「双语」耶鲁“虎妈”蔡美儿身陷“晚宴门”

耶鲁“虎妈”蔡美儿身陷“晚宴门”

Gripped by ‘Dinner Party-gate,’ Yale Law Confronts a Venomous Divide

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — On March 26, a group of students at Yale Law School approached the dean’s office with an unusual accusation: Amy Chua, one of the school’s most popular but polarizing professors, had been hosting drunken dinner parties with students, and possibly federal judges, during the pandemic.

康涅狄格州纽黑文——3月26日，耶鲁大学法学院(Yale Law School)的一群学生来到院长办公室，提出了一项不同寻常的指控：该校最受欢迎但也最有争议的教授之一蔡美儿(Amy Chua)疫情期间一直在举行有学生——可能还有联邦法官——参加的纵酒晚宴。

Ms. Chua, who rose to fame when she wrote “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” is known for mentoring students from marginalized communities and helping would-be lawyers get coveted judicial clerkships. But she also has a reputation for unfiltered, boundary-pushing behavior, and in 2019 agreed not to drink or socialize with students outside of class. Her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, also a law professor, is virtually persona non grata on campus, having been suspended from teaching for two years after an investigation into accusations that he had committed sexual misconduct.

因撰写《虎妈战歌》(Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)一书而声名鹊起的蔡美儿，以指导来自边缘社区的学生、帮助未来的律师获得令人觊觎的法官助理工作机会而闻名。但她的无所顾忌、突破界限也很出名。2019年，她同意不在课外与学生喝酒或社交。她的丈夫杰德·鲁本菲尔德(Jed Rubenfeld)也是一名法学教授，在学校里基本上是不受欢迎的人，被指有不当性行为后被停职两年。

The dinner parties, the students said, appeared to violate Ms. Chua’s no-socializing agreement, and were evidence that she was unfit to teach a “small group” — a class of 15 or so first-year students that is a hallmark of the Yale legal education, and to which she had recently been assigned — in the fall. “We believe that it is unsafe to give Professor Chua (and her husband) such access to and control over first-year students,” an officer of Yale Law Women, a student group, wrote to the dean, Heather K. Gerken.

学生们说，这些晚宴会似乎违反了蔡美儿的禁止社交活动协议，并且证明她不适合在秋季教授“小组”——一个由15名左右一年级学生组成的班级，是耶鲁大学法律教育的特点，也是近年分配给她的工作。“我们认为，让蔡美儿教授（以及她的丈夫）这样接触和控制一年级学生是不安全的，”学生组织耶鲁法学院女性(Yale Law Women)的一名工作人员在给院长希瑟·K·格肯(Heather K. Gerken)的信中写道。

The students provided what they said was proof of the dinners, in the form of a dossier featuring secretly screen-shotted text messages between a second-year student and two friends who had attended. That touched off a cascading series of events leading to Ms. Chua’s removal from the small-group roster.

学生们提供了一份档案，其中包括一名二年级学生与两个参加过那次晚宴的朋友私下短信往来的截图。这引发了一连串的事件，最终蔡美儿从小组授课名单上被除名。

Ms. Chua says she did nothing wrong, and it is unclear exactly what rule she actually broke. But after more than two dozen interviews with students, professors and administrators — including three students who say they went to her house to seek advice during a punishing semester — possibly the only sure thing in the murky saga is this: There is no hard proof that Ms. Chua is guilty of what she was originally accused of doing. According to three students involved, there were no dinner parties and no judges; instead, she had students over on a handful of afternoons, in groups of two or three, mostly so they could seek her advice.

蔡美儿说，她没有做错什么，也不清楚她到底违反了什么规定。但通过对学生、教授和管理人员的二十多次采访——其中三名学生说，在一个十分吃力的学期里，他们去她家寻求建议——在这个阴暗的故事中，唯一确定的事情可能是这样：没有确凿证据表明蔡美儿做了她最初被指控的事情。据三名涉事学生称，没有晚宴，也没有法官；相反，她有几个下午让学生来家里，以两三人为一组，主要是为了让他们向她征求建议。

“I met with Professor Chua to discuss a deeply distressing experience I had, an experience that hinged on my race and identity,” said one of the students, who is Asian.

