Chinese Students Becoming Like Hong Kong Students

Students go to extra tutoring classes to learn how to take tests and cram

Hong Kong kids hate their childhood because it's all about studying from the moment they wake up to the moment their heads hit their pillows.

Right after school they are sent to some kind of extra-curricular classes from tutoring to ballet, piano, violin, kung-fu, football (soccer), painting... it's endless.

And now children in China are experiencing the same relentless schedule.

Parents spend over US$17,000 on extra tutoring a year

A national education association says Chinese parents spend an average of 120,000 yuan (US$17,400) a year on extra tutoring -- and some shell out as much as 300,000 yuan, as parents feel helpless and think this is the best for their children.

Typically students feel the heat in the last year of high school to prepare for gaokao, or the university entrance exams. But according to an annual report by the China Education 30 Forum, cramming is becoming more common among younger children.

In China, more than 60 percent of primary school students are tutored outside the classroom in subjects like English, literature and math. In Beijing and Shanghai, the percentage is as high as 70 percent.

The report said in general the older the student is, the higher the proportion of students taking extra classes, and by the sixth grade, more than 40 percent of students are being tutored in two subjects.

Classes include learning how to play the violin...

According to a 2015 survey by the China Youth and Children Research Centre, Chinese schoolchildren spend an average of 50 minutes per weekday and two hours on the weekend in after-school classes.

"External tutoring agencies often use high-intensity teaching and early education models to improve students' test-taking skills," says Tan Xiaoyu, an expert at the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences.

"Parents are then swept along, trying their hardest to make sure their children are catching up."

It sounds exactly like Hong Kong -- parents here feel guilty or worried they are not doing enough to help their children get ahead or just even catch up to everyone else. It's a rat race and they know it's bad for their children but they worry that if they don't do it their children will fall behind.

It's a vicious cycle and the only ones benefiting are the tutoring schools. After-school tutoring is a fast-growing industry in China and is expected to double in size from 497 million yuan in 2016 to just over 1 billion yuan in 2021, according to a UBS report last year.

Cramming and learning test-taking skills aren't the best way for students to learn and it makes them resent school and education even more. What we need is to instill the love of learning in them and that will naturally motivate them to study.

... And playing football (soccer) on the weekends

We are raising generations of children who detest school, homework and tests, and want nothing to do with school. How are Hong Kong and China supposed to innovate when their kids are just cramming information in their heads for no good reason?

The Real Side of Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan's memoir is very honest

I have yet to read Jackie Chan's explosive memoir, Never Grow Up, but I don't want to.

He sounds like an absolute pig.

Part of it stems from not growing up with his family -- his father emigrated to Australia where he worked as a cook for the American Embassy. Chan wasn't a good student and so his parents took him out of the school system, and at the age of six sent to the China Drama Academy where he boarded and trained for 10 years in martial arts and acrobatics.

He reveals how much of a b***** he was to women

There the students had to train 18 hours a day from 5am, doing stretching, acrobatics, weapons training, acting and martial arts. In a 2008 interview, Chan recalled, "It was really arduous, we hardly had enough to eat, enough clothes to keep warm, training was extremely tiring, and Master could cane us anytime!"

As a result Chan didn't have much experience socializing with others, and in Never Grow Up he reveals his various relationships with women including prostitutes, but he treated them terribly. The best known story is how he cheated on his wife, Taiwanese actress Joan Lin by fooling around with beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi-lei and it resulted in the birth of his daughter Etta Ng.

She recently declared she is lesbian and married her Canadian girlfriend last week. Both biological parents did not congratulate her, nor does Chan mention her in his book.

He also recounts going on a date with singer Teresa Teng at a French restaurant. She daintily held a spoon while she ate her soup, while he picked up the bowl and slurped it down...

Chan with his Taiwanese wife actress Joan Lin

Aside from not being gentlemanly, Chan wasn't much of a good father in the beginning. One time he and Lin were having an argument and he picked up his toddler son Jaycee with one hand and threw him across the room, landing on the sofa. Chan recalls Lin being "terrified".

She said: "He's just a child. Why did you do that?" He apologized and said it would never happen again.

This lack of education may explain Chan's insecurities and his pursuit of wealth and fame. In the book he boasts about how much cash he carried around and always paid for his entourage's meals. He would also walk into stores and buy expensive watches to show off his wealth.

It's the usual story of nouveau riche people, and Chan let his wealth get to his head.

He writes that as a stuntman, "We all knew that if something went wrong we wouldn't live to see the sun rise the next day. We had a short term mentality which means recklessly spending our money."

He had an affair with Elaine Ng who gave birth to Etta (left)

In another part of the book Chan writes about being drunk all the time and crashed his Porsche in the morning and his Mercedes-Benz later that evening.

It's interesting the multimillionaire 64-year-old is being so frank about everything -- why did he do that or he was following someone's advice to come clean? It's a lot of information for the public to take in, a lot of it undesirable.

Chan lost his integrity several years ago when he began spouting pro-Beijing views that left a sour taste.

In 2009 during a panel discussion at the Boao Forum for Asia, Chan question whether or not freedom was a good thing. "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."

A few years later in 2012 he also criticized Hong Kong people for protesting too much.

Who is going to buy his book? Not people in Hong Kong that's for sure!

Remembering the War Dead

Hong Kong war veterans make their way among the tombstones

As a Canadian who has lived in Hong Kong on and off for 15 years I am embarrassed to say I only visited the Sai Wan War Cemetery today! This is where 228 Canadian soldiers were buried following the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941.

