Chinese → English transcript

In all kinds of settings, what I hear most is, “There’s no way.”

I don’t think it’s that there’s no way, I think it’s that there’s no ambition.

Right now the entire economics profession is trapped in a huge collective unconscious .

And from what you just said, the journals are also saying “there’s no way,” because that’s just the kind of submissions they receive.

Young scholars say, “I also have no choice, because that’s just how the evaluation system works.”

What period is today’s economics profession very similar to?

To the global art world of the nineteen seventies and eighties.

A bunch of classicists were controlling all sorts of salons there.

The result was that some truly original people, who a hundred years later we look back on as great masters in history,

were all destitute back then.

But let me ask you all, how are masters produced?

If we all obey the rules of those salons run by the classical scholars, can masters ever emerge?

So I think if you want to be someone with promise, you really should not go around saying there is no way.

First, journals should not say “there’s no way,” otherwise why are you the best journal in China?

Why are you the best school in China? If you cannot do it, then do not do it.

That is my first point.

My second point, I often hear young sch… scholars say, “I need to survive.”

Yes, you need to survive.

But if all you think about every day is survival, you will never become Van Gogh.

Of course I also agree with what Peng Fei just said, that for now we publish first, get our professional title issues settled first, and then pursue our interests.

But do interests not need to be built up over time?

If when you are young you do not research what you are interested in, do you think you will still have passion at forty?

If you truly are someone who… of course I first agree with the idea of division of labor, that different people should do different kinds of work.

But if you believe that you genuinely care about the real issues of the Chinese economy,

that you want to contribute to this country, do you really think that after you get your professorship at forty-five, it will still be in time?

I do not think so.

So the slogan I tell my students is: Bra ve

to be different. I am done.

Many thanks to Professor Lu. What Professor Lu said was very concise, but his views were extremely, extremely clear, and I am actually very familiar with Professor Lu.