Back in 2003, a UNESCO report revealed that China has the largest number of students in the world-about 15 million.¹

And in 2007, the Minister of Education of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Ji, said:: "The number of students in Chinese universities has reached 25 million, there has been a 5-fold increase in their number in just 9 years. Within a few years, Chinese higher education has evolved from elite to public. In many countries, this process has taken several decades. " ²

RESIDUAL SLOGAN COMMUNISM

Slogans and banners with communist messages are still visible on university campuses, but in recent years they have become noticeably smaller, and they appear only before major holidays and anniversaries.

In 2002-2005, slogans from the series " Hard work for the new semester!"," We will fulfill the 10th five-year plan!", etc. were even hung on bushes on the campus of the Nanfang ³ private Translation College, associated with the Sichuan Institute of Foreign Languages (tuition fee is 12 thousand yuan* per year). Sichuan Yinyaz (4.5 thousand yuan per year for English) in Chongqing and Jiayin University (Meizhou, Guangdong Province, fee-4.3 thousand yuan per year for the English department). Banners with Communist messages decorated the long balconies of the academic buildings.

However, closer to the Beijing Olympics, all the calls were replaced by Olympic posters. In the old Jiayin Library named after a certain Li Qin, who even the students didn't know who she was, there were portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping at the entrance. The new library, named after the main sponsor, Hong Kong millionaire Tian Jiabin, opened in 2006, no longer has portraits of the leaders. They stayed in the old building, sealed up until better times. But the bronze statue of the sponsor, alive and well, nevertheless appeared in one of the academic buildings, also named after the businessman.

This is how the "milestone shift" was clearly demonstrated, the transition from abstract ideas and slogans that are now of little interest to many people to more concrete advertising, the glorification of Chinese achievements, such as space flights, the triumphant Beijing Olympics, the success of Chinese basketball star Yao Ming in America, whose leg injury was discussed with about the same interest as it is discussed before the Olympics. in Europe and Latin America, the best players on the eve of the FIFA World Cup.

There are also events that satisfy a purely national consciousness - EXPO 2010, the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in 2009, the 80th anniversary of Guangxi University in 2008, etc.

To satisfy national vanity and get rid of the "Nobel inferiority complex", only the Nobel Prize awarded to a Chinese loyal to the authorities living in the PRC is not enough. ⁴ It is against this background that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident in 2010 was perceived by the authorities as a slap in the face.

STILL "STEERING" (A LITTLE)

Nevertheless, the party leadership formally still appreciates-

* $1 is equal to approximately 6.66 yuan (approx. ed.).

xia is higher in the Chinese hierarchy than the administrative leadership of a faculty or university. At least on the faculty stands with photos of teachers in all state universities in China, the photo of the party secretary is displayed in front of the photo of the dean and his deputies. He is always introduced to foreigners at banquets first, and then it is the turn of the rector or president of the university.

The situation is somewhat different in private colleges, such as Xingjian College in Nanning (fees 16,000 yuan per year), associated with Guangxi University (fees for the Faculty of Foreign Languages 4,500 yuan per year), where market relations or the whims of sponsors prevail, which in the end is the same.

There's a portrait of the college's party secretary on the stand... absent. Deans and their deputies are all here, foreign teachers are also present, but the party "leader"is not on the stand, although the "leader" himself is. In a private school, the party leader is much less visible. Everyone knows that he is the main one, but the college sponsors from Hong Kong are if not more important, then more important. Although each student group still has a curator from among the young teachers, who also deals with the admission and recommendation of students to the ranks of the Communist Party.

Communism leaves university life in English without saying good by.

Here is a microstatistical confirmation of the proportion of Jiayin students who see the world through his lens: of the 175 essays I reviewed on " The Aspirations of Young People in China," only one mentioned that we should study well to help build a true communist society in our country. The remaining 174 were limited to mundane search for a good job, buying a home and starting a family, which they share with their peers in any other country in the world. By the way, he mentioned the "communist society", perhaps the most intelligent of the students, perhaps reasoning that loyalty to the authorities will not interfere with your career.

I admit that many students could not express this idea in English, but they all write essays when they are guided by some Chinese textbooks. And so their textbooks are different from our tomes of party books from the 1980s, from which I still remember the jagged "to satisfy the requirements of the socialist society", which, when said with the proper Russian accent, sends my colleagues into homeric laughter (everyone understands this). "satisfaction" to the extent of its depravity).

