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Home > Learning English > Bilingual News

Income gap is big reality on campus
大學教授貧富差距拉大

The sight of poor professors cycling to work as their higher-paid colleagues arrive in stylish BMWs has come to symbolize the widening income disparity among China's university professors. [File photo]
“窮教授騎飛鴿，副教授開寶馬”，中國大學校園里的這一現象表明，教授們的收入差距正逐漸拉大。

It has become a common sight in Chinese universities: poor professors cycling to classes on Flying Pigeon bicycles, while their higher-paid colleagues arrive in stylish BMWs. The disparity is a symbol of the large income gap which now exists on campuses across China.	“窮教授騎飛鴿，副教授開寶馬”，這樣的場景在中國大學校園已是屢見不鮮了。如此迥異的境遇表明，教授們的收入差距正逐漸拉大。
Such a situation is unimaginable to those who taught at Chinese universities in the past. One 81-year-old former university president, who refused to disclose his name, commented that he found the present day situation unbelievable.	那些在大學校園搞了一輩子教育的老教師根本無法想象這幾十年里高校發生的變化。一位不愿透露姓名的81歲老校長表示，他不敢相信眼前發生的這一切。
He stated that, before China's policy of reform and opening-up, professors could barely feed themselves. A simple bicycle would cost them six months' salary.	老校長說，改革開放前，教授們的生活基本屬于溫飽型，買一輛自行車，需要攢上半年工資。
In general, there was no real income difference among professors at the same level or with the same title; the rules were transparent and simple: a higher title meant a larger apartment and a ten-yuan (US$1.57) increase on the monthly salary.	在當時，同一級別職稱的教授收入基本沒有差別。所有人享受的待遇規則透明而簡約：職稱長一級，住的房子會大一點，每個月比別人多上10元錢。
The former university president said that, even as university president, he had no extra income apart from the extra monthly duty allowance.	他那時候任一所大學的校長，除了職務津貼之外，也沒有過額外的收入。
Despite these issues, he became involved in the independent research and development of China's first diesel engine in Dalian in 1958. As it was not a national research project, the project received no funding. However, his department won the support of Dalian Shipyard.	就是在這樣的背景下，1958年，他在大連參與主持了全國第一臺柴油機的自主研發。當時，這并不是國家的課題，沒有經費預算，但老校長所在的院系與大連造船廠一拍即合。
For more than a year, a group of teachers, along with a class of students, worked on numerous experiments before finally achieving success. At no point during the project did anyone mention money, the former president insisted. "We just wanted to prove that we could achieve our aim, as there was no diesel engine in China at that time," he said.	一批老師帶著一個班的學生，苦干了一年多，各方想盡辦法提供試驗條件，終于研制成功，其間根本沒人提過錢的事情，“就是想要爭口氣，因為國內沒有呀！”老校長感慨說。
According to the former president, the income disparity among professors dates back to the late 1990s, and was attributed to program commissions and the so-called "gray income" earned from concurrent off-campus jobs.	在老校長的記憶里，教授收入差距的拉大，大約是在上個世紀90年代末以后，而且主要拉開差距的恰恰是項目提成以及校外兼職的灰色收入。