After hitting a teacher

He apologized

Remember the uproar after a video of a student hitting his teacher hit the internet? The Chinese media picked up the incident and ESWN has translated some of the detailed reports on what happened that day and afterwards.

It gives many comments from all participants and puts the situation in the class room a bit in perspective. (Although it would never justify hitting a teacher.)

"Attending class is definitely meaningless for me. I made the wrong decision to major in performance arts. Those who not know the inside story will certainly be impressed my major, but how many people really understand this profession? After graduating, the only options are to apply to schools like the Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama. If we don't get accepted, we will have just wasted our time at school and the 18,000 yuan has gone down the drain. I am really unsure that I will get accepted by those universities."

What makes the story more than an individual one is the feeling that many schools in the big cities are in a similar situation, educating students for jobs that do not exist.

64 foreign schools "apply" to close down in Shanghai

A rather mysterious article in the Shanghai Daily, that quotes an official of the Shanghai Educational Commission who says that 64 educational program between foreign schools and local partners have "applied" to close down because they do not meet the quality standards.
Foreign schools, especially business schools, have entered the market, believing that it was a very lucrative one. Competition might have killed that market.

Most of the closed schools were facing financial difficulties before failing an annual assessment and being told to make changes of shut down, according to the commission.

Hitting student causes new uproar

Ever thought of becoming a teacher of some of those cute, well-behaved Chinese students? Think again. A Chinese class room can be hell, just as anywhere else. Global Voices points at a movie made in such an educational hell in Beijing.
For those who cannot understand the profanities, Global Voices has some translations and also those of some very shocked comments at the internet. Yet another cliche about Chinese students gone.

Update: The orginal story was by ESWN, more at Danwei.

Criticize your teacher

during the Cultural Revolution

Not all university teachers reacted enthusiastically when they learned about a website rating their performances, reported the Shanghai Daily on April 14.

a few strongly worded opinions on the site have left some Shanghai teachers upset, while a lawyer yesterday warned that malicious comments could get the Website into trouble.

The site Ping Laoshi, or "Criticize the teacher". Teachers are allowed to comment on the entries, if they register under their real name.
Already 30,000 university professors have been rated here, so whether those professors like it or not, there is certainly a demand for this website. It certainly fits into a long-standing Chinese tradition of attacking teachers.

Question: Where to learn Chinese in China?

Last night a reader from Paris asked me advice on where in Shanghai or Beijing to jumpstart his study of Chinese with a few months of intensive study to start with. Ten years ago I would have known the answer: neither Beijing or Shanghai, but Taiwan, if you really want to learn the language.

In greatly enjoyed my time studying Chinese in Shanghai at the East China Normal University (ECNU), it proved to be mostly useful in discovering how this Chinese entity was operating and for making friends. I developed a network that is still partly working up to today.

But in terms of learning the language, I was often impressed by the skills of those who started off in Taiwan. The teaching methods in Taiwan were much more modern than in China, where the books were still dominated by the remnants of the Cultural Revolution (Tongzimen!), even to the embarrassment of our teachers. Traditionally teaching in China means a sophisticated way of physical and mental torture and since the language itself is already tough enough, it was all to attractive to find alternative activities that were more fun.

Now this all might have changed over the past ten years. Maybe some of the readers have a fresher experience and would like to share that: what is the best place to study Chinese.

Chinese universities: no competition

None of the Chinese universities reaches into the top-100 ranking of research competitiveness in the world, reports China in Transition, based on research done by researchers at the Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation of Wuhan University.
Beijing University ranks 192, followed by Tsinghua at 196.
There is also good news:

Nevertheless, research competence of mainland China institutions moved up to No.16 in the world from last year’s position of No.22, according to the study.

Good news on China's education

Positive news and China's educational system mostly do not mix that well, but here we have an amazing exception. The magazine of the New York Times gives an in depth overview of efforts to reform the educational system.
Kaiser Kuo pointed at this possible revolution in Chinese education and just like him, I'm not even going to try and summarize it. You have to read it yourself.

Update: The magazine has hidden itself meanwhile behind a firewall. You can get the same article for free here at the International Herald Tribune.