Chinese Students and China's Soft Power

Soft