students worked hard. I think the generation born in the background of 1977 has made unprecedented efforts, and such efforts are very rare. After grades 79 and 80, the situation has obviously changed. Although the learning conditions at that time were much better, the enthusiasm for learning did not seem so high. It may be because some people have become educated youths and some people have become workers in the past decade, and they feel delayed; In addition, 1977 and 1978 were very special periods of ideological emancipation in China society. Under such conditions, everyone is very keen on reading.
At that time, everyone worked overtime to study, got up early to recite and stayed up late. Later, the school decided that this was not feasible. It is stipulated that 1 1 All classroom lights should be turned off. The light bulbs in the dormitory are very low and can only be used for general lighting. For this reason, I was also involved in the conflict with the school, because we replaced the light bulbs in the dormitory with bigger ones. But even after turning off the lights, many students still study hard, so when you arrive at the classroom after 1 1 in the afternoon, you will find candles lit inside. It was a very special period.
Q: What is the biggest gain of the university?
A: First of all, I learned a lot. Grade 77 and Grade 78 are almost the only college students lucky enough to be educated by the older generation of scholars after the resumption of the college entrance examination in China. This kind of situation is rare after level 79. I remember that many old experts and authorities were pushed out or knocked down during the Cultural Revolution. After 1977, there is still a short time to go to the podium. My Yangzhou Normal College is a primary school, but the Chinese Department was very strong at that time. Many teachers are ahead of any other school in this country in their fields of work. At that time, many famous old professors in China gave us undergraduate courses. We were educated by this generation of teachers, which is a little different from later college students. What is the specific difference? I can't say it clearly. Maybe it is a little different from them in literature and history. This is beyond words.
The second big gain is to build your own interest. When I was in middle school, I didn't think about what I would do in the future. I just want to do something. When I was in college, I formed an interest, an idea about the future, and began to think about how to realize it. For example, I decided that I need to take a postgraduate exam.
Q: Speaking of this group of college students, many people say that they are a very lucky generation and have very good historical opportunities. What do you think of this statement?
A: The opportunity you mentioned is hard for me to explain clearly. Because the distribution of students in classes 77 and 78 has a great relationship with their schools. For example, you graduated from Nanjing University, and there are many good units waiting for you in universities and provincial government agencies. Most of my students in Yangzhou Normal University still go to be middle school teachers after graduation. This is different from college students now, and there is no guidance. At that time, the graduation distribution of college students was basically determined from where to go back and forth, to your hometown and even which middle school. It's hard for me to judge whether this is good or not now. Nowadays, college students have great autonomy, but there are a large number of college graduates in China, and they have accumulated for so many years, so it is very difficult to choose a job.
The bad side is that individuals lack the freedom to choose their careers, and where they go is not up to you to decide. I was admitted to graduate school. Although the university also said that I would stay in school to teach, I was ready to go to middle school.
Now many of my college classmates are the backbone of middle schools in rural areas, counties and cities, and some of them have won various honors. Of course, there are principals, but most of them are in middle schools. Especially when I went back to my hometown, I was still very emotional. They have been doing this kind of work for a long time, doing it well and making great contributions. Nowadays, rural middle schools have trained many college students, which is completely inseparable from their work. But nowadays, college students are basically unwilling to go back there as teachers, which is a big problem. Many rural private teachers have no salary, and there is a serious shortage of rural teachers. We have to ask our society how to solve this problem. On the one hand, there is something wrong with the compulsory arrangement of the state, because you restrict people's freedom; But on the other hand, what kind of policies should the state use to encourage people to go to those places, otherwise the society will become more and more divided.
Admitted to the university is indeed an opportunity for us, but on the other hand, it is not a special opportunity. My understanding of this matter is also contradictory. On the one hand, the diversity of employment now is enviable, but on the other hand, for that generation, they have a chance to learn. After all, after such systematic training, they can do a lot of things.
Q: What you said has some new inspirations for us. We have never been exposed to such a topic before.
A: Maybe it's because the people you interviewed are all graduates from famous universities and celebrities. And I graduated from a university in a non-capital city and know this better. I have been to many famous universities in China and spent many years abroad.
Although I may go further on the academic road, I never feel that my college classmates are worse than others in wisdom, never. For my classmates, one thing I know very well is that these people are very smart and hard-working. Later, their careers split, just because they lived in different environments after graduating from college. Some people have been middle school teachers all their lives, some have been admitted to graduate schools, and some have had other opportunities and done all kinds of things. Later, many people became famous and did very important leadership work, but this has nothing to do with their personal intelligence. Some of them do have very, very nice people.
