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Gray area between students and teachers

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-11-10

Gray area between students and teachers
Cai Meng / China Daily

On Oct 14, Xiamen University announced the result of an investigation into a sexual harassment case: Professor Wu Chunming had "unethical sex" with one of his female students on numerous occasions and had sexually harassed another of his graduate students. The punishment: Wu was stripped of his Communist Party membership and his teaching position.

The university authority had been accused of procrastination and creating a cover-up when the story first surfaced. Wu was a star on the faculty and the only one in his school to confer doctoral degrees in archaeology. Only two of his female PhD candidates came out publicly with accusations, while reportedly 122 of his peers and students issued a public letter in his defense.

To those who see Wu as the poster boy of what's rotten on China's college campuses, the penalty was too little and too late. Wu was able to retain his research position, which was unfair, they said. But I hold the possibly minority opinion that the school was right to take a cautious approach and not jump to conclusions before thoroughly investigating. Sure, expelling Wu at the earliest convenience would be deemed more "politically correct", but that, in my mind, is another form of covering its own behind and not a sign of responsibility.

I don't think most of China's commentators or I are in a position to offer unbiased takes on this case for the simple reason that we do not possess firsthand information and have to rely on social media, which can be manipulated one way or the other. For the sake of discussion, I'll focus on teacher-student relations where all parties are above the age of 21 (Wu's accusers and suspected victims were all PhD candidates and higher than this cutoff age) and leave out the thorny area of high school scenarios.

The stories surfacing in the media portray Wu as a womanizer who coerced his female students into having sex with him. What he dangled in front of them were things essential to them: having their papers published in scholarly journals, recommending them to coveted jobs, arranging meetings with other professors with academic resources, etc.

Some of his students said no to his initial advances. According to one media report, Wu used the word "harassment" when talking about his behavior. "I'll stop harassing you if you can't accept it," Wu allegedly texted a student. "And from now on you'll be among the commonest of students as you so wished." The threat of removing someone from his circle of favorite students seemed enough of a strong-arm tactic to those unwilling to go along for the "swim". (Wu would often invite his target for a swim.)

But one small detail caught my attention: One of his students was annoyed with his amorous advances but did not get mad until she discovered Wu was also approaching other students. That raises many questions. Did her discovery empower her to speak out and defend the other victims? Or had she been receptive to the idea of becoming his mistress but became enraged because she did not want to become one of many mistresses? Did she harbor the dream of marrying him someday? Wu's wife was a student of his when he was much younger.

Some say colleges and universities should make it a strict rule that teacher-student romances be made illegal, or at least labeled as unethical, as sexual harassment is often camouflaged in the gray area of dating. They were displeased with an Oct 9 decree from the Ministry of Education, presumably in response to the Wu case, that states "college teachers must not sexually harass or have indecent relations with their students".

"Indecent" is vague-as customary with the Chinese penchant for fuzzy or flowery language. Even "sexual harassment" is not clearly defined. What if a teacher bestows more attention onto a student who is physically attractive by looking longer her way or chatting with her longer than with other students? Is it a form of harassment if he heaps praise on her achievement using an exaggerated tone?

According to lecturers invited to a Silicon Valley company for awareness sessions that I attended, it is.

The sessions were held in the early 1990s, when political correctness was in its heyday in the US. I was working in Northern California when the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearing was in full swing. We were warned that smiling at a colleague a little too long or talking with a suggestive tone could make you liable to charges of sexual harassment. I overheard many in the audience, muttering under their breaths, call the lecturers "Nazis".

It was also around this time one of my acquaintances got a big settlement check after she threatened to accuse her boss, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman, of sexual harassment. Her friends told me she had seduced her boss and secured some form of evidence because she knew he had an eye on her.

Yes, I believe the protection of victims of sexual harassment could be carried too far and used as a tool to harm rather than to protect-just like all measures of good intention. Human relations are complicated and cultures vary from one country to another, or even within one culture. To someone brought up in the conservative Chinese tradition, bear hugs, let alone social kissing, are not acceptable. Merely a century ago, people of the opposite sex, unless they were man and wife, were not supposed to have any physical contact whatsoever.

Things change. China's young, growing up with unprecedented exposure to outside influences, are engaging in physical contact that would have set off alarms just a generation ago. Other than generational differences, customs vary greatly. In the US, many colleges have rules against teachers "fraternizing" with their students while, in China, a high school teacher, presumably in a more precarious position since his students are of a more impressionable age, is often praised for spending extra time with his students, especially those in need of parental attention.

Overall, sexual harassment on college campuses seems much more widespread in China and efforts to thwart it less consistent. Many of the reported cases would fall into the category of harassment no matter how it is defined. But because universities are inconsistent in their efforts to stop harassment, some teachers have no qualms preying on their students. And that must be stopped.

But I don't think it is a good idea to push the pendulum to the other extreme-to the point that teachers treat their students as if they were carriers of a deadly virus. Schools should set up a mechanism to hear student complaints and remove their fear of retaliation. As students of that age and intelligence should have the ability to intuit a sexual advance, they need to learn to avoid the trap diplomatically, and if that doesn't work, report it to the school. For me, if you text your teacher "I miss you so much" after he coerced you, you have disqualified yourself from the sympathetic role of the victim.

As for China's rich history of great romances between writers-artists and their students, it is politically incorrect or at least inadvisable in the current environment but still possible given the way of human interaction and chemistry. When I was an undergrad, a female classmate of mine came on so strong to our teacher that the entire class sympathized with him because he was palpably uncomfortable with it. Their eventual marriage ended up in acrimony. Maybe this should serve as a cautionary tale to teachers who use their pool of students for purposes other than imparting knowledge.

By Raymomd Zhou (China Daily)

 

 

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