Baseline

Author: Ji Huawen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This novel follows the advice of Mr. Lu Xun, where all characters and events are "taken from various sources and combined into one." If they happen to resemble real people or events in real life, it is purely coincidental, and we sincerely hope readers do not make direct associations. The "Hezhou University" mentioned in the book is not a specific university but a microcosm of many underdeveloped regions' higher education institutions.
At the start of a new semester, the ambitious female president Jian Pu takes office at Hezhou University, which has just weathered a fierce power struggle. Post-enrollment expansion has left Hezhou University in a precarious situation: on one hand, the number of students has skyrocketed, and new programs have been hastily launched without proper maturity; on the other hand, severe financial shortages and an overburdened faculty. Meanwhile, the upcoming undergraduate teaching evaluation by the Ministry of Education looms, while the actual quality of teaching has plummeted, with preventable teaching accidents occurring one after another.
Through vivid narration, the novel unfolds the peculiar scenes of today's university campuses: the open deception of counterfeit and substandard courses and programs toward students, collective falsification under the guise of "protecting the school's interests," the arrogance of students who gained admission through connections, the extreme distress and confusion of impoverished students facing the present and future, the vacillation of school leaders between justice, conscience, and personal achievements, and the desperate struggle of grassroots teachers to uphold the of education at the cost of their lives.
This is Ji Huawen's second novel on higher education corruption after The Struggle. "Hypocrisy" strides into the campus, and "deception" climbs the podium with impunity. Where can we find the soul of the university? Who will defend the of higher education? Through vivid narration, the novel unfolds the peculiar scenes of today's university campuses: the open deception of counterfeit and substandard courses and programs toward students, collective falsification under the guise of "protecting the school's interests," the arrogance of students who gained admission through connections, the extreme distress and confusion of impoverished students facing the present and future, the vacillation of school leaders between justice, conscience, and personal achievements, and the desperate struggle of grassroots teachers to uphold the of education at the cost of their lives.