Job Discussion Forums

[urielw]

I taught at China's Foreign Affairs College -- an elite state university in Beijing established a half-century ago to train China's diplomats.

My teaching, different from the rote learning students typically experienced, was praised by many: "You're a really persuasive teacher," says a typical email message. "I like to argue with you in class,because every time I can learn a lot.It's my luck to have a unique teacher as Uriel."

Classes proceeded for two months. Then -- a sudden upheaval. I was said to disrespect the students; to disrespect China; and to have committed improprieties with female students. The fiery denunciations swept through the student body.

The affected classes were practically unanimous in their condemnation. Virtually all students signed a complaint letter to school authorities -- including students who'd emailed praise days earlier.

I was reprimanded by the school authorities, who were however unwilling to discuss any specific allegation. They also refused to let me see the complaint letter, saying the students must be protected from me.

Then a death threat arrived in the post:

"Do you know what we think of you? You have given us the impression of being a notorious rascal who is hostile towards our country and often harass the girl students. You can't imagine how we hate you. Please be warned that if you don't stop attacking on China and harassing the girls, you will be taught a good lesson. It is not a big talk that it is easier to disable you or kill you than to kill a dog."

I handed the threat over to the school authorities and demanded a police investigation. Their initial response was that the threat was none of their business. The school's top official, Heng Xiaojun, was also unperturbed, pointing out that the threat was conditional -- I would be safe as long as I desisted from my objectionable behavior. No police investigation occured.

My classes were called "Topical English," and I designated a new topic: the student complaints. Discussion raged, accusations flew. The students were furious over being confronted about their own complaints, which they themselves did not seem to understand.

I asked the students to let me have a copy of the complaint letter they had all signed. No one was willing to produce it.

Much was made of an incident, a few weeks earlier, in which two female students had accompanied me to a Beijing hospital for a chest examination. The doctor, a Chinese man of about 55, had me remove my shirt, although the students were present. The whole class adamantly insisted that this violated Chinese cultural norms. (No one could explain why the doctor failed to understand this.)

In a class of students set to graduate a few months later as Diplomacy majors, one student, impatient with discussion, shouted at me to "*beep* off!" -- and strode out of the classroom. All his classmates followed, leaving me alone.

The class confrontations went on for two weeks. Then the school authorities summoned me to a meeting. They revealed that there had been an additional source of complaints. Anonymous messages about me had been sent to the university president even before I'd begun my teaching position. The school was obliged, they told me, to terminate my contract.

I knew who must have sent the anonymous messages. It was a man who blamed me for being abandoned by his girlfriend, and who had been obsessively harassing me with hang-up phone calls and email messages like the following:

"You are a head of ugly pig, bald donkey! Therefore you are not civilized enough to write me back. There is a famous saying in China: Be a prostitute and simultaneously want to have an inscription of pudicity. You are just this kind of person!"

Not all of my classes were swept up in the hysteria. Other classes were unaffected and went on normally. A student from one of these classes wrote:

"i am sorry to know that you are fire,i hope everything will be all right soon,that is not your fault,you really do a good job,[our] class will support you forever,but now we will lose a good teacher.when we talked about it today,we felt so sad.most of them said that they learned a lot in your class,and found it very interesting.to be honestly,we like the way you teach us,it is different from other foreign teachers',it is outstanding.you are fire is the loss of the school,and i belive that you will have a bright future, maybe your feeling is not good at the moment,i think you can get over it.you are our hero!"

My contract had been issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, an office of the national government. It guaranteed that the parties could request arbitration from that office in case of dispute.

Various Westerners in China offered advice. A British lawyer who had been in China for seven years opined:

"The Chinese haven't changed in the 400 years since Ricci. They think of us as clever monkeys.... If you [invoke your contract's government arbitration option] you'll probably just get escorted right to the airport. Don't make trouble."

I nonetheless requested arbitration, pointing out that "the complaints were based on false rumors and gossip" and that the university neglected its "very basic duty" to "INVESTIGATE complaints" before terminating me.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs ignored my submission and refused to respond to repeated messages.

