Academician Accuses Former Student for Plagiarism

It is quite unusual for cases of academic integrity to be discussed in open media in China. Therefore it is quite amazing when an Academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Lu Daopei (陆道培), called for a press conference to accuse his former student for plagiarism. The accused is now the head of a research institute of the People's Hospital affiliated with Peking University by the name of Huang Xiaojun (黄晓军).

Lu Daopei alleged that Huang Xiaojun's 2008 award-winning research in stem cell was a direct derivative of Lu Daopei's earlier research in 2006, in which Huang Xiaojun was also a participant. Lu Daopei accused Huang Xiaojun for plagiarizing the earlier research as well as falsifying data in the later work.

Chinese Medical Association, which awarded a first class prize for Huang Xiaojun's work asked Peking University to investigate, which found Huang Xiaojun innocent. Lu Daopei organized an expert team of his own which concluded that Huang Xiaojun has committed multiple fraud including plagiarism and falsifying data.

Lu Daopei said in the press conference that it is a last resort of his to appeal to public on this matter. He hoped that a third-party investigation could help clarify the matter.

Chinese Universities Top Feeders for American Ph. D.s

The July 11 issue of Science magazine reports that two Chinese schools, the famous Tsinghua and Peking universities, are the top feeder schools for Ph. D. degrees granted in the U. S..

The full text of the article can be read here.

The Making of First-Rate Universities in China

Following Rao Yi, Shi Yigong (施一公） has recent become another high-profile professor who had permanent returned to China. Shi has been the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of molecular biology at Princeton University and is now a Professor and Associated Dean of the College of Bioscience and medicine at Tsinghua University in China.

The two of them, Shi Yigong of Tsinghua University and Rao Yi of Peking University, just published an article in the newspaper Guangming Daily (光明日报), on the making of word first-rate universities in China. This of course has been a very hot topic in the Chinese academia. But the article of Shi and Rao does show a degree of candidness and reality that has been remarkably missing in the discussion.

For example, Shi and Rao frankly pointed out that the current universities in China has yet a long way to go before becoming first-rate: "In most cases, the academic level of the average full professor in China is lower than that of the assistant professor of a first-rate university." It is a strong verdict indeed.

To make progress in this area, Shi and Rao said that China's universities must change their management philosophy and style, adopting the international standards and creating a new system that could attract both the top researchers and the young post-docs and assistant professors from around the world.

While providing a new voice on the issue, the article, however, did not contain any concrete ideas in how to achieve such lofty goals.

A Revival of Kowtow

In ancient China, the ultimate respect to one's superior is demonstrated by the protocol of Kowtow (磕头), whereupon one kneels down in front of the superior so that his feet, knees, and hands are all on the ground. He then touches his forehead to the ground multiple times. In extreme cases, how loud one can make the noise by smashing his forehead to the ground is a measurement of his respect, leading to many injuries. The practice was rigorously carried out by generations when men meet the emperors, parents/grandparents, and teachers.

Thankfully, this notorious protocol, along with many others, were abolished during the 1911 revolution and the subsequent modernization of China.

But things are changing these days and not all is for the better. Last Fall, hundreds of students practicing the "Crazy English" staged a public kowtow demonstration to thank their teacher.

Even more bizarre, though, is a display last week on the official television station, CCTV, in which a university professor performed a genuine kowtow to express his appreciation of his old teacher:


The one who did the kowtow is Qian WenZhong (钱文忠), a forty-one year old Professor of History at Fudan University. Qian is supposed to be the last student of Ji Xianlin (季羡林), the receiver of the kowtow. Professor Ji is close to 100 years old. He had spent his career, most of which in Peking University, studying ancient languages such as Sanskrit, as well as the religious and history aspects associated with the language.

In more recent years, Ji somehow gained the public title of a Master of Chinese Scholarship (国学大师) and became the figurehead of everything traditional Chinese. It's one thing to pay due respect to such a senior scholar. But do we need to go so far as to kowtow?

The Plagiarism Case of Wang Mingming

In his letter, professor Stearns cited an old case in Peking University (Beida):

The penalties for plagiarism that you will encounter later in life are very serious. If you do it as a graduate student, you can be expelled from university, and you will not get your degree. If you do it as a faculty member, you can lose your job. I know you may not believe that, for the sociology professor at Beida who translated an entire book into Chinese and published it with his name on it only lost his administrative positions but kept his professorship and salary. But things are not like that elsewhere. When plagiarism is detected in the United States, it can end the career of the person who did it. That is also true in Europe.

Long time followers of Fang Zhouzi and New Thread know exactly what that case was. It was back in 2002, when Fang Zhouzi was just getting into this business of exposing academic fraud. The entire history of that case is documented in New Thread's For the Record.

In January, 2002, an article was published in a small newspaper in Shanghai, accusing Professor Wang Mingming (王铭铭) of plagiarism. Wang Mingming was, and still is, a professor in the Institute of Anthropology in the Sociology Department of Peking University.

