The students laughed — they found it amusing. These students, at the end of the year, would be graduating with Diplomacy degrees, some going on to represent China as diplomats.
About 20 minutes before the end of class, a student called Gao Hui Jun politely requested that we abandon the subject of the student complaints and turn to a different topic. I said no. This was the most topical topic at hand.
Gao Hui Jun's demeanor changed. I'd never seen him look anything other than bland and nondescript before; now he was clearly angry. He muttered something to the others in a low voice in Chinese, then got up and walked to the exit at the back of the room.
The others started putting away their things. They were going to leave as well.
A boy called Li Ming, quicker than the others, was right behind Gao Hui Jun. A moment before exiting he turned to face me and shouted, "Fuck off!" Then, with a self-satisfied smile, he was gone.
All the others followed. Some were silent and unhappy looking. But departing was an imperative, it seemed, that they could not defy.
I took the death threat to the Foreign Affairs Office, where I found Wang Yan and other staff members. I wanted them to report it to the Beijing police.
But Wang Yan wanted to talk about my teaching. She suggested I drop the topic of the complaint letters. The students weren't happy, there'd been more complaints....
I answered: "A student in today's class just told me to 'fuck off.' That might concern you too."
"Why did he say that?" she rejoined.
She spoke further about my teaching, apparently unconcerned about the death threat and the students' misbehavior.
"I hope you'll treat this threat very seriously," I said to her.
"This is not the school's business," she replied.
I stared at her. "I think it's very much the school's business if one of its invited foreign teachers receives a death threat."
"What I meant is that it's not my personal responsibility to investigate this."
There never was a police investigation. And after another week of confrontations with my Diplomacy and Law classes, I was fired — eight months before the expiration of my contract. The contract's "breach penalty" would not be paid. I had to vacate my apartment within 10 days. And my visa was changed to a tourist visa that would expire in 20 days.
Article comments
1 - Bing
As a Chinese student in UK, I feel ashamed by what happened to you. One thing you might have known is that most of those would-be diplomats have special backgrounds. They enter the Chinese Deplomacy System via nepotism and people like them are called "TaiZiDang" or Crown Princes in China. They domineer over Chinese who need help abroad. They think themselves the owners of Chinese embassies and consulates rather than civil servants. They are ugly scars of China.
Thank you for your work in China.
2 - Uriel
Hi Bing.
I have indeed been told that kind of thing about CFAU on several occasions by people in China.
Thanks kindly for your comment.
3 - Frank
At a diplomacy school, you should understand that these are the people that will learn to lie and deceive for their country.
If they were really smart they would be at Beida or Tsinghua, but since they have connections they are at the school for guanxi reasons.
Rest in the knowledge that these types will face the reality of a market oriented china dominated by the beida tsinghua types anyway.
4 - Uriel
Actually, some of them were pretty smart (as documented in the full version of my story).