Top China Reads – 10/30-11/5
I’m going to try something slightly different with this week’s Top Stories. Instead of creating a summary of the most important events, I’ll link to the best articles published this week about China. If you prefer this format or the other please let me know in the comments. -Tom
- Why many in China sympathize with Occupy Wallstreet – a great article from the Atlantic looking at differences between rural and urban residents.
- China’s Fox News – Christina Larson of Foreign Policy gives her take on the Global Times and journalism in China. Which was followed up by The top 10 screeds in China’s Global Times. Global Times fired back with Foreign Policy’s limited view of Chinese media.
- Chinese police take on ‘lost generation’ grandparents – Malcom Moore at The Telegraph looks at the ongoing legal battle involving petitioners who left Shanghai in the 60’s to settle Xinjiang, only to find themselves stuck in the desert.
- The China conundrum – from the New York Times and the Chronicle, explores the challenges that are arising as colleges admit more students from China. The piece is sure to spark debate, as it clearly demonstrates that many Chinese students are lying to get admitted to US schools, and are responsible for lowering the quality of some institutions.
- Wen Jiabao reveals family was persecuted under Mao – A shorter piece from the Telegraph looking at possible motives behind Wen’s increasingly vocal calls for political reform.
- Tibetans’ self-immolations lead China to crack down harder– Tom Lasseter at McClatchy sits down with a Tibetan herder and discusses the growing discontent in China’s Tibetan regions. In another story, it was made clear that the Confucius Institute is asking US universities to ignore the Tibet issue in exchange for funding.
- China’s great gender crisis – Tania Branigan at the Guardian takes a closer look at the problems caused by China’s traditional preference for sons, and how that preference is starting to change.
If you found a great story that I missed this week, please share it in the comment section below.
Not sure how you reach the conclusion that Chinese students are lowering the quality of some institutions…?
If you read the full article, several of the professors mention that due to the lower language ability of their students, they are making classes less participatory, for example: fewer presentations and group projects.
Sure, but that’s just changing pedagogy to accomodate different kinds of learners from a different learning background – you can’t conclude that equals a lowering in the quality of the institution. The article also mentions that Chinese students average the same grades as other students – so I’m not sure they’re a net detriment to the university. In fact, I would argue that they add to the diversity of the campus – and the university isn’t shy about taking their money!
I would agree that a large part of the motivation on the college side is money, and they would probably be more strict with their admissions if they could afford it. I did have a class in my university that was half students from China (it was Chinese literature), and they almost never contributed to the conversations, and the professor allowed them to do much less work for the same grades. To me it seemed that it lowered the quality of the class. Now that has nothing to do with their ethnicity, just a general issue that has to be balanced with international students.
They also add “diversity” to universities, but if they don’t interact with other students, and become the majority of international admissions, there would be diminishing returns on the “diversity’.
Thanks for the round up Tom. Excellent recommendation on what news to follow. Beats typing ‘china’ into news.google.com search function. The latter exposes you to news search results from xinhua, global times and china daily which I would love to filter out if it was not for the reason that I want to know where CCP stands on said news.
Thanks Tom! I prefer this format over the summary – easier to read and access articles.
The China Conundrum story really hit home because I graduated from univ not long ago and my small private Southern college definitely saw an influx of Chinese students over the years I was there. We never had as many as Delaware, but some of the same issues especially regarding plagiarism were rampant. It was frustrating because many teachers were more lenient toward them and gave them “gentleman’s Cs” when it really should have been a failing grade.
Just had a new comment on an old post about this topic, http://seeingredinchina.com/2011/04/08/cheating-with-chinese-characteristics/#comment-4353 very much worth reading.
@xl
Those US professors just do not have “xin yan” (see Yaxue’s post on americans are dumb).
As to Occupy Wall Street, I think that while many in that US movement don’t really know why they are angry or what it is they want, I think it is best summarized by displeasure at Wall Street’s Moral Hazard issue: when investors (in this case, banks primarily) make risky bets which, if they pay off, yield big returns and, if they lose money, such losses will be born by some other party (the government through bailouts). Anyone who knows how the Chinese financial sector works would agree that Moral Hazard is endemic in China, as evidenced by the huge problem of loans to Local Government Financing Platforms. It’s understandable that there would be empathy from mainlanders for Occupy Wall Street
Tom, I have very much enjoyed reading the Top China Stories of the week. I prefer this format. The recent comment on the old post about plagiarism is also very interesting. Cynically, it’s all about money isn’t it! So it just confirms the plagiarising students’ belief that money solves every problem. Well it does, doesn’t it!