The fact was pretty simple. In 1987, Wang Mingming led the effort to translate of William A. Haviland's Cultural Anthropology and published it in Chinese. A decade later in 1998, Wang published a book of his own in Chinese (想象的异邦). It was found that about one-third of this new book, some 100,000 Chinese characters' worth, were directly copied from Haviland's book. Wang's new book cited 120 references, but did not include Haviland, a book Wang had translated himself and then copied in tantalizing scale.

The accusation ignited a heated debate in the media and internet at the time. Numerous students from Peking University rose to defend Professor Wang. Wang's own Ph. D. students published an open letter defending the character of their beloved teacher and accused the whistle-blower for having ulterior motives in defaming their school, the leading institute of Anthropology in China.

According to a report in the newspaper Beijing Youth, the original accuser was ready to apologize to Professor Wang for the trouble he had caused. On the other hand, Professor Wang only had "no comment" to answer to reporters' questions.

Later in March, 2002, Professor Wang Mingming issued a public apology to Haviland, colleagues, and readers. The school decided to revoke his administrative positions and suspend his privilege of advising Ph. D. students for two years. But he had his professorship intact. The punishment was almost identical to the ones dished out in the more recent plagiarism cases at Fudan University.

Today, Wang Mingming enjoys the full status as a professor in Peking University. His online resume indicates that he is also the Vice President of the Association of Literature and Anthropology in China.

Rao Yi: Professors Should Write Recommendation Letters Themselves

The fallout of Professor Stearns' letter continues. Peking University reports that Professor and Dean Rao Yi and a vice president of the university met with Stearns to discuss the issues raised in his letter.

Professor Stearns is happy with the progress and suggested that the school should their actions from two aspects:

1. When professors are asked to provide recommendation letters for their students, they should not just let the students write the letters for them to sign.
2. The school should require professors to teach with their own understandings of their class material, not just read out existing textbooks. If the professors are lazy in such a way, the students would learn to cheat by copying as well.

For many years, it has been a well known and common practice that most professors in China don't write recommendations for their students. They just ask the students to have them written and then sign whatever that were presented to them. Some do this out of lack of confidence in their English language skills, but most do it simply because they are not interested in investing the time and effort in this "mundane" task.

Rao Yi acknowledges this problem. He said that he was well aware of it when he was in charge of admitting graduate students at his institutes in the United States. Rao Yi agrees that there should be no reason for professors asking their students to write their own recommendation letters. They should write themselves, or at least ask their secretaries or assistants for help.

A Reader's Comment on Professor Stearns' Letter

We continue to receive comments to our story of Professor Stearns' letter. Thanks to all who have written. I would like to share one of them, by someone who had studied in Peking University, as below:

The fact that plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty occur everywhere does not invalidate the professor's point that the scope of the problem in China, like the size of its population or the speed of its economic expansion, is staggering. In my own experience as a graduate student instructor at the University of California at Berkeley and as a former student at both Peking University and Tsinghua, the incidence of plagiarism and fraud among Chinese students is disappointing to say the least. True, much of it can be attributed to an academic culture that allows students to quote without attribution or that encourages students to compose their own letters of recommendation when applying to foreign universities. Nevertheless, I generally accept the professor's point that such a culture not only undermines his efforts to educate his students, but diminishes the Chinese educational system and China as a whole. As for the professor's "condescending" tone - all I can say is that the truth sometimes hurts. It's difficult to examine the culture of dishonesty and permissiveness at Chinese universities like Beida without considering the larger social context. Pirated DVDs, western textbooks, and GRE prep materials are only the most obvious examples. Chinese students need to hear this message. China's poverty and status as a developing country are poor excuses for such brazen and pervasive dishonesty. Bravo to the professor for saying so.

Rao Yi Responses to Professor Stearns' Letter

Professor Rao Yi (饶毅), a long time Fang Zhouzi supporter and the new dean of Peking University's School of Life Sciences, has publicly responded to Professor Stearns' letter criticizing the wide-spread plagiarism in Peking University. According to the press release, Rao Yi is the first person among the recepants of Stearns' letter to reply.

In response to Stearns' charge that the faculties and administrators have been covering up past plagiarism cases, Rao Yi announced unequivocally that should any faculty members in his School of Life Sciences be found guilty of plagiarism, they would be expelled.

It is not clear whether any of the students in Stearns' class who had committed plagiarism belong to Rao Yi's School. Nevertheless, Rao Yi had also received email from at least one such student pleading innocence. Rao promised to work with both the students and Professor Stearns to resolve the matter. He also encourages the students to face their mistakes and look forward.

It is highly unusual for an officer of any kind to respond to criticism in such a timely and clear manner. Having returned to China and become the dean only mere months ago, Rao Yi is certainly presenting himself as a new kind of administrator and scholar. It's very refreshing to see.

Of course, Rao Yi's ultimate test is still yet to come, when he has a plagiarism (or other fraud) case in his hands. Would he be able to keep his promise?

Yale Professor Criticizes Wide Spread Plagiarism at Peking University

Professor Stephen Stearns of Yale has spent this Fall at Peking University teaching two undergraduate courses on evolution. The school, also affectionately known as Beida, is one of the most prestigious universities in China. Today, a letter by him is circulating the school's BBS and a few other web sites in China. In the letter, Professor Stearns expressed great dismay in his discovery of plagiarism cases among his students (after his explicit warning, no less), as well as behaviors of the school and the country in ignoring international intellectual rights.

