Click Here to Subsribe to the 'The Vance Report' Feed One of my students unsuccessfully tried to explain to me today why cheating is and should be acceptable in China. She told me that cheating is often the only way to succeed academically in this overpopulated country. She admitted to me that she has tried to cheat multiple times but has always failed because of increased security. She was not bashful about telling me, however, that she had often cheated on exams in high school.
The Chinese government in recent years has taken extra measures to prevent cheating. Cell phone blocking devices have been placed in schools to prevent wireless communication and police officers may provide security for important events such as entrance exams. But even these extreme meausures do not stop students from trying. A teacher who is familiar with the testing system in China told me that sophisticated hand signals and tappings are used to communicate during exams.
Perhaps the reason why cheating continues to be prevalent in China is because of the attitudes of students. Cheating is not necessarily seen in China as a moral issue; it is a matter of survival. Scores on an exam can mean the difference between going to a well known university in a big city or being relegated to a small college in the countryside. And going to a well known university or a small college can mean the difference between working and moving up in a large company or being stuck in mediocre low paying jobs one’s whole life. In other words, cheating could make the difference between a comfortable life and a life full of struggle. When facing that choice, many are willing to make the wrong choice.
I have had the temptation to stand in judgement of these ‘cheaters.’ How can they think that cheating is acceptable? But I have successfully fought the urge to lecture them on the pitfalls of cheating because I am somewhat sympathetic to their plight. There is a ’survival of the fittest’ mentality in this country that puts the issue of cheating into a different light. Hopefully, as China moves into a new era of development and freedom, academic performance can become a matter of pride and not just a tool for survival.
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[...] Print off this article about cheating in China and ask your students to read through it together. Talk about some of the new vocabulary words and [...]
[...] at cheating and they will tell you so unabashedly. Some months ago, I wrote an article entitled Cheating in China — It’s an Epidemic in which I explained how cheating is viewed as a way to survive in China. I have had dozens [...]
I have to agree that “Cheating is not necessarily seen in China as a moral issue”, but “it is a matter of survival” is not true for all Chinese. For students I know, no more than 5% regard “it is a matter of survival”, I have never cheated in final & entrance exams back in school time. I even don’t remember last time I cheated in a small quizz. Some of your student may argume with you that cheating is OK, but do they really do that in big exams? ask them.
You write:
She told me that cheating is often the only way to succeed academically in this overpopulated country.
You clearly don’t understand Chinese way of expressing. when Chinese get intimate with someone, they sometimes tell things a little bit exaggerated. The student is trying to convey her fear or lack of confidence of taking whatever exam awaits her. What you should do as her teacher is to encourage her through this mentally exhausting exam preparing process.
You can prove me wrong, I may be too old to speak for students any more.
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@Chen,
The main reason why Chinese students are not cheating on big exams is because it is simply too hard. It is well documented that Chinese police are often sent to testing areas in China to make sure that students are not trying to “pull a fast one.” Again, most of the students who I talk to here tell me that they would cheat on the big exams if they could. It’s just simply too hard…
I wish I could dismiss people’s comments here as exaggeration but this is one issue that I have talked to too many people about. I am always surprised by the feedback that I receive because it is almost always the same; cheating is ok…
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well, what can I say? You mentioned it’s simply too hard to cheat in big exams, that’s because authorities are trying very hard to prevent people from cheating and not only in academic area. There is still differences between people say they would cheat (given whatever hypothesis you set for them), and they actually do it. If cheating is an epidemic in China, it just haven’t broken out yet.
While you focus on people willing to cheat, I must point out the truth that nobody want to make way to local newspaper for cheating in entrance exams and only a few people actually rely on cheating for survival, and they are not likely to go any further once found out.
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@Chen,
1. If there wasn’t a problem with cheating on college entrance exams, the government would not have to send police to intimidate the students.
2. I have talked to scores of students throughout China. I would say that at least 95% admitted to cheating as much as they could throughout high school. If that’s not an epidemic, I don’t know what is…
3. Copying words from the internet and creating an essay with them is plagiarism which is another form of cheating. Ask around…I haven’t been able to find one college student who hasn’t plagiarized multiple times…
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@Robert Vance
1. Nothing is perfect in China including college entrance exams, The authories make college entrance exams so hard to cheat that whose who cheated throughout their high school years are just cheating themselves.
