Employment & Professional Development

I am interested in other teacher experiences, etc. concerning the discussion of politics in the Chinese classroom.

I am due to start teaching in China in August. Apart from the usual aspects of English teaching I will be teaching Western film and literature.

Obviously I am aware of Politics along with sex and religion as being essentially taboo discussion areas in the classroom. However I will teaching undergraduates in a university that has had a reputation in the past for being, shall we say, a little critical of the status quo.

As a Politics graduate I feel that I can discuss these contentious areas quite neutrally. However I am also aware that in some aspects China is at a crossroads at the moment with its current reforms.

Is it best just to skirt the area completely? Or let the students steer the discussions with myself being an umpire.

Experiences, strategies, etc. are most welcome.

Personally, I avoid the discussion of politics as much as possible and that's relatively easy for me to do because the subject doesn't naturally present itself when you're teaching medical psychology, statistics, and medical ethics. Aside from that, I am not a very political person to begin with.

No matter how neutral or well-balanced you may in fact be, that doesn't mean the students will necessarily hear it that way: You can easily be misinterpreted and misquoted and, in part, the language barrier will contribute to that likelihood.

China is a very narcissistically-damaged culture and has zero tolerance for any criticism of any kind unless it is first prefaced with rampant praise and several leading qualifications (excuses)—and even then it is very risky business.

All webmasters of China-related websites know that there are two topics, in particular, that the censors have zero tolerance for: Mention them or allow your readers to mention them and your site will only be available in China via a proxy server or virtual private network in a matter of days. It's that simple.

Before I published the original version of our Guide, I asked two Chinese colleagues to read it not just for accuracy but as a government official would: I was strongly advised to rewrite a few sections so that they would be "less objectionable" (and I did). I didn't delete anything I felt was important but I was obliged to find an alternative way of presenting the same information—obliged, that is, if I wanted the Guide to remain available to readers from within China.

I'll ask Ken to weigh in on this subject and if any of our regular posters want to share any personal experiences with this issue, I'll publish them with the understanding that we won't be delving into any specific political topics on this forum.

I have an undergraduate degree in political science and there is no way I will engage in political discussion in the classroom.

Regardless of how facile you may rank yourself, you are placing yourself in a position where you may have to defend yourself against wildly inaccurate, or entirely false accusations.

That doesn't count the self appointed provocateurs who can often be found at English Corners or in classrooms.

I met one young Chinese lady who bragged to me that she had single-handedly turned an English corner conducted by a priest into an angry mob. She was inordinately proud of herself over this feat.

If you are engaged in any sort of political discussion in your classroom then you absolutely open the door for scrutiny as to the appropriateness of your teaching.

It is no different than the neighborhood guy who plays with the neighborhood kids. His behavior opens the door to scrutiny, and speculation, regardless of his motives.

Let me give you an example of how fast rumor spreads. One day, a parent walked by one of our classrooms where the teacher was conducting a game in which the children were kneeling at their chairs facing backwards. This parent immediately broadcast far and wide that the teacher had the children praying in class. Within minutes the school phones all lit up. Fortunately, two parents were in the classroom observing and they volunteered to give firsthand account rebuttals. Don't count on being so lucky.

Don't even consider trying to be a referee. There IS NO "other side" on certain issues in China.

The bottom line is this, you are expected to teach in specified content areas. You are expected not to venture in other areas. Those are the conditions of the job.

Your contract stipulates you will respect the laws and morals of China. Failing to abide by that will likely make life more difficult for you, your students, and your employer.

Finally, remember this: It may be of little concern to you if you allow your class to become an incubator where views "critical of the status quo" thrive. But if the hammer drops, and you wind up deported over it, what of your students? What blemishes will stain their futures if they are labeled troublemakers for participating in this experiment?

I strongly advise keeping politics out of your classroom.

Thank you for the quick replies.

Your advice, as I suspected, confirmed that taboo subjects such as politics must be avoided at all costs within the classroom environment in China.

However, what is the best strategy to adopt when a classroom smart alec starts asking seemingly innocuous questions such as 'what is democracy'. I doubt very much this will happen, but older teenagers/undergraduates do tend to ask probing questions such as these.

I guess, from my experience, that I would be polite yet firm and state that this is not for discussion.

Also, in a similar vein, I am going to take a lot of books with me when going to China.

Is it safe to assume that all reading matter, at customs, will be looked at? Can I take any books as long as they are not critical of China?

