5. Findings
5.2. Analysis of “abuse in education”
“improvisation”, “circumvention of values”, “interviewee opinion formation” and
“open end” only the strategies “circumvention of values” and “interviewee opinion formation” can be identified for every single story. As for the strategy of
“improvisation”, it does not account for three of the 15 stories. Furthermore, the strategy “open end” does not account for one out of the 15 categories. Thus, the journalists of these 15 selected stories seem to be rather careful about critical statements addressed towards the government. In addition, they refrain from forming own opinions on the different cases. On the contrary, they let the ordinary people speak, which also adds credibility to the stories and represents the opinion of the affected people and not the attitude of the journalist or Southern Weekend.
5.2. Analysis of “abuse in education”
In terms of the second category, “abuse in education”, three stories were identified for analysis:
Table 5.2.
Strategies of news stories of “abuse in education”
Stories *Strategies
Impr CoV IOF OE
(http://www.infzm.com/content/23337 accessed on May, 25th, 2011)
“The Chinese education system drives me crazy.”
(February 24th 2009)
No Yes No Yes
“Deadly evening tutoring” (April 9th 2009) No Yes Yes Yes (http://www.infzm.com/content/38831 accessed on
June,6th,2011)
The case of Yang Yuanyuan: Narrow path into a dead-end. (December 16th 2009)
No Yes Yes No
*1. Improvisation (Impr.)
2. Circumvention of Values (CoV) 3. Interviewee Opinion Formation (IOF) 4. Open End (OE)
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The first story of “abuse in education”, “The Chinese education system drives me crazy”, is an open letter of a senior high school student who describes his
suffering in the Chinese educational system. Since the student is not among the very best in class he receives pressure from both, his parents and teachers. He describes his educational development from elementary school to high school and how he suffered and still suffers from being continuously despised by his parents. The student
describes the common attitude of his relatives by quoting his father: “If you don’t make it to one of the better universities, you better just die! The earlier the better! We will not shed a single tear when you are dead.” The student also confesses that he has thought about suicide before. Yet, he stresses that he is not willing to capitulate in front of the Chinese educational system.
This article provides a detailed insight into the psyche of a Chinese teenager who cannot keep up with the Chinese educational system. His individual talents, ideas or hobbies are meaningless as long as he does not deliver the required outstanding grades. The article reflects the tension that this ultra-competitive system triggers.
The strategy that the journalist employs for this story is unique among the all the 15 articles. Since the article is open letter, the student himself expresses his thoughts. In fact, he embodies the role of the journalist. Apparently this method helps the journalist to create distance between him and the story on the one hand, but simultaneously express direct criticism on the other hand. This approach can actually be perceived as another form of the strategy “circumvention of values”. The message of this story is very clear as it is already included in the title: “The Chinese education system drives me crazy”. The student criticizes an institution of the state that fails to reform itself, cope with the issues of the young generation and live up to
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contemporary problems of students that not only seldom lead to suicides or mental breakdowns.
The second article, “deadly evening tutoring”, tells the story of the 16-years-old high school student “Song Tan” who gets expelled from evening tutoring. The school uses this expulsion method to punish him for talking to his friend during class.
Although “Song Tan” tries to apologize and struggles to get accepted into evening tutoring again, the school refuses to re-consider his plead. His grades decline significantly as he cannot manage to keep up with the learning pace in class. “Song Tan” finally commits suicide. After his death, a note is found that he wrote on the same day of his suicide. In the note he describes his helpless situation by stressing that:
“Lately I am really tired. Studying makes me tired, relaxing or playing makes me tired, even sleeping, the activity we all love most makes me tired. I don’t know what is going on. My body is tired, my soul is even more tired”.
The journalist also emphasizes the relationship between students and teachers and the pressure on both sides. Due to this pressure, the relationship between both is tremendously sensitive. In case students do not obey the multitude of school
regulations or do not deliver outstanding scores, they neither have a chance to obtain scholarships, which even causes greater pressure for their parents and, therefore, for themselves, nor can they qualify for a good university. A Teacher instead might never become senior-teacher if he does not manage to successfully cram his or her students for the final exams. Thus, his or her career is at stake. In this regard, if examinees do not meet a certain quota, the teacher also receives a punishment. This extremely competitive system creates an extremely pressurized environment for students and teachers alike, which not every individual is capable to bear.
