<p>I've heard from various sources and at various times the past few years that the Chinese culture surrounding cheating is much different than that of other countries', specifically America. Apparently academic cheating is highly prevalent and not really discouraged in Chinese schools. Anybody have personal anecdotes to this or opinions?
Sources:
Michael</a> Levy: "Conundrum": 90 Percent of China's Applicants Cheat "Chinese collaborate on work, while Westerners keep it all to themselves. This is because of our belief in socialism."
College</a> Apps Cheating Scandal Is A Learning Moment For China - Forbes
hackwriters.com</a> - The Truth about Cheating in China</p>
<p>not discouraged? rofl</p>
<p>all i know is these chinese dominate us at academics…and not because of cheating</p>
<p>The author seems to be radical to go on and defame Chinese culture.
What he is describing probably does happen to a certain degree (about gaining a student who is able to pay full admission) but this is only to the government officials’ kids,which is a pretty small minority. In China, there’s still a “background” and “red envelop” culture. </p>
<p>The author is wayyy to extreme to suggest that Chinese culture encourages cheating by citing confucian culture ( something about that a person must spend decades copying his teacher to become an expert). Seriously, I don’t see anything about cheating in this. It is simply suggesting emulating a person and keep practicing will make you better ( I don’t get how this is cheating). For example, when reading a Chinese poem, the teacher probably won’t explain its meaning and will simply ask the students to memorize it by copying down repeatedly. Chinese ( I think many other Asian cultures as well) education does not emphasize on critical thinking, it emphasizes more on memorization, this is true, but I don’t see how this has to do with cheating.
No offense, but I can’t deny that Chinese seem to lie a lot in the business market ( the milk powder incident, poison toys, the crashed train, etc). A lot of Chinese students probably do cheat like the author of the article said, but I don’t know if it is as prevalent as the author stated. The only problem I have with the author is that he suggests that the Chinese culture encourages dishonesty. I think the Chinese are dishonest because of the negative influence they received during Mou’s rule, not because Chinese culture encourages it ( they have been brainwashed by Mou ).
By the way, there are more Chinese geniuses because there are more of them. For example, in China, there will be 1300 geniuses of one in a million rarity.</p>
<p>^ they are also on average far above us…sadd</p>
<p>population creates tremendous competition…</p>
<p>chinese culture is based on honesty, although the damn government is quite corrupt though…</p>
<p>and Mao…not mou</p>
<p>Thanks for the correction, if that’s how people generally translated his last name. I don’t use the English pinyin. It doesn’t really matter anyway since you can make pinyin up according to the sound. All I know is that his last name is: 毛</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys. American primary and secondary education are definitely lagging, but our universities are still wonderful. But as to the claim that Chinese students on average do better than American <a href=“World education rankings - Google Sheets”>World education rankings - Google Sheets;
This chart only includes Shanghai, Hong-kong, and Macao for some reason, and yes, the students in Shanghai and Hong-Kong are indeed leaps and bounds above the average American student, but I wonder how the statistics would be if every Chinese 15 year old student were factored in, including those not from big cities or urban areas, who are less likely to have access to world-class education. I’m not somebody who blindly defends all things American out of ignorance and patriotism, but, correct me if I’m wrong, we’re so exposed to the excellence of the best Chinese students that we automatically assume all of them do that well, which may not be the case. The fact that population creates competition is definitely true, but what about the students in more rural areas, who weren’t tested in this ranking so we can’t find a true comparison of the “average” Chinese student. We see so many above average and exemplary Chinese students because of the fact that there’s so many of them so there’s a higher chance that one of them will win an international competition or be recognized for performing groundbreaking research or something like that. What I’m trying to say is, could our perception of Chinese students be because we’re always seeing the cream of the crop, or are they truly all that brilliant on average. If anybody finds something about a national ranking of China and not just these cities I’d love to see it. </p>
<p>Ok, now about Asian education systems. Being Asian, the whole emphasis on memorization thing is definitely true of other Asian countries, not just China. Also, I don’t know if it’s just in my country, but most, if not all, students have to attend weekend and afterschool tutoring sessions lest they fall behind their classmates, even though this is not legally required or anything. Just thought that was interesting.</p>
<p>I had a GREAT post but I don’t think it would have HM02’d here :(</p>
<p>It was perfect though. Really.</p>
<p>MS4211: You are correct about the extra tutoring sessions.
I don’t think genetics really account that much for the “academic success” of asians. It’s the culture. The Asian parents, even the ones that are not well educated themselves, know the importance of education. In my home country, it is good to be a nerd. The parents actually want nerds to be friends with their own kids, as they believe that the nerds will positively influence their children. Nerds are respected by their peers. (that was what I experienced back when I was still there). Popularity is not a big thing in schools.</p>
<p>By the way, Asian parents like to compare kids. So they put a lot of emphasis on education. You have good grades, go to a good school = you are a glory to your family</p>
<p>Hmm, this is interesting. I knew that some Chinese applicants did cheat on their applications and what not. However, I’m wondering what percent of Americans cheat. </p>
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<p>I find that hard to believe. Only 10%??? I feel that it should be much much higher, even in America.</p>
<p>I feel that China is a far more competitive place, and it’s that competitive nature that causes cheating rather than “culture.” While here there’s some emphasis on having fun and what not Chinese students have their nose to the grindstone seemingly 24/7. </p>
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<p>The reason is because the last international PISA tests were the first time it was done in mainland China, hence the pilot program was only run in Shanghai. The reason Hong Kong and Macao are listed separately is because politically they’re a bit different from the rest of China.</p>
<p>I be that the average for China would be a bit lower, simply because they don’t all have access to good education.</p>
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<p>True for when I’m from too. The funny thing about these countries (or at least my country) is that, compared to American schools, the teachers aren’t very good, the teachers are so much more respected, and that students due well because they are so pressured into it. It’s not about the resources, it’s about the attitude and culture. The US thinks it needs to reform it’s education system, but it’s not so much about reform as it is motivating students. A lot of people could actually do a lot better, but no one cares. CP is the “average” class, but IMO you have to be pretty dumb to be in a CP class.</p>
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<p>The “competitiveness” is part of the culture. </p>
<p>I don’t know about China, but where I’m from, kids always used to cheat, and teachers didn’t make that big a deal about it. No one even cared. Once someone asked to copy my HW, and I said I wouldn’t feel comfortable about it, and her friend started laughing. I don’t understand how those top students in the class could be so proud about themselves when they were asking for answers they didn’t know during the finals.</p>
<p>/end rant</p>
<p>My school was considered pretty bad by all standards, so I guess I can’t really speak for all Asian schools.</p>