A specific timeline has not yet been established, but the revision clearly means that all for-profit private schools in China are prohibited from teaching students between grades 1 through 9. As expected, the revised law was adopted Monday on a third readying by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

Private schools will become exempt from the proposed ban if they registered as non-profit schools, but doing so would require government approval on the setting of tuition fees.

Private education in China was previously a booming industry that attracted huge investments. With relaxed restrictions now at an end, the government is now seeking tighter control by ending the ability of schools to set the curriculum as well.

The spread of “Western values” at Chinese schools has been a constant concern in China. Earlier last month, Shanghai authorities told 21 international schools to adopt state-sanctioned educational subjects as part of their curriculum. In January 2015, Education Minister Yuan Guiren said that Chinese universities should never “let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes.”

At the same time, the tightening of government control over education follows greater central oversight over a number of sectors including information dissemination, news and the internet and comes when the Communist Party of China has rallied behind Chinese President Xi Jinping as the “core leader”.

The post China Announces Total Ban of For-Profit Private Schools appeared first on The Nanfang.

China’s top legislature is debating a revision to the 2002 Law on the Promotion of Non-Public Schools that would limit the country’s private schools to students in kindergarten, grades 10 to 12, and university.

The revision comes after Shanghai authorities told 21 international schools to adopt state-sanctioned educational subjects as part of their curriculum. If the proposed law is passed, about 10,200 private schools and 12 million students in China will be affected.

Private schools would become exempt from the proposed ban if they registered as non-profit schools, but doing so would require government approval on the setting of tuition fees, putting private schools at a disadvantage.

Wu Hua, head of the Research Center of Private Education at Zhejiang University, believes the revision will be passed, thereby limiting options for Chinese parents wanting an alternative to the rote-teaching of public schools.

“The proposed law sends a signal that for-profit schools are unwelcome in China,” said Wu. “Even if they switch to non-profits, they would face challenges in terms of acquiring land and struggle to operate without preferential tax policies.”

In January 2015, Education Minister Yuan Guiren said that Chinese universities should maintain “political integrity” and never “let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes.” Without being specific, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech last December that hostile forces were attempting to subvert the Party’s rule and faith in Marxism, Socialism and Communism.

By comparison, some Western schools are becoming more Chinese in their approach to education. This past July, the UK decided to adopt Chinese teaching tactics as part of its schools’ mathematics curricula.

Meanwhile, some Chinese schools are attempting to cater to parents wanting an international education for their children by opening campuses in the USA.

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Often referred to as “E-sports”, competitive video gaming is a burgeoning market in which competitors can earn enormous prizes worth up to $3 million. Broadcast internationally and flanked by big name sponsors, some players in the nascent sport have been able to make a living by playing games like Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and League of Legends.

And while Chinese players have achieved a lot of success on their own, the country looks to make a bigger impact on the world stage by allowing e-sports to be taught in its schools.

Last month, e-sports was named by China’s Ministry of Education as one of the 13 new majors that can be taught at its colleges. Before that, competitive video gaming has previously been approved as the country’s 78th official discipline for sports by the General Administration of Sport of China in 2011, thereby elevating it to the same status as ping pong and swimming.

And now, the first e-sports class is set to be taught next year. The Hunan Sports Vocational College will offer an e-sports class for 40 students in the fall of 2017.

As vice dean of the college’s sports department Liu Jun puts it, the course won’t just be fun and games, but about taking fun and games seriously.

“We want to churn out all kinds of professionals in club management, data analysis, tactics design, sports brokering, coaching, judging and anchoring. E-sports players are just one of the many options,” said Liu.

Students interested in majoring in competitive video gaming will be enrolled in compulsory lessons for law, computer science and English lessons as well as specialized courses covering sports management, data analysis, tactics design and sports brokering.

It’s a far cry from the stigma that video games like League of Legends have been saddled with in China. Born in smoky internet bars where patrons are known to frequent at all times of the day, video games have been given a poor reputation by society who blame it for anti-social behavior and poor academic performance.

The backlash against video games is so severe that some parents have forcibly enrolled their children at “internet addiction camps” as a way to get them to stop playing online video games. Just last month, notorious anti-internet addiction crusader Yang Yongxin resurfaced in the news with fresh allegations that he is again using electric shocks to treat patients despite getting banned from doing so in 2009.

With the public having such a low opinion of playing video games, there’s a simple reason why the government of China has decided to support the development of what was once considered the “scourge of society”: money.

