It’s only two hours to the start of the street dance competition. And the sponsor has put Tian Lin on the spot again.

還有兩個小時街舞比賽就要開始了，贊助商再次讓田林（音譯）陷入了困境。

Tian, the organizer of the campus event, needs to find students to dress up as the sponsor’s brand mascots. But who’s prepared to sweat in heavy costumes and bounce around like fools?

田林是該校園活動的組織者，他需要找些同學扮成贊助商的品牌吉祥物。但是誰愿意在厚重的服裝里滿頭大汗，像個傻瓜一樣地跳來跳去呢？

The sponsor threatened not to pay up. To keep them happy, Tian has already introduced a game which is irrelevant to the dance competition. The sponsor wants the master of ceremonies to invite members of the audience to see who can swallow a cup of yoghurt quickest.

贊助商以不付款為要挾。為了讓贊助商們滿意，田林已經添加了一個和街舞比賽完全不相關的游戲節目。贊助者想讓主持人邀請觀眾上臺參加比賽，看誰能夠在最短的時間內喝下一杯酸奶。

But trying to keep your sponsors happy has its limits. Tian, 20, refused. “I don’t want to make the competition a complete joke. It’s a student activity, not a promotion event for the sponsor,” said Tian from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

但要讓贊助商滿意也是有限度的。20歲的田林回絕了這一要求。就讀于北外的他表示：“我不想讓這項比賽變成一個大笑話。這是一項學生活動，不是為贊助商做的推廣活動。”

Many student organizers complain that sponsors’ demands make campus events too commercial. But meeting these demands seems to be the only way for students to get enough money to stage a professional show.

許多學生組織者抱怨贊助商的要求令校園活動變得過于商業化。但要想籌集到足夠資金來舉辦一個專業活動，卻只能滿足他們的要求。

This requires a big venue, posters, a spectacular stage, first-class PA, and celebrity guest performers. To cover these expenses, student organizers need tens of thousands of yuan for a single event. To attract more sponsors they are forced to commercialize campus events.

一個專業的活動需要一處大場地，海報，絢麗的舞臺，一流的管理團隊和名人表演嘉賓。要支付這些費用，學生組織者開展一個活動就需要好幾萬元。為了吸引更多的贊助商，他們不得不把校園活動變得商業化。

But this is unwelcome on campus. Students, for example, strongly dislike the “Jeanswest Building”。 This is a teaching block at Qinghua University which was renamed after the university received a donation from the apparel chain store Jeanswest. Students claim that the name has made the building a huge outdoor billboard.

但此舉在校園內并不受歡迎。比如，學生們非常不喜歡“真維斯樓”這個名字。這是清華大學的一棟教學樓，在接受了服裝連鎖店“真維斯”的贊助后，清華為該樓重新命名。學生們稱這個名字讓該樓變成了一個巨大的露天廣告牌。

Lu Shuai is an instructor of student activities at Sun Yat-sen University. She warned student organizers that superficial factors, such as the size of posters and the number of stage lights, are not important.

路帥（音譯）是中山大學的學生活動輔導員。她告誡學生組織者說，那些表面的東西，比如說海報的大小和舞臺燈光的數量并不重要。

“Students are attracted by a campus event because of its creative, interesting content,” said Lu. “Few will cheer for a shallow, dull event, even if it has a gorgeous stage.”

“學生們之所以會被一些活動所吸引是因為活動的內容有趣且具有創意。”路帥說，“即使舞臺華麗，也幾乎沒有學生會為一個膚淺又無聊的活動而歡呼。”

Cui Zhaoqian, 20, a journalism student at Zhengzhou University, expected fun challenges such as pop quiz and impromptu drama in her school’s talent show. But while the stage looked fancy, Cui was bored by clichéd singing and dancing shows.

鄭州大學新聞專業學生，20歲的崔朝倩（音譯）曾經很期待一些有趣的校園活動，比如說學校才藝秀上的猜謎和即興表演。但現實是，她常常面對的是老套的歌舞表演節目已，盡管舞臺很華麗，但她去感到厭惡。而且，到處都是整形診所的廣告，這讓她覺得很尷尬。

By contrast, a campus quiz with little sponsorship and publicity has been a magnet for Cui and her schoolmates for six years. Cui revealed the secret of its charm: “The organizers always design interactive, fun games to make heavy topics enjoyable.”

相反，一個舉辦了六年，幾乎沒有贊助和宣傳的校園比賽卻總能吸引崔朝倩和同學們的注意。崔朝倩揭示了該活動的魅力所在：“他們的組織者總能設計一些有趣的互動游戲使得沉悶的話題變得歡快起來。”今年比賽的主題是中國共產黨建黨90周年。組織者決定以熱門電視節目《我愛記歌詞》的形式來舉辦紅歌賽。選手們演唱時，屏幕上將出現歌詞填空題，來挑戰他們的記憶力。

However, to bring their ideas to life, students cannot avoid involving sponsors. Most colleges are unable to fund every event on campus. Gao Xing, 24, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency, organized dozens of successful galas when he was at college. He advised students to dare to say no.

然而，要真正把想法變成現實的話，學生們就不可避免地要和贊助商交涉。大部分學校都無法資助所有的校園活動。新華社記者，24歲的高星（音譯）在大學時曾成功組織過很多活動。他建議同學們要敢于說“不”。

“Tell sponsors that students dislike overly-commercialized campus events, that they will thus fail to promote their brands to students and waste their money,” said Gao. “They will certainly have second thoughts about their requirements.”

“告訴贊助商，同學們不喜歡過度商業化的校園活動，這樣做不僅達不到在學生中宣傳品牌的效果，還會浪費財力，”高星說，“而后他們當然會重新考慮他們的要求。”