Teacher De-Registered for Factual Errors

Teacher at Ho Lap Primary School was de-registered last week

A primary school teacher who was de-registered last week for making up historical facts, has countered that history was not his subject, and that he was actually hired to teach English and computer skills.

It was discovered on his online teaching video he told the class that Western powers waged the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century to rid China of opium when in fact Europeans traded silk, tea and porcelain for opium from India.

Teacher was wrong about Opium War

It was just one sentence in a 15-minute video, in which he talked about Hong Kong's handover to China and the SAR and national flags.

The Education Bureau said last week that the teacher at Ho Lap Primary School had to be de-registered permanently because he had made serious mistakes by inventing historical facts. 

But when talking to the media today, the teacher -- who only had one year's work experience -- felt he was sacked because the authorities wanted to deal with him "politically".

"This whole matter was politicized. I feel resigned. I never imagined that making a mistake over a short history passage could cause the Education Bureau to de-register me. It was just a minor passage," the teacher said.

"I think the whole matter sends a chilling effect, other teachers may feel nervous."

The authorities added that in another video for general studies, the teacher told the class that paper was invented in ancient China to ensure that tortoises didn't become extinct because people were using their shells to write on.

Again this is an erroneous point, but the teacher told reporters he was only trying to to teach in a humorous way, and made corrections right away when the school discovered problems with his videos.

He added he wanted to apologize to the students and parents for his mistakes.

Paper wasn't invented to replace tortoise shells

Definitely the teacher made factual errors -- but de-registering him is an extreme form of punishment. Why not give him a verbal or written warning? After all, history is not his expertise, though admittedly he should have been more careful about teaching the facts.

Nevertheless, he is appealing the decision with the help of education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, who accuses the authorities of bowing to pressure from the pro-Beijing camp to de-register the teacher.

The whole incident makes all teachers in Hong Kong nervous. With most classes now taught remotely, the lessons are all recorded and so the authorities may be screening many of them to make sure they are politically correct...

We can thank the pandemic for accelerating the Education Bureau's scrutiny of teachers and punishing them so brutally. 

The government's war on teachers is its bid to weed out bad ones from influencing students to stand up to authority. Yes Hong Kong only needs compliant students. That's how the city is going to be competitive and international.

Not.

Day Two: Xiamen's Gulangyu

The Neicuoao Pier greeting us as we arrive at Gulangyu

After our Art Basel report, we're back to covering our three-day trip to Xiamen.

We were lucky it rained overnight because the next day was slightly overcast but looked like the sun's rays would poke through the clouds and they did intermittently. It was perfect to go to Gulangyu, the famous island that is home to about 20,000 residents.

It's mostly a tourist site best known for its colonial architecture dating back from the 1800s and oddly enough for pianos, as there are apparently some 200 of them on the island thanks to a piano museum and at one point there was a piano academy.

One of the beautiful European-style buildings on the island

The last time I was in Xiamen was in 2009 and at the time we took the ferry from the downtown area, which only cost 8 yuan. However things have become more organized -- or shall we say more bureaucratic -- with only local residents allowed to use that ferry pier and others must use the other two that are in different parts of the city.

The closest one to us was about a 15-minute walk -- a pleasant one at that along Yundang Lake, where we saw leisure fishermen setting up their rods in the hopes of catching some fish for lunch or dinner, while others used to path around the lake to get to work or school.

Where the pier is located is not on a busy street, but near a posh apartment complex that doesn't have many amenities nearby which seems strange, but that's how things are done in China -- build flats now, then grocery stores, banks and other shops will come later.

We got to the ticket booth and were surprised to discover we had to produce ID to buy a ticket -- to go to an island that is considered to be part of Xiamen! Luckily I had mine on hand so we had to buy a group ticket where the three of us had to go to and depart from Gulangyu together. It cost 35 yuan per person and thankfully was a return ticket.

This fixer-upper has potential to be a beautiful restaurant!

To get on the boat we had to go through a security check and produce the ID again... by the time we got on, all the seats were taken and had to stand. The ride took much longer -- about 15 minutes, but it was a pleasant ride anyway.

However we disembarked on another part of the island we were not familiar with and had to get our bearings by looking at the maps posted periodically on the streets.

Nevertheless, it was nice to wander around the pedestrian-only island -- bicycles aren't even allowed which is interesting, because that would be the only way to adequately cover the entire island in a day because it's impossible by foot.

There are many small streets, each lined with small homes or shops. Some feature colonial-style architecture, but many are run down and it's a pity seeing them slowly decaying. It would be nice to see them renovated and used, but heritage building codes can be strict if you don't have the right connections...

I saw one abandoned building that could make for a wonderful fine-dining restaurant, or a stylish cafe that could be found in places like Vienna... but I digress...

The bride is instructed to cover her groom's eyes in this shot

Gulangyu is also the place for couples to get their wedding pictures taken. At one spot we saw four prospective brides and grooms taking their vanity photos and while the poses seemed manufactured and lacking in spontaneity, the dresses the young women wore were... dirty! One supposedly white wedding dress had a muddy fringe, so it was obvious the dresses were not cleaned after each use!

But perhaps our most intriguing discovery was a 24-hour self service library by the waterfront. Much like a vending machine, it has a large display window showing all the books available and their code numbers.

The user swipes their ID card, inputs the number that correlates to the book and then presto! The book comes out. To return the book, the user again swipes their ID card, scans the book's code and then inserts it into a slot.

A library book vending machine -- how cool is that?

We couldn't think of any other place we had seen this before, and surmised that perhaps the idea came from Taiwan, as it and Fujian have a very close relationship, and in turn maybe Taiwan got the concept from Japan.

We thought this was a fantastic idea and wondered if this machine were available in Hong Kong, would that encourage more people to read?

Reversal of Fortune

Cameron tries to use the charm offensive in Beijing... but is it enough?

Back in the 1800s, the British plundered China with opium, draining the country of its silver and taking along with it precious antiques, paintings and jewellery.

And now over 200 years later China is like a dog, smelling fear and terrorizing British Prime Minister David Cameron into submission.

He is currently in China with the largest ever British trade mission to the country, with deals worth $5.6 billion signed so far.

However Cameron has had to suffer some humiliation to get the business the UK desperately needs at the moment.

For example, the nationalist paper the Global Times had a commentary with the headline "China won't fall for Cameron's 'sincerity'", and it said Britain should realize that it is not a major power but "just an old European country apt for travel and study".

But that wasn't the worst of it.

Just days before his China trip Cameron set up his Sina Weibo account and already had more than 230,000 followers by Wednesday. He invited netizens to ask questions, saying he would try to rely during his visit.

One of the most popular questions? It was asked by Chinese think tank the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, which is headed by former vice-premier Zeng Peiyan, and members include top government officials and leading economists.

"When will Britain return the illegally plundered artefacts?" the organization asked, referring to the 23,000 items in the British Museum that it claims were stolen by the British Army that put down the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the 19th century.

For the Chinese, the ransacking of the Summer Palace in Beijing by foreigners has always been taught in schools as the ultimate humiliation of the country and the Communist Party constantly refers to this event to prove in recent years how the Party has immensely improved the country's economic and political power in the world.

How Cameron will worm his way out of that one will definitely reveal his political skills. His answer will indicate how much Cameron kowtows to Beijing...