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The journalist uses the example of “Song Tan” to exemplify what can happen to students who do not manage to be on top of the system. As for his approach, the journalist uses a lot of “interviewee opinion formation” to draw a picture of “Song Tan” and the situation of being expelled from evening tutoring. With the help of this tool he creates the overall impression of an unfair and unbearable educational system that in worst case scenario can even claim the lives of less successful students.
The third story, “The case of Yang Yuanyuan: Narrow path into a dead-end.”, deals with the 30-years-old female university student “Yang Yuanyuan” who studied at Shanghai Maritime University until she committed suicide. The journalist of this story describes “Yang Yuanyuan” as a very poor girl who lives in the university’s dormitory together with her mother. Due to her poor financial background, her life in general appears to be full of hardship and struggle. “Yang Yuanyuan” seems to be overwhelmed by the financial burden and society’s pressure. In the end she does not see any other way out of her misery but to commit suicide.
The article deals with two different social issues. Firstly, “Yang Yuanyuan” is a student, a propagated beneficiary of the reform era. Yet, she lives in poverty and has to carry the burden of being the only hope of her family to become successful and economically well-off.
Second, aside from the educational component, the journalist also elaborates on the common issue of the women’s struggle for marriage in the Chinese society. For the 30 years bachelorette “Yang Yuanyuan”, marriage seems to be unachievable. Too heavy is the financial burden and too limited are her possibilities to play along
successfully in the contemporary Chinese society.
Surprisingly, among the strategies of “interviewee opinion formation” and
“open end” the journalist does not avoid to evaluate this issue of social tension. On
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the contrary, he projects the fate of “Yang Yuanyuan” on the Chinese society in general by stressing that: “[Yang Yuanyuan] believed that people can never be defeated. Yet, in this unique solely success-worshiping society, she represents the archetype of the “underdog”. Although she struggled her whole life for her place in society, she was not capable of reaching this goal. In this sense, the death of “Yang Yuanyuan” is not only a tragedy that represents the fate of a single individual, but of many individuals.”
All three stories portray the fate of young individuals who are not capable to adapt to the competitive and pressurized environment of the educational system in China. Although the CCP tends to emphasize the beneficiaries of the economic reforms, these stories, using especially the image of students, show that there exist tragic cases of students who collapse under the pressure of the system or society in general. The responsible authorities in charge do not attend to their duty of protecting and championing the young generation. On the contrary, the monolith bureaucracy appears to be inflexible and corrupted. A system that solely cherishes success leaves no room for the “average”. Yet, not only the students suffer from this phenomenon.
Since the success-oriented criteria also apply to the faculty, teachers can not perform in their pedagogic role as they are supposed to. The credo of “success at all costs”
disrupts the relationship between student and teacher, causes tensions and sometimes even, as the latter examples have presented successfully, can lead to death.
As for the strategies applied, in none of the three news stories “improvisation”
can be identified. Since news stories of “abuse in education” solely touch upon individual tragedies that are not linked to any official entities, the strategy of
“improvisation” is unnecessary to apply as there just do not exist any official
documents that could be quoted. With regard to “interviewee opinion formation” one
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out of three stories does not include either this strategy. That is also the case with regard to “open end”. Since all of the three stories focus on educational institutions it could be rather dangerous for journalists to express criticism in some of their stories.
Being the proclaimed beneficiary of the reforms and Party policies, students are not meant to suffer from any kind of abuse or restriction. Thus, in order to remain under the radar, journalists dealing with news stories in “abuse in education” might rather stick to the plain facts. They might also refrain from including any kind of
interviewee opinion. Since universities and schools are institutions with a clear number of students and faculty, interviewees might risk their educational career if the critic should be identified.