因遭导师虐待 西安交大博士生杨宝德自溺身亡

Yang Baode, a Ph.D. student at Xi’an Jiaotong University, went missing on December 25, 2017. He was found dead on December 29. An internet user named @hw-欣, who claims to be a relative of Yang, wrote a post (in Chinese) on Weibo in which she says that Yang drowned himself after being mistreated by his school supervisor for many years.

西安交通大学博士生杨宝德于2017年12月25日失踪。12月29日，他被发现死亡。一名声称为杨宝德亲戚的网络用户hw-欣在微博上用汉语写了一个帖子，她说道，在被自己学校的导师虐待多年后，杨宝德自溺身亡了。

The post says that Yang’s doctoral supervisor, Zhou Yun, had mistreated him, and quotes from what is apparently a suicide note: “Since I was transferred to my current supervisor, I’ve been living in profound agony every single day.”

帖子透露，杨宝德的博士生导师周筠曾虐待了他，其中还引用了自杀遗书：“自从换了导师，我每天都生活在极度痛苦中。”

Zhou allegedly damaged Yang’s mental health with her constant reprimands, and demanded that he perform all kinds of free labor for her, including cleaning her house, washing her car, playing mahjong with her, and being on call every day until midnight.

据称，周筠经常训斥杨宝德，致其精神健康受到了损害。她还要求他为她做各种免费劳务，包括打扫屋子、洗车、陪打麻将，每天随叫随到，直至午夜。

Yang’s situation reflects a problem of how to balance supervisors’ power and responsibility. Currently, a supervisor’s power in the dissertation process is not well-regulated, and they can have a huge impact on whether students pass or fail.

杨宝德的遭遇反映的是如何平衡导师权力和责任的难题。当前，导师在论文过程中的权力不够规范，他们对学生能否毕业有着巨大影响。

On January 6, a banner made by Yang’s parents appeared on the school’s campus — it reads, “Xi’an Jiaotong University, I want my son back,” and “Punish the monstrous supervisor severely, save the next Baode.”

1月6日，杨宝德的父母制作的横幅出现在了西安交通大学的校园里，其中写道：“西安交通大学，还我儿子”、“严惩禽兽导师，挽救下一个宝德。”