Potty-Mouth Professor Ends His Diatribe

Ji Guangmao (季广茂) is a Professor of Chinese at Beijing Normal University (北师大). Like any other professor, he publishes articles and books and writes a blog on his research and life. But for the past three months or so, he suddenly became very famous for reasons unlike any other.

It was in the November of 2007, the Literature & Art Studies (文艺批评) journal published a review article that was highly critical to one of Ji's books.

The criticism must have stricken a chord in Ji's heart. In an immediate response, Professor Ji published a provoking article in his blog on December 5. He characterized the review article as a vicious attack and the author a "beast" (畜生), an extremely degradative term in Chinese. What's more, he declared that he would become a beast himself, so that he could fight against the attacker at the same level!

And he was not kidding. From that day forward, he published numerous articles in his blog attacking the author of the review article, filled with juvenile dirty words. His behavior was so shocking and bizarre, he became known as the "A-hole Professor" on the internet.

It last for more than 80 days. On February 25, however, Professor Ji apparently came back to his senses. He deleted most of the offending articles from his blog and apologized for his behavior, which in his own words had tarnished the image of his profession and school. His school and department expressed relief. There was no word on any penalties he may face.

Another Victim Speaks Up

Another victim of the abusive Professor Ai Yuncan speaks up today, with his real name Wang Kai (汪凯). It's the first one who did not use anonymity or a pseudonym. In 2003, Wang was a graduate student for a Master degree with Ai. Ai intended Wang to study for Ph. D. instead. But due to his parents' illness and financial difficulty, Wang was intending to graduate with just a Master. This decision did not bode well with Ai.

In his letter to New Threads, Wang detailed the long and miserable abuses he had to suffer subsequently. Professor Ai claimed his work was worthless and refused to allow him to graduate. Neither was he allowed to do real work in the lab. What's more, Professor Ai rejected Wang's many attempts to apologize and reconcile. Ai claimed that Wang's parents should be held responsible for Wang's "immaturity". Therefore, Wang's sick parents had to travel to school and personally apologize to the professor. Wang's father was literally down to his knees, although Professor Ai did stop him at the last minute.

After Wang finally graduated and left, his work, claimed to be worthless by Professor Ai, was published by Ai in the Proceedings of Sun Yet-sen University. Both Wang Kai and Ai Yuncan were among the authors. But neither was the first author.

The first author was Meng Fanmei (孟繁梅) -- Ai Yuncan's wife.

An Abusive Professor in Guangzhou

The day after the New Year, an anonymous letter, with a pseudonym Broken-Heart Ph. D. (伤心博士), was posted in an internet forum in China. The post has an astounding title, begging a professor "Would you Please Not to Abuse People Anymore?". The post was immediately carried in many other online forums, including New Thread, and received much heated discussions everywhere.

The author of the post is purported to be one of the suffering graduate students of Ai Yuncan (艾云灿), a microbiology professor at Sun Yet-Sen University (中山大学) in Guangzhou. In tearing language, the letter described Professor Ai as extremely abusive, verbally and sometimes physically, towards his graduate students. The article also provided a list of 13 Ph. D. students who had come to Ai's lab since 2004. They were described as either left without a degree or trapped in a limbo in the lab.

The author of the post also claimed in possession of a record of Professor Ai's verbal abuse. The record was not posted due its large size. While begging for the professor to stop his abusive behavior, the author wish to warn any students who are considering of applying for the lab.

Afer New Thread carried the post, it received another letter from someone claiming to be a student of Professor Ai's. This new author claimed to be the first student of Ai's who had fought back the abuse and successfully changed adviser within the school. It also included a few more of Ai's victims: students dated back to 1998. In this new article, the author encouraged Ai's current students to stop being victims, fight back and seek help from authorities.

To its credit, Sun Yet-Sen University appears to be responding rather quickly. It already posted a notice in the school web site stating that an investigation group has been formed to look into this matter. The group's initial findings are that although some details in the original post are unfounded, the problems are not entirely baseless. The group claims that Professor Ai is a diligent and strict scientist, who is under tremendous pressure of executing several big research projects. It is due to his lack of people skills that Professor Ai had resorted to crude treatment to some of his students. The group also indicated that Professor Ai has recognized his wrong-doings and apologized to his students.

It's not clear whether any further actions will be taken.