“我与蔡教授会面，讨论我的一段令人深感痛苦的经历，与我的种族和身份有关，”其中一名亚裔学生说。

It may appear to be a simple matter, one professor losing one course, but nothing is simple when it comes to Ms. Chua, who seems perpetually swathed in a cloud of controversy and confusion. “Dinner party-gate,” as Ms. Chua wryly calls it, has turned into a major headache for the school.

一名教授丢了一门课，这似乎是件简单的事，但对于蔡美儿来说，没有什么事情是简单的，她似乎永远被笼罩在争议和混乱的阴云中。蔡美儿挖苦地称这件事为“晚宴门”，它已经成了学校的一大头疼问题。

The story has been adjudicated all over social media and picked up in outlets ranging from The Chronicle of Higher Education to Fox News. Ms. Chua’s retweet of a tart Megyn Kelly comment (“Tell the damn whiners to sit down,” Ms. Kelly tweeted) raised suggestions that Ms. Chua was positioning herself as a victim of “cancel culture.”

这个故事已经在社交媒体上得到广泛的裁判，从《高等教育纪事报》(The Chronicle of Higher Education)到福克斯新闻(Fox News)等媒体都在报道该事件。蔡美儿转发了梅根·凯利(Megyn Kelly)的刻薄评论（“让那些唧唧歪歪的人闭嘴吧，”凯利在推特上写道），这表明蔡美儿把自己定位为“取消文化”的受害者。

At the law school, the episode has exposed bitter pisions in a top-ranked institution struggling to adapt at a moment of roiling social change. Students regularly attack their professors, and one another, for their scholarship, professional choices and perceived political views. In a place awash in rumor and anonymous accusations, almost no one would speak on the record.

在法学院，该事件暴露了这座努力适应动荡社会变革的顶尖学府内的痛苦分歧。学生们经常因为学术研究、专业选择和政治观点而攻击自己的教授，也经常互相攻击。在一个充斥着谣言和匿名指控的地方，几乎没有人愿意公开发表言论。

A feature of this difficult year has been increased demands from student groups. Against this backdrop, Ms. Gerken’s critics in the faculty worry that she acted too hastily in the Chua matter, prioritizing students’ concerns over a professor’s rights.

在这艰难的一年里，一个特点是来自学生团体的需求增加了。在这种背景下，格肯在教职人员中的批评者担心她在蔡美儿的问题上过于仓促，将学生的关切置于教授的权利之上。

Particularly problematic, several professors said in interviews, was her reliance on the text-message dossier, prepared by a student who learned that two of his friends had gone to Ms. Chua’s house — and believed that the visits made them complicit in her, and Mr. Rubenfeld’s, behavior.

几位教授在采访中说，格肯对那份短信档案的信赖是特别有问题的。这份档案由一名学生准备，该学生得知他的两个朋友去过蔡美儿的家，认为这些拜访令他们成了蔡美儿和鲁本菲尔德的同谋。

It is a curious document. Among other things, the aggrieved student’s text messages show him repeatedly asking one of the friends to admit to meeting judges there, and the friend repeatedly denying it. (“if you promise to keep it between us, i’ll tell you — it was Chief Justice John Marshall,” the friend finally texts, in an exasperated reference to the long-deceased jurist.)

这是一份奇怪的文件。此外，这名忿忿不平的学生的消息显示，他多次要求其中一名朋友承认曾在那里见过一些法官，而这名朋友则多次否认。(“如果你保证不告诉别人，我就告诉你——那是首席大法官约翰·马歇尔[John Marshall]，”这位朋友最后发去消息，恼怒地提到这位早已去世的法官。)

Ms. Gerken referred to the dossier at an April 21 faculty meeting as evidence of Ms. Chua’s misconduct. Several professors who saw the material said in interviews that they were shocked at how unpersuasive it was.

格肯在4月21日的教师会议上称这份档案是蔡美儿不当行为的证据。几位看过这些材料的教授在采访中表示，他们对该材料的说服力之低感到震惊。

“Evidence of what?” one asked. Another called it “tattletale espionage.”

