Chapter 302: Blasted!
It was late in the afternoon.
“Mister.”
“Eh, what’s the matter?”
“Please keep silent in the library.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Well, do not affect the others. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Xuanwu Library’s female staff member came by to remind Zhang Ye of the rules.
Thus, Zhang Ye stopped taking any calls. He had already answered all of them anyway. His research was almost done, so he prepared to leave. He drove home with the remaining information in his head, which was from his previous world. On the road, Zhang Ye brought up the game ring’s interface and checked his total Reputation Points — 1.7 million. It wasn’t bad, it was enough to for him to use it to organize his thoughts and knowledge of “Dream of the Red Chamber”.
Actually, Zhang Ye had almost spent all of his Reputation Points on the recording of “Zhang Ye’s Talk Show”, but with the publishing of “To The Oak” and his new “Everything”, as well as the news of him joining Peking University, more people started to know about him. This had given him the opportunity to gain even more Reputation. This was probably how he had gotten his 1.7 million Reputation points.
At home.
His father and mother were still not back from work.
Zhang Ye was getting a little tired as he leaned back on his couch. He took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on it while going online to take a look with his cellphone. He wanted to see the reactions to his joining of Peking University. A few hours ago, when the news first broke, many of Zhang Ye’s fans were very excited. There were congratulations, admiration, and many other passers-by who expressed their disbelief, but there weren’t many aggressive comments, but now, a few hours later, the comments online became more and more extreme. Quite a few domestic newspapers had strongly questioned Zhang Ye’s appointment!
In the educational circle.
In the literature circle.
In the students’ parents circle.
They all seemed to be on steroids!
A certain Huaxi Daily, which had a sizable domestic circulation, had published the following headline “What’s up with Peking University?”. The article reported: Zhang Ye’s appointment as a lecturer in Peking University has already stirred up strong opinions in society. As the number one institution in the country, as a global educational institution, we do not understand what’s up with Peking University. To employ a person of only 23 years of age, who has even been put on the SARFT blacklist, who doesn’t meet any of the standards of a broadcast host. Why would they say that this is breaking new ground? A one time trial? It’s a good thing to have change and progress, but there are many ways to innovate. Yet Peking University had to choose the most shocking way to do this. By employing a person like Zhang Ye, who has a bad reputation in his industry, isn’t this being too irresponsible to the students of Peking University?
This report was not published physically in Huaxi Daily’s print edition, but posted online. Even so, a newspaper like Huaxi Daily has a larger influence than the smaller newspaper publishers. The publication of this online report was like adding oil to fire!
Many netizens were shocked with amazement.
“Yea, that’s too much!”
“Zhang Ye can teach? Then even I can become a professor!”
“Peking University’s playing with fire this time! If it goes on like this, I think they would soon be surpassed by Tsinghua University as the number one institution. What kind of nonsense is this!”
“What kind of person is Zhang Ye like? Yes, his literary qualities aren’t bad, but too bad he is also a literary hooligan. To let him teach young people at Peking University? What would he teach? Teach them how to scold people?”
“This is like sending a tiger into a sheep farm!”
“The Peking University students are going to be led astray this time!”
“What qualifications does Zhang Ye have? He’s not fit to be a lecturer!”
“That’s right, there are many others who can teach ‘Appreciation of the Classics’! Why does it have to be this Zhang Ye who can’t do sh*t! I guess Peking University’s the only institution who has the guts to do this! Are you all really not afraid that Zhang Ye would cause some big trouble? Did you not see what happened to Beijing Radio Station, the live broadcast incident at Beijing Television Station, the press conference at SARFT? Does that not show what kind of person Zhang Ye is? And yet Peking University dares to employ him?”
Following that, the opposing voices could also be seen on Weibo.
Some industry experts and professor also began to make their views known!
An old professor from Tsinghua University, who was very well-respected in the academia world, posted on Weibo, blasting him. “Peking University has been engaging in so-called innovative educative methods. There have been failures and successes, so no one would comment too much about it, but today’s matter is too drastic. In my forty years of teaching, the first ten years was me accumulating experiencing in a rural secondary school. The next five years, I attempted teaching at a provincial university. After all that time did I finally manage to cross into the gates of Tsinghua University to be a substitute teacher as lecturer. It was a gradual process. The teaching standards of a teacher is slowly accumulated, and not leapfrogged. I used fifteen years of experience to enter Tsinghua University, so I want to ask, what is Zhang Ye basing it on? Based on experience? He does not have any! Based on his educational background? He does not have any! Based on his resume? He also does not have any! He’s not even a person who came through the education system! Based on personal relationships? Whether there’s such a thing or not, I don’t know!” This sentence was rather strong. Not only was it targeted at Zhang Ye, it was also directed at Peking University!
With Tsinghua University’s old professor’s lead, many others could no longer hold it in!
Renmin University’s Professor Ma Hengyuan appeared once again. He was the one who was originally set as “Lecture Room”‘s first lecturer, but later ended with conflict with Zhang Ye, Hu Fei, and their team, resulting in Zhang Ye replacing him. It could be said that Ma Hengyuan had a serious grudge with Zhang Ye. Besides, he was a professor in literature, so he had the right to comment on this matter. “I can definitely say that by inviting Zhang Ye to teach appreciation, this is the biggest mistake Peking University has made in recent years. Zhang Ye may be able to write a poem or prose, but to evaluate the classics, he doesn’t have enough qualifications!” He was disgruntled. Up to now, he did not believe Zhang Ye did a better job lecturing the Three Kingdoms than him.