-------------------------------

The above is a completely true story. The events took place during the fall semester of 2002. With plentiful direct quotations of email messages from students and others, the full account evokes the chaotic atmosphere and offers a revealing, provocative and unique look at a microcosm of modern Chinese society from within a significant Chinese institution.

The full account of this story is available at http://urielw.com/china2.

-------------------------------

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Uriel Wittenberg has spent three years teaching at Chinese universities, including one year at Tsinghua University, one of China's most prestigious universities. He has also worked as an editor at China's well-known Crazy English Magazine.

Prior to living in China, Wittenberg, 46, worked as a computer software consultant in major corporations including J.P. Morgan, National Grocers and National Broadcasting Corporation. He has a Bachelor's degree in computer science from University of Toronto, and a Master's in public policy from Carnegie-Mellon University.

[La Paz]

What a long tirade.
You got screwed or you screwed.

You're Fired!

[Victoria]

and here we go, once more time, with the special Chinese facial....
bent over and move over....

NEXT!!!???

[Victoria]

[windsorman1972]

[woza17]

Pat, I think that was a fair comment. I have been reviewing my situation and I was happier in my first town in the sticks. I was the only foreigner ,and the only foreigners I did meet were high quality and dedicated. You had to be to put up with the conditions they were under.

I think I will head back there.

As for Roger I think of him as a friend he has been to visit me here several times. A great guy and certainly not a sleazebag like whitjohn.

I have been teaching in China for 3 years now and I have not had any bad experiences, all positive really.

I have met some teachers that have and my advice is always to move on. But to be honest I have met more teachers that have screwed over the schools.
For what it's worth.

I am not saying this

[santensanke]

To Uriel :



I have read your message on the thread regarding QNU and have read your story.

The fact alone that you got hired at this prestigeous university, convinces me of your capabilities as a teacher.

Also, your writing is to the point and you are sticking to the facts, and not insulting anybody, although you clearly have reasons for doing so.

The 'incident' where you took your t-shirt of at the request of the doctor, is ridiculous. It is like looking for something that they can hold against you.

I really don't understand how this university AND the foreign experts affairs office can ignore the letter containing the death threat !! You have the letter in writing, while in my case the threats happened all the time over the phone.
So one could suppose that they would investigate your case even faster !!

But I guess you don't know who made this threat to you, while in my case I do know. It was only 1 person, Xiaopei Ye.

What I don't understand is : WHY ?

Why did they threaten you ? What - in their eyes - did you do wrong ?

Also, about the students signing the complaint letter : if there really would have been one, why did they not show it to you ? I would suppose that the Chinese would jump up and down with their 'proof' of the complaints.

If the students indeed signed : you can be 90 % sure they got manipulated or threatened into signing it. For example, at QNU, I know that the students went to see the FAO boss Yao Tan asking that Xiaopei should be stopped and that I should get paid and they got yelled at that it was none of their business and they got threatened with sanctions if they dared complain again.

I also know at QNU that the university started a campaign with the students to make them say bad things about me and my teaching. I had a really good relation with my students, and was always there to help them, and according to the last information so far the students have refused to say anything bad about me. That explains why Xiaopei Ye wrote something like : I can say Anke is a good teacher, because she made the students like her. To me, this confirms that they have indeed tried to get false statements from students but failed to do so.

Now next week is the TAFE audit. There are tensions at QNU. I don't know how far they will go to put pressure on the students to get false statements out of them.

China has laws, and also labor laws. I will copy paste some of them for you below - they come from the EFL website. They can not just fire you just like that. Article 25 talks about that :

Article 25The employer can revoke labor contracts should any one of the following cases occur with its laborers:

(1) When they are proved during probation periods to be unqualified for employment;

were you still under probation ? but even if you were : where is their proof ?

(2) When they seriously violate labor disciplines or the rules or regulations of the employer;

(3) When they cause great losses to the employer due to serious dereliction of duties or engagement in malpractice for selfish ends;

you did not do this I guess

(4) When they are brought to hold criminal responsibilities in accordance with law.

this did not happen either I guess


What happened after you got fired ?


What ALARMS me, is the fact that your students will be the future diplomats of China ...



I will read your full story after finishing this.




Adopted at the Eighth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National Peoples Congress on July 5, 1994, promulgated by Order No.28 of the President of the Peoples Republic of China on July 5, 1994, and effective as of January 1, 1995.




