美美与共，知行合一Unity in Diversity, Theory in Practice

文/马克·力文 (Mark Levine，美) 译/张佳艺

中国的大学会定期接受国家教育部或省级教育部门的审核。省级政府部门负责审核省级大学；教育部负责审核国家级高校。在中国，教育部门的审核尤为重要。中国正积极寻求提高大学水平，尤其致力于建设“世界一流”大学。中央民族大学（后文简称“民大”）便是入选“双一流”的大学之一。

民大已在为教育部审核做准备。在实际审核前一两周，我们收到了关于日期和一些其他细节的通知。审核工作将持续一周，由11人小组完成。此外，因对“世界一流”大学称号极为重视，该团队还包括两名外国人，且都是美国人。

中国少数民族学生的“哈佛”

2018年，审核团队到达的第二天，共有10位英语教师参加了会议，大多来自英语系，教授英语文学和翻译专业课程。我们大约聊了一个小时。谈话先是聚焦于学生能力，后又转向评估学生英语能力的进步。经过一番讨论后，另一位在美国国家科学基金会担任提案评估员20多年的审核员提出一个问题：“这里有来自中国各少数民族的学生和教师，你们如何处理师生间的种族冲突?”

我举起手，回答道：“我的班级中，学生来自汉族、藏族、布依族、黎族、哈萨克族、维吾尔族、蒙古族、朝鲜族、壮族、羌族、回族、彝族、土家族、苗族和中国其他少数民族。他们一起学习、一起玩、一起逛街。出去吃饭时，如果同学里或室友中有一个是穆斯林，他们就会选择去学校或附近的清真餐厅吃。这是我来民大任教的第11年，在这里我认识了很多学生、教师和行政人员。人们信赖我，和我敞开心扉聊各种事。在将近11年的时间里，我既没见过也没听说过校园里发生过任何种族冲突的事件。”

Chinese universities regularly undergo inspections by the national or provincial ministries of education. For provincial universities, it is the provincial government that is responsible for this and for national universities it is the national Ministry of Education. This process is especially important in China which is actively seeking to improve the standards of its universities and, in particular, working to develop a number of “World Class” universities. Minzu University of China (MUC) is proud to be one of those that have achieved this status.

MUC is getting ready for an MOE inspection. Finally, about 1-2 weeks before the actual evaluation, we are notified of the dates and a few other details. The inspection will take a week and will be done by a team of 11. Furthermore, particularly because of the desire for the World Class University designation the team will include 2 foreigners. Both of the foreigners are Americans.

Be like the Harvard for Chinese minority students

In 2018, the second day after the team arrived, there are a total of 10 English teachers for a meeting. Most of us are from the English department where we teach to English literature and translation majors.We meet for about an hour and the early questions focus on our students’ abilities followed by questions related to evaluating the progress by our students in their English abilities. After some discussion of these matters, the other American, who has worked as a proposal evaluator for the US National Science Foundation for more than two decades, asks, “You have all of these students from every Chinese ethnic minorities and faculty from different ethnic groups. How do you deal with ethnically related conflicts between students and teachers of these different groups?”

My hand shoots up and answers this question: “I look out among my students in my classes and I see Han students, Tibetans, Buyi, Li, Kazakh, Uyghur, Mongolian, ethnic Koreans, Zhuang, Qiang, Hui, Yi, Tujia, Miao and students from other Chinese ethnic groups. They study together, play together, and shop together. If they go to eat and if one of these classmates or dorm mates is a Moslem, they will eat in one of the several Halal canteens on campus or of an even larger number of restaurants in the neighborhood. I am in my 11th year teaching at MUC. I know lots of people here, students, faculty and administrators. People confide in me with all kinds of information. And, throughout those nearly 11 years, I have neither

seen nor heard of a single instance of any ethnically-based conflict between

any members of the campus community.”