What I found particularly interesting is his observation that "The fact that I have encountered this much plagiarism at Beida tells me something about the behavior of other professors and administrators here. They must tolerate a lot of it, and when they detect it, they cover it up without serious punishment, probably because they do not want to lose face. If they did punish it, it would not be this frequent."

Indeed, Fang Zhouzi and New Thread had exposed quite a few plagiarism cases involving Beida professors in the past. None of them had received any adequate punishments.

Professor Stearns has confirmed to this blog that he is in fact the author of this letter. With his permission, the full text of the letter, taken from the New Thread web site, where a Chinese translation is also available, is presented here:

To my students in Beijing, Fall 2007:
While grading papers today I encountered two more cases
of plagiarism. One was sophisticated but serious. The
other was so blatant that it was almost unbelievable.
That makes a total of three students who have failed my
courses because of plagiarism.

If I had not warned you and given you the opportunity
honestly to correct your essays, there would have been
several more. I thank those of you who were honest and
showed me what you had copied.

Plagiarism disturbs me greatly, both because it corrodes
my relationship with you as my students, and because it
tells me things about China and Beida that neither you
nor I want to hear.

It corrodes my relationship with you because I work
hard to be a good teacher, I take time to prepare good
lectures, and I spend many hours providing detailed
feedback on essays. It is hard work. You cannot imagine
what it is like to correct the details of the 500th
essay until you have done it yourself. I do that to help
you learn to think more clearly, to express yourself
convincingly, and to develop your intellectual power,
your ability to understand the world. I also do it
because I value you, I value your ideas, and I think
the world will be a better place when you can all think
clearly and behave intelligently. Later in life, some of
you will be leaders with important positions. I want you
to be competent and honest, for I have seen too often
what terrible things can happen when leaders are
incompetent and dishonest. Leadership aside, I want all
of you to be able to create value in your lives, whatever
you end up doing, and you cannot do that if you deceive.

When a student whom I am teaching steals words and ideas
from an author without acknowledgment, I feel cheated,
dragged down into the mud. I ask myself, why should I
teach people who knowingly deceive me? Life is too short
for such things. There are better things to do.

Disturbingly, plagiarism fits into a larger pattern of
behavior in China. China ignores international
intellectual property rights. Beida sees nothing wrong
in copying my textbook, for example, in complete violation
of international copyright agreements, causing me to lose
income, stealing from me quite directly. No one in China
seems to care. I can buy DVDs in stores and on the street
for about one US dollar. They cost $20-30 outside China;
the artists who produced them are losing enormous amounts
of stolen income, billions of dollars each year. China has
become notorious for producing defective products that have
to be recalled because the pose health threats to consumers.
A recent cartoon in an American newspaper shows the Central
Committee reacting to an accusation that they have violated
human rights. The response? "Wait until they see what we
put in their toothpaste next!" Corruption is a serious
problem in a booming economy. For example, in the mining
industry, about 5000 miners die each year and mine owners
cut corners in violation of the law. The social fabric
breaks when workers die because owners are greedy. The
Mandate of Heaven is lost.

China appears to have lost her way. Confucius said, do not
do to others what you do not want them to do to you. He
also said, a gentleman is honest. Honesty and reciprocity
are the basis of trust and community. We cannot get along
in a world filled with deceit and defection; such a world
becomes a Hobbesian war of all against all, nasty and
brutal. We cannot do science if we cannot trust what others
publish. There is no reason to try to replicate a result
if it cannot be trusted. It would not be worth the effort.
Without replication there can be no shared knowledge that
is tested and trustworthy - that is, no science. Without
science, there can be no technology. And without technology,
there can be no steady increase in productivity, economic
growth, and a better life for all.

The penalties for plagiarism that you will encounter later
in life are very serious. If you do it as a graduate
student, you can be expelled from university, and you will
not get your degree. If you do it as a faculty member, you
can lose your job. I know you may not believe that, for the
sociology professor at Beida who translated an entire book
into Chinese and published it with his name on it only lost
his administrative positions but kept his professorship and
salary. But things are not like that elsewhere. When
plagiarism is detected in the United States, it can end the
career of the person who did it. That is also true in
Europe.

The fact that I have encountered this much plagiarism at
Beida tells me something about the behavior of other
professors and administrators here. They must tolerate a
lot of it, and when they detect it, they cover it up
without serious punishment, probably because they do not
want to lose face. If they did punish it, it would not be
this frequent.

I have greatly enjoyed teaching some of you. I have
encountered young minds here that are as good as any in
the world. Many of you are brave, most of you work very
hard, most of you are honest, and some of you are brilliant.
But I am leaving with very mixed feelings. It is quite sad
that so many promising young Chinese think it is necessary
to cheat to succeed. They damage themselves even more than
the people from whom they steal and the people whom they
deceive with stolen words.

Sincerely, Steve Stearns