Corruption starts in the classroom

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Who tops who at this competitive university in Beijing?

Ralph Jennings is a journalist and long time resident of China. He currently lives in Taipei. From mid-2000 to 2006, he had an advice column in the 21st Century weekly newspaper in which he answered letters from thousands of students and young professionals. Below is a letter from the archive, with an introduction by Jennings.

When is the top student in a Chinese university class not the top student? When a second-tier student outsmarts No. 1 by brown-nosing scholarship committees or paying them off. What’s the point of studying to be No. 1? You get a lesson in real life in China. Wenwen tells this classic story. The best advice: her own concluding words.

Student letters to a foreign agony uncle

Dear Ralph,

I am a college student in Jiangxi. During my two years of campus life, I have been happy and won’t regret the good times. I’m proud of my excellent studying. Every term I get the highest scholarship, and in my opinion, it is the best repayment to me and my parents. Maybe my life is too smooth, and God wants to give me a setback, so at the beginning of this term I was very sad all the time. A girl who is my roommate is a show-off. Because of my introverted temperament, I always try my best to avoid confrontations. But I really can’t believe she used some despicable tricks and modified her (scholarship) results only because she wants to surpass me and get more money. My classmates and I can’t understand her behavior. She can change her results just because she is familiar with the leading cadre of a big organization in the college, and he gives her better marks — that’s all. I don’t care about the money. But the success really belongs to me. I am reluctant to give it to her. I look down on her very much, and she isn’t suited to the lofty honor at all. Now I finally realize that college is the same as society, and there is injustice in it. Sometimes we have to face it. What should I do?

Wenwen, Jiangxi province

April, 2002

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