Finding the cure for plague of plagiarism

Many argue that systematic transformation of country's academic culture is needed. Xing Yi and Cao Chen report.

Plagiarism became a buzzword in China this year after Zhai Tianlin, a popular young actor, was found to have copied other people's work when obtaining his PhD.

Zhai, 32, received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the Beijing Film Academy from 2006 to 2018. He was then admitted to a postdoctoral program at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management in Beijing.

The actor posted the letter offering him a place in the postdoctoral program on a Chinese social network in January. Soon afterward, some curious netizens ran a plagiarism check of his published works, and found 40 percent of one of Zhai's papers was copied from a decade-old paper by a professor at Huangshan University in Anhui province.

The Ministry of Education responded to the scandal on Feb 15, saying it had ordered the parties involved to investigate every step in Zhai's case and stressing its "zero tolerance" approach to academic misconduct.

The evidence was soon circulated online and confirmed by investigations at the two universities. Zhai was expelled from Peking University on Feb 16, and his doctorate was revoked by his alma mater three days later.

The scandal has sparked a wide-ranging discussion on the prevalence of academic misconduct in China's higher education system, which many argue will only be cured by a systematic transformation of the country's academic culture.

Han Menghong, a senior student at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said she had been impressed by Zhai's performance in the TV series White Deer Plain before the academic scandal erupted.

Han said few actors in China have a strong academic background, and that Zhai tried to build a scholastic image for himself, through cheating, to differentiate himself from others. In doing so, he exposed the loopholes in the country's degree-granting mechanism.

Chen Xin, a Peking University graduate who studied higher education, agreed. She said Zhai needed to face up to the consequences of his behavior, but he was not the only one to blame. The Beijing Film Academy and Peking University should also be held accountable, Chen said.

"An academic degree is social capital, so the higher education institute should not abuse the power of issuing it," she said, pointing out that the Beijing Film Academy lacked supervision in granting Zhai the doctorate, and Peking University had failed to examine his qualification.

"I can't believe that recruiters at Peking University couldn't spot Zhai's poor academic capability if they did their job," said Chen, who works at a university in Henan province.

Li Yue, 26, who graduated from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing with a master's degree two years ago, said, "It's unfair to grant degrees to those who plagiarize."

Li said she spent half a year on the topic and structure of her dissertation during her postgraduate study, before starting to write the paper. The process included reading literature to get inspiration for her own work and discussing her idea with her adviser twice a week to refine it.

"Sometimes, I had to read one paper four times in order to fully grasp its perspectives," she said. "The process is exhausting, which may explain why some people choose to plagiarize－it's much easier."