民大的校训是“美美与共，知行合一”，这正是大家所看到的民大校园。

这位审核员非常惊讶：“这怎么可能？为什么他们之间没有冲突？”

我回答道：“少数民族学生为能够进入民大学习而倍感自豪，他们中的许多人认为这里就相当于中国少数民族学生的‘哈佛’。我游览过中国近30个省份，每次去少数民族地区时，人们都很兴奋地告诉我，他们的同学、朋友或亲戚在民大就读或就读过。与此同时，民大的大多数汉族学生非常珍惜在民大学习的特殊性和独特性。在这里，他们可以了解到中国鲜明的多样性。他们所有人都为中国所取得的成就感到自豪，并意识到美美与共，即多种文化交织，只会使中国变得更加强大。”

“这是有意培养的吗？”

“坦率地说，我无法证实这一点，毕竟我从未见过民大的相关使命宣言。但教育和社会环境都鼓励这种求同。我是一名社会学家，尽管已经离开学术界几十年了。但我相信，如果围绕学生对其他族裔群体的了解和态度的变化进行研究，结果将是，他们对这些群体的了解不断增加，他们初来校园时可能存在的负面形象或刻板印象不断减弱。”

这不是我第一次或最后一次解释这个问题，但它已经成为我演讲中越发常见的话题。我在中国许多大学中作过关于“中国之旅，如诗如歌”的演讲，都讲述过这个故事。无论我走到哪里，民大的故事我都会继续讲述，也会继续加深对这个故事的理解。

学习语言、文化和不同的思维方式

2018年，自那次会议上对审核员发表“美美与共”的言论后，我对民大的探索还在继续。这使得我那天说的话，以及后来的讨论和演讲得到了深化。

在2018年10月的一次校园演讲比赛中，我对民大有了更深入的了解。该比赛旨在挑选学生参加外语教学与研究出版社组织的赛事。选拔赛的获胜者是英语专业的大一新生李欣璐（音译）。几乎每个人都认识Lily，她的英语水平很高，相当于英语母语者的水平。Lily也投票给了那位获胜者，但引起我注意的是另一名学生。这是一位出色的演说家，她叫Sandy Quan（全雅婷，音译）。

I introduce the fact that the motto of the university is “Unity in Diversity, Theory in Practice” and that is exactly what you see on campus.

As a look of astonishment comes to his face, he asked:“How could this be? Why aren’t their clashes?”

I answer: “Minority students are especially proud to be able to attend MUC which many consider to be like the Harvard for Chinese minority students. I have traveled to nearly 30 provinces in China and when I go to minority areas, people are very happy to tell me about their classmates, friends or relatives who are studying or have studied at MUC. Meanwhile most Han students, who attend MUC, come to appreciate the specialness and uniqueness in being able to attend this place where they can learn about the great diversity of their own country. They are all proud of China’s gains and realize that unity in diversity, the weaving together of so many different cultures merely makes China stronger.”

“Is this intentional?”

“Frankly, while I cannot confirm this because I have never seen a mission statement of the university but it seems that both the educational and social environments encourage this unity. I am a sociologist and although I have been away from academic sociology for many decades, I am confident that if I were to undertake a study of changes in students’ knowledge of and attitudes towards those from other ethnic groups, the results would show both an increase in knowledge and a decrease in whatever negative images or stereotypes that might have existed when they first arrived on campus.”

This is neither the first nor the last time I explain this but it has become an increasingly common topic for my presentations. My presentation on “Stories and Songs from my Chinese Journey,” that I have done at a number of universities across China, tells this story. The story of Minzu University is one that I will continue to tell wherever I go but my learning of that story continues.

Learn language, culture and other ways of thinking

My learning about MUC continues after my “Unity in Diversity” comments to the evaluators in 2018. Learning which reinforced what I said on that day and in subsequent discussions I have had and presentations I done since then.

An important lesson begins to take shape in October 2018 at a campus public speaking competition to select a student to represent MUC in the upcoming competition organized by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. The winner of the selection competition is Li Xinlu, a freshman English major. Lily, as virtually everyone knows her, is a well-known for her strong abilities as English speaker. Lily’s selection is unanimous but it is a different student who gets my attention. It is another excellent public speaker and her name is Sandy Quan [Quan Yating).

I ask her major.

马克·力文（中）与学生们的合影

我问她的专业。

“我学的是维吾尔语言文学专业。”

“你是维吾尔族人？”

“不，我是满族人。”

我在美国时，认识的不是非裔美国人却主修黑人（非裔美国人）研究的学生寥寥无几。虽然在这里，主修中国少数民族语言和文化的大部分学生来自少数民族，但也有一些学生是汉族。

“你学维吾尔语吗？这个专业有很多非维吾尔族学生吗？”

“我大一时，班里有20个学生，但后来有6人转了专业，现在班里14人。”

学期结束前，我在校园里偶遇到Sandy几次，得知在我遇见她的当晚，她因表现出众被选中，代表民大参加由《中国日报》英文版和面向学生读者的《21世纪报》主办的另一场比赛。

直到2019年秋季学期初，我才再次见到Sandy。正在校园里散步时，我遇到了她，向她感慨好久不见了。她对此回应道：

“上学期我一直远在新疆。”

“真的吗？听起来不错。但你怎么去新疆了呢？”

“I major in Uyghur language and literature.”