Although the basic education of Yangzhou Normal University is very solid, in the fourth year, it basically teaches you how to be a middle school teacher, not how to do research. This is the direction of its education, and my classmates are older, so it is more practical to consider the problem. Especially at that time, the foreign languages of the elderly were relatively poor, and it was a prerequisite to take postgraduate foreign languages. In fact, some people are very capable, but their English is not good, so they can't get into graduate school and lose the opportunity for further study.
But they have done well in their respective posts, and I think this social division of labor is like this. Grade 77 students are basically the backbone of school teaching, or principals or directors. Several students, impressed by many awards, all said to be excellent awards. I don't know much about the rating of middle school teachers. Anyway, I am considered a very, very good teacher. I think they are some great people.
Q: What do you think caused this differentiation?
A: It's just an exam! Because the hierarchical system of China University determines that differentiation is very important. Even if you go to college, you still have college grades. There are great differences between famous universities and local universities, and their distribution orientation is also great. Like when I was in college, Nanjing University was distributed all over the country, and provincial organs and many large institutions were open to it. But our school is different. The grading system of China University is a very important basis for differentiation. What university you go to actually plays a great role in your future. Of course, the next change is the postgraduate entrance examination. Where to take the exam, you get different resources and status. The opportunity to study in Beijing is completely different from that in Yangzhou. This is the level in China's education system. This is the same in the west. Opportunities for Harvard students are different from those of local schools. Of course, they may be more mobile than us, and we are stronger now. Although there are differences between famous and non-famous universities, employment is free. At that time, we were assigned by the state, and the state only gave you such an establishment and quota. You can't jump out of here and go anywhere else. You can't just declare another unit, no matter how capable you are. This was stipulated at that time. On the question of "three, six, nine, etc.", I mentioned not only the present score, but also the scores in different ways. At that time, the state forced these people to go to these rural areas and counties to attend middle schools. China society should allow different regions to gain fair benefits through the education system, instead of making the good places better and worse. Finally, a large number of farmers' children drop out of school in bad places, because the whole education level is low, there are no good teachers, schools can't run well, and children can't go to college. Generation after generation has become such a vicious circle.
How big is the innate difference between people? I don't think it's much. Even if it has an impact, it is very small. Differentiation is caused by acquired conditions. My social ideal is to give these people a fairer opportunity, which a society should work harder to achieve.
Q: Next, let's talk about reading magazines. Many academic magazines are very difficult now. What is the current situation of reading?
A: there is no survival dilemma in reading, with an average of more than 100,000 yuan per period. Economically, it is completely responsible for its own profits and losses, and it also pays a lot of profits to Sanlian Bookstore every year. Reading should be a more successful publication in the intellectual circle.
Q: Generally speaking, it is said that "the song is high and few". How does reading achieve not only high taste, but also popularity among readers?
A: First, although Reading is a publication with a lot of academic content, these scholars and intellectuals who write for us do not write as periodical papers, so Reading still has many interesting articles and many people are willing to read it. Second, what we pursue is to make reading a social forum, constantly touching on important issues, crises, contradictions and our future prospects in contemporary people's daily life. At the beginning of this discussion, many people will pay attention to it. Of course, we mainly ask these questions from the perspective of "reading", but as long as you come into contact with these questions, naturally many people will care and read. One more thing, reading insists on diversity. Of course, reading has its own standards and orientation, but it can accommodate different voices and different problems, so it has certain universality. The author group of reading is several generations, including Fei Xiaotong, who died last year, and Mr. Huang Wanli, a famous hydraulic scientist in Tsinghua University, all of whom are nearly 100 years old. There are many middle-aged people writing articles for us, Meng. Further down are Anyi, Ge, etc. Now there are younger ones. International students, even western scholars and Asian scholars write articles for us. Therefore, reading is rich in knowledge resources, and it is more difficult for other magazines to obtain such resources.
Of course, more importantly, China has a very wide readership, and they have good reading habits. The readers of reading are completely distributed in different social classes.
Q: Every magazine has its own position. What is the orientation of reading?