In it’s report, the Global Times reports that a new leaf has been turned ever since “the country has witnessed just how viable and profitable the gaming and e-sports industry has become”. And as important as many Chinese consider education to be an important part of their children’s lives, the Global Times writes that the monetary success of e-sports is making society change its mind:

If their parents and teachers ever scoffed or laughed at them before for neglecting their studies and being glued to their computer screens, it’s reasonable to presume those same adults are now eating humble pie.

The estimated market value of e-sports in China reached over 26.9 billion yuan in 2015, 19 percent higher than the year before.

In addition to filling out tertiary roles in this field, Party secretary for Hunan Sports Vocational College Zhou Zhihong thinks that providing an e-sports course at a Chinese school can provide video gamers with an education, something Zhou admits many are lacking.

Going to school and getting an education in what you love to do may sound like an ideal situation, but prospective students first need to meet the standards of the college. As Liu said, the college will only accept applicants with “a good command of mathematics and communication skills and also a pleasant appearance and disposition.”

But even as China plans for the future of e-sports, it hasn’t done very well in the present. E-sports competitions previously hosted in China have had a checkered past.

This past March, the DoTA 2 video game competition held at the Shanghai Major Playoffs were soundly criticized by the international community for everything from corruption to incompetence. The criticisms got so bad that Valve CEO Gabe Newell had to step in with a public scolding of the Chinese hosts.

In July of last year, Chinese streaming site ImbaTV hosted an all-women competition for the Hearthstone video game that drew criticism for forcing its female competitors to dress up in white robes and high heels (shown above). The Daily Dot described it as “someone’s dollhouse fantasy” while Forbes said it was ” a Clickhole-level parody of what a women’s eSports tournament might look like.”

We’re not sure what the future holds, but as dominant as Chinese e-sports players may become, we can probably guess what they will be wearing.

The post Now You Can Earn a Diploma in “Competitive Video Games” in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

Education Minister Nick Gibb announced the country had allocated GBP41 million to institute the “maths mastery” policy at 8,000 elementary schools, accounting for over half of all elementary schools in the UK.

“I am confident that the steps we are taking now will ensure young people are properly prepared for further study and the 21st century workplace,” Gibb said. “And that the too-often heard phrase ‘can’t do maths’ is consigned to the past.”

“The significant expansion of the south Asian maths mastery approach can only add to the positive momentum, with thousands more young people having access to specialist teachers and quality textbooks,” he added.

First introduced in UK classrooms in 2014, “Shanghai-style” education focuses on teaching students together as a entire class. The “chalk and talk” approach has teachers give one lesson to the class, explaining each step of a calculation along the way.

Gibb emphasized the need of rote learning among UK students, insisting that multiplication tables be memorized by students at earlier ages. Gibb stated that UK students should spend “more time on high-quality, productive practice” to develop a “deeper, stronger mathematical understanding.”

So far, some 130 Chinese teachers have traveled to the UK to share their teaching methods with UK teachers. The Department of Education hopes to train hundreds of UK teachers within four years.

Reports have suggested UK students lag three years behind their international peers when it comes to mathematics. Last year, a BBC documentary about the teaching exchange revealed frustrations on both sides. Chinese teachers were seen unable to control UK students, while English teachers were heard criticizing Chinese teaching practices.

The post UK Decides Teaching Math Chinese-style is Better appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Tsinghua Media Survey Lab, Ant Financial and Top Think Tank jointly carried out the survey that drew 4,980 respondents. Over 40 percent of students in their 20s reported having invested in the stock market, while 37 percent said they had purchased shares from investment funds.

Despite their experience, the students were shown to be immature in their perspective towards investing. Three of out five respondents believe investment products with high yields but low risks are normal. Additionally, many of the students have unrealistic expectations of their financial returns: one third expect returns of 10 to 18 percent, while another third anticipate a yields between 5 to 10 percent.

Tsinghua Media Survey Lab director Zhao Shuguang thinks Chinese students need more financial education. “Finance is an important skill to survive in modern society, after intelligence and emotional balance, but the development of financial education has not kept up with that of financial products and services in China,” he said.

As it is, others have already raised this same warning.

After last year’s Chinese stock exchange meltdown, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced that 36 Guangzhou schools will serve as a pilot program that will see elementary students as young as five years-old be taught financial management with lessons on how to trade stocks on the Chinese stock market.

The post Chinese University Students Have a Lot to Learn When it Comes to Investing appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics has found that the number of single women in Beijing is rising, accounting for 45 percent of all singles between the ages of 30 and 44, an increase of 40 percent from the last time the survey was held five years ago.

And as befitting the “leftover woman” model, these single women are usually city residents with good educations. Ninety-three percent of these women live in urban areas, and 81 percent hold college degrees or higher. By contrast, the survey found that single men in China usually live in rural areas. More than half of these single men only have a junior high school education at best.