“Are you Uyghur?”

“No, I am Man.”

When I was in the US I personally knew only a handful of students who were majoring in Black (African-American) studies who were not African-American and while most students majoring in specific Chinese minority languages and culture come from those minorities, there are a few who don’t.

“And you study Uyghur? Are there many non-Uyghur students who do that?”

“When I was a freshman our class had 20 but 6 changed majors so now we have 14.”

I come across Sandy on campus a few times before the semester is over and learn that as a result of her performance on the evening I meet her she is selected to be is selected to represent MUC at a different competition run byChina DailyEnglish-language newspaper and its student-oriented paper21st Century.

I don’t see Sandy again until early in the fall semester of 2019. We are walking on campus when I see her and suddenly realize that it had been a long time since I had last seen her. I comment on that and she responds,

“I was away all last semester. I was in Xinjiang.”

“Really, that’s great but what were you doing there?”

“我当时寄宿在一个维吾尔族村户里。”

“这是你自己找的还是学校安排的？”

她解释说，是学校安排他们全班14名学生在新疆的一个村庄里度过第四个学期的。

2019年，我来到民大已经12年了，但这是我第一次听到这样的安排。对此，我兴趣颇浓，且印象深刻，意识到这可能就是打破文化误解或冲突的东西。我和Sandy说，我非常想更多地了解这方面的情况，并告诉她将在几周内同她联系。

大约10天后，我们俩进行了一次更有针对性的讨论。首先我们谈了她是如何成为14名维吾尔语专业学生中非维吾尔族者之一的。

她解释道：“我想学一门语言，但我的高考成绩不够高，无法被外国语学院录取。但如果我选择维吾尔语专业，那我就能进入民大。既然我想在这里读书，这是我唯一可选的专业。”

“只有维吾尔语可以选吗？”

“有些年份是可以选择藏语或哈萨克语的，但2017年我报考时只有维吾尔语。”

“那你对这种情况怎么看？”

“我很高兴有机会来到这里学习语言。大一结束后，我们可以转专业。我有一些同学转到了历史、博物馆学或社会学专业。我也考虑过这件事，但我其实很喜欢我的专业，所以没有转。我很庆幸自己坚持了这个专业。”

“你在新疆的那个学期过得如何？”

“课程大纲中，这部分安排在我们大二的第二学期。民大把我们送去新疆维吾尔自治区的一个村庄，我们每个人都住在那个村子中不同的寄宿家庭里。学校会给这些家庭一些经济支持来负担开销。”

“你在那里都做什么呢？需要上课吗？”

“周末，我们有一位老师、一堂课，但其余时间我们就只是生活在那里。我们跟寄宿家庭交流，和他们的孩子聊天，给他们帮忙。我的寄宿家庭非常友好，他们为我重新装修了房间，给我添置了一张新床。他们家有三个男孩，都叫我姐姐。当我们在村里散步时，人们会盯着我们看；但当我们和他们说话时，他们其实很友好。

在村里，每当有人搬家时都会举行特别的茶会，亲戚们都会到场。我随我的寄宿家庭也去过一次，在我用维吾尔语说了‘很高兴见到你’后，大家纷纷鼓掌。”

“I was staying with a host Uyghur family in a village.”

“Did you work this out on your own or was this arranged by the school?”

She explains that the university arranged for her entire class, all 14 students, to spend their fourth semester in a single village in Xinjiang.

It is now 2019, 12 years after I arrived at MUC and this is the first time I have heard of such an arrangement. I am intrigued and impressed by this and realize that this is something else that can he breakdown cultural misunderstandings or conflicts. I tell Sandy that I am very interested in learning more about this and tell her I will contact her with a few weeks.

About 10 days later, we meet for a more focused discussion about it. We begin by talking about how she came to be one of those 14 non-Uyghur students major in Uyghur language.

She explained: “I wanted to study a language. I took the gaokao (the college entrance exam) but my overall score was not high enough for admission to the School of Foreign Studies. I could be accepted at Minda if I entered at a Uyghur language major. If I wanted admission here, it was the only thing available for me to study.”

“Only in Uyghur?”

“Some years you can enter to study Tibetan or Kazakh, but in 2017 when I started it was only Uyghur.”

“What did you think about this?”

