> Chinese students cheat because cheating is part of Chinese culture. Go to China and you'll be shocked at how little people care about others in public, or society at large.
I am Chinese and I would respectfully disagree that cheating is some part of Chinese culture. The only example you gave was basically the bystander effect in action, which you then ascribe to... cheating somehow? Moral depravity of millions of people?
Chinese callousness towards strangers is shocking. Wait till you see what some us politicians have to say about foreigners!
> I am Chinese and I would respectfully disagree that cheating is some part of Chinese culture.
I'm not sure what it takes for something to be considered part of a culture, but academic cheating is very widespread in China to the point that there can be strong resistance to local or regional efforts to curb it on the grounds that this will put those who are prevented from cheating at an unfair disadvantage due to the widespread cheating by those outside their region [1].
There's also a plagiarism problem in China, and cultural factors are a major reason for this [2]. More on the scientific plagiarism and fraud problems in China: [3] [4] [5] [6]
I this cheating aspect of the chinese Culture very believable for several reasons.
- china is a highly competitive culture (extremely densly populated, need to competing aout ressource)
- china acts economically like Borg, they sold solar panels for less than the production costs to crush the European market (which they successfully did), the same is now happening with Steel btw. > I call that cheating as well
- china manipulates it's own currency
- china steels intelectual property notoriously
The culture of cheating and lying in China is so bad that even the government posted economic numbers aren't trusted. I have plenty of very close Chinese friends and they would be the first to admit that the mainland Chinese culture is messed up these days, and the instinct to lie and cheat is prevalent.
I believe SolaceQuantum would still argue you're being racist by casting all mainlanders into one group
People have different perspectives on what is and isn't part of a culture. Your disagreement may come down to different definitions of culture. How many people need to perform a certain action in order for it to be considered "part of the culture"?
For an American student who has only ever met the 30 Chinese caught in this cheating scam, it might appear that cheating is part of Chinese culture. Similarly, even though you've been to China, you were probably only in one city and had limited time there.
I know what you're saying. I'm an American living in Asia. I've visited China several times. I live in Taiwan. As a foreigner living in the region farthest from home, you notice some patterns of behavior you may not like about different groups. I've also met tons of Chinese and Taiwanese who I fully understand and get along with better than those who have habits different from my own
If you put yourself in SolaceQuantum's shoes, assume the definition of culture is subjective, assume he is a mainlander who does not cheat and is trying to contribute to the definition of his culture, maybe you can see why he objects to your remarks.
The article, by the way, does not make the claim that all mainlanders or all Chinese cheat, and it does not attempt to define Chinese culture.
I am Chinese and I would respectfully disagree that cheating is some part of Chinese culture. The only example you gave was basically the bystander effect in action, which you then ascribe to... cheating somehow? Moral depravity of millions of people?
Chinese callousness towards strangers is shocking. Wait till you see what some us politicians have to say about foreigners!