Another school introduction whose century-old school history is fake

Another school introduction with a century-old school history that is fake

The most comprehensive and profound thing about Chinese universities may only be their school history. In order to tamper with and prolong their school history, famous universities such as Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, Southeast University, and Nanjing Normal University do not hesitate to recognize their ancestors everywhere and appropriate the history of others as their own history.

In 2002, Jiangnan University, located in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, celebrated its "centenary anniversary". This national "211 Project" key construction university featuring light industry has only been established for a full year. .

Of course, Jiangnan University is not the only one holding the "Centennial Celebration" this year. Nine universities including Nanjing University, Southeast University, Nanjing Normal University, Hohai University, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Forestry University, and Jiangsu University held joint anniversary celebrations at the same time to celebrate a school called "Sanjiang Normal School" The school celebrates its 100th anniversary.

This event, known as the "Joint Centenary Celebration of Nine Universities in Jiangsu," attracted great attention at the time, and several important national leaders sent letters of congratulations. Since then, the century-old history of the school has become a certainty, so much so that you can see on the official websites and encyclopedias of these nine universities that they all list their founding dates in 1902, when Sanjiang Normal School was founded. Although most of them were only established during the adjustment of departments in 1952.

But if we go back to 1982, no one except Nanjing University dared to imagine that they would be able to hold a centenary celebration in 20 years. Some schools did not even exist 20 years ago. But in China, it does not take 20 years to rewrite history. Sometimes a school anniversary can extend the history of a school by decades.

We are too young, let’s change our predecessor

In 1982, Nanjing Institute of Technology held its 30th anniversary celebration. This institution was newly established in 1952 when the departments were restructured. It was one of the four famous engineering colleges at that time. This year, dozens of schools across the country are celebrating their 30th anniversary. Most of them are professional colleges such as science and engineering, literature and history, etc. They all came from the nationwide adjustment of departments in 1952. Since holding a school anniversary often costs tens of thousands, the Ministry of Education has also come forward to request that school anniversary activities be simplified.

In October 1982, the Ministry of Education issued a notice to immediately put an end to the school celebration / "People's Education"

As a result, five years later, Nanjing Institute of Technology held another school anniversary. But this time, they are celebrating the 83rd anniversary of the school, extending the school’s history by nearly 50 years. Although Nanjing Institute of Technology previously claimed that its history can be traced back to the Jiangnan Higher Industrial School founded in 1904, at that time it was only called "school history."

This is not over yet. One year later, in 1988, Nanjing Institute of Technology held a celebration for its 86th anniversary, once again extended the school's history, and announced that it would be renamed Southeast University. Southeast University, this name existed from 1921 to 1927. It was a national university founded on the basis of Nanjing Higher Normal University. From then on, the new Southeast University appropriated the history of Nanjing Normal University as its own history.

In order to extend the history of the school, Southeast University ruthlessly abandoned its original "predecessor" Jiangnan Higher Industrial School and replaced it with Sanjiang Normal School. On the official website of Southeast University today, you can no longer find any trace of Jiangnan Higher Industrial School, even though it has been the officially certified "predecessor" for more than 30 years.

In 2017, Southeast University successfully changed its appearance and celebrated its 115th anniversary / Southeast University official website

China’s universities are too young. Basically, few of them can meet the "long history" regulations of the Ministry of Education to hold school celebrations. However, if it were a predecessor, it would be completely different. Soochow University, which has never held a large-scale campus anniversary, launched a centenary anniversary celebration, directly tracing its history back to 1901, the year Soochow University was founded. Although previously, the predecessor of Soochow University was only considered to be the newly established Jiangsu Normal University.

In addition to working on the "predecessor", in order to extend the school's history, Chinese universities also refer to the day when the school was founded as the day when the school was founded.

Jiangnan University, which almost became the laughingstock of outsiders for its anniversary, took 1958, the year when Wuxi Light Industry Institute was established, as the starting year of its anniversary, and 1902 as the year the school was founded. But even more dishonest is Nanjing Normal University. Although this is also a school formed by the reorganization of departments, they still set the date of "school establishment" in 1902.

September 9, 2012, Nanjing Normal University. Students may think that their school has been established for 110 years/Visual China

The blurring of words has given many schools an opportunity. Most of the schools that held centenary celebrations after the 1990s used this routine. No matter in which year they were reorganized and merged, as long as they can be traced back to the earliest year of establishment, the school will have more than 100 years of founding on its anniversary.

Schools that developed independently from a certain department will also regard the day when the department was established (that is, the day of "school establishment") as the school's founding date, and then continue to carry out the school with great fanfare. Centennial anniversary. Therefore, the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, was not founded in 1921 when Shanghai University of Commerce was established, but in 1917 when the business major of Nanjing Normal University was established.

In order to be more convincing, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics also used old photos for its anniversary celebration/Shanghai University of Finance and Economics official website

The school building is a necessary weapon to extend the history of the school

In fact, even for those famous "hundred-year-old schools", the school history cannot be scrutinized. Looking at the name change history of Nanjing University, we can find that there was a gap of three years between Liangjiang Normal School (1906-1911) and Nanjing Higher Normal School (1914-1921).

In 1911, it was the time when the Revolution of 1911 broke out. After the Wuchang Uprising, Liangjiang Normal School was closed due to the war, and the original school building was used as a military warehouse. Until 1914, Jiangsu Province decided to use the original site to establish Nanjing Higher Normal School. The only relationship between the newly established school and the original Liangjiang Normal School is the school building.

