A new seal for the University of Beijing

PKU seal, designed by Lu Xun.

Last week, Peking University announced that it would unveil new, “standardized” school logos in September. The current version, designed in 1917 by Lu Xun at the behest of Cai Yuanpei, apparently has problems with “non-standard lines on the ‘circular logo’, the position of the lettering, and non-uniform coloring.”

Three new circular logos will be announced next month. Adjustments will also be made to Mao’s calligraphic inscription of the university’s Chinese name.

A brief item in today’s China Times reveals that the new logos will change the university’s name in English.

“Peking University,” which has endured since 1912, will eventually give way to “University of Beijing.” According to the CT article, since place names are typically used as adjectives in English only in informal names of schools, the more familiar “Beijing University” will be limited to colloquial usage. PKU had previously resisted calls to standardize its name with the official Pinyin romanization system.

Not everyone is happy with the changes. In a letter to the editors of the Chinese website of the Financial Times, commentator Jiang Bojing questions the motives behind this logo adjustment, wondering if it is a reaction to the hits PKU has taken this summer over competition from Hong Kong, shady financial dealings, and questionable faculty recruitment. He concludes:

Greatness requires exercising “internal skills,” greatness requires accumulating “internal strength”; if changing a school seal can raise up PKU, then all we need are a few ad agencies to strengthen the country.

北车大学

It could be worse. Zhang Lei, a recent PKU graduate, printed up these shirts to mock the school’s parking situation.

Gridlock on campus is a common topic of discussion on the PKU BBS. Though the university has an underground parking garage, people still tend to park above ground, and the campus is sometimes jokingly referred to as a “parking lot.”

Update: Fang Zhouzi weighs in on the CT report:

However PKU wishes to standardize its English name is its own right, but to manufacture a “rule of English grammar” like “place names used as adjectives in school names are frequently found only in abbreviated names in speech; in formal written language, the place name should be placed after ‘college’ or ‘university’ as a noun.” This can’t but bring ridicule – or jokes that there’s no one in PKU’s English department – from anyone in the world who knows English. When former PKU English professor Shen Hong came to New Threads in early February preaching this “rule of English grammar,” he was sent packing in embarrassment. Who would have thought that the PKU administration would still take it as a golden rule? Evidently the professors at PKU’s English department will have to give new names to the following British and American universities according to PKU’s English grammar rules:

Princeton University, New York University, Boston University, Syracuse University, Lancaster University, Coventry University, Cranfield University, Bournemouth University, Keele University, Middlesex University, Roehampton University, Athabasca University, Brandon University….

Would the leaders of PKU please inform the leaders of those universities the next time they meet with them? Some, like like Princeton University, New York University and such, are considerably more famous than PKU. Try to have them follow PKU’s English grammar rule first, and then it can become a wordwide rule of English grammar, and PKU can have a world-leading innovation.