I read this little piece of news last week on The Standard in Hong Kong.

http://tinyurl.com/yk4f2ov

Another one of the myriad, innovative ways people, students included, are cheating in mainland China. It sure seems like they are very determined and will stop at nothing to get what is perceived to be ”must-haves” for them.  How nice if such focused determination were used for more productive and progressive things.

Having taught in China now for one full year, I know that cheating is part of the culture and landscape. You simply can’t avoid it and it is widely accepted. Everybody knows it but nobody does anything about it.  Some will just lament about it. Others will say, “Everyone’s doing it. Am I going to be stupid and get left behind??”

Universities have to put up posters that say, “Cheating is illegal. Don’t cheat.”

Sure, that’ll work.

Since living in Hong Kong, I have seen faked soy sauce, fake eggs, fake milk powder, fake iPhone, fake Rolex, fake LV bags, pirated DVDs… in fact, whatever it is in the world that can make money, there is always a replica made in China. This proves that “reverse engineering” is a gift and talent here which do not need much development.

How about this: The best cheating I have come across is this: Student paying Teaching Assistants to do their project for them. That’s personal outsourcing taken to the limit!

But it is not the cheating that is the root of the problem. All these cheating and copying are merely a means towards an end. Faster, that is. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. A short-cut, if you will.  You will notice this often with people jumping the queue. Frowned upon in developed nations but, hey, if you don’t do it in China, you just have to wait… and wait.

I believe, the root of the problem is the need for speed. The need to earn money faster, to get qualified faster, to get promoted faster. Of course, all these with little or no effort. Is this the price to pay for rapid industrialization? For developing “too fast”?

I do think that it is a conscious collective choice that is being made. Nothing else can be or should be blamed.

I often think about this: How much better and faster China will progress  if such creativity, ingenuity and energies are channeled to really and properly improve lives and the standard of living? How much more learning (and thus development and progress) will occur if such innovativeness and resourcefulness are used in the learning process? How much better they will be liked and welcomed as friends?