MCLC: PKU claims about Xia Yeliang are disputed

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: PKU claims about Xia Yeliang are disputed
***********************************************************

The following article from the Epoch Times counters PKU’s claims that Prof
Xia Yeliang was not a good teacher, and indicates that he was actually a
well-regarded one. You can find more positive student evaluations from a
Chinese website: 

http://www.pinglaoshi.com/teacherId13932&tab=share&pageCount=5&p=2

Paul

===========================================================

Source: The Epoch Times (10/23/13):
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/327272-university-claims-over-dismissal-of-
chinese-professor-are-disputed/

University Claims Over Dismissal of Chinese Professor Are Disputed

Peking University, one of the most prestigious in China, and also one of
the most active when it comes to building relationships with academic
institutions outside China, dismissed a professor of economics and a
prominent advocate of political reform recently, with the claim that he
was simply a bad teacher.

Students had flooded the school with complaints about his digressive style
and wanderings from the curriculum, school officials said. “Xia Yeliang’s
teaching evaluation result has been the worst in the School of Economics
for consecutive years. The school has received 340 critical opinions from
students about his teaching, class content, and attitude,” the university
said in a statement on its website on Oct. 18.

But these reactions – if true – would not warrant his dismissal in any
case, and not normally result in the dismissal of a professor, say Chinese
students and commentators. They say that it smells like a case of
political persecution.

“It’s an extremely unjustifiable decision, but I can’t do anything about
it,” Xia Yeliang told The New York Times
<http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20131021/c21professor/>. “A school leader
told me that if I keep on telling international media that it’s a
political incident instead of an academic incident, my situation will be
even worse.”  

A Bad Teacher?Contrary to Peking University’s depiction of Xia, and
anecdotes from students, Xia Yeliang receives high praise on the website
Pinglaoshi,  
<http://www.pinglaoshi.com/teacherId13932&tab=share&pageCount=5&p=2>a
Chinese equivalent of the popular English-language RateMyProfessors.com
<http://RateMyProfessors.com/>, where students can score their professors
and leave comments. Xia received an overall score of 4.3 out of 5, and a
review of the comments by Epoch Times shows that all of them – dating back
to 2007 – are positive.

Xia was called “the conscience of the School of Economics,” “very
charismatic,” and “thought-provoking.”

One student writes 
<http://www.pinglaoshi.com/teacherId13932&tab=share&pageCount=5&p=2>: “Mr.
Xia’s Principles of Economics is the most popular class in Peking
University. A 100 seat classroom was packed with students. Even the space
around the lectern and out in the hall were full of people. I really
learnt a lot.”

In an interview with Sound of Hope Radio
<http://soundofhope.org/node/386159>, Xia said: “Principles of Economics
is one of my larger classes. I once had 376 students in that class. Some
students were from other schools.”

He added: “If I were an ignorant fool, if I received the worst evaluation
for consecutive years, how could I become influential in China’s economic
community? Why did enterprises, government departments, and universities
invite me to give lectures for so many years? It’s entirely a fabricated
arrangement.” 

An anonymous vote held by a faculty committee on Oct. 11 led to the
decision to dismiss Xia. Xia, however, and many observers, believe that
the real reason for his dismissal relates to his political views.

Chinese Internet users remarked that Kong Qingdong, another professor
known for his strong political views – though, in strong support of the
Communist Party – has not suffered any repercussions for his digressive
style. Anecdotes abound among students of left-leaning Chinese professors
who receive a flood of complaints, but never lose their jobs.

Pre-dismissal MuzzlingWarnings from Peking University were already sent to
Xia earlier this July. Xia Yeliang posted on his Twitter account on July
13 <http://twitter.com/XiaYeliang/status/352452986947108865> that
university leaders warned him about making critical online comments.
“[Peking University] leaders passed on words to me that I’m too active on
Sina Weibo, and I’ve had a severe negative impact,” he wrote. Sina Weibo
is a popular microblogging platform, like Twitter.

He continued: “Why are they so vulnerable and scared? I’m just expressing
my own opinion through a normal channel.”

“Peking University leaders told me that I was reported to have attacked
the Party, the nation, and the socialist system, and mocked the ‘China
Dream,’” Xia said. The China Dream refers to the slogan of Party leader Xi
Jinping. A university administrator “pointed out a post I wrote,
‘Anti-constitutionalism is anti-humanity,’ but I asked him back, ‘Is there
anything wrong with it?’” Xia wrote in July.
<http://twitter.com/XiaYeliang/status/352446046175105025>

Blogs that Xia ran were almost systematically shut off before he was
fired, he said in an interview with Voice of America.
 <http://www.voachinese.com/media/video/1774391.html>“All my blogs were
closed two days before I was dismissed. I had blogs on Sina, Sohu, QQ,
Phoenix, NetEase, but they have all been closed. An editor at QQ Weibo
sympathized with my situation and opened another account for me the day
before yesterday so that I could speak out, and I posted something on it
about my dismissal, but it’s also been deleted.”

Xia added that editors of those websites told him that they were force to
delete his blogs by officials in the propaganda apparatus.

Open CriticXia has for years been a prominent activist, signing
pro-democracy charters and speaking out in support of human rights. One of
his most public acts was to publish an open letter to Liu Yushan, minister
of the Central Propaganda Department, in 2009, sharply criticizing the
suppression of thought and speech by propaganda authorities.

In the open letter, Xia wrote, “If I lose my professorship because of this
letter, I will not regret it. I’ll feel proud to be one of the very few
intellectuals with courage in Peking University.”