“什么证据？”一个问。另一个人称之为“打小报告式的间谍活动”。

“Where are we — in Moscow in 1953, when children were urged to report on their parents and siblings?” the professor said.

“我们是在哪里——1953年的莫斯科，孩子们被要求揭发自己的父母和兄弟姐妹？”那位教授说。

A couple beset by controversy

受困于争议的夫妇

Provocative and gregarious, Ms. Chua and her husband have long attracted attention at Yale Law School.

喜欢挑衅和交际的蔡美儿和丈夫，在耶鲁法学院长期以来一直吸引着人们的关注。

But the two are pisive figures, and not just because of “Tiger Mother,” Ms. Chua’s tough-love parenting memoir, or the rumors dating back years of Mr. Rubenfeld’s inappropriate behavior toward female students. At a time of left-leaning orthodoxy, Mr. Rubenfeld seems intent on pushing the envelope. After he wrote a New York Times opinion essay in 2014 questioning the fairness of campus sexual-assault findings, dozens of students signed a letter of protest.

但两人都是会引发分歧的人物，不仅仅是因为蔡美儿的《虎妈》，也不仅仅是因为多年前有关鲁本菲尔德对女学生不当行为的传言。在一个左倾规范观念盛行的时代，鲁本菲尔德似乎决心挑战极限。2014年，他在《纽约时报》上发表了一篇评论文章，质疑校园性侵调查结果的公正性，之后有数十名学生签署了一封抗议信。

For Ms. Chua, similar trouble arrived in 2018, when Brett M. Kavanaugh, a Yale Law graduate, was nominated for the Supreme Court and she praised him as a fine mentor of women. (Her older daughter had been hired to clerk for him, and took the job after his elevation.) On a campus wracked by bitter anti-Kavanaugh protests, her views were regarded as a betrayal, especially when it emerged that she was said to have told students that Judge Kavanaugh’s female clerks “looked like models.” Suddenly, her reputation as someone who could help students get judicial clerkships was regarded as a negative.

蔡美儿在2018年遇到了类似的麻烦，耶鲁大学法学院毕业生布雷特·M·卡瓦诺(Brett M. Kavanaugh)被提名为最高法院大法官，她称赞他是一位优秀的女性导师。（她的大女儿被聘为卡瓦诺的助理，并且在他升职后继续从事这份工作。）在这座充满激烈的反卡瓦诺抗议活动的校园里，她的观点被认为是一种背叛，尤其是她据称曾经告诉学生，卡瓦诺法官的女性助理们“长得像模特”。突然之间，她能帮助学生获得法官助理职务的名声变成了恶名。

‘The matter is closed’

“此事已了结”

Promises of change did little to allay the concerns of the students who, in March, saw Ms. Chua’s name on the small-group list and told the dean they had proof that Ms. Chua had broken her agreement.

做出改变的承诺并不能平复学生们的忧虑，他们在三月看到蔡美儿的名字出现在一个小组名单里，并告知院长，他们掌握了蔡违反协议的证据。

The mention of evidence seemed to energize the administration. “Dean Gerken is taking this news VERY seriously and wants to move forward asap,” Ellen Cosgrove, the dean of students, wrote on March 26 to the students. “Would you be able to share the texts with me?” She asked them to keep her request private.

这里提到的证据似乎让院方打起了精神。“格肯院长非常严肃地对待这一消息，希望尽快推进，”学务长艾伦·科斯格罗夫(Ellen Cosgrove)在3月26日致学生的信中说。“能否请大家把短信分享给我？”她要求学生们不要和外人提起这一请求。

Two days later, Ms. Chua got an email from The Yale Daily News, the student newspaper, which said it had heard that she was about to be stripped of her small group.

两天后，蔡美儿收到学生报纸《耶鲁每日新闻》(The Yale Daily News)的来信，信中提到他们听说蔡即将失去在小组的职位。

That was news to Ms. Chua. Later that day, she met over Zoom with Ms. Gerken. It was not a pleasant meeting. The dean mentioned alcohol and judges, Ms. Chua said, before announcing that she had decided on a “different lineup for small group professors.”