“I was glad to come here and it was a chance to study a language. After our first year we are allowed change majors. Some of my classmates changed theirs to subjects like history, museology or sociology. I was thinking about it but I actually enjoyed my studies so I didn’t. I am really glad that I didn’t.”

“What about your semester in Xinjiang?”

“Part of this program is that during the second semester of our sophomore year, Minda sends us all to a village in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Each of us stays with a different host family in the same village. The school gives the family some financial support to cover expenses.”

“And what you do while you’re there? Do you have classes?”

“On the weekends we have a classes and a teacher but the rest of the time we are just living there. We are talking with our host family, talking with their kids, helping them. My host family was very friendly. They redid a room for me; got me a new bed. They had 3 kids, all boys who called me older sister.

When we walked through the village, people would stare at but were very friendly when we talked to them.

“你在那里还有什么其他经历？”

“那里的每个人都听说过民大，对来到这个村庄的学生们印象深刻。每周我都会去附近的一个大城市购物，然后打出租车回去。路上，司机们总问我在那儿做什么，为什么去那儿？可见，哪怕是司机都会因民大学生来这里学习而感到兴奋。”

我让Sandy多告诉我一些关于民大维吾尔语系的情况。她说维吾尔语系有三个专业，有些人主修维吾尔语言文学，有些人主修维吾尔语—汉语翻译。这些都是维吾尔族学生，而她在另一个面向非维吾尔族人的专业学习维吾尔语言文学。通过系里正式或非正式的活动，她和另外两个专业的学生有了更多互动。

“我们彼此之间都互相认识。我在系里有几个朋友，和他们相处是很好的学习方式。除了语言和文化之外，我还可以学到不同的思维方式。”

最后，我问Sandy是否认识藏语和哈萨克语专业的学生。她说她在这两个专业中各认识一个人，并主动向我介绍了他们。那天晚些时候，我有了他们两人的联系方式。在接下来的24小时里，我分别约了他们两人会面。

我可以成为外交官的翻译，或者那个外交官

Alice（苏媛琪，音译）来自黑龙江省，汉族，学习藏语。我们见面时，她已经开始大二上学期的学习了，比Sandy小一届。

她的故事与Sandy相似。Alice的英语口语很好，但就其高考成绩而言，她唯一可选的专业就是藏语。转专业虽然是一种选择，且她的20个同学中有5个都转了，但Alice并没有。

Alice下个学期将在西藏度过，她补充说：“去年夏天，在老师的带领下，我和同学们在西藏待了一个月。我们遇到的每个人都待人友善、乐于助人。在那次旅行中，我们住在一家宾馆里，但我们春天再回去赴约时，住在当地村庄里。”

Alice有两个藏族同学，其余人像Alice一样是汉族。她解释说：“我的两个藏族同学都只会说藏语，而不会写，所以他们两人在我们班。”

In the village, there are special tea parties when someone moves a new home. Relatives would come and I would go with my host family. I would say ‘nice to meet you’ in Uyghur and everyone would applaud.”

“What else about your time in the village?”

“Everyone knows about Minzu University and is very impressed that students from here are coming to this village. About once a week I would take a trip to a larger city nearby to go shopping. I would come back by taxi. The driver would always ask what I was doing there; why did I come? Even the drivers would be excited that MUC students come to stay and learn in the village.”

I ask Sandy to tell me more about the Uyghur Department at Minda and she explains that there are three majors with between 40-60 students in each year. Within the department some major in Uyghur language and literature and others major in Uyghur/Chinese translation. These are all Uyghur students. She is in the third major focusing on Uyghur language and literature for non-Uyghurs. Through the department she interacts both informally and through formal activities with students in the department’s other majors.

“We all know each other and I have several of friends within the department. I think this a wonderful way to learn. I not only can learn about the language and culture but also about other ways of thinking.”

Finally I ask Sandy if she knows similar students majoring in Tibetan and Kazakh. She confirms that she knows one in each of these majors and she offers to introduce me to them. She puts me in touch with both of them later that day and within 24 hours I have scheduled individual appointments with both of them within the next several days.

Maybe I can be a translator for diplomats, or that diplomat

Alice (Su Yuanqi) is from Heilongjiang Province in the Northeast. She is a majority Han Chinese and is studying Tibetan. When we get together she is in the first semester of her sophomore year, one year behind Sandy.

Her story is similar to Sandy’s. Alice is a good English speaker but according to her overall entrance exam scores, the only major she was eligible to take was Tibetan. Once again, changing majors after at the end of the freshman year is an option and while 5 out of her 20 classmates do, Alice doesn’t.