Zhejiang University, which recently celebrated its 120th anniversary and lit up lights all over the world (also said to have caused "square dancing around the world"), has also traced its origins. To Qiushi Academy founded in 1897. The school was ordered to stop enrolling students in 1912, and when the last class of students graduated in 1914, Qiushi Academy ceased operations completely.

Today’s Zhejiang University was renamed from Sun Yat-sen University, which was founded in 1927. In 1940, National Zhejiang University held a celebration for its 13th anniversary. In 1946, Zhejiang University changed its anniversary to its 49th anniversary and traced its history to Qiushi Academy. Its connection with Qiushi Academy is that it used the original school building.

It can be said that the school building has become a necessary weapon for a school to extend its school history. This makes Hunan University, founded in 1926, already known as the "Millennium University" by virtue of the geographical location of Yuelu Academy.

Obviously, Wuhan University, which celebrated its centennial anniversary in 1993, has a lot of experience to draw from. In the first year, Wuhan University traced its school history back to the National Wuchang Higher Normal School, which was founded in 1913. In October 1993, Wuhan University suddenly announced that its school history traced back to Ziqiang School, which was founded in 1893. Ziqiang School was closed as early as 1911, and the only legacy left to Wuchang Normal University was the school building.

If we don’t change the school history, we will fall behind

No one can accurately explain why Wuhan University suddenly changed the source of its school history in 1993. In the first ten years, they only held On the 70th anniversary of the school, overnight, they concluded through the media that they were a century-old school. The ones who were most caught off guard were actually the brother schools. So much so that in November of that year, Tianjin University wrote to the State Education Commission to raise objections, saying that "Wuhan University's sudden announcement to celebrate its centenary anniversary is really confusing and unacceptable."

In the eyes of future generations, 1993 was just an extremely ordinary year, but looking at the events before and after that year, the tone of Chinese universities was invisibly established. Exaggeration has become synonymous with this tone.

Since the early 1980s, the United States has held many best university selections. By 1986, some regions in Asia also voted for the best universities in their minds. Yes, Chinese universities have never been on the list. Since the late 1980s, the slogan of building a world-class university has been mentioned repeatedly in some universities. In February 1993, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Outline for China's Educational Reform and Development" and proposed a plan to build the "211 Project" to allow a group of universities and disciplines to approach or reach the status of world-class universities at the beginning of the 21st century. level.

Obviously, being selected for this project will provide the school with far more resources than other similar schools. Just take a random set of data and you can see that in 2013, Tsinghua University, which is part of the "211" series, had the largest total scientific research funding of 3.931 billion yuan, of which fiscal allocations were 2.775 billion yuan, accounting for 70.6%. Southwest Petroleum University, which has the largest scientific research funding, only 2.61% of the 460 million yuan is financial allocation, about 120 million yuan.

From 1996 to 2000, the total amount of construction funds for the "211 Project" was 10.894 billion yuan, including 2.755 billion yuan of central special funds, 3.172 billion yuan of department matching funds, and 2.489 billion yuan of local government matching funds. The school's self-raised funds are 2.363 billion yuan, and construction funds from other channels are 115 million yuan. In addition, departments and local governments have also arranged supporting funds of 7.472 billion yuan for related infrastructure. At that time, China used almost all its efforts to build “first-class universities”.

Although the first batch of selected candidates was not announced until the end of 1995, the mention of the "211 Project" undoubtedly gave many colleges and universities a shot of stimulant - packaging schools well has become an urgent task. What better way to highlight the excellence of a school than to have a century-old history?

Although it seems today that it would be impossible to push Chinese universities into the world's advanced ranks in just a dozen years, but back in 1993, Chinese universities clearly believed in this myth. , and they continue to describe themselves as a myth.

Not only the "211" project, but also other changes this year have made universities eager to prove their excellence.

As early as 1985, the central government stated that it would reform the enrollment system for college students and the distribution system for graduates. In 1993, the Party Central Committee and the State Council formally proposed to reform the employment system of all-inclusive employment and "cadre employment" for college graduates, and implement an employment system in which a small number of graduates are employed by the state and the majority of graduates "choose their own careers." This forces students to choose colleges and majors more carefully.

In those years, although the policy of expanding university enrollment had not yet begun, various universities had already opened up some openings. In 1991, the number of students taking the college entrance examination and the number of admissions were 2.96 million and 620,000 respectively, in 1992 they were 2.96 million and 750,000, and in 1993 they were 2.86 million and 920,000. In the following years, the university's admission rate continued to rise. By 1999, after the university expanded its enrollment, the university's admission rate had exceeded 50%.

Universities that previously had the absolute right to choose are gradually facing two-way choices from students, and competition among institutions at the same level has become more intense. It is obviously simpler and more direct to create a long-standing story for the school than to improve the teaching level and quality in a short period of time. The name of a "century-old school" brings as much attention as an academic award.

There are many benefits to packaging school history

Everything will not just stay in 1993. Since that year, a tireless “arms race” among Chinese universities has been going on all the time. From the life-extending school history, to the huge alumni donations, to the huge advertisements all over the world, Chinese universities try their best to show an exaggerated side in celebrating their campuses.

The longer the school’s history, the more capital it has to show off. On the famous alumni list of Hunan University, you can see military strategists such as Cai E and Huang Xing, as well as political leaders such as Li Da, Xiong Xiling, and Cai Hesen. It is not surprising to find that Mao Zedong has also been included in the list of famous alumni. Entered the ranks of alumni.

In addition to having more alumni with famous names, universities that are over 100 years old can more confidently make their anniversary celebrations bigger and bigger. If the 20th anniversary of the school lasted three days and three nights, people would laugh at it, but the 120th anniversary would not be an exaggeration if it lasted for a week. After all, Tsinghua University’s centenary anniversary lasted for more than three months.