Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers' College, Anhui Province, CHINA

[Hemingway]

Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers' College, Huaibei, Anhui Province, CHINA

Although I am a newbie to this forum, I am not a newbie ESL teacher in China.

The city of Huaibei is located in the northern part of the Anhui province, a poor undeveloped province even to most Chinese. The city of Huaibei doesn’t possess the cosmopolitanism of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, or Suzhou. Places to see are few and far between. There’s Xiangshan Park, which has a temple. Shanghai lies 10 hours away by train and Beijing 12 hours away. Weekend trips to those cities aren’t an option if you teach on a Monday.

Since it is in a heavy coal producing region, the air quality of Huaibei is very poor and on the whole, the city tends to be grimy. Other parks consist of tiles and a few electric palm trees. Western amenities are very few and include: Budweiser beer and Coke. Night life is practically non-existent except for the standard “massage-prostitution” parlors near the train station. There are some good restaurants and a few good outdoor tent diners. There is one KFC, recently constructed 2 years. They also have a great many VCD shops to wile away your time in isolation since throughout my employment only 2 to 3 foreign teachers were hired.

Quite a few inhabitants openly spit, urinate, defecate, and blow their nostrils in public, and littering is non-stop. Sanitation is poor. The hospital is dirty. Of course the incessant cattle calls of “hello, the hostile stares, the gawks, and laughter were the predominant behavior of the residents both on-campus and off-campus whenever I left the confines of my apartment.

The accommodations of my campus apartment were similar to what was described in my contract: computer with broadband internet access; but no printer, a microwave, a television, and kitchen utensils. The furniture was hardwood, without soft cushions, and incredibly uncomfortable; but after complaining to my FAO he did procure two sofa chairs. Most everything was in working order, although old and grimy and maintained only after a bit of prodding.

I always received my salary on time, as well as my vacation allowance as prescribed in my contract.

All water was routinely shut down to the apartment around 11 pm every night, so late night showers weren’t an option and neither was flushing the toilet from 11 pm until 5:15 am. Occasionally, power would be shut off to the apartment from 4 to 8 hours every 2 months.

Mafia-zation would best describe the administration and the Foreign Affairs Office. The school administrators were essentially hold outs from the Cultural Revolution, deeply mired in antiquated perceptions of foreigners, and never willing to go beyond those stereotypes. The modus operandi was guanxi (relationships) and houmen (getting things done surreptiously) in which any educational standards were not valued, nor did they even exist. Bribes were very prevalent to encourage the on-going construction of the college, increasing enrollment, and increasing profit. Of course, the later can be argued that this observation is not any different from most public colleges and universities in China, and it’s not my country and thus, not any of my business, but the degree in which it was exercised here was blatantly obvious, even to a foreigner who wears relativistic blinders.

Administrators often had lavish banquets while students languished in absolute squalor. The administrators did not want to have anything to do with foreign teachers, nor did they care—until they wanted foreign teachers hired to fulfill the government requirement. In fact, many times I was asked to write web advertisements enticing fresh foreign meat to come teach, (and these advertisements are still being used). Here’s one of them:

The college is located in the city of Huaibei, in the far northern part of the Anhui Province, here in The Peoples Republic of China. The city of Huaibei is approximately five hours north by train from the Anhui Provincial capitol city of Hefei and 10 hours south by train from Beijing as well as 10 hours northwest by train from Shanghai.
The city of Huaibei has approximately 1.9 million people within its municipal vicinity and is mostly an industrial city, consisting of textile and beer factories as well as a power plant. Although Huaibei does lack the cosmopolitanism of Beijing and Shanghai, it can give the foreigner a better insight into the daily life and culture of the Chinese people. Huaibei also has many Chinese restaurants and hotels as well as numerous supermarkets and department stores. The main modes of transportation here in Huaibei are its public bus system as well as numerous taxicab services. Just recently, Huaibei has seen the developments of a few health clubs, which some of our foreign teachers have enthusiastically joined.
Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College was first established in 1974 and is a fully accredited public college. The campus itself consists of a library, with a well-stocked English book selection, as well as parks, and numerous classroom buildings.
The Foreign Language Department consists of students whose major field of study is English, and will eagerly welcome you to teach them.

Also, you will have to pay for your foreign residence-working z visa, which you will be informed about after your arrival.

They do have a surprisingly well-stocked English library (It’s on the fifth floor of the campus library).

