China’s Educational Backwater
Another teaching gig at another Chinese university. This time with ‘some of the laziest, dumbest students who ever wasted oxygen in a classroom, ‘ and under unprecedented conditions of surveillance.
‘Sometimes I grind to a halt, stunned by the sheer stupidity of my students, by their inability even to answer the simplest question, though expressed in every variant known to man, and broken into the most elementary forms of language, or to recall what I had shared with them but two days ago.’
With a journalist’s eye and lively wit, Abdiel describes his struggle to maintain academic discipline at Geely University, a private institution near Beijing, where indoctrination reigns and wealth subsidizes failure in a ‘fraudulent exchange of papers — banknotes from students’ parents, meaningless certificates in return.’
Meanwhile, ‘It is impossible to be indifferent to the ugliness’ of campus surroundings. ‘It steals over the heart like an infernal shadow, eclipsing all hope.’
Chidings From Changping is the third of five memoirs in Abdiel’s Dueling the Dragon series and testifies to the deep corruption and incompetence beneath China’s superpower façade. As always, he’ll have you laughing between the tears!
‘An adventure, a memoir, and certainly one of the more entertaining books about China before us today.’
San Francisco Review of Books
‘These stories from China are addictive!’
‘Le Roy’s ability to write so cogently about such AWFUL things and simultaneously give readers a chuckle, is magnificent.’
‘Wields a wicked and eloquent pen.’
‘Should be awarded an honorary degree in Anthropology.’
‘Informative and eye opening.’
‘Reveals the the dark side of the country.’
‘The author knows the Chinese better than the Chinese.’
‘Subverts dominant concepts of China.’
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