If you’re thinking a quirky rom-com scenario is the ideal circumstance to match-up these unlikely pairs, you’d be wrong. Xinhua reports that Chinese men tend to marry younger, less educated women than themselves.

According to some experts, the rise of leftover women may be simply due to the fact that women are better enjoying their rights and freedoms. Writer Luo Aiping, 38,  has said the high numbers of leftover women in China is a sign of progress. Luo maintains that real achievement for women is attaining equal respect and freedom.

The Beijing survey was taken of one percent of the population as a way to supplement the national census.

Related:

• Hong Kong’s Gender Imbalance Leaving a Generation of Unmarried Women
• Guangdong has the most singles in China, but “leftover men” a problem
• Evolution of Dating in China: Trading Pressure for Preference

The post “Leftover Women” Accumulating in Beijing appeared first on The Nanfang.

In passing the amendments, lawmakers said all schools in the country must get rid of GM foods in order to ensure food safety and protect students’ health.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator, Lin Shu-fen, argued that genetically modified foods have a “huge impact” on the physical and psychological health of Taiwan’s students, while Kuomintang Legislator Lu Shiow-yen said that consumption of genetically modified foods is “a hidden food safety crisis” exposing students to “unnecessary risks.”

Last month, Taiwan banned the import of genetically modified salmon from the US.

There is of course a financial cost to Taiwan’s new policy. When the new requirements take effect next semester, the cost of school meals could increase by as much as NT$5 each. As a result, the Ministry of Education’s budget for subsidizing school meals for 262,000 disadvantaged elementary and junior school students would increase by NT$235.8 million ($7.17 million).

Meanwhile, public fears over genetically modified foods have been raised throughout mainland China and surrounding territories.

This past August, China’s Ministry of Agriculture released a statement saying all genetically-modified foods are safe. While no official measures have been taken yet in Hong Kong, a voluntary labeling system has been adopted by food retailers in the special administrative region.

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Ex-Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan on Tuesday echoed the idea raised recently by Chinese communist party General Secretary Xi Jinping that both sides of the Taiwan Strait should jointly write history to boost mutual understanding and cooperation.

“Using the same materials and writing history books together will not only open the way for future collaboration between historians on both sides, but it will also help promote understanding and harmony between the people,” Lien said while giving a speech ahead of his meeting with Xi in Beijing — the third between the two men.

Consider the context: just this summer were the curriculum protests, which resulted in a student suicide. These protests were in response to pro-China/KMT alterations of the curriculum. Why even bring up history curriculum? Of course it can only be to torment those kids. And Lien says: let’s make the curriculum even more pro-China! That’s a classic chickenshit response to a dead kid. Hey kid, we’re trampling on your grave…

Lien sucked up to the PRC, and was criticized by the Presidential Office as “inappropriate” and by the Ministry of National Defense… (FocusTw)

During a meeting with Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing Tuesday, Lien said ROC troops, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), engaged directly with Japanese troops in major battles, handing the Japanese major setbacks.

But he also contended that CPC troops, led by Mao Zedong (毛澤東), tied down the Japanese enemy behind its lines.

The Defense Ministry disagreed.

“Whether on the front lines or behind enemy lines, the ROC government led the campaign,” Luo said at an event celebrating Armed Forces Day, which falls on Thursday.

My man Ben of Letters from Taiwan observed in 2005 Lien Chan went to China (there’s actually a Wiki page of Pan Blue Visits to China) to conduct diplomacy which was not sanctioned by the government, but Ma said nothing. The US said it welcomed the visit, but asked that the DPP government be included in talks. The EU said nothing about the DPP but lauded the visit. According to the Wiki site, some compared it to the meeting of Rabin and Arafat, which showed that those commentators know exactly nothing about Taiwan. In fact Lien promised during the 2004 campaign to visit China as the elected President but fortunately for Taiwan, he lost.

Crucially, the two Leninist parties re-affirmed the 1992 Consensus, that cage by which they hope to imprison the DPP.

Note that Lien talked about a “Taiwan-centric identity”, an interesting admission. The KMT and CCP both fear the Taiwanese identity, and the two Leninist parties are groping for a discourse framework, which, like the 1992 Consensus, can somehow imprison it. President Ma has repeatedly attempted to locate Taiwaneseness as a subculture of Chineseness, the discourse/identity strategy that Chinese expansionists have used with the Manchus, the Tibetans, and other cultures that China has overrun. But unlike those unfortunates who share a land border with the PRC, Taiwan has a Strait to keep the PRC off…

The post The KMT’s Lien Chan Sucks Up to China appeared first on The Nanfang.

