Comments on: Cheating in China — It’s an Epidemic

By: Dr. Laurence J. MacDonald Phd

Dr. Laurence J. MacDonald Phd — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:13:59 +0000

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”?

By: eve

eve — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:04:50 +0000

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

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:25:03 +0000

@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

By: Lief Oldhart

Lief Oldhart — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:32:05 +0000

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!

By: Matthew Dickinson

Matthew Dickinson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:15:36 +0000

kidding.

By: matthew dickinson

matthew dickinson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:15:06 +0000

Eric Hufschmid is a big lying bitch.

By: Chen

Chen — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:43:10 +0000

@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.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:38:04 +0000

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.

By: Chen

Chen — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:03:54 +0000

@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.

By: Robert Vance

Robert Vance — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:47:21 +0000

@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…