这是蔡第一次得知此事。当天晚些时候，她通过Zoom与格肯通话。那是一场不愉快的交谈。蔡说院长提到了酒精和法官，然后宣称她在考虑“别的小组教授人选”。

Ms. Chua stepped down rather than be pushed, she said.

蔡美儿说她是主动辞职，并非被逼迫。

The dean’s office responded that Ms. Chua had ample opportunity to defend herself.

院长办公室回应称，蔡得到了足够多自辩的机会。

“Throughout my deanship, I have made no decision about disciplinary action involving a faculty member until the person accused of misconduct receives notice of the allegations and has an opportunity to respond. Period,” Ms. Gerken said in her statement.

“在我任职院长期间，凡涉及教员惩戒的问题，我都会在向当事人告知有关指控的信息，并让当事人有机会做出反应之后，才做出决定，”格肯在一份声明中说。

She added, “If a faculty member offers to withdraw from a course and I accept that offer, the matter is closed.”

她还表示，“如果有教员主动提出离开某课程，并且我也同意了，那么此事就已经了结。”

Students and faculty split

师生之间的分歧

The matter might indeed have been closed if The Daily News had not published its article the following week, referring to “documented allegations” that Ms. Chua had hosted “private dinner parties with current Law School students and prominent members of the legal community.”

要不是《每日新闻》在之后的一周里发表了相关文章，此事可能真的已经了结。文中提到“有材料证明的指控”，称蔡美儿举办“私人晚宴，有法学院在校生和法律界要人参加”。

Ms. Chua fired off her angry letter to her colleagues and posted it on Twitter. “As the only Asian American woman on the academic faculty, I can’t imagine any other faculty member would be treated with this kind of disrespect,” she wrote.

蔡美儿向同事发出了愤怒的信函，并公布在推特上。“作为唯一亚裔美国女性教员，我无法想象还有哪一位教员会受到如此无礼的对待，”她写道。

Then all hell broke loose.

于是这件事就炸开了锅。

In the anti-Chua camp, one alumna released an anguished five-page letter describing how her adoration of Ms. Chua had soured in 2018, when Ms. Chua decided to “throw students under the bus” by denying their claims that she had made the comments about Judge Kavanaugh’s law clerks.

反蔡阵营中的一位女校友发表了五页痛苦万分的信件，描述了她对蔡的敬意是如何在2018年变味的，当时蔡美儿否认了她就卡瓦诺法官的助理做出的评论，从而“将学生们置于不利境地”。

“From the bottom of my heart, Amy, you gutted me,” the alumna wrote.

“说心里话，艾米，你让我非常难过，”这位校友写道。（“艾米”是蔡美儿的英文名Amy。——译注）

Equally impassioned were dozens of letters supporting Ms. Chua, who posted them on her personal website. The letters spoke of her highly personal support for students of color, for first-generation professionals, for students from state colleges, for foreign students.

发表在蔡美儿个人网站上的数十封挺蔡的信件也同样饱含感情。信中提到她给有色人种学生、第一代从业者、州院校学生、外国学生带去了极为个人化的支持。

To suggest that she had harmed students by inviting them to her home, a pro-Chua student said, “is ludicrous in the first place, even if they were actual children. But these are adults.”

一位挺蔡学生说，指责她通过邀请学生去家中来伤害他们“本身就十分可笑，即便他们真的还是孩子。但他们都是成年人”。

As the spring semester wound down, the whisper network was in full force. Some professors were weary of Ms. Chua’s continuing dramas; others had lost faith in Ms. Gerken; others were calling for more transparency in faculty disciplinary matters.

随着春季学期步入尾声，私下的讨论十分热烈。一些教授对有关蔡的这些没完没了的耸动事件已经心生厌烦；有的对格肯已经失去信心；还有的则呼吁在教员纪律问题上增加透明度。

“This is my fourth firestorm,” Ms. Chua said, “and I just kind of want to survive and write my books.”

“这是我的第四场大灾，”蔡美儿说，“我只是想生存下来，继续写我的书。”