A: It is a book-centered ideological review and cultural review. Books include "big books", "small books", "inside books" and "outside books", which are not only reading, but also reading the "big books" of society. So what is formed is a public forum, which reveals some social problems and causes thinking. Of course, the most important point, at least when I was the editor-in-chief, was that I was sure that this magazine was basically not a slogan-throwing magazine. Its basic purpose is to make people think. It published a lot of people's ideas in it, so that readers can also participate in this kind of thinking and discussion. For example, people often talk about the opportunities and challenges brought by WTO, but Reading thinks about the problems existing in WTO itself. The voice of Reading magazine is different from the general media. When everyone is generally positive, we will think of many other problems. When these articles are organized together, it will promote people's thinking about our world situation. I think this is a reading direction!
Q: But now some readers have reported that reading seems to be becoming more and more professional, and it is no longer as popular as before.
A: Some articles are specialized, which involves a problem. To some extent, reading also has an interactive relationship with the public interest ... how to say, an interaction. Suppose that reading in our society has become a popular taste, and we will not go to see it if it is a little more difficult. I think this is a very serious problem, which will make us lose the ability to reflect. Today, if you walk in the street, you will find that there are countless kinds of entertainment publications, and it doesn't matter if you have one more or one less. We must persist in challenges, including intellectual challenges. Of course, it's either hard to understand or good. That's not what I meant. But I don't think reading can completely become a popular publication. In that case, the society is very sad. Just like many places in Hong Kong and Japan now, they only read comic books and don't even read words. In the subway in Japan, comic books are sold, and there are few words. I don't think this is a good thing for our society. Treating knowledge and ideas like this shows that there is a great crisis in this society.
Our society has had a great crisis, such as lack of reflective ability, always following the trend, and studying is not willing to do so. I would rather make some sacrifices than keep this part. We try to look good, but we can't say that we completely please the public. I know that in this era, everyone likes to relax, so few similar publications are willing to do the same thing as reading. But you can't give up reading. Reading and publishing some difficult articles is because there are problems in the back. It would be sad if the whole society became nothing but funny. I don't object to people doing this, because society needs it, but if a society can't even hold one or two serious publications, I think it is not only the sorrow of this publication, but also the sorrow of this society.
Q: Now is a commercialized society. Reading is a self-financing magazine, but it seems that you seldom promote yourself. Why?
A: We really seldom do publicity ourselves. Many friends also said that "reading" should be promoted more, and maybe it will be done in the future. But this is the way of reading, and it has formed a tradition, which is to let everyone come and go freely. This is a simple and low-key way.
As I said just now, reading is not a place to wave your arms. The issues discussed by everyone are very sharp, but I didn't mean to say anything exciting to make everyone restless. I don't like this way. The problems encountered in reading are extremely serious. What we need to do is to make some people seriously think and imagine the importance of these things.
Publications, of course, publicity is also important, but sometimes you have to trust readers. Cultural products, reading, a paper written by a person, a research book or a novel, the final decision is in the hands of readers. Do you think advertising is important? Advertising is important, but the reader's judgment is the most important. Culture, ideas and knowledge are different from ordinary commodities, air conditioners and wines. It's not that I'm against advertising, I'm not against it, it should be said that I haven't done enough reading ... it's just that sometimes it's a gesture, because I really don't like turning it into a commodity.
Q: Are there many advertisements for reading?
A: Very few. There are only some advertisements for books, and we don't do other advertisements, except the insert advertisements for books promoted by publishing houses.
Q: If a manufacturer asks to advertise, will you advertise?
A: Basically, I haven't done these things, and I think that suddenly posting an advertisement on reading will make readers familiar with reading very unaccustomed. I'm not sure now, but the basic policy is not to publish.
Of course, reading is to survive. Maybe we will compromise when choosing between survival and advertising. This is not impossible. But the problem is that we have no pressure to survive now.
I think reading is suitable for everyone. Maybe because I'm not a businessman or a member of Sanlian Bookstore, I'm just the editor-in-chief invited by them. For me, most of what we do is voluntary. I don't want to make money with it. What I want is to make it serve everyone. This is the real situation. But frankly speaking, our editors are not well treated now, and we will try our best to improve their working conditions, but this change does not turn reading into a commodity for sale. In that case, reading is not reading.
Q: How do you read yourself?
A: The books I read are related to my own research and may be different from ordinary people. In recent years, I have mainly read some historical materials of 17 and18th century. Of course, I also read some new research books. I spend most of my time reading every day. As long as there is nothing special, I read from morning till night.
Q: What do you think is the relationship between your inner world and the external environment over the years?
