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Cheating in China — It’s an Epidemic
Written by Robert Vance on March 22, 2008 – 2:57 amOne 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.
@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…
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.
@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…
@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.