Walls  David J. Firestein

Walls
　　　　　　　　　　　 David J. Firestein
　　《墙》文字很短，但却意味深长，让人耳目一新，久久不忘。David说，美国的大学没有围墙。文化向外伸展着，而不是将知识封闭起来。绿色的草坪将大学校园和社区连接了起来。那是所有渴求知识的人们的共同家园。《墙》令人想到很多，它不仅仅是建筑风格或是教育方式的不同，而且是一种观念，一种沟通的愿望。　
　　　　　　　
　　Having spent some two and a half years in China over several visits, I don't remember ever going through a phase we in the United States refer to as \"culture shock.\" This period of difficulty in adjusting to a new culture would probably have set in during my semester at Peking University, my first extended period away from the United States. It did not.
　　Of course, this is not to say that I didn't notice any differences between the American and Chinese cultures upon my arrival at Peking University. I certainly did notice the differences. Looking back, I remember one of the first differences I noticed: Chinese universities were surrounded by walls.
　　To an American, this is one of the most striking aspects of a Chinese university and one which immediately sets it apart from an American campus. Having grown up in the United States, I had never seen a university surrounded by high, cement walls. My idea of a university, based on having seen scores of them in different states of the U.S , was that it was a place of life and learning, an integral part of the community in which it was located, open not only to the students of the school itself, but fully accessible also to students from other schools and to the broader public.
  

　　My idea of a university was that it was a center of cultural life, a resource for the entire community. In all my twenty-one year, it had never occurred to me that a school would have a wall around it. Walls enclose and separate; schools expand and integrate. The very ideas seemed fundamentally incompatible. I asked a Chinese friend if all Chinese universities had walls around them.\"You know, I've never really thought about it; I guess so. I guess all Chinese schools have walls around them, primary, middle and secondary schools, too---not just universities.\" \"Why?\" I asked. \"What's the point?\" \"I don't know. To protect us, I suppose.\" \"From whom?\" \"It's not really something I've thought about. I don't know. Don't you have walls around your schools in the United States?\" I thought carefully before answering. \"No, I've never seen or heard of a university encircled by a wall\". My Chinese friend seemed puzzled. Walls around schools came to strike me as more than just an architectural difference between the United States and China; the walls bespoke a fundamentally different view toward the very concept of education. As China continues to open up to the outside world, these walls seem increasingly out of place.



　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　墙

　　过去几次访问，使我在中国度过了约两年半时光，我不记得曾经有
过美国人所说的\"文化震惊\"。适应一种新文化的困难时期按理说该是我
在北京大学上学的那个学期，那是我离开美国的第一个比较长的一段时
间，但是并没有什么震惊。
　　当然，这并不是说，在我到了北大后，我没有注意到任何中美文化
的差别。我的确注意到了一些差别。
　　回首往事，我记得我所注意到的一个差别就是：中国的大学被墙围着。
　　在一个美国人看来，这是中国大学最显著的一面，能立刻将其与美国大学校园区分开
来的一个特征。我在美国长大，从没见过被高高的水泥墙围着的校园。在我的心目中，大
学是学习和生活的地方，也是当地社区的一个组成部分，不仅对在校学生是开放的，也对
其他学校的学生及全社会开放，这一概念，来源于我在美国不同的州所见到的情况。
　　大学是文化生活的中心，是全地区文明的摇篮，在我21年的生活中，我从未见过有围
墙围着的学校。围墙的作用是封闭和隔离，然而，学校的宗旨则是要扩展学生的知识，扩
展学生对外面世界的了解，这两个概念是根本不相容的。
　　我曾问一个中国朋友，是否所有的中国大学都有围墙？\"我想是的，可我从没细想过
这个问题，恐怕不只是大学，中学、小学都有围墙。\"
　　\"为什么要有？\"
　　\"说不清楚，我想是为了保护学生。\"
　　\"谁会伤害学生？\"
　　\"其实也不一定真会怎么样，难道你们的大学没有围墙吗？\"
　　回答之前，我认真想了想：\"没有，我没见过也没听说过美国的大学有围墙\"。我的中
国朋友似乎有点儿不解。 校园的围墙使我陷入思考，它不仅仅是中美校园建筑风格的不
同 ，也体现了不同的教育观念。在中国对外开放的进程中，围墙似乎显得越来越没有用
了。