They have been remembered ever year for the past 71 years since 1947, and today was no different.

The Canadian Consulate organizes the event every year and I was invited this time and jumped at the chance to visit the place and take part in the Canadian Commemorative Ceremony that is held on the first Sunday of December.

It meant waking up extra early to catch the shuttle bus in front of the General Post Office, but that is nothing compared to the sacrifice these soldiers made 77 years ago.

Veteran Peter Choi at 96 years of age

Originally the Japanese were allies of the British, but as the Japanese were occupying various Asian countries, there were concerns Hong Kong would be next.

To defend the British colony, Canada sent 1,975 soldiers from two battalions, the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers, who sailed from Vancouver to Hong Kong on October 27, 1941.

They came to Hong Kong not knowing much about the place and immediately went about training and adapting to their new environment -- but they didn't have much time to prepare.

In the early morning of December 8, 1941, the Battle of Hong Kong erupted and the Canadian soldiers fought for 17 and a half days, but the Japanese were no match for them and Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day.

In the end 290 Canadian soldiers lost their lives defending Hong Kong, and 269 died as prisoners of war, making the total number of deaths at 559, and another 500 wounded. That means of the 1,975 Canadian soldiers who were sent to Hong Kong, 1,059 were either killed or wounded -- making this casualty rate one of the highest ones in any Canadian theatre of action during World War II.

The bus ride to the cemetery was very fast -- about 15 minutes and we had an hour to look around before the ceremony started. There was an exhibition of old photographs showing the Canadian soldiers in Hong Kong, out in the field training.

A number of wreaths were laid during the ceremony

One in particular shows a group of soldiers around a black sheepdog called Sergeant Gander who was the Royal Rifles of Canada's mascot. He was so loyal to the soldiers that he even died in battle on December 19, 1941.

During a Japanese attack, Gander picked up a grenade that had landed next to a group of soldiers and carried it away. It exploded and killed Gander instantly. He was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal that honours animals who made great contributions during wartime.

There are 2,000 people buried here. Some of the Canadian tombstones do not have names, and if they do, they are soldiers who died mostly in their 20s. There are also British soldiers who were also in their 20s and 30s who are buried here, and there are plaques that recognize the Indians who fought in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile for the ceremony, there were many Hongkongers dressed in navy blue blazers, including Peter Choi, who I interviewed three years ago. He still looks good for 96! He is one of the last surviving soldiers who fought in the Battle of Hong Kong.

A soldier's grave decorated with poppy and flag

I made it down the stairs to where the ceremony would be held, and just before 10am, a single bagpiper performed for about 15 minutes as he led the procession of vets, including Choi, down the stairs.

Among the prayers, salutes and two minutes of silence, the Canadian Consul General Jeff Nankivell, who also speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, gave a bilingual speech in English and French. One remark he made was that these soldiers who died never became a teacher or builder, or become fathers and husbands, grandfathers, that they made this sacrifice for us.

His speech was followed by the laying of wreaths by a number of government and consular officials, veteran groups and community associations. Along with Choi, there was another elderly vet who fought in World War II and he was escorted by a representative from the Canadian Armed Forces.

We finally sang O Canada, which took on a very poignant meaning, and then the ceremony was over.

It was nice to see a good turnout, very young children to people in their 90s, and many students participated in the ceremony. What a beautiful day to come out and take time to reflect and remember those who sacrificed their lives to protect this city.  

China Loses a "Good Friend"

George and Barbara Bush at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in 1974

For China, the death of George HW Bush today is a sad one, as it lost what it considers as "a good friend". He had a long relationship with China that dates back over 40 years.

Bush Senior was one of the first prominent Americans to go to China in the early 1970s and was tasked with building diplomatic relations with China after President Richard Nixon's historic visit in 1972.

Two years later Bush headed the US liaison office, and for about a year he established relationships with senior Chinese leaders and diplomats, including Deng Xiaoping.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger would criticize Bush for being too soft on power diplomacy, but the latter's cultivation of relationships behind the scenes proved valuable later on -- Bush obviously understood the Chinese play the long game, and he followed that strategy.

Bush's 1989 visit to China with a young Yang Jiechi translating

When Bush became Vice President in 1980, President Ronald Regan dispatched him to Beijing to deal with the issue of Taiwan. And then when he was elected president in 1989, Bush made an official trip to China a month after being inaugurated.

However, later that year the Tiananmen Square massacre erupted and the following day Bush condemned the killing of innocent people and suspended military sales as well as exchanges with high level Chinese officials.

But in the background, Bush sent national security adviser Brent Scowcroft twice to Beijing, as well as deputy secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger. When senators found out, they felt Bush was being two-faced.

"At that time, the President was saying there could  not be business as usual with a Government that took such actions," said senator George Mitchell, Democrat of Maine. "Yet this is increasingly what seems to be happening."

He said the trips "make a mockery of our profession of concern for human rights and the stated ideals of our democratic system of government."

The Bush family with Yang Jiechi at the 2008 Beijing Games

Bush's relationship with one of Xi Jinping's top advisers, Yang Jiechi, also goes back to 1977 when he acted as a junior interpreter to the American official on his trip to Tibet.

Fast-forward to 2008 when Bush's son became President, then Chinese President Hu Jintao rolled out the red carpet for the entire Bush family to visit during the Beijing Olympics, and even dine in Zhongnanhai.

That was probably the warmest point in China-US relations, and now we're in the midst of a trade war (over 130 days) between Xi and President Donald Trump.

Unfortunately not everything changes for the better...