Personal Addition: My reflection on a professor’s death.

The news of a doctorate supervisor in Renmin University who committed suicide by jumping off a high-rise shocked me, an event that makes people reflect on China’s educational system and those teaching staff’s life and working situation. It is widely said that teachers and other working staff in China’s universities are in the pinch, they not only working under piles of teaching burdens, but also urged to hone their academic competence by reading voluminously and time and now called on to publish their researches in great academic magazines.  A saying of “publish or perish” that mockingly tells about pressure, under which many foreign universities’ faculty is working, is now quoted by many Chinese teachers.

It seems that all these are the faults with the educational systems, but is it the case only with teachers in China? If we shift our focus to other fields, we may as well be saddened by the plights or even be astounded by the unbearable conditions lived through by many professionals. Stressful work and quickening tempo of life is the feature of modern life and society. Those of easy life and pleasant environment have been estranged from us, already something available only in reminiscences of humans.

Difficulties are there, confronting us; therefore we should face them squarely. There is no escape that can help free us from the dungeon. We need teeth and will to counter everything that is running against us. God will forgive us if we fail in our trying and endeavor, but will not forgive us if we retreat before challenges. God will confer us rewards if we are sparing no efforts, but will not spare us penalties if we back away.

Therefore, we need a good mentality and take the job as the source of our happiness. The work we are doing seems drudgery to many a people, but at least it can serve a moderate purpose: filling our time. At least, people do not have to think about what should be done to dawdle away time. But the function of time-filler of a work is not a full story of the work. It should be the one from which a great pleasure can be derived. But how can we wring the happiness from the drabness of our work. First of all, we should love our work and realize that stress is the driving force that can beef us up to challenges. We need a certain amount of stress and intensity in our work and life to keep us on the run. It is like a chess playing. The tougher the game is, the greater joy the player will get.
 

Any extreme act to shun stress is, in my eyes, an act of coward. Death is the end of one’s life, but will cause unending agony of his family and relatives. It is irresponsible and thus despicable.

Life is invaluable and cannot be recovered if it is lost. Please value our life and do our bits for society. Believe that any life has its due role and is justified in surviving this world.