As captured in the documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School by the BBC, the experiment tried to determine if doing things the Chinese way can turn around a British education system with lagging students. However, what mostly happened was a clash of cultures in which teachers and students complained about each other.

Many of the Chinese teachers complained about the undisciplined and unfocused nature of the British students. Science teacher Yang Jun was completely flummoxed when a teenage girl left the classroom in tears upon reading tabloid news about a boy band. “In China we don’t need classroom management skills because everyone is disciplined by nature, by families, by society. I found it difficult to understand such emotional behavior over a pop band,” said Yang.

Meanwhile, 15 year-old Rosie Lunskey also expressed frustration with her new Chinese teachers. “I’m used to speaking my mind in class, being bold, giving ideas, often working in groups to advance my skills and improve my knowledge. But a lot of the time in the experiment, the only thing I felt I was learning was how to copy notes really fast and listen to the teacher lecture us.”

But the controversy didn’t end there. The Chinese teachers also pointed their criticism at the UK social welfare system for causing apathy among its students.

Mandarin teacher Wei Zhao said cuts to the welfare system will motivate students to learn. “Even if they don’t work, they can get money, they don’t worry about it,” said Wei. “But in China, they can’t get these things so they know ‘I need to study hard, I need to work hard to get money to support my family’. If they (the British government) really cut benefits down to force people to go to work, students might see things in a different way.”

Widely available on the internet in China, the BBC documentary caused a lot of discussion among Chinese netizens who looked upon their own experiences with the Chinese education system. Here is some of what they said:

舞者的武者：
Looking at it from another aspect, Chinese students are better able to suffer in silence than students in the UK. 

HHHHHH学院:
It’s like as though by using English-style teaching, the results are supposed to be more innovative. This is just a bunch of crappy students trying to find excuses, and it’s hilarious.

好大一只_蚊：
Actually, I really like the Chinese education system. If it were to become as open and free as the UK system then I think it would turn to rubbish, exploiting the nation’s welfare system.

瓜田澄思：
After the documentary aired, a person from the UK made a post on Twitter saying the vast majority of the students in the film have self-discipline problems, have trouble with comprehension, don’t respect the authority of teachers, and are a disgrace to the UK by losing face. This comment said the UK education system has spoiled these children rotten. If the future of their country is within the hands of these people, then a catastrophe is awaiting. The Chinese and UK systems of education are completely different from each other, and yet they both give rise to a similar concern that they both don’t work.

See Also: 8,000 Chinese Students Expelled from US Schools as They Struggle to Adjust

斯坦福桥的BlueSky：
Chinese and Western education systems each have their own pros and cons, and it’s hard to distinguish who is better or worse at whatever. But there is one thing that is for sure, and that is no matter which system they’re in, lazy people will always be losers!

徐欣V：
It really is just as the teacher said, we don’t have any way to learn the same way as UK students due to the way the things are right now in China. The pressure upon Chinese students to compete with each other is fierce. The population is high. If you don’t work hard, you will get eliminated.

十多年熬一锅粥：
Comparing the two to each other, it’s not a bad idea to use the strengths of others in order to make up for your own shortcomings. So if I were to have incorporated farming techniques as part of my education, I would have become the worst of all students.

古三界：
One way is to perform rote memorization, the other is individualized teaching. One way is to cultivate students to become obedient slaves, the other is cultivate their hobbies and interests.

斑马先生随行笔记：
Many people say that there’s no use to learning mathematics. They say, ‘Do you need to use algebra when buying vegetables?’ I just want to tell these people that upon learning mathematics, you won’t even need to look at the price of vegetables anymore.

大西北的吕先生：
To all the people who say that the Chinese education system has failed, I have to tell you that all the people that have passed through this system will go on to become the cornerstones of society. It may even be that they will become the leaders of China will come from these so-called failed education system. At that time, what are you going to do? Are we all going to die, then?

小小鹿汤圆：
I don’t understand why there are so many Chinese criticizing their own education system as being completely worthless. Other countries find merit and redeeming quality in our education system. Why can’t we be more tolerant and friendly towards our own country?

静夜之轩：
Many of the scientists in laboratories across the USA are from China. Does this not dispel the awful notion that Chinese people are not innovative? The Chinese education system is one where short-term gains can not be met. Even if you were to put US teachers into Chinese high school classes, one week would not be enough time to make an impact upon these students. As well, through the examination you can establish a sturdy base of knowledge as well as providing a way to achieve good results.

forever辰洋：
I don’t know if Chinese-style education in the UK would be at all effective, but I do know that UK-style education practiced in China would be completely useless.