RESIDUAL ACTIVISM

Any student group at a state university, or even at a private college in Xinjiang, still has at least a prefect, a deputy prefect, a Communist Party representative, an academic leader, a physical therapist, a treasurer, leisure managers, a technical facilities commissioner, and so on. And this is in addition to the fact that less sloppy groups may include: representatives of the student union of the faculty and the entire university with the same intricate positions, and in advanced classes in the third year there may be up to a quarter of students who are members of the Communist Party and half who are candidates for it, as well as many representatives of the same faculty or university student union.

For the sake of interest, I once counted how many of my students are hanging on the faculty board of activists, and realized that in the second or third year there are so many of them that every fourth is a Komsomol member, headman, physical education specialist, treasurer or some other activist.

In China, as in the USSR, social activity is not rewarded openly, but" unobtrusively " encouraged. For example, even if a student passes all exams with scores above 90 points (out of 100), which is extremely rare, he will still not receive a scholarship of the highest degree if his score in socio-political practice (I translate it in Soviet terms) is lower than the same 90.

In different universities, this scholarship varies from 300 to

1 thousand yuan per month. It is quite possible for a student to live on it if the tuition and dorm fees were paid by parents-relatives or a loan was taken out for studying, because modest student expenses do not exceed 10 - 20 yuan a day, depending on whether it is Beijing or a provincial city. And if the grade for community service is below 70, and this is mostly decided by the student group itself at the final meeting at the end of the semester, then even the most complete excellent student will not receive a scholarship.

There is a certain logic in cultivating these communist atavisms, and not only in the fact that the government itself is engaged in this. After all, youth organizations and clubs for interests ranging from cross-knitting to Thames rowing exist in every university in the world. Chinese universities have all kinds of clubs for interests ranging from poetry, calligraphy, and photography to dance and martial arts.

It is believed, and probably not for nothing, that it is better to keep these formal, and not very formal, organizations on hand with the help of a controlled network of activists, rather than let them go on their own, as in the West (and not only in the West), where youth communities sometimes start to rebel.

Activists should set an example: be the first to go to the ubiquitous bus with the red cross on the Guangxi University campus for voluntary and compulsory blood donation, make and collect donations for victims of floods and earthquakes. It seems that this Komsomol "always be ahead" is the only thing left for the activists to do. Most students are normal people, moderately apolitical, moderately pragmatic and focused on money and shopping. Slogans and appeals are no longer enough to encourage anyone to do anything, so active comrades have to take on some part of serious social work, which is enough in universities.

Prefects report to the administration for attendance and inform students about changes in the schedule or social events. Educational leaders set an example in their studies and work with laggards, physical education students count on their heads who came for morning exercises and who skipped. Party students attend regular faculty party meetings and tell their classmates about them within reasonable limits, while party candidates do the same, only more diligently. The treasurer shakes out the group's money and counts out RMB for collective outings or dinners, and directs a trip to the market in the event of a cooking contest or group picnic.

In principle, something similar existed in the USSR, but was largely lost in modern Russia. So, in a group of 30 people at the radio faculty of Gorky University, I remember, there was a Komsomol member collecting dues, a headman issuing a scholarship, a junior draughtsman - editor of a wall newspaper, a physical engineer and members of the student union, the faculty council, etc. who were not clear about what they were doing-also about a quarter of the staff.

I used to be a prefect myself, and I used to travel around the city on crowded buses with a scholarship for the entire group. This was the only possible significant social activity in the entire group, since the Komsomol was canceled back in 1991. There were no bodyguards from fellow students, although they would not hurt, because many refused this honorary job, pointing out the risk when transporting money.

In China, in the 2000s, scholarships, as well as teaching salaries, were already largely transferred to bank accounts.

Some activists are also interesting individuals, if not good students. Apparently, this is very important when advancing through all the Confucian-Komsomol youth hierarchies.

As it turned out from conversations with activists from various universities, all these positions that are not easy to remember and comprehend, such as the headman or the sinecure of the party secretary of the group, must be officially approved by the group itself by open voting. And more and more often, the most troublesome positions of prefect and educational leader go to those who just want to improve their "public face" a little and, as a result, resume, and not really eager to work for the team for honor and recognition.

THE CURRICULUM IS ALSO CHANGING

In the organization of classes at Chinese universities, changes are most noticeable in the reduction of the number of lectures and classes themselves from 40-35 academic hours per week in the first and third years in 2002 to a quite acceptable 30, and sometimes even less.

