绿葱园

Tens of cats live in the campus of PKU, and this is one of them.

But what you see is not a common cat. This one is a cat with a real character.

Every cat has his or her own realm, on the roof of a shed, behind a mess hall, beside the Weiming Lake, or on a big tree. Our protagonist’s kingdom lies in the left side of the southern door, where anyone passing by would easily notice this fat cat among bikes.

Those who meet him for the first time may walk towards him, trying to play with him. Unlike other cats, he isn’t afraid of human beings at all. In spite of knowing people are getting close, he sits quiescently bathing himself with his tongue, or just lays down there enjoying the genial sunshine, eyes closed. 

People would be excited to find his fearlessness, for he doesn’t flee as cats usually do in such episodes. But soon they would feel profoundly depressed. Now matter what great efforts they make to catch his attention, meowing to him, calling him “Garfield” in a sweet tone, or even shouting at him “Fatso!”, he wouldn’t raise his head to look at people around. Listlessly, he goes on with his business, bathing or sleeping, as a philosopher doesn’t care about trivial disturbances. Within two minutes or less, idlers around him would give up and walk away.

Sometimes he is basking and reluctant to open his eyes when people are petting him. His lack of response would make people think he’s only a carcass, and leave at once with a fear of bad luck. He goes on with his dream, maybe smiling.

This is a cool cat that makes human beings like geeks.

He doesn’t play with anyone.

He plays everyone.

1. Insert your hands into rice in the crock, again and again

2. Walk　on a road　definitely by every two bricks

3. Use a mirror to reflect the sunshine to different corners

4. Put a piece of paper above a coin, and then sketch on it with a pencil to create a picture

5. After eating a sugus, pack the wrapping paper into a rectangular solid again to make it as status quo ante

6. Ride a shopping go-cart in the supermarket

7. Paste a piece of paper on the back of a classmate, saying “I am an idiot” or so

8. Pat someone’s left side while simultaneously standing on his or her right

9. Step on others’ shadows

10. Throw away neighbors’ slippers which are put outside their doors

11. Slide down the floor on the handrail

12. Walking opposite to the elevator

13. Paint nails with fluorescent pens

14. Wheel an umbrella in rain

15. Dance, act, or sing in front of a mirror, when nobody is in

16. Bark when you come across a cat, miaow when you meet a dog

17. Walk with an umbrella under eaves in rain, in order to appreciate the sound made by heavy drops

18. Squeeze wrapping paper which has bubbles

The above was a topic of a radio program last night. Everyone sent short messages in to participate admitted he or her had done almost all of them.

I myself have done all except 6, 10 and 11, and some in the list are still my favors today. For instance, the last one, hehe…I just can’t dispute the enticement of the tinny bubbles and the lovely sounds when they are broken…

Once I had an elegant cup on my desk. To make it more specific, it was an artifact made of Zisha, the famous and widely considered best material for tea cup. The dragon styled handle with deliberately carved scales, the poem written on the body, and the three feet which steadily buttressed the whole body above the desk, all implied what a great effort the unknown artisan must pay on it. I came across it last weekend in Panjiayuan, captivated by its dark polish at the very first minute I picked it up.

While coming back, I searched on internet and found no similar ones with such a careful decoration. Undoubtedly, I love my tea cup. The adoration almost made every sipping like a kissing.

But it was broken this noon. With a lowering “BANG”, I immediately saw the dire scene on the floor.

I know tangible things will all turn into smashes one day, but it seems not a suitable excuse to get me out from dismay. I’ve always believed ration can dictate emotion and conquer negative mood, but it doesn’t work this time.

Suddenly I notice the sorrow didn’t come from my losing a favorite artifact, but my deep fondness towards the cup before I broke it.

Once a teacher told me, he who has a favor will therefore have a weakness, and may be used. To me, at this moment, I just want to make myself under control and I know I have to keep my heart devoid of inclinations, to free myself from irrational thoughts. “To the great men, an incident is like a wind runs through the bamboos, with only a sound left after it goes by.”

Thus, this blog is neither an introduction for a cherished tea cup, nor a mourning ceremony for it, but rather a tip reminding a restless spirit to protect itself from material desires, leaving it like a quiescent lake under the moon, without surges.

Nobody knows how, or when, or whom such a unique tradition came from. The word Hanlou can be translated as Shout At The Dormitory literally. In Sun Yat-sent University, when graduation time comes, boy students will go to the girl students’ dormitory, shouting as loud as possible to tell the girls they love them.