哈哈公主o：
All of a sudden, I feel as though the Chinese-style education isn’t all that bad anymore.

o阿硫克o：
I feel relieved upon reading through the comments. A lot of people seem to understand, while those that don’t aren’t ever likely to understand, no matter which education system they come from. Lots of other countries are starting to study our education system. There will be those people who will invariably belittle and reject our way of learning. I completely believe that the future will belong to China.

allisonlian：
This kind of comparative test is significant. These two education models can increase their strengths through mutual advancement, and is worth exploring.

在自己的故事里成为强者：
Whatever suits the situation of their own country is best. The Chinese education system is not suitable for the UK, while the UK education system is not suitable for China.

L翘翘：
When I was younger I preferred the foreign education system, but now I find myself increasingly in favor of the Chinese system. Some people say that the Chinese education system doesn’t encourage innovation. A person who recently took the gaokao said the questions have all been reformed and don’t ask for the rote answers that were common a few years before. Now, the teacher tells us we should ask if we don’t understand something, and is more prone to discussing things with us. Students who are cultivated to be modest, understanding, and respectful of the authority of teachers will most likely become people who respect the older generation and follow order.

Related:

• Teacher in Foshan sends group text message to parents calling students “trash”
• 70 Students In Shanghai Caught Using Stand-ins To Take Their CET English Exams
• Chinese Spending Big Bucks On Housing In The Name Of Their Children’s Education

The post Chinese React to a Disastrous Experiment of Putting Chinese Teachers in a UK School appeared first on The Nanfang.

A popular Chinese television show is riffing on that recipe today. Shot after shot, performers are seen putting things in their mouths with chopsticks and swallowing as though it were drama. This may make sense if it was a cooking show, but this is a show about foreigners. And wherever foreigners on TV are concerned in China, this isn’t just about entertainment, but education.

That’s the driving purpose behind Hello China, a show on the Guangdong Satellite TV Network. Filmed before a studio audience, Hello China is a variety show that features competition and games to test how well its non-Chinese guests have adapted to life in China.

Considering that all the foreigners featured on Hello China speak fluent Chinese, wear traditional Chinese clothing, and practice Chinese culture such as martial arts and poetry reciting, you’d think that they have been successful in “becoming Chinese”. But as much as this show is geared towards the spread of Chinese culture to Westerners, Hello China is a show in which its Chinese audience learns more about foreigners than its guests learn about China.

Westerners have no reason to watch this show, even if they could understand Chinese and are fans of wacky variety shows – if you want to learn and appreciate Chinese culture, there are easier ways to do so, without the sound effects. On the other hand, Chinese audiences can ‘learn’ all about foreigners through a Chinese cultural standpoint.

The first lesson Chinese audiences learn from this show is that foreigners uniformly love China. Each foreign guest is introduced with a brief interview with the questions “What do you like most about China?”, “Why did you come to China?”, and “So what do you think of China?”, questions that foreigners often find themselves answering upon meeting someone for the first time. The guests, all of whom are said to be “foreign exchange students”, answer positively by raving about something specific in Chinese history or culture. After providing flattering examples, the catering is duly rewarded with applause from the audience.

The second lesson Chinese audiences can learn from this show is that expectations of laowai, the colloquial term for foreigners in China, are low. The TV upshot of this is that laowai have a capacity to constantly astonish.

Host Zhao Yi’ou repeatedly says “Wow!” when the foreign guests are seen eating exotic Chinese delicacies like thousand year-old egg and stinky tofu as though they are performing some kind of death-defying stunt. These guests are all treated like they just got off the plane and have been given a Chinese cultural baptism by fire.

Despite their obvious familiarity with Chinese culture, these foreign guests still aren’t accepted as being Chinese, of course. But the willingness of the foreign guests to eat food that the Western-dressed Zhao calls “the foods foreigners fear most ” makes for compelling viewing, for a Chinese audience at least.

The Yangtze Evening Report published a write-up on last week’s Hello China show that made it sound like the foreign guests were terrified by common dishes, when in fact they had little reaction at all:

[Upon seeing the food revealed], all of the laowai were scared half to death! Two of the foods selected are what foreigners consider to be the “most disgusting foods (in the world)”. The laowai bashfully swallowed the food while the audience were overjoyed at the sight.

Eating stinky tofu or thousand year-old egg is something that people do everyday. You might be doing it right now, even. But when a non-Chinese is witnessed by a Chinese audience doing this, it somehow becomes an affirmation of Chinese culture, despite being over-the-top in its pandering.

Hello China airs every Sunday evening, you can watch it online here.

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