This is a global trend. At the same time, there is more time for reading, extracurricular activities, and in advanced universities like Guangxi University - also for the library and research.

If in 2002 my students in a private college had to go 4 - 5 times a week in the evening for the mandatory two hours of self-training from 7 pm, then in 2010 students of a private college in Xingjian do not go to the academic building in the evening at all. Unless the students of a nearby secondary school sit in the evening in the classroom.

But in colleges, this old rule was relaxed in the early 2000s. Many students in the evenings already sit in campus restaurants and cafes, and richer students hang out in karaoke bars until the morning, and not only on weekends. Several thousand students of Guangxi University still pour out of the academic buildings after 8.30 pm, but these are mostly normal classes caused by the eternal shortage of classrooms in a large university.

Academic practices are changing slowly, since teachers were not dismissed en masse in the 2000s, but rather their number grew along with the increase in the number of students. Teaching income in China is quite acceptable. My graduate students who work in colleges for the 3rd - 4th year receive from 2500 to 3500 yuan, which is much higher than the average salary in stoli-

cax of the respective provinces of Guangzhou or Nanning.

Those who teach in schools spend the first two or three years in the suburbs of Guangzhou on 1,500 yuan or even 1,000 yuan in small provincial cities, where life is much cheaper than in the capitals. But all of them lead additional classes, supervise classes, and receive gifts from students ' parents, so that in the end, a teacher in China remains a well-paid profession.

Significant changes have taken place in terms of teaching English.

If in 2002-2004. I still heard a chorus of English phrases repeated regularly by a Chinese teacher in the corridors, but now this can only be heard in classes in more exotic languages for China, where they are taught from scratch, such as Thai, Japanese or French.

Young teachers are trying to introduce communicative methods and student-oriented approaches to teaching English, but so far no one has canceled numerous national and international language exams in China. In addition to the regular 5-7 exams per session, students of English departments must pass four additional state exams: Test for English majors-4-8 (test for English majors in semester 4 and 8) and College English test-4-6 (English test for college students, semester 4-th and 6th).

And this is in addition to the generally accepted international English exams in the world, which many students take just in case, just to improve their resume, even if they are not going to continue their education abroad.

Such a large number of state exams greatly hinders the promotion of advanced non-exam-oriented teaching methods, because you have to cram for the English exam in any case, regardless of whether it is national or international. "Linguistic imperialism" and the ubiquitous dominance of English in China are of little concern to anyone.

END OF BARRACK LIFE

Throughout the 2000s, living conditions in dormitories were continuously improving, especially crowded dormitories with 8 - 10, and sometimes even 12 people per room, despite the fact that they were the cheapest-600 yuan a year in Jiayin, and many poorer students wanted to live there in order not to pay 1200 or 1500 yuan for a room for 4 people with Internet, but without a TV. At Guangxi University, there are still rooms for 8 people for undergraduates, but they are gradually being expanded, as well as throughout China.

In the 2000s, new players appeared in the housing market - local residents began to rent out rooms to students en masse and even build apartment buildings right at the borders of campuses, as in Jiayin. At first, the administration resisted and even obliged students to pay for the dorm, but in 2005 - 2006, undergraduates were already quite freely issued permits to live off-campus without paying for a place in the dorm.

The benefits of such accommodation are obvious. Couples began to live separately in rooms rented on the side, which is impossible in the conditions of strict division of Chinese dormitories into men's and women's. Many students stopped paying attention to lights-out, power cuts, and the cessation of life and commerce on campus after 23 hours. They were also allowed to ignore the mandatory 7 a.m. wake-up, exercise routine, and mandatory room cleaning for strict inspection by student union members, with a grade issued and a winning room announced each month.

As a result, these atavisms of the barrack life of Chinese students were abolished in the 2000s.first on campuses of large cities, and by 2008 it had reached the provincial Jiayin. It is interesting that even on the exam in 2010, students were asked to write an essay in English on the topic " Should students hire people to clean dorm rooms?"

Even in advanced universities, a good half of dormitories do not yet have hot water supply, or hot water must be purchased separately. In the best case, by card from the distribution point on the floor (an innovation in Jiayin, since 2006). In the worst case, you need to go either to the communal showers or with a bucket to distribute hot water, although in the south of China, hot water from the beginning of spring to the end of autumn is not very necessary because of the heat, and many students save on this, since there are no problems with cold water for a long time.