Our Graduation Day was 30th June, a cloudy and rainy day which made our emotion more complex. Here is a time table for the day:

6:30 get up

7:00 go to southern campus (the main campus of SYSU, which seems irrelevant to our four years’ college life)

8:00 take graduating photo collectively with classmates

9:00 take graduating photo individually with friends, have supper

16:00 graduating ritual

18:00 graduating dinner

21:00 go back to eastern campus

22:00 Hanlou

On the way back to eastern campus, boy graduates’ stomachs were filled with beer, wine, rice-wine, and other unknown or known alcohols. Most of us weren’t drunken, of course, while half-drunken would be a suitable word to describe this noisy crowd of little beasts, with alcohol penetrating from shirts to the air, red faces and eyes sparkling because of rain drops or tears, choked voices promising friends around to remember them forever, opening arms holding each other tightly for the last time. A joke would cause some laughter, but soon a strong feeling of sorrow could be smelled in the air, for we all realize it may be the last laughter we share together.

Then came the Hanlou. I’d heard this tradition since two years ago, but not seen any former graduate done this before, for we are the first grade to this new campus without older students to set us examples. However, Hanlou is just like drinking alcohol, which can’t be taught by others but one should learn by himself. What’s more, without former paradigms, we can be more creative to add some special factors into this lovely conventional ritual.

Boy graduates went to our girls’ dormitory, calling, yelling, taking off the shirts to be half naked (great courage was needed for me), making as much shrill sound as possible, then shouting at the girls like “Ma Yili, I love you!” “Wang Qiuxiao, I love you!”

“Love” is not a common vocal word in China even in contemporary society, where people gradually getting familiar to the extraverted western culture by movies, where falling in love is no longer forbidden in college (but it’s usually forbidden in high school), where the youths are informed with the importance of expressing love in daily life. When a boy finally collects enough courage and steps forward to express his adoration towards his dream girl, it is of 99% that he says “I like you” rather than “I love you”. Considering the conservative, introversive and sensitive characteristics of Chinese, you may see what a great breakthrough toward social tolerant rules it is to shout the word “love” out. Or, to make a little exaggerating, Hanlou may be taken as a SYSU edition of streaking in the movie American Pie, which is described as a tradition of American graduates (further proof needed, though).

As a reply, girls piped excitingly and labbered enthusiastically from upstairs, making the Graduation Day like a Water-splashing Festival.

Girls also shouted at the boys like “Zhang Wenguang, I love you!” The guy whose name was picked up would be pushed down by others to the wet ground at once, rolling and struggling in mud.

Ignoring the dormitory conservator’s warning, boys decided to rush upstairs to embrace every girl whom we spent four years together with and can’t be met any longer.

Lovely Sun Chengyao had an idea that she should stop the totally muddy and almost crazy boys from getting nearer with a cute plastic stick, which was proved to be useless in no time.

A well equipped security man (he even wore a raincoat) tried to force boys away, while we thanked his effort with a basin of water.

Four years ago, I was new to this quickly built, half finished, so-called beautiful and modernized, indeed remote and country-like campus, complaining and cursing the goddamned idea of constructing such a stupid university town. I spent four years to persuade myself to love here, trying to focus on the fresh air, comparatively delicious food and newly painted dormitory despite the long distance from the main campus, but frankly speaking, I failed. However, as the time gradually turned freshmen into graduates, I suddenly noticed a great advantage here: without experiences passing down from older grades, we’ve learned to try, to create, to make mistakes, to take responsibilities, to teach ourselves lessons, to cherish resources and people we come across, to make every possible moment into colorful memory, just as what we did in Hanlou.

Now we are dispersed all around the country, and some will even go abroad. Years later, when we meet each other, Hanlou will certainly be a precious memory, bringing us laughter, and maybe tears.

Zhang Shujun (Sheldon), my mentor, invited Professor Jay B. Barney and Assistant Professor Sharon A. Alvarez from Ohio State University to Guangzhou to hold a seminar. However, our guests must be discouraged by our scholars’ low passion and poor performance, as my mentor said angrily.

The topic of this seminar is arranged to be How to Write and Publish English Papers, in which Jay and Sharon are going to share their experiences and give advises to our scholars’ papers. Sadly, only five drafts are handed in, all of which are short and immature. The most ridiculous thing was, when Jay, one of the top scholars in strategy and entrepreneur research field, was trying to offer some suggestions to these drafts, he found the authors didn’t attend his seminar! No wonder Sheldon blamed their laziness and rudeness towards such a world class scholar. It was obviously a shame of our college.

Anyway, as an undergraduate who attended the there days long seminar although was supposed to, I appreciate Sheldon’s great effort to invite the two professors, Jay and Sharon’s kindness to come from a long way to share their experiences, and several scholars in our college who attend the seminar from the very beginning to the end. I’ve learned a lot, and scheduled them point by point as follows:

1. Empirical test and theory development

Jay say:

Empirical work should be under theory. To test an existed theory is meaningless, no matter the result is strengthening, rejecting or demonstrating no relationship. Valuable work is to find contradictory theories and test the conflict.

