Asia Sentinel

Translation of an article on the Southern Weekend website by 嘉籐加一, a Japanese visiting writer in China, entitled “Why Don’t Chinese Students Have Manners?”

“Since 2004, I have been teaching Japanese at the secondary school attached to People’s University of China. One evening after school, I was walking and chatting with another young Chinese teacher in the senior high section. Students were leaving the school premises – they were wearing school uniforms and back-packs; some were chatting loudly, some were eating snacks, while others were flirting with each other. I felt very lonely – not one student paid any attention to us.

I asked my fellow teacher beside me: ‘What’s the matter with them? They don’t even say goodbye to their teachers?” My colleague said: ‘Nowadays students are all like this. They are busy with their own stuff.’ Suddenly a girl student ran towards us, waving her hand, and said ‘Bye-bye’. She was the only student to do this and she was speaking in English. The teacher said: ‘She’s a foreign student from Malaysia.’

It should be said that these students have terrible manners – either they don’t know what manners mean, or they know, but don’t practice. If I behaved like this in Japan, the first time I would be warned; after a couple of times, I would be considered having bad conduct, which would adversely affect my school report. If no improvement was made after several times, my parents would be summoned to the school to attend a ‘three-way’ meeting with the teacher and student. If there was still no change, the student would be expelled. In Japan, students are required to say goodbye to their teachers, basically accompanied by a bending of the body, preferably at 45 degrees.

Japanese students have to attend ‘morals class’ from primary one. I remember I had to take such classes every Saturday morning for two hours. There were two methods of teaching: one was for the teacher to talk about morals, manners, and how to conduct oneself, and for him to instill into the students the important impact of morals on an individual’s social behavior. Almost all the teaching materials came from China’s Hundred Schools of Thought (諸子百家思想), Confucius (孔子), Mencius (孟子), Lao Tsu (老子), Han Fei Tsu (韓非子) and Sun Tsu (孫子). Topics included benevolence (仁), ritual (禮), loyalty (忠), filial piety (孝). The first lesson would always be: ‘Do not treat others in a way you wouldn’t want to be treated’ (己所不欲, 勿施於人). The teacher would ask us: ‘If your classmate steals your schoolbag and others bully you, would you be happy?’ We would say loudly: ‘Not happy.’ Then the teacher would say: ‘Then you must not do that to others. Do you understand?’ We would reply: ‘Understand.’ When we were in high school, we would come into contact with the Hundred Schools of Thought through our classical Chinese and Han language studies. Han language in senior high school took up one-quarter of language studies requirements in terms of scores. If one says that Japanese people have a deeper understanding of Chinese ancient history and cultural thoughts, this may provide some initial clue.

The other method was practice. The schools would arrange for the students to visit seniors’ homes and hospitals for the disabled, in order for them to get in touch with and help the weak and helpless, and to try to communicate and interact with them. For example, on a weekend morning, students in one class (about 30 kids) would form two groups; one group would go to a seniors’ home, and would take strolls and chat with seniors, play cards with them and help them read; the other group would go to a school for the disabled, having learned beforehand sign language, and spend half a day having lunch with the disabled and communicating with them. 

In my experience, it seems to me that Chinese teachers in China seldom talk to their students about the meaning of morals, and the schools do not have such courses. The school curriculum and the system background behind it can explain the relative backwardness in training students in the area of manners and morals.

This is hardly the whole problem. After all, school education has great limitations, especially in senior high, as the main objective is for students to pass exam thresholds, become competitive and ultimately become a member of society.

Education has to be two-pronged. School education and social education, which includes media reporting and propaganda by government’s publicity department, basically teach students how to handle tasks. As for teaching them how to conduct themselves, it is the responsibility of families and parents.

I often notice that Chinese parents overindulge in and spoil their children. For example, inside the mass transit train, a child eating a hamburger and speaking loudly and dancing on the seats is not the manner in which a member of civilized society should behave. But the parents don’t even care – they even act as though they want to tell everybody their kid is really cute. If the kid behaves thus, it is still understandable. But the parents must step in to stop it. In Japan, parents would probably use the occasion to teach the child a lesson and let him know what is proper and what is not. In my family, my parents would spank my butt, let me reflect on my bad behavior by making me stand outside the house for the whole night, and make me go hungry for a day.

Comments (8)

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written by nintendo ds lite , March 25, 2010

nsultation” on democracy, but it will consult with itself, not Hong Kong’s citizens.

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No war
written by Poj , September 03, 2009

Make love, not war!
I recently came across the website and have been reading along.
I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading.
Nice website. I will keep visiting this website very often.
project free tv

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written by Tiu Fu Fong , September 02, 2009

So does this explain why the Japanese have cartoons about school girls being sexually assaulted by tentacled monsters or vending machines with used women's underwear?

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2003 English teacher in China
written by FooYi , August 31, 2009

I rather teach in China than Japan, where 'Yes-man' attitude exists. Japanese do not respect the Chinese nor their Yuan, as I could not exchange any in Narita airport moneychange.

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written by Meeh! , August 30, 2009

Meehh! I rather China raise people than sheeps. People can be rude and brash with their own opinions, but sheeps are only fit to be led by dogs to the slaughter.

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written by shu bing , August 29, 2009

Now there is some element of truth to this, I think a lot of Chinese know inside that in general we can be kind of rude and brash compared to foreigners. But no doubt people are up in arms because it is a Japanese person pointing this out....

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our comments
written by ChinaGeeks , August 29, 2009

on this horrifically misguided man and his self-important bigotry can be found here:

http://sun-zoo.com/chinageeks/2009/08/29/one-bad-approach-to-china-unbearable-arrogance/

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In other words: "Why can't everyone be like me?"
written by Bill Insgate , August 26, 2009

Japan has one of the most oppressively conformist societies on earth, suppressing idividuality and killing people's spirits. Hey, just like China between 1949 and 1989! Such "manners" are not what I would wish upon contemporary China...or any society.

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