In China, supplying large bottles of potable water is a ubiquitous and well-established business, and large campuses have at least one, sometimes two, privileged water supply companies. Outside companies are not welcome, and campus security can stop other people's water carriers at the entrance. Usually, you can buy the same bottle for a little less in the city itself, but the hassle of shipping prevents competitors from appearing at preferred companies on campus.

With China's ubiquitous canteens and restaurants, the situation is even more confusing. In principle, it is impossible to force 10 or even 20 thousand students to eat in student canteens or restaurants with them, but all the efforts of the administration are aimed at this. At the Xinjiang College campus, all independent food and restaurant tenants were asked to either retrain to sell tea and juice or go outside starting in February 2010. This was motivated by the fact that the canteen and restaurants of the college do not receive enough profit. This is a free but regulated market.

Street restaurants and

There are almost no Chinese snack and fast food vendors that are not associated with the university on campuses. They trade strictly off-campus, sometimes within meters of it, as in Jiayin in private homes just off-campus, where they take a large share of the profits from the canteens, but the administration can do nothing, because outside the territory accountable to it, the campus guards have no power.

In the evenings, at almost every entrance to the Guangxi University campus, you can sit for hours in a makeshift outdoor cafe, which hundreds of students willingly do. You can buy homemade cheburek or sliced fruit from a local vendor, but only outside of campus. During the day, these mini-businesses disappear, and in the evening they flourish, as students ' purchasing power grows by 10 to 15% per year.

This is also evidenced by the almost universal multiple increase in retail outlets on the territory of college campuses. In 2002, the Jiayin campus had 4-5 shops for 13 thousand people. students, and I bought half of my everyday goods off-campus. By 2009, in addition to the explosive growth in the number of retail outlets near the campus, there were two supermarkets, up to 20 shops and cafes in almost every dorm, at all entrances and exits, so now almost everything-from breakfast rolls to a new computer-can be bought on campus even after 11 o'clock evenings.

LIFE HAS BECOME BETTER, LIFE HAS BECOME MORE FUN

In the 2000s, the modernization of student life and improvement of living conditions in Chinese colleges were in full swing, accompanied by both the geographical expansion of campuses (in Jiayin only in 2002-2003, 3 dormitories, a stadium, a canteen, administrative and educational buildings, not to mention the library), and the appearance of new ones there and new stores and services.

The barracks principles of teaching and living have gradually worn off and almost disappeared, except that most students live in rooms for 4 people, sometimes 6-8 in their junior years, and still have to devote a reasonable number of hours to community work, including weeding flower beds and cleaning up the ubiquitous garbage.

Along with the improvement of living conditions and the disappearance of the hot water problem, service-oriented medium-sized businesses boomed on campuses with the opening of supermarkets, high-tech stores and banking offices. The Guangxi campus is now home to all major Chinese banks, not just the Bank of China, agricultural and construction banks, as in Jiaying.

Small shops, office service points, Internet and just cafes, food halls opened continuously and almost reached the maximum level of saturation. In general, life on Chinese campuses has become better, more fun, and more diverse, so that ubiquitous entertainment-from computer games to beer drinking-has begun to seriously compete in terms of time spent with the study itself. And with the emergence of private colleges with rich but not very diligent students on large campuses like Guangxi University, this trend towards entertainment will only increase in the 2010s.

This is the modernization of universities in Chinese.

Nanning City (China)

¹ China Tops World Ranking tor Number of College Students // Xinhuanet, 27.06.2003 - http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-06/27/content_941504.htm

² China has 25 mln College Students // Xinhua News Agency, 18.10.2007 - http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/2286 57.htm

³ On modern private higher education in China, see: Yuan S. Private higher education in China: evolution, features and problems / / University Management: Practice and Analysis. 2004, N 3, с. 77 - 80 - http://www.ecsocman.edu.rU/univman/msg/2 13266.html

^{Lovell Julia.} 4 The Politics Behind China's Nobel Complex. An Intriguing New Study Explores China's Determination to Raise its Cultural Profile around the World // PRI's the World. Global Perspectives for an American Audiences - http://www.pri.org/theworld/?q-node/14436.

^{Parrish Betsy.} 5 Teaching Adult ESL. Practical Introduction. Higher Education Press. Beijing, 2006, p. 30 - 37.

^{Isik AH.} 6 Linguistic Imperialism and Foreign Language Teaching // The Journal of Asian TEFL. The Asian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. Spring 2008, p. 123 - 144 - http://www.asiatefl.org/journal/main15.php.

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