The Foreign Language Department did schedule my classes (American and British Literature courses and Western Culture Survey courses) at good times, usually in the morning or early afternoon; but my classes were overcrowded from between 60 to 70 students. I was never given a roll sheet, but soon learned to take matters into my own hands, developing a roll sheet for each class with their student identification numbers, their Chinese names, their Pynin names, and their English names.

The last two years, the college embarked on an “Adult Education Program where students paid fees, some rarely attended class, and if they did, they were enrolled in classes with regular students whose language skills far exceeded their own.

The language abilities of the regular students varied from poor to excellent. Most Foreign Language students were polite and respectful, some conscientious and diligent about their studies. The classrooms were filthy, strewn with trash and debris, and the ever-present smell of decomposing feces and urine reeked out of the restrooms into the classrooms. There was a janitor, but I never saw her cleaning; usually just sitting out on the steps of the building.

The Foreign Language Department attempted to exploit foreign teachers to increase its department budget; often requesting foreign teachers to teach weekend classes to off campus adult students and paying only a pittance to do so; fortunately, I did have the option of refusing these kinds of classes and did so because these classes exceeded my contractual obligation of 16 hours a week.

I set my own exams, but my exams were proctored by Chinese teachers who never took their duties seriously, resenting it if you stressed they should, and thus cheating was exacerbated. Some students, especially adult students, would suddenly show up for the exam, although I had never seen them in class. Fortunately, because I had a class roll, it was relatively easy to spot them.

I was expected to grade hundreds and hundreds of formal exams without any assistance by the Foreign Language Department. I sucked it up and accepted it because my wife, a Chinese, was employed as a teacher by the Foreign Language Department. Yet, the Foreign Language Department expected her to assist in grading my exams as well as recording the marks, and we both thought this was unfair because she had her own classes and duties. One vice dean even said to her, “You’re half foreign since you married a foreigner, so you should help him.

Also what had been the “The Foreign Teachers’ Office had been commandeered—without prior notice—by the Foreign Language Department to accommodate a Foreign Language Department Administrator.

Without a doubt, the biggest problem of living and working at Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College was the daily barrage of jeering and harassment from students, faculty, and staff.

For a long time, I made the best effort to ignore such behavior, figuring that this far into the provinces that I had to accept it, that it was a different culture, a different country, and that, for better or for worse, I had married a Chinese, and she was employed there—however, after many incidents, which included students yelling obscenities and being aggressively so, I complained to my Foreign Affairs Officer. He acted concerned, and even went so far as to inform various student campus organizations to make efforts in telling students that such behavior was totally inappropriate.

Later, I found out he NEVER contacted the students or the administration about this recurring problem.

On September 8th 2005, while walking to our classrooms, I was openly harassed, jeered, and assaulted by students from the Physical Education Department, whom were often the very ones who participated actively in this past abusive behavior, but this time, matters escalated. I was kicked, shoved, and slapped by the students. My wife was terribly upset and frightened during this incident.

My Foreign Affairs Officer, who knew about the events that had transpired, chose to ignore the problem as he had in the past. Later, through certain sources, I find out that my FAO had been visited the evening of September 8th by these Physical Education students and the department dean.

I notified the US Consulate in Shanghai about these disturbing events that very day. They contacted the Foreign Affairs Provincial Office in Hefei, the Anhui Provincial Capitol city, as well as the Huaibei Municipality Foreign Affairs Bureau. Without the US consulate’s great assistance, I feel the situation would have been worse; as advised by Consulate officials, I went to the PSB who listened to my wife’s recounting the events, and seemed sympathetic, but weren’t really.

The PSB gave me two choices:

1. I could pursue criminal charges against these students.

2. I could have a meeting with the students and my FAO to get this situation resolved.

I chose the later because I wanted the abusive situation resolved without detriment to the students’ educational future. Besides, things were already ugly enough. The PSB were instrumental in setting up a meeting on September 10th 2005 between us--my wife and I--and my FAO, although my FAO was reluctant to have this meeting, eventually he accepted it. My FAO was surprised when my wife attended this meeting.

The bottom line was my wife and I left after my FAO conducted a criticism meeting in which the Party Secretary of the PE Department, the Campus Security Chief, a representative of the Huaibei Foreign Affairs Bureau, and a few students from the PE Department were present, and it unbelievably smacked of every bad dialogue imaginable from the Cultural Revolution. A choice gem, among many, from my FAO during this meeting, “American students attacked teachers too.”