One such book I would like to take is an OUP primer of Chinese history.

Again experience of taking books into China would be appreciated.

There may be an occasional student who will try to bait you into jeopardizing your teaching position but that scenario is certainly not a common one. It is also possible to give a working definition of democracy or Christianity or any potentially volatile subject without proselytizing or criticizing China.

As for books, I did bring a few along with me and don't recall that they were examined by Customs. If you tried to haul in a crate of Bibles, that would be a different story.

I routinely order books from Amazon.com and don't believe the packages are ever opened and inspected. Amazon will ship any books to mainland China that do not contain digital media, i.e., DVDs or CDs. It takes between two to three weeks for the order to arrive once it is shipped.

I am also a Politics graduate and enjoy having discussions regarding political matters but--from my personal experience--I would not only advise against engaging in these discussions in the classroom, but also try and avoid talking about it with Chinese people in general.

Giving any criticism against China and its policies will certainly not win you any friends no matter how well-informed and correct your opinion may be. In my opinion, Chinese people routinely do not question political matters as they are told that most measures that are taken are simply for the good of the Chinese people.

I remember having a discussion with my girlfriend about the death penalty that got very heated and I couldn't believe how ill-informed she was: She freely quoted statistics that were at the very least questionable.

That all said, Chinese people will often offer much unfounded criticism of Western governments that they have heard on State run media and this can be frustrating to say the least.

My husband and I have been teaching in China at a university in Chengdu for one school year and have signed up to teach for another.

I did teach a "Survey of English Speaking Countries" class last year and will teach again this year. I stuck to the book and used a few video materials to emphasize important points, but didn't deviate much from the curriculum.

In my oral English classes and at English Corner there are always a few people who want to ask questions that I feel could become volatile in nature. I was very cautious at first, as I didn't know who these people were and who they might be spying for. After being here awhile and getting to know some of my students on a more personal level, for those who have genuine questions, we started a private club for those people interested in talking about deeper subjects.

We call it Philosophy Club. It began as an academic look at what philosophy is and the differences between western and eastern philosophies, etc. From there the students have engaged each other in debate topics and have begun to analyze aspects of their culture and others to find weaknesses and strengths.

As I've said, this is a private club and only has about 10 regular members. We try to provide facts and then keep the discussions civil. Overall the students who regularly come to us asking these types of questions we have found to already be "different" by Chinese standards and have some difficulty fitting into their own culture. They seem to appreciate the free room to breathe that the club offers them.

To be clear, we are not experts on China. We've only been here 11 months but have in that time developed good rapport with our students. We do have people who show up at English Corner who blatantly ask us things like, "What's your opinion on Taiwan?" or something like that. I openly say to them, "This is not the place to discuss politically sensitive topics, but if you'd like to talk about one of the other topics we've chosen for today, I'm happy to help you practice your oral English." (Our English Corner chooses 4 topics and posts them on the four walls and the students can feel free to pick the one they're most interested in or to drift from one to another during the hour.)

When I entered China last year I brought about 12 books with me. Of these 12 books three of them are banned here in China.

No one checked my bags at all, honestly I don't think your average Chinese worker at an airport will have all of the English names of all the books that are banned in China or take the time (or have the English skills) to read your books one by one and decide if they are suitable to be allowed into China.

As Dr Greg said, Amazon will ship any book not containing multimedia into China. I have ordered books that are on the banned list and had them delivered with no problems. I only found out they were banned when a friend of mine took a look at the new books I had ordered and she pointed out that five out of the six were banned in their Chinese editions.

For me politics or my degree major, political science, is the systematic study of power: its forms, how it is organised and who has it. We try and be as neutral as possible and thereby make assessments and predictions that can be useful.

One of the reasons I came to China was because I wanted to understand China better. I have a job as an oral English teacher in a provincial university and understand my contractual obligations to respect Chinese laws and morals.

I like the post by commcaj because it allows for a wider discussion than the other suggestions. I struggle to generate involvement and discussion in my classes, and feel great when a student expresses themself well and especially if it is in a novel or independent way.

In my expreience Chinese students have minds and want their voices to be heard, and they occasionally teach me things. I see part of my role is to introduce Western culture to them - and individualism and creativity are definately part of that. On the Chinese side the society seems to emphasise collectivity and development.

I think we need to realise who has power in China, and not upset them, but also that some Chinese want a wider discussion of issues than has been permitted before.