Article 1 This Law is hereby formulated in accordance with the Constitution in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of laborers, readjust labor relationship, establish and safeguard the labor system suiting the socialist market economy, and promote economic development and social progress.

Article 2This Law applies to enterprises, individually-owned economic organizations (hereinafter referred to as the employer) and laborers who form a labor relationship with them within the boundary of the Peoples Republic of China.State departments, institutional organizations and social groups and laborers who form a labor relationship with them shall follow this Law.

Article 7Laborers shall have the right to participate in and organize trade unions in accordance with law.Trade unions shall represent and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of laborers, and stage activities independently in accordance with law.

Article 12Laborers shall not be discriminated against in employment due to their nationality, race, sex, or religious belief.

Article 16Labor contracts are agreements reached between laborers and the employer to establish labor relationships and specify the rights, interests and obligations of each party.Labor contracts shall be concluded if labor relationships are to be established.

Article 19Labor contracts shall be concluded in written form and contain the following clauses:(1) Time limit of the labor contract;(2) Content of work;(3) Labor protection and labor conditions;(4) Labor remunerations;(5) Labor disciplines;(6) Conditions for the termination of the labor contract;(7) Liabilities for violations of the labor contract.Apart from the necessary clauses specified in the preceding clause, the parties involved can include in their labor contracts other contents agreed upon by them through consultation.

Article 23Labor contracts shall terminate upon the expiration of their time limits or the occurrence of the conditions agreed upon in labor contracts by the parties involved for terminating these contracts.

Article 25The employer can revoke labor contracts should any one of the following cases occur with its laborers:(1) When they are proved during probation periods to be unqualified for employment;(2) When they seriously violate labor disciplines or the rules or regulations of the employer;(3) When they cause great losses to the employer due to serious dereliction of duties or engagement in malpractice for selfish ends;(4) When they are brought to hold criminal responsibilities in accordance with law.

Article 28The employer shall make economic compensations in accordance with relevant State regulations if it revokes labor contracts according to stipulations in
Article 24, Article 26 and Article 27 of this Law.

Article 44The employer shall pay laborers more wage remunerations than those for normal work according to the following standards in any one of the following cases:(1) Wage payments to laborers no less than 150 per cent of their wages if the laborers are asked to work longer hours;(2) Wage payments to laborers no less than 200 per cent of their wages if no rest can be arranged afterwards for the laborers asked to work on days of rest;(3) Wage payments to laborers no less than 300 per cent of their wages if the laborers are asked to work on legal holidays.

Article 45The State follows the system of annual leaves with pay.Laborers shall be entitled to annual leaves with pay after working for more than one year continuously. Specific rules on this shall be worked out by the State Council.Article 50Wages shall be paid to laborers themselves in the form of currency on a monthly basis. The wages payable to laborers shall not be deducted or delayed without reason.

Article 77In case of labor disputes between the employer and laborers, the parties concerned can apply for mediation or arbitration, bring the case to courts, or settle them through consultation.The principle of mediation is applicable to arbitration and court procedures.

Article 80A labor dispute mediation committee can be set up inside the employer. This committee shall be composed of workers representatives, the representatives of the employer, and trade union representatives. The chairmanship of this committee shall be held by a trade union representative.Agreements reached on labor disputes through mediations shall be implemented by the parties involved.

Article 88Trade unions at various levels shall safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of laborers, and supervise the employer in its observance of labor laws and regulations.All units and individuals shall have the right to expose and accuse behaviors that go against labor laws and regulations.

Article 91The employer involved in any one of the following cases that encroach upon the legitimate rights and interests of laborers shall be ordered by labor administrative departments to pay laborers wage remunerations or to make up for economic losses, and may even order it to pay compensation:(1) Deduction or unjustified delay in paying wages to laborers;(2) Refusal to pay laborers wage remunerations for working longer hours;(3) Payment of wages to laborers below local standards on minimum wages;(4) Failure to provide laborers with economic compensations in accordance with this Law after revocation of labor contracts.

Article 97The employer shall assume the responsibility over compensation for losses caused to laborers by the invalidity of contracts due to reasons on the part of the employer.

