About Us

History

The basis for what would later become Middle Kingdom Life was conceived back in 2006 by a group of four members of an Internet forum for foreign teachers who decided the time was long overdue for a single, comprehensive and authoritative guide about what teaching English in China is really all about.

One of the four members, the current author, took responsibility for writing an outline of all the topics that needed to be covered and then delegated writing assignments to each of the members based on their particular interest and expertise. Soon thereafter, the original group of contributors disbanded but the current author continued writing the guide as an individual project in his spare time. Due to other commitments, work on the guide was suspended in the latter part of 2006 when it was about 80% completed.

In March 2007, another member of yet a different Internet forum for foreign teachers contacted the principal author of the guide and urged him to finish this “work in progress.” This “fifth member” contributed original drafts for several of the units that needed to be finished and, a few months later, the guide—in its original form—was finally completed.

At that point, the guide was available as both a PDF document (available for download), as well as a series of pages on a CMS website platform, where it remained in obscurity for almost one year. In March through April 2008, the guide was completely updated and expanded but, this time, was published as a series of html pages where it found immediate recognition. Some three months later, the guide is now visited and read by as many as 100 prospective and current foreign teachers each day from North America, Australia, Europe, China and other parts of Asia. The guide in its current form is a 160-page document and represents the culmination of about 18 months worth of research, writing, revisions and updates with subject area contributions and editorial feedback from numerous and nameless foreign and Chinese English teachers alike, each of whom with years of teaching and life experience in China.

Guide and Website Philosophy

This guide, as well as the rest of the site, is provided as a community service towards the goal of protecting the interests of Westerners who are considering teaching English in China at this time. We know that people are using the Foreign Teachers’ Guide to Living and Teaching in China with which to make life-altering decisions and that is a responsibility we take very seriously. Wherever possible, the information we publish is verified through reliable and authoritative outside sources and every single word of this guide has been proofread for historical, sociocultural and political accuracy by a bilingual Chinese academician, who serves as the guide’s principal local consultant.

We encourage you to ask questions and provide feedback, and our contact information is accessible above from the menu item “Contact Us.” You can, of course, also just post a comment about the guide or ask a question on this blog under that category (Guide Feedback).

Policy on Publishing Comments and Feedback

China is one of the few countries in the world to treat “oral English” as a separate and distinct curriculum and, in our opinions, this has resulted in what we refer to as the de-professionalization of English language teaching in China—such that the only real requirement in effect to be a foreign oral English teacher in China is the ability to speak English natively. In addition, the Ministry of Education’s “native speaker” requirement is one that is highly resented and hotly contested among China’s academic community. Obviously, in this context, most foreign oral English teachers are viewed as either superfluous by government schools and institutions, or as a very costly and difficult-to-manage business expense by private English language schools and training centers.

This is not to suggest that everyone who is teaching oral English in China is unqualified or insincere. To the contrary, there are many well-qualified and serious foreign teachers in China, many of whom possess master’s degrees in education or TEFL. However, it is our position that teachers at this level are, for the most part, not required or even desired in China. Given our limited teaching roles in China, it is our position that the most valuable role of foreign teachers is not in helping their students to perfect the pronunciation of the English language but in serving as role models and mentors who can be particularly effective as advisors and counselors precisely because we exist outside the sociopolitical and academic mainstream.

Comments that are well-written, thoughtful and inform the position set forth above are highly welcome. On the other hand, we are not interested in engaging in personal debates about the validity of our empirical evidence or the underlying assumptions set forth, or entertaining contentious personal opinions that seek to “correct us” regarding the credibility or merit of oral English teaching in China. The information presented in the guide has been cross-checked and validated for its academic, social and historical accuracy, balance and fairness by two Chinese academicians with many years of foreign language teaching experience as well as several highly qualified foreign teachers with more than 20 years of cumulative living and teaching experience in China. We believe this provides a conclusively sound basis for our findings and position and definitively settles the issue.

Policy on Advertisements

Despite our considerable dislike of Google Ads, we finally acquiesced to them with the understanding that their presence would enhance the site’s rankings in search engine results: After all, we wrote the guide so that it could be found and read.

However, we have already created a blacklist of over 10 sites comprising certain school franchises and recruitment services that we do not want advertising on Middle Kingdom Life. If you see an ad for an unscrupulous school or recruitment service, please contact us immediately and we will blacklist them from advertising on this site. It takes two to three hours for a new URL on the blacklist to be excluded.

Author

  • Gregory Mavrides, Ph.D.

    Dr. Mavrides is an American psychoanalyst who has been working in China as a professor and mental health consultant since August 2003. He is currently teaching in his field at a Project 211 university in mainland China and is the author of the comprehensive Foreign Teachers’ Guide to Living and Teaching English in China.

Subject Area Consultants and Contributors

  • Kenneth Hayes, M.Ed.

    Mr. Hayes is a former U.S. Army officer and professional educator who had a long and successful career working in corporate training, public education and private sector management prior to moving to China several years ago. Ken is a frequent content contributor and consultant to the guide and, together with his Chinese wife, owns and manages a very successful private English language school.

  • Allan Kuang, M.S.

    Mr. Kuang is a full time academician in the English language department at Hainan University’s College of Tourism and serves as the guide’s principal local consultant in regard to academic, social and historical accuracy, balance and fairness.

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