A: First of all, no one can completely surpass his own era. Social changes have a great influence on our life and career. Second, being influential doesn't mean you have to conform to the trend of the times. You have to adapt, adapt, resist, coordinate, and have various processes, that's all.
You live in this society. You can't just pull out your hair and leave. You always have to change with society in many ways. But after all, everyone has their own world outlook and attitude towards life, and it is impossible to say that I adapt to everything and agree with everything. This is especially true for an intellectual. For me, my lifestyle has not changed because of the external environment. But after the reform and opening up, I can do academic research, publish articles and teach abroad, which was impossible in the past. This is also an aspect of social change. But this does not mean that I have to accept all the values of this society, which is not the case.
Supplementary interview:
1. What are your key turning points in the past 20 years? What do you think is the most important choice in life? What's your standard?
People have been choosing all their lives. I haven't had time to sum up my life myself, so I have to answer this question later.
2. Why did you quit your job in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to study? In the process of reading, have you ever encountered vacillation? How did you solve it?
I only work part-time in reading, and I have never left my research work. I came to study by accident, because Dong Xiuyu, editor-in-chief of Sanlian Bookstore, invited me to come, and I couldn't refuse. I didn't intend to be an editor for a long time, but I probably stayed because I was constantly facing challenges. I have never wavered because of difficulties, and vacillation always happens because I feel suspicious inside.
Interview with Professor Wang Hui, winner of the Academic Newcomer Award in our school.
● News Center reporter condensation
"What a person can do in his life is actually very limited. I hope to do better with my limited ability. " Wang Hui, winner of the 2003 Academic Newcomer Award and a professor at the School of Humanities, said.
"Humanities research topics generally take a long time and require a lot of reading, research and thinking. It can't be completed in a year or two. We should rely on accumulation and tradition, not quick success. The significance of academic achievements in humanities sometimes takes a long time to present. A work with great influence is not necessarily a result of great value. " Wang Hui, who has been walking on this road, is deeply touched by the "road conditions". His book The Rise of Modern China Thought, which will be published by Sanlian Bookstore, has been written for thirteen years.
Wang Hui was the first college student after the Cultural Revolution. He completed his doctorate under the guidance of Mr. Tang Tao, a student of Lu Xun. He has worked in the field of humanities research for more than 20 years. Before coming to Tsinghua, he worked in the Institute of Literature of China Academy of Social Sciences, and achieved fruitful research results. His first book was a study of Lu Xun, which was later extended to the history of thought. His book "Fighting Despair: A Study of Lu Xun and His Crying and Hesitation" is one of the most cited works in Lu Xun's research works in the new period. It is a masterpiece of Lu Xun's studies recognized by China's modern literature and Lu Xun's research circles, and has been published in three editions in Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province. Some Lu Xun scholars regard this book as an important work to change Lu Xun's research paradigm. His papers, such as Mr. Sai's Fate in China: Scientific Concept and Its Application in China's Modern Thought, Debate on Local Forms, Dialects and Dialects and National Forms in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression Period, Yan Fu's Three Worlds, Identification of Scientific Discourse and the Origin of the New Culture Movement, Zhang Taiyan and Personal Concept in Modern China Thought, have been well received by domestic and foreign academic circles, and have been translated into several books respectively. His long papers, Ideological Status and Modernity in Contemporary China, Historical Roots of Neo-liberalism in China, Scientism and Social Theory, have been translated into English, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian and Arabic, and published in Social Texts (USA), World (Japan) and Creation and Criticism (Korea).
In the process of writing The Rise of Modern China Thought, with the deepening of research, more and more problems were encountered. Wang Hui didn't stop at a certain level, so the publication date of the book was postponed again and again. "When the liberal arts reaches a certain level, the interdisciplinary nature will come out. If you want to enter a new field, it requires a lot of energy and a lot of reading and accumulation. " "Good projects will make you go deeper and deeper. During the 13 years when The Rise of Modern China Thought was written, some staged achievements were published, both historical and theoretical, but they were all aimed at solving some problems of this book. I didn't expect it to take so long when I first started writing. "
Finding problems and finding solutions will make Wang Hui excited. "Good projects will make you go deeper and deeper. During the 13 years when The Rise of Modern China Thought was written, some achievements were published, but they were all aimed at some problems in this work. I didn't expect it to take so long when I first started writing. " Through in-depth research, development can not only cope with the changes and problems in the contemporary world, but also be rooted in profound traditional knowledge, thus forming its own unique academic vision, which is the firm direction of Wang Hui.