Job Discussion Forums

[yaco]

How common are morality clauses in contracts ?

I am currently employed as an English teacher in Jiangsu province and have what can be interpreted a s a morality clause in my contract.

I was offered 3 positions, 2 in Jiangsu province and 1 in Heilongjiang Province which all had the same clause.

The actual workings of the clause do not unduly concern myself but I am curious as to how widespread these clauses are within China.

[MartinK]

...

[gerard]

Not sure if this is what you have in mind but..."respect social and cultural standards and behave in a manner compatible with the status of a foreign expert..."
I would say it means dont do things that might be legal but look bad and are wrong---like hitting on students or falling down drunk in public. Just guessing though and I don't think it's anything to worry much about.

[randyj]

In the appendix of my contract, dating from two years ago, the operative sentence reads as follows,"You will be expected to respect the social and moral norms of China." This appendix also contains words prohibiting proselytization.

[senor boogie woogie]

Hola!

In my wife's hometown of Dongyang, my contract stated that I keep my religious beliefs to myself. I do not have a religion, so no problem.

When I was dating my wife, I lived on the campus of the school, a little two room apartment. In the place was a computer with internet access. The internet was and is a main source of entertainment and information for me in China, and I go crazy without it.

One day the computer broke down and I told one of the English teachers about it. She told me that she would call somebody about it. Well, that night I slept at my future wife's house. No one on campus knew I had a girlfriend in town (I am the only foreigner). So, they tried to call my place for hours looking for me. Dongyang is not a party town, if you can imagine the combination of Mayberry and polluted Communist China, you get the picture. The streets roll up about 10 PM.

The next day I came back and was told that I had to see the boss. We went to the office and then I had to admit that I have a girlfriend in the city, she's a professional woman (they were concerned someone was trying to scam me) and she is very nice. The teacher who was the interpreter asked if I slept in the other room. When I said "No," she went "Oh, my God!", and the boss gave me a sly look. What was my personal business is now the business of the school. (RULE 1, There is nothing private in China!)

To make a long story longer, it turns out that the boss was my wife's Chinese teacher and she is friends with his wife (I had lunch with boss' wife today). They went to our wedding four monthes later.

Another deal, if you are married, especially to a Chinese, have your marriage license on you when you travel. It lessens the hassles.

SENOR

[Edward]

When I first came to work in China [2001], I worked at a school in the country. I had a dormitory room, private of course.

But could I ever have someone STAY with me of the opposite sex, even though my dorm was with all the OTHER foreign teacher's dorms, far away from the REST of the school?

Answer: A big fat ZERO...

I put this to a test to be sure. I knew that other CHINESE English teachers had "guests" of the opposite sex stay in THEIR dormitories for more than a few nights, so with this knowledge I invited my then girlfriend to the school for the weekend. I had already put in my notice to cancel my contract weeks earlier and only had two weeks to finish out at the school. I told the staff what I was doing [the invitation] and so on; nobody batted an eye. Exactly what I expected. I was setting THEM up, they were setting ME up. I knew something would happen but I wasn't sure WHEN and HOW.

After she arrived, again...at the guard house, she showed her I.D. then ....nothing! Came right in, no problemo. She had brought a bunch of stuff for dinner to cook, and three of the other teachers knew her, so they were VERY eager for her to arrive! After she got settled and began to start our Friday dinner/get together, I got "the phone call".


"Edward? Yes, this is Mr. XXX. I wanted to be sure to ask you, your girlfriend, you aren't MARRIED are you? No? Oh, well then, you will have to get a ROOM for her at the HOTEL next to the school before 9PM, ok?"

Well of course I began laughing my ass off and told him off quite efficiently, stating how they had more than one opportunity to tell me all this the week before, when I had told them WELL in ADVANCE exactly what was going to happen.

Then they kept saying things like how it would be embarrassing for her, and how know "good Chinese girl" would stay with me overnight. YOu know, the insinuations.

So we kept this bickering up for awhile, then I told them fine. She goes, I leave the school two weeks EARLY.

That was part of my plan anyway, I had a feeling they would try something so I fully expected to "bug out" on that coming Sunday anyway.

Of course the girlfriend was furious with them. I gave them all a lot to chew on. We both left for the weekend. I returned on Sunday to pack my things, left a nice long SECOND letter behind on why I was leaving early and breaking the contract, then I left...but ya know what? The school "offered" me a private car to go into the city with my stuff. They made sure I was happy and so on, and sorry for the misunderstandings, etc.

They really wanted to save face for themselves and show how generous they were to the end. The truth is, in my letter I stated I had more than one reliable witness who heard the director make accusations as to the 'credibility" of my girlfriends character/aka must be a *beep* to stay with a foreigner kind of B.S. The director was basically sweating in his boots! Not only would his own SECRETARY back me up on the accusations he made, but so did another girl in a second office. Seems he didn't have too many friends around. The next thing I heard was...he got a "new job" working at another MORE ISOLATED school farther away...

Don't let the A' holes here in China bully you around, OK? The laws are changing, new precidents are being written daily, and everyone is gaining more and more individual and "moral" rights as we speak, INCLUDING foreigners, resident or not!


hope that helps

Edward