The Ecology of Chinese Academia: A Third-Eye Perspective Jinba Tenzin * Abstract While Chinese academic excellence is gaining increasing international recog- nition, plagiarism, corruption, nepotism and other negative practices are reportedly rampant in academia in China. Many point the finger at fundamental flaws within the tizhi, the highly structured Chinese socio-pol- itical system. I propose re-examining Chinese academia and its practices by applying and expanding Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of field as this framework helps to identify the predicament of the “deep water” in which Chinese scho- lars and institutes find themselves. The four fields I outline – ideological, quasi-official, fame–profit and guanxi fields – spotlight academic practices with “Chinese characteristics.” I elaborate on my own experiences and reflections as both an insider and outsider to these practices, a position which I refer to as a third-eye perspective. I argue that despite the constraints of the “deep water,” the field-oriented angle of investigation reveals that the depths and types of “deep water” vary from one institute to another and also that the internally generated ongoing initiatives promise a step-by-step trans- formation in Chinese academia. To provoke further thought, I contend that the Chinese case is both a non-exception and alternative to the Western (and other) practices. In so doing, I call for a balanced perspective to re-examine Chinese academic ecology. Keywords: China; academia; field; intellectuals; ideology; education; universities Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. Attributed to Henry Kissinger What makes a university is not its imposing premises, but its first-rate scholars. Mei Yiqi 梅贻琦 (president of Tsinghua University, 1931–1948) Belief is inedible, hence insignificant. Democracy is inedible, hence insignificant. Freedom is inedible, hence insignificant. Principle is inedible, hence insignificant. For the Chinese, nothing is significant unless it is edible. We believe in the life principle of pigs, thus we are faced with the same destiny as them – we will be eaten by others sooner or later. Wang Shuo 王朔 China has only one university, namely the University of the Ministry of Education. An anonymous scholar * National University of Singapore. Email: socdj@nus.edu.sg. 1 © SOAS University of London, 2017 doi:10.1017/S0305741017001059 Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741017001059 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. National University of Singapore (NUS), on 16 Sep 2017 at 06:28:04, subject to the