Article 100The employer that refuses to pay social insurance funds shall be ordered by labor administrative department to pay within fixed periods of time. That which fails to make payments beyond the prescribed time shall be asked to pay arrears.

Article 107This Law shall take effect on January 1, 1995.

[Victoria]

I never had bad or unpleasant experience myself, and I am considerate as great pedagogue.
The transitivity of my "periodicals moments" on this forums, represents my practicability in projecting my soul a million light years away.

A blasting therapeutic movement indeed!

[Teacher Lindsay]

urielw wrote:-

[windsorman1972]

[eion_padraig]

santensanke,

the posting you had was pretty well stated, logical, and trying to be helpful.

I guess I see the problem being that China is not a country governed by laws. There are all kinds of laws written that are not worth the paper written on them. This is not a country where the laws matter as much as who is involved in the particular case. Granted all countries can have cases of preferential treatment, but it's not surprising at all to Chinese people that it happens. The relationship between the accuser/victim or the defendant/perpertrator and the one who is enforcing the law is of critical importance. I am more surprised when the law does protect the vicitm in China, than when the victim gets their complaint heard and the situation dealt with properly by the vicitim's standards.

I'm not defending the problems with the system and it would be great if the flaws in the Chinese systems were fixed. Even Chinese people who accept the flaws would probably agree it would be good if they were fixed. I just don't see it happening any time soon. When you come from a country where the dominate ideal is that injustices will be re-dressed by the government or appropriate authorities, it is exceedingly difficult to understand or accept and move on when they are not.

So sometimes the person who feels wronged has done something the draws the ire of a person in a position to give them trouble, or it could very well be that the person just has problems happen through no negative action of their own. What should you do when you feel you've been mistreated here in China? My answer... "it depends" and that's not a very satisfying answer, I know. Is there a way to act so as to avoid all trouble? I would say, "probably not", but there are ways to act that will be more likely to cause you trouble.

Is there anything good about China not be a country governed by law? I would say "yes". I know there are people on the board who feel you should always obey the laws of China. I don't agree. I think as foreigners in China we do have special rights and privilages. Just as we have special problems that Chinese people don't have living here. These, I must add, are not legal rights and privilages, but we have some of those too. Your age, race, gender and nationality all contribute to what these "special rights and privilages" are. I think my number one privilage is to pretend to not understand Chinese people when they speak Chinese.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to agree with me on this (as I know there are some/many who will not), but I want to present an reason why many of these problems can continue to happen. Perhaps my message is not different than Victoria's but stated in a slightly (I hope) coherent and reasonable way. That message being that you can easily be cheated or wrongfully fired or what have you.

Good luck.

Eion

[urielw]

Thanks all for replies/comments.

To santensanke:

[arioch36]

[urielw]

[Roger]

Uriel, n
my heartfelt synmpathy!
The poster, Anke, who started that thread about sexual harassment at Quanzhou Normal University, soon found out the Chinese modus operandi when things go wrong: a Chinese employer will never feel embarrasssed enough about washing dirty linen in public, and of course, they never feel they had done anything unbecoming; they simply turn the table on you. Note that in China, no lies are white!
This is not to say that complaints about foreign teachers are always misguided. But, clearly the onus is entirely on us, never on them, and they can manipulate the truth as they please - their opinion will prevail.

Chinese employers use information as a weapon all the time; many of us are on probation ALTHOUGH WE ARE SELDOM INFORMED OFFICIALLY ABOUT THIS. Thus, we expose ojurselves to the most perfidious attacks.

Your employer was a state-owned - thus not just a provincial or city-owned - institution of higher learning; I have never heard of anyone working for them in all those years. Why? Is it perhaps because they are not supposed to hire any outsiders who might "snoop" on their internal goings-on? It seems to me rather amazing that this school hired a foreign national without rigorously vetting him (with a view of finding out his stance on sensitive issues).
They must have very strict procedures to follow in hiring teachers and admitting students - they are the last that can afford to "lose face" publicly!

You said, URiel, you worked for Li Yang previously; maybe this station in your CV swayed their congenital mistrust of foreigners in general as Li Yang enjoys an almost official star reputation.