Forum Announcements

These forums were created to allow readers to ask direct questions of Middle Kingdom Life cofounders Gregory Mavrides, PhD and Kenneth Hayes, M.Ed. in a mutually exclusive dialogue. The professional support forums are not intended for open general discussions.

Readers are able to create new questions (topics) and reply to their own topics only within the Ask Dr. Greg and Ask Headmaster Ken forums. If you are not the author of the topic (the original poster), you will only be able to reply to topics in the Comments and Feedback forum. In this way, posters are guaranteed an exclusive dialog between themselves and the site's cofounders. If you are seeking opinions and experiences of people other than (or in addition to) the Guide's authors, then these are not the proper forums for you.

In regard to open anonymous China forums, two that are more appropriately moderated than most are the EFL Teachers Board and Raoul's China Saloon. However, please know that we strongly advise against using public anonymous forums for anything other than virtual socializing and, perhaps, gleaning a variety of perspectives on matters of personal choice or taste, e.g., opinions on the best DVD player to buy in China, which restaurant serves the best Western food in a particular city, etc. You should never rely on anonymous forums for making important decisions as there is no way to consider the source. Finally, if you do decide to use a public anonymous forum, you must never disclose any personal information that could be used to identify you (either in your registration information or later in a post).

If you have knowledge of a factual error in anything that has been written on this site, please send evidence of this error with corroborative authoritative proof, e.g., link to a government or reputable site to Dr. Greg. Similarly, if you have factual information that is relevant to a particular question (and answer) in the support forums, please send that to Dr. Greg as well.

In regard to new questions, we reserve the right to revise the subject heading and to copy edit the content as needed. If the question contains particularly unique or unusual subject matter that is inapplicable to others, we will probably choose to answer the question privately via e-mail instead of publicly on the forum.

Please note that we do not have the time to answer overly broad or general questions that are already addressed exhaustively in the Guide and in other areas of the site. For example, we will not answer non-specific questions such as "I am thinking about teaching English in China: What can I expect?" or "I have double-major in sociology and Asian studies. I know you need a degree to get a teaching job at a university but do I have other options?" If you don't have the time to read the entire Guide before posting your question, then start by reading our comprehensive summary.

Questions that are poorly written--in that they contain numerous spelling and grammatical errors, lack punctuation, and require considerable copy editing--may very well be deleted without explanation unless it is felt that the substance of the question would benefit many others and, therefore, warrants salvaging.

If you cannot find what you are looking for in the Guide's section indexes, then use the site's search engine. For specific searches, use quotation marks to restrict your search term to the precise order of the words, e.g., "visa proxy."

What To Post Where

Ask Dr. Greg:


Dating, Sex, & Relationships: Cross-cultural relationships with Chinese and other Asian nationalities.

Employment & Prof. Development: Employment choices and professional development issues, especially in regard to university employment and Western-approved international schools.

Culture, Daily Living, & Adjustment: Life transitions, choices, adjusting to differences in life, work, and study in the Middle Kingdom.

Ask Headmaster Ken:

Questions about private school employment, teaching contracts, salaries, residency permits, visas, and other non-university employment questions.

Comments, Feedback, & Suggestions

Comments, feedback, and suggestions for new topics can be posted here as well as general requests for help from other readers. As this is not a professional support forum, all registered members may reply to preexisting threads. Replies that are intelligently written, non-offensive, offer factual information, and do not contradict the advice offered on this site (without authoritative corroborative evidence such as links to official government or news sites) will be published. "Black" and "white" lists will not be published.

About the Authors

Dr. Gregory Mavrides is a professor in psychology and sociology currently working in the United Arab Emirates at ALHOSN University, where he is the chair of the Department of Social Sciences and the director of Student Counseling and Career Services.

Prof. Mavrides lived and worked in mainland China from 2003 through 2010 and is the principal author of the highly-acclaimed Foreign Teachers Guide to Living and Working in China. Dr. Mavrides possesses over 30 years of academic and direct practice experience in his field.

Ken Hayes, M.Ed. is a former U.S. Army officer and professional educator who, together with his Chinese wife, has been running a very successful private English language school in Jilin Province for years.

Ken is the cofounder of Middle Kingdom Life and a frequent content contributor and consultant.




Remember: Please use the Guide and Forum search engines to locate information that might already address your questions before posting to these forums.