Before you read anything, it's better to have a look at this short piece of backgrounder I wrote for the program Dialogue. In the process of making this edition, I began to realize the credibility problem of comtempory Chinese has very deep roots stemming directly from education.

This year's Gaokao questions for Chinese composition is, as always, an imposition of attitudes, values, stances... questions that have very strong prefereces. The worse consequences from such rulings are explicit, to tell the students to lie and pass or tell the truth and fail. In the following paragraphs I'll be a student, but a hypothetic one of course:

What if you're not living a poetic life? What if it's a life in a barn or a life plagued by various miseries? Should I pretent I'm content with everything and happy about life and believe that even if both of my parents are sacked is actually a poetic thing?

First one ridiculous, bad metaphor. I've no idea how those two things could have any connections.

Second one is again telling me to lie. What if I like Chinese and enjoy everything about it, but don't like the first topic, do I have to pretend that I don't Chinese?

Lucky I'm neither from Anhui nor have to participate in this year's Gaokao. The first reaction when I see this is "What's wrong with the question maker's brain, short-circuited?" Apparently I'll write a passionate article bashing the question maker, sarcastic maybe, but will be an excellent and readable composition, given that I'm fully prepared for getting a zero on the test paper. If I want to get by, I'll have to lie and talk big.

What if I don't feel any joys at all about this exam? What if I'm totally pissed? Should I pretent there are things I like about it? Great, have to lie again.

If students are taught like this, that you don't get anywhere if you refuse to lie and be faithful to your true thoughts. The final product that comes out of this education system will be monotonously hypocrites, ones that are used to lying and uncomfortable with telling what they really think.

In many ways I feel lucky because I've been cautiously avoiding poisioned by the toxic influence from the system. That also explains why I sometimes have problems with authorities, ever since I was a elementry school kid and was leading a rebellion against imposed bean-milk drinking. I was invited a few times to the principal's office, giving me serious warnings and all. Never ever did I yield and gave up the compaign, being in the position of a principal doesn't mean everything you do is correct. If I don't like the low quality bean-milk that the shool offers(low in quality means more profit for the same price), I can say no and buy drinks from stores outside the school. Why do I and the rest of my classmates HAVE to drink it while the school profits from the shabby milk? After a week's struggle or so. My class, out of all classes, enjoyed exclusive freedom to choose what we like to drink. Sorry for the rest of the classes, the school insist that they drink what's offered, since they had no objections.

In many ways I felt unlucky becuase you're in the system, you must get along with people used to lying. The get by here is to ... assimilate some of the morally incorrect qualities into your own, to be able to sympathize and think from others' shoes. That being said, I'm shamed to say that there were times that I lied, no matter out of kindheartedness or not, the end does not justify the means.

It's pretty hilarious today when I met a "gentleman" today in a bank.

Well, I was with my colleague DQ in the Construction Bank of China waiting in a queue. There were quite a few people before our numer is called upon. Out of sheer boredom we started people watching.

Suddenly this gentleman came in. We first thought it was a man becuase she dressed up exactly like what a middle anged Chinese man would. A checked shirt, a wide waist belt with a big male-buckle and... a pair of western suit pants... something that almost every Chinese middle age man would wear, kind of diminishing each's individuality. Only after she turned her face round were we able to tell that's a SHE...

DQ's first reaction was " Is that a shemale?". That gave me the best laughter of the day. Is this the new image of Chinese business women who must sit together with other men and bargin for a better deal? What a tough world it is for them! That they even have to dress up like a man? To look more assertive and confident? I don't know, but the looks itself is amusing enough.