2.I don’t believe the “as much as they could” part of story. If what you say is true (what’s wrong with today’s students?),as I mentioned before, they deceive themselves as well as others, and they will certainly be out in the college entrance exams. We even have a saying for that: “自欺欺人”, see? we are not totally immoral.
3. I have to say this is more a problem of our education system. Imagining your professor ask you to hand in an essay in one or two days, what will you do? Professors do that to have students read more articles. Again if any one publish plagiarized essay on high standard mags etc and has been found out, he/she will have to find a new career anytime soon.
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I am sorry. There is a misspelled word in my previous post. Here I go again:
I have a question.
What’s the right attitude for a teacher to assume when they catch somebody CHEATING? See: where I come from, teachers tend to single out cheating students and embarrass them in front of their classmates. Here in China, I teach adults and most of them are managers.
I want to know what I should do in order to get the following: tell him/her that what they did wasn’t right, tell the others that they should NEVER dare try it again, but at the same tine, sound respectful.
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@Daniel
If it’s a small quiz, warn the cheater in private not to cheat again, and warn the class without mention any names. If the person ignores your warning, tell the superior in charge.
if it’s a exam for some certification, tell the superior in charge directly.
It’s the safe way to do. if the advices above change nothing, do what you like and never teach there again. teach some college students instead.
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Eric Hufschmid is a big lying bitch.
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kidding.
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Ugh. China should have been left in isolation. What a tragedy to have loosened this pestilence upon the world. I have a cousin who works as a consultant to several multinational corporations. He’s very big on China, making money in China, and all that trendy nonsense. He was surprised at my lack of eagerness to help China into the modern world. “Do you want them to live in mud huts?” he asked me? Well there’s nothing wrong with living in a mud hut if that’s what one is accustomed to. A mud hut can be a fine home. So can a yurt. My cousin imagines he’s a conservative and very “worldly.” Actually he’s an emotionalist. China belongs in… China. To import Cina into the rest of the world is to spread a terrible and amoral pestilence that will prove impossible to dilute or neutralize. I’m afraid we haven’t seen anything yet. We should isolate and quarantine China, if it’s not to late. I have stopped referring to China as “communist China.” China is China. And that’s plenty bad enough!
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@Lief Oldhart, 9/18/2008 @ 10:32;
I’m very interested in your comments and perspective. May I ask what the basis is for your opinions? I’m not making any judgement. I’m simply curious. I was going to teach English in Mainland PRC,but I’m having second thoughts now,due to several factors. Could you elaborate/expand on your comments? Perhaps give some history/background? Thanks, Mike
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Robert, I enjoyed reading what you wrote here, I am currently a student in China and every students here cheat constantly. I have a falsely accused of cheating: One of the student were accused of cheating on his final, but the test examiners did not get any evidences to prove the cheating exist but he was bought to the Supervisor of the Examiner Committee and was told to remain SILENT the entire process until his adviser took him away just to interrogated him. Again, no evidence to prove that he cheats. He is a student with great sense of humor, everybody loves him and all his friends including me believes that he did not cheat! He felt that he was being treated like a “terrorist,” and the adviser wants him to write the cheating process but told him that he will not earn his degree. He refuse to write anything is that bad? please let us know what should we do? We are all from different countries and he just happened to be Chinese but his not passport China. Thanks
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Wow!! I have been in China coaching basketball and teaching for several years now. Reading some of these comments only solidifies what I have suspected and experienced since day one. Cheating is Pandemic in China, and we can make all the excuses available to justify it. However, there is NO justification for cheating on any level or in any country. Its time we stopped making excuses for the Chinese people, Its time they began to look strongly at their own system and its time for drastic change.
My Step daughter (im married to a wonderful Chinese lady) does nothing in her final year at high school except study solely for the National exams that occur each year. Yes,they are scrutinized by the police and are agonized over by parents. However, if teachers are ONLY teaching to the National Exam and nothing else, isn’t that a form of cheating? I mean, if the teachers are overtly doing it doesn’t that send a clear concise message to a student, that “cheating is ok”?
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