I am shamed by you, my fellow countrymen!

I was shocked to see the behaviors of some of our fellow Chinese students/scholars on this forum. Professor Zhang from the University of Michigan wrote a most sincere letter to discuss his Changjiang professorship at Peking University and the associated financial consequences. However, such a honest letter has attracted so many severe criticisms on him from our highly educated fellow students and scholars.

Professor Zhang said in his letter that he would take in more money by reimbursing per diem if he were on University of Michigan official business trip to Beijing. Clearly he is not doing that. Instead, he took a leave during the summer to work at Peking University as a Changjiang professor. The point he was trying to make is that the compensation received from Peking University is less than what he would get from Michigan if he would be on a business trip. I do not understand how all our fellow Chinese would interpret that he is getting both the compensation from Peking University and the travel reimbursement from University of Michigan. Why do we presume someone’s guilt without a single bit of evidence? Since Professor Zhang’s Changjiang professorship started this year, how do we know whether or not he would report his income from Peking University to IRS when he files his 2006 tax return in a few months? Do not get ahead of yourself!

Calm down, my fellow Chinese! Let us do something constructive to help our country in rexxxxing her education and research system and stop bashing each other on the web!