M: I tell you one thing, it’s out of your imagination.
M: are you ready to be shocked?
U: shock me…if you dare to.
M: When I worked in a company in China,
M: the colleague next to me talked about his experience in his university.
M: His university is ** University.
U: is it colleague or comrade?
M: In China, usually the parents pay the fees of school. No loans like here.
M: the parents pay the living cost too
U: i thought that in great socialist harmonious society that education was free
M: It’s quite a burden for Chinese parents if they have children at university.
M: The fees in university are quite high.
M: But the universities offer some prize for the top students.
U: a scholarship
M: yeah.
U: ok…continue to shock me
M: Different universities have different rules.
M: In his university, the rules are as below:
The first one-third got prize. The middle one-third got no prize, no punishment. The last one-third got punishment.
M: understand?
U: yes
M: Generally, it depends on the scores you got on exams
U: the punishment was a one-way ticket to North Korea?
M: The punishment is you need to pay some money as fine for your low scores
U: wow!
U: i would rather have the one-way ticket to North korea
M: In some way, the last one-third students pay the cost of the first one-third students.
U: i see
M: can you image you study in that university?
U: so much for being equal in The Land of Harmonious Society
M: my colleague said that it drove people crazy.
U: i could imagine that being true
M: The competition should be quite severe.
M: I think that my parents couldn’t bear it if I needed to pay another student’s cost.
U: its like being on the North korean soccer(football) team…win and keep playing…lose and work in the salt mines
M: 🙂
U: i’m sure you finished in top 1/3
U: of course you did
M: no, my university isn’t that ugly.
U: but…your grades were good enough to be in the top 1/3…right?
M: I’m not in top 1/3, and I just need to pay my own cost.
M: (blush)
U: it dosen’t matter
M: If I need to pay another student’s cost, I think probably I will drop off.
U: yes…and immigrate to Canada
M: 🙂
U: wait…thats exactly what you did
U: just kidding
M: 🙂
U: you seem to me to be quite an achiever
U: very independent and intelligent
M: If you need to pay your child’s classmate’s cost, what will you do?
U: i will never be in such a situation
U: i hope not
U: not here
M: just some imagination for Chinese parents’ situation
U: would i have a choice?
U: what would happen if i refused?
M: I think of a real story.
M: Probably it happened when I was a teenager
M: The news on the newspaper
M: you will be shocked!
U: ok…go on
M: A mother beat her son to death with stick
M: just because he didn’t got the full scores at school.
M: :O
M: The whole country was shocked at that time
U: the death penalty for not getting good grades…i am shocked
M: :O
U: crazy mother
M: Her son alway got the full scores at school before.
M: That time, just a little bit low.
M: :S
U: i think she took the definition of “tiger mom” a little too far
M: That’s sort of tradition that parents can beat their children in China.
M: The traditional idea thinks that in this way, the children will grow up well.
U: in American and Europe that parents would get arrested for beating children
U: *the
M: I know.
U: its all about culture and society
M: Husbands beating their wives are sort of common in China.
U: that is very wrong
U: like arabs in Muslim states
U: its makes me angry that men can treat women as a farm animal
M: 🙂
M: but the U.S. gov’t is their partner.
U: yeah…well…that is all about getting oil
M: 🙂
U: what can i do
M: 🙂
M: bomb their oil pipe
M: 😉
U: i wish
M: just kidding
U: i wish one day…The western world didn’t have to buy their oil
U: but…not in my lifetime I’m afraid
M: 🙂