After that meeting, I briefed a consulate official about how this meeting was conducted, and we were advised to go to a better city and a better school in China.

The only reason I stayed so long was my wife was working there and she had a contract with the department danwei (working unit), which looking back now, both of these reasons were lousy. When the events of September 8th occurred and I found out where I stood after the fiasco of a meeting on the 10th, we chose to leave for our personal safety, but not before my FAO sent me to the PSB to have my working Z visa cancelled. Despite that, through the help of foreign and Chinese friends, I still found employment.

There are, most assuredly, much better colleges and universities to teach in China, where they take their responsibilities toward foreign teachers more seriously, and are certainly more respectful towards them.

You may accept this review with a grain of salt because it greatly conflicts with your idyllic views and believe I have an ax to grind in this review or chalk it up to a preconceived personality disorder, in which whining is a symptom on my part, because you direly want to go to China and are willing to consider any offer. But this review is a very real warning and I urge you to continue your search for a college or university that supports its foreign teachers and takes the responsibilities for their welfare seriously.

Those schools do exist in China, but, unfortunately, Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers' College isn't one of them.

[Antonio]

Hi Hemingway!

Very interesting insights to this college.

I couldn't believe my eyes when reading this disturbing information. Are you still working there? What about the other teachers there? Did they also encounter such animalistic behavior? How old were these students?

Your description surely doesn't seem fitting to this world, and I was SOOOO suprised it still happens in some corners of this world today.

I hope you can find a more positive and safe school to teach in. Thanks for sharing this information.

[Hemingway]

Antonio,

I am not working at Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers' College anymore, as I noted in my original posting. My wife and I departed and went to Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, which was a lot different than the city of Huaibei in various aspects--a large expat population, an international industrial park, with various international companies, and certainly cleaner than Huaibei, and the residents of Suzhou were nothing like those in Huaibei.

The other teachers in the past, (and they were a nominal amount) who taught at Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, had their complaints too, and certainly the jeering I mentioned by the campus population was a big part, but they did their year, gathered their Chinese trinkets, and then they went back to their own countries.

My wife was employed there, and I had elected to stay and teach, rather than be separated from her. From so many years there, I do have good memories, certain students and friends, but I'd be a liar if I didn't note that living and teaching there was a trial by fire on my patience, my toleration, and my general psyche on how much continual abuse to take, the later was unrelentingly and increasing every semester and every year I was there.

The Physical Education students were the average college age of 18 to 21. It was pretty well known all over campus that they were basically brain-dead hooligans, but the events of September 8th and the aftermath were a serious cause for my wife to break contract and for me to do the same, especially with the debacle of the PSB and my FAO (get this--he was my best man at our wedding!).

Fortunately, two months ago, my wife got her immigration visa to the US, and we left China, but I don't want any ESL teacher to go to Huaibei, and if they do, in spite of my posting, I wish him or her all the luck in the world and strongly advise that he or she to hold on to his or her sanity and passport, and remember as I observed in my posting-- better schools in China do exist.

They do have a train station, and a train leaves every evening for Shanghai. Get the hard sleeper.

[Taliesinrises]

This review is written by a total fraud that used to spew this venom and vitriol in his blog, "The Laowei Monologs" After taking him to task there nearly two years ago and him getting himself canned by the college for very reprehensible behavior, one might hope he'd crawl back into a hole somewhere and leave China alone. As one who also, spent time in Huaibei, I can attest to receiving nothing but warmth and friendship from people in the street to anyone else I met or worked with in the city. I know the fine gentlman that is the Foreign Affairs Director - not Officer at the school and he does not resemble the fictional character created by "Mr. Hemingway"

Should this malcontent continue his defamation of Huaibei and its people, I think it is fair that folks learn just who he is and they can check in Huaibei themselves for his work record with the school - right Hankuh?????

[Raoul]

Hi!

I'm writing today in defense of Hemingway. The previous post is part of an organized effort to discredit his account that may well be happening at the behest of the Huaibei school.

It can't be allowed to work.

I know Hemingway and his wife- in person, not just online. I have for quite some time now. I know him to be a man of honor in addition to being a sharp wit, a great writer, and a caring and professional teacher. This man has my complete trust and my complete respect. His blog was damned funny, and had fans across China, including a number within the diplomatic commuinty.

I also had at least a bit of involvement with Hemingway's troubles in Huaibei. I am completely confident that Hemingway is providing an accurate description of events at that horrible school.