Alice will spend the next semester in Tibet but she adds, “My classmates all spent one month in Tibet last summer. We went with our teacher and everyone we met was very friendly and helpful. During that trip we all stayed in a hotel but when we go back in the spring we will all be staying in a few villages.”

Alice has two Tibetan students while most like Alice are Han. She explains:“My two Tibetan students both speak Tibetan but they cannot write so they are in our class.”

每周五晚上，Alice都会和同学们一起在校园广场上跳藏族舞蹈。她的藏族室友英语不太好。“她们帮我学藏语，我帮她们学英语。”

像Sandy一样，Alice也很喜欢自己的专业。“我们会学习历史、语言和文化。”

Katherine也是一名大二学生，和Sandy一样，是满族人。她来自吉林，主修哈萨克语言文学。

“从小我就想为祖国做些事情。当我接触到‘一带一路’倡议后，我决心为此贡献出自己的力量。习主席的‘一带一路’倡议最初是在哈萨克斯坦提出的，所以学习这门语言对我来说是个不错的选择。”

Katherine和她的18位同学（其中两人是哈萨克族人，但不会说汉语）的实地考察要比Sandy和Alice的稍微复杂一些。大一结束后，Katherine和同学们去新疆的一个哈萨克村庄度过了一个月的暑假。这一个月她过得很开心，表示自己学到了很多。

“寄宿家庭是个大家庭，有父母、四个孩子、爷爷、阿姨和叔叔。每个人都很友好，饭菜也很可口。他们带我参观了不同景点，我们聊了很多，我也学到了很多当地文化。”

“他们有一个儿子，有时会开玩笑问我想不想成为他们的儿媳妇。他们曾将一个女学生介绍给了一个当地男孩。我辅导他们的孩子学汉语，还去了当地的小学教汉语。”

回到学校后，Katherine系里一位退休的哈萨克族教师带队组织了一次长城之旅。她很享受这次游览，而且感激“他把我以朋友的身份介绍给其他老师”。

Katherine热切盼望着大三的到来，那时她便会和同学们在哈萨克斯坦的一所大学度过一学年。而这是实现为国家和“一带一路”倡议作出贡献的一小步。因为有这样的目标，她婉拒了父母让她学经济学的期望。“我想做一些新颖且不同的事。也许我可以成为外交官的翻译，或者成为那个外交官。”

听了Sandy、Alice和Katherine的故事，我对中央民族大学的校训“美美与共，知行合一”有了更精准、更深入的理解。

Alice spends time with her classmates and joins the Tibetan dancing in the campus square every Friday night. She has Tibetan roommates whose English is not very good. “They help me with Tibetan and I help them with English.”

Like Sandy, she enjoys her major. “We study history, language and culture.”

Katherine is also a sophomore and, like Sandy, is from the Man ethnic group. She is coming from Jilin Province. She, however, majors in Kazakh language and literature.

“Ever since I was a child I wanted to do something for my country. When I learned about the Belt and Road Initiative I decided that is what I want to help with. President Xi’s announcement of the Belt and Road was first made in Kazakhstan so learning the language seemed like a good choice for me.”

The field placement for Katherine and her 18 classmates - two of whom are Kazakh but do not speak the language－is a little more involved than it is for either Sandy or Alice. Katherine and her classmates spent one month after their freshman year in a Kazakh village in Xinjiang during the summer.

She enjoyed her month and says she learned a lot.

“My host family was very big. It included the parents, four kids, the grandfather, aunts and uncles. Everyone was very friendly and the food was great. They took me to visit different sites. We talked a lot and I learned much about the culture.”

“They have a son and joked with me asking if I wanted to be his wife. They actually introduced another student to a local boy. I helped their kids and we even went to local primary schools to teach Chinese to local students.”

Back at school, her department had a trip to the great wall that was led by a retired Kazakh teacher. She not only enjoyed the visit but also appreciated it when “he introduced me to other teachers as a friend.”

Katherine is eagerly looking forward to her junior year when and her classmates will spend both semesters studying at a university in Kazakhstan. This is just another step in realizing early ambition to help China and contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative. That ambition led her to reject her parents’ wishes for her to study economics. “I want to do something new, something different. Maybe I can be a translator for diplomats, or I can be that diplomat.”

Hearing Sandy’s, Alice’s and Katherine’s stories simply strengthens my understanding of the accuracy of the MUC motto of “Unity in Diversity, Theory in Practice.”