Some students also started making their views known.
They were all students of either Ma Hengyuan or the Tsinghua University professor’s students!
“Support Professor Ma!”
“Zhang Ye is going to Peking University? He’s going to make a fool of himself!”
“Zhang Ye’s a celebrity of the entertainment circle, what does he know?!”
“He had already been warned by the SARFT and can no longer stay in the entertainment circle, so now he comes to knock on the educational circle’s door? This is not only being irresponsible to us students! It is also insulting the all educators and their predecessors!”
“I don’t think Zhang Ye will make good on this appointment. He can present his program well, but to teach others? He does not even qualify! When did it ever come to his turn in this education world?”
Not long after, people from the literary circle also appeared!
Beijing Writer’s Association’s Vice President Meng Dongguo commented. He a grudge with Zhang Ye, far greater than Professor Ma Hengyuan. It was not only a single conflict. Back at the Mid-Autumn Festival Poetry Meet and at the Couplet Competition, Zhang Ye had previously used Guo Degang’s limerick, “It’s not like I’ll come” back at him when Meng Dongguo said the Beijing Writer’s Association would never want a person like Zhang Ye. Now with so many people questioning Zhang Ye’s teaching ability, he was no longer alone.
Meng Dongguo posted, “A person who couldn’t even get into the Writers’ Association now wants to shamelessly teach ‘Appreciation of the Classics’? ‘Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’ was just a variety program. It was only presented to the masses and only touches the surface of the topic. Basically in the literary circle, as long as anyone has done deep enough research, they would know that ‘borrowing the east wind’ did not exist, that ‘the empty fort strategy’ also did not exist. Did we even need Zhang Ye to tell us? With most people already knowing this, you now want to use this information to teach the gifted students of Peking University? Isn’t that child’s play? Everyone, get this clear. Zhang Ye’s ‘Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’ is about history, not literature. If you use ‘Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’ to point out the logic of ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, then would this still be called literature? Literature and history are two different fields. If you are in the field of literature, then naturally you would need to study this novel’s value and significance and not make a fuss about it. This is really laughable, it’ll totally improperly belittle oneself!”
Someone replied after that.
“Right!”
“”Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’ is based on history!”
“Come to think of it, in so many episodes of ‘Analysis of the Three Kingdoms’, Zhang Ye had never talked about the novel’s literary contributions and significance. It’s all him denying and bringing up what was real and what wasn’t!”
“You hit the spot!”
“I don’t expect much from Zhang Ye either!”
Of course, there were also people in the industry who supported Zhang Ye. For example, a not very well-known author said, “Someone who can speak so thoroughly about the Three Kingdoms, why would he only critique the novel? Not explain its literary significance? Zhang Ye had already done a thorough study on the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ from front to back and back to front. He could talk about it all the same. Doesn’t Zhang Ye already have a lot of works? Just citing the most recent ‘To The Oak’ and the new ‘Everything’, how can there still be people who doubt his literary level? I believe that a person who can produce so many outstanding poems would definitely be able to give a good talk about a famous classic. In fact, I feel that Peking University has made a very correct choice by inviting Zhang Ye to join them!”
But these words of support for Zhang Ye were quickly drowned out!
More and more educators began to repeatedly denounce Zhang Ye as a black sheep joining Peking University. They all expressed their outrage!
Deputy Station Head Jia, who had already been relieved of his duties, also jumped out to say “If you want to teach others, first you need to know how to be upright. Zhang Ye is a typical person who does not know how to be a person, so how could he teach the students well? I will be the first to distrust him!” Seeing Zhang Ye besieged on all sides, Deputy Station Head Jia also took the chance to add fuel to fire!
With so many famous predecessors and well-known people denouncing Zhang Ye, many parents of the Peking University students, who did not know better, also started to believe what was being said. After all, compared to those authoritative figures, Zhang Ye was only someone from the entertainment circle. The parents would, of course, choose to believe those teachers from the educational and literature world.
“What the heck is Peking University trying to do?”
“Don’t let that Zhang Ye contaminate the campus!”
“My child is one of those who had chosen to take the ‘Appreciation of the Classics’ elective! That Zhang Ye musn’t lead my child astray! I’ve watched an episode of his Talk Show before. He really has no bottom line!”
The discussions were totally one-sided!
Zhang Ye had once again become the topic of discussion!
Many neutral observers were now speechless. At the beginning, didn’t everyone congratulate and were looking forward to it? In the end, everyone started to denounce him? This Teacher Zhang Ye, you really attract too much hate. Just how many people have you offended in the past! Every time something happens to him, why does it always become a gunfight!?
Honestly speaking, if it were somebody else, even if a host from the entertainment circle, who was even more unreliable than Zhang Ye, had been invited to Peking University to teach instead, they might not have caused such a controversy, but just because it was Zhang Ye who had been the one appointed to teach, there was no other way out. Who asked him to have offended so many people before? Whether it was in the entertainment circle, the literary circle, the education circle, or even a government unit, who had he not offended before!?
If there was a competition for “China’s Best Tank*”, Zhang Ye would definitely have been crowned the winner without a doubt. Even if he were to stand there and keep quiet, he’d steadily attract hatred!
*Tank is a character role in gaming, mostly MMORPG’s. They are mainly intended to take damage by drawing “aggro” or “hatred” from enemies.