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北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
Auditor Cat: PKU‘s Auditing
Tradition
PKU NEWS 2009--10—15
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=255663211
Peking University, Beijing, Oct. 15, 2009: Recently Beijing Evening New had a report
of a stray cat that loves attending classes at Peking University (PKU) for five years
and is adored by teachers and students. Since then, this fat, short-hair, tailless cat
has attracted enormous attention from both netizens and PKU students while being
named philosophy cat, auditor cat, or academic cat. This auditor cat is an interesting
reminder of PKU‘s tradition of auditing which originated from the period of University
President Mr. Cai Yuanpei.
Among previous decades, a large number of renowned people had the experience of
auditing at PKU, such as Mao Zedong, Qu Qiubai, Shen Congwen, Feng Xuefeng,
Ding Ling, Yang Mo, Cheng Shewo, Hu Yepin, Rou Shi, Jin Kemu, even the ―master
of Chinese culture‖-Ji Xianlin. One of the alumni, Xiao Lao, recalled auditing
experience of his fellow countrymen in his book My Memory at Peking University. He
was admitted to the Department of Chinese Language of Peking University in the
year 1917 when Mr. Cai Yuanpei was the president. The university launched the plan
of taking in auditors at those years. Xiao was asked by one of his fellow countrymen
Du to apply for one seat. Xiao went to Office of Teaching Affairs but was declined
with the excused of no vacancy. He knew the seats had not been filled yet, so he
asked the teacher to see in the classroom himself but was refused again. Then Xiao
went to the president‘s office for help. After listening to his story, Mr. Cai Yuanpei
called the teacher of Office of Teaching Affairs to his office immediately to validate
the truth. When Mr. Cai Yuanpei was clear of the event, he wrote a permissive note
for student Du to audit at Department of Chinese Language.
Xiao himself also audited at PKU for 13 years and he knew many others auditors. It
is common for most of them to audit at PKU for three or five years while some had
the experience of auditing for over 20 years. Now the eldest auditor at PKU is Zhao
Wenqing, nearly 80-year-old expert of Li Yu Research from Zhejiang Province.
Edited By : Cai Ying
Translated By : Su Juan
Source : Beijing Evening News
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