I think:

Jay seems to have an assumption that the only value of empirical work is to test contradictory theories, but not to find out certain rules at the very beginning. In front of certain phenomenon, theories are the first and best choices to explain it. Only when conflicts exist in theories can empirical research be used.

Jay’s logic is:

I used to think in a Marxian way, considering theory goes under practice:

My thought emphasized the generation and development of a new theory, while Jay would like to development his theory based on existed theories. Jay also mentioned that a paper can only make one breakthrough in academics. I admit he’s right, because taking the use of certain already broadly accepted ideas is the best and even only way to persuade people, either in the research world or in daily life.

2. How to choose a worthy research subject

Jay say:

People usually say “The reason to do this research is because it hasn’t been done before”, which is useless, for how rare are relative researches can’t stands for how important the topic is.

I think:

To fill a certain blank in academic field should be considered as a contribution as well. Jay denies the value of such research work possibly because his lecture focuses on how to successfully publish papers in top English journals, and editors of these journals may just think as Jay said. Comparing with creating a totally new theory, it is much more difficult to discover contraries or faults of existed theories, thus the limited spaces of top international journals should be offered to the latter.

“The reason to do this research is because it hasn’t been done before” are common words I usually come across in most Chinese papers, which reflect the distance between our academic work with top classical colleagues.

３. How to write a paper

For a theory paper:

Abstract

3 sentences for introduction

3 sentences for logic

3 sentences for conclusion

Introduction: “Why should you read this paper”

First paragraph: The current conversation

Second paragraph: A tension in the current conversation

Third paragraph: How you are going to address this tension

(Maybe another paragraph to show that other efforts to resolve this tension have failed)

Fourth paragraph: “The purpose of this paper is . . .”

Common mistakes:

Review the literature in the introduction

Outline your theory in the introduction

Write the discussion section in the introduction

Identify more than one conversation

Definitions and assumptions

Avoid “he said, she said” lists

Position definitions and assumptions in received literature

Common mistakes:

No link to past: “This is irrelevant”

No change from the past: “This is obvious”

Too much change: “This is crazy”

Change only one assumption

Theory development

Logic and hypotheses: Derived from different mixes of assumptions

Surprise: Counterintuitive prediction

Theory extensions

Robustness of predictions with respect to assumption changes

Stick with the current conversation

Discussion

The other conversations you can contribute to

Other management theories

Other social science theories

Managerial practice

Policy implications

Establishing a theoretical property right: Even if someone else develops an implication before you, they will have cite you

For an empirical paper:

Abstract

Introduction

Definitions and assumptions

Sample

Measures

Method

Result

Robustness

Discussion

The normal length of a paper would be 30 to 35 pages long.

４. How to publish a paper

Jay say:

When submitting a paper to a journal, three reviewers will read it and offer their comment. Rejection is certain, while accepting is uncertain. Possible outcomes are

Rejection (65%)

2nd round revise and resubmit (20%)

Accept with minor changes (10%)

Accept (5%)

95% of scholars never publish even one paper in their lives.

I think:

If a world class scholar like Jay often receives rejections, I’d better prepare for such beats in the future. By the way, the high standard promises for great quality of these top journals.

In the last lecture, Sharon kindly shared us with her personal publishing experience, including the seemly heart-breaking mail from editor, rigorous comments from three anonymous reviewers, and how she handled the revising process afterwards. Thanks to Sharon!

The quantity of money needed

Model 1:

1.10 persons and 1 central bank included.

2. Every person produces 1 good ($1) and consumes 1 good ($1) per day, but the good consumed must be different from the one he/she produce (Thus exchange becomes a must).

3. Exchanges of goods must happen with money as a media.

4. Money is offered by the central bank.

5. Money can only be used once per day.

Central bank just provides 10 $ at the very beginning, gives them to the 10 men respectively and then it has nothing to do.

Model 2:

Base on the former model, change hypotheses 2:

Every person produce 2 goods ($1) and consume 1 good ($1) per day, but the good consumed must be different from the one he/she produce.

The central does the same.

Model 3:

Base on the former model, add hypotheses 6:

People would like to exchange every good they handle

Model 4:

Base on the former model, break hypotheses 5:

Model 5:

Base on the former model, change hypotheses 2:

5 persons produce 2 goods ($1) and consume 1 good ($1) by each per day, but the good consumed must be different from the one he/she produce. 5 persons produce 1 machine and consume 1 good ($1) by each per day. Every machine will produce 2 goods ($1) per day.