It's bad enough that some of these dodgy schools behave the way they do toward us expat teachers. It would compound the tragedy if the schools can then succeed in manipulating those with personal axes to grind to help cover up their misdeeds.

Regards,
Raoul

[Taliesinrises]

I believe you were a participant at Laowei Monologs and witnessed my learning about and responding to this malcontent at that time. If I am wrong about that, I apologize, but your name sounds familiar in this connection.

I have had a long abiding interest in ESL in China and was simply disgusted by the disturbing and extreme vitriol of "Hankuh Hemingway's" non-stop spew of anti-Chinese, anti-Huaibei skree. At that time I described my previous time in Huaibei and there was no question of the veracity of my accounts. So, if he is really "your friend" help him.

In the meantime, if you want to teach ANYWHERE in the world, do your own research and realize how easy it is to defame here and never be called to task. I do searches regularly on several cities I care about and Huaibei is one of them. This just came up again, after all that time since the monologs disappeared.

[exported_kiwi]

Awwww, c'mon you people! This is a forum where people are allowed to express their own impressions and opinions about their experiences. Personal axes to grind shouldn't enter into it.

Remember that one mans trash is another mans treasure! We've probably all had similar experiences such as Hemingway has illustrated and we can certainly identify some schools that are run by some absolute ratbags. We can certainly warn other prospective foreign teachers, but at the end of the day, we're all free to make our own choices. All these personal jibes get people nowhere and it shows how small minded some folks are. China is a dichotomy, a paradox and also a wonderful place depending on what you make of it. Obviously, Hemingway had a bad time where he was.

I've had a bad time in Jilin, but don't knock Jilin as a place...except in winter where it's just too damn cold! I'm in Hunan now, the school isn't great so I'm looking in Guangzhou and Shenzhen so I can be nearer to my soon to be Chinese wife. I won't knock this school though, or this city although the school is run by people who don't care for us, and the city isn't a good one for lao wai to work in, but so what! This is China, whaddaya expect huh?
Take care folks!

[Raoul]

Thanks, Kiwi. I like Jilin, too. I'm at abut the same latitude you are and I could stand a blast of that cold about now.

This campaign against Hemingway is indeed a case of a personal axe to grind. I'll try not to go into details unless I just have to. I'm appalled and disgusted at the spew of bile, lies, and ignorance being directed at this good and decent man across various forums. I am NOT wrong about this situation. Hemingway IS my friend (no quotes needed), and the only help he needs is to try and counter this insane effort to discredit him. Hemingway at least has friends willing to leap into the breach for him, a claim I suspect some other posters can't really make. I can't let this garbage stand unchallenged.

So, let's look at some of the assertions that have been made here.

First, no, I was not part of the Laowai Monologues. I was a fan, like many, many others...but only a silent fan. But it's made to sound as if writing the Laowai Monologues blog was in itself some kind of crime or wrongdoing. It wasn't. Yeah, sometimes there were some pretty jaundiced looks at life in a small jerkwater Chinese city, but the blogs were NOT racist or vituperative...they were certainly nicer than the treatment Hemingway's been getting. His writings WERE funny, pithy, thought-provoking, sometimes tender, sometimes pathetic...and they told the truth.

I won't back virulent racism against the Chinese or anyone else. The Monologues had a number of fans in the foreign diplomatic corps in China...and they won't support such things either. This charge is a LIE, completely and totally. The site finally disappeared because some snivelling little rat-faced git (and you know who you are, you snivelling little rat-faced git!) narked him out to the Huaibei uni, who forced him to pull the plug on the site.

OK, let's look at Huaibei. Not the Huaibei photos produced by the local propaganda bureau, but the real town itself. It's in Anhui, a third-rate backwater province. Within that context, Huaibei is a third-rate backwater town. It IS dirty. It IS backwards. It IS boring. It IS going to be a shock to the shammies to most foreigners coming there to live. Don't believe me? Go there, spend some time, and look for yourself. This one is easy.

The bottom line is that this is a terrible, terrible school and terrible things have happened there. They not only can't hold the Westerners that they've lured into this trap, they can't even hold the Cameroonians and Filipinas and others they've turned to more recently...and these teachers are generally pretty desperate for any job they can find. If you go to Huaibei and work for this uni, you're going to find out which side of this is really telling the truth.

And boy, at that point you're going to be SO sorry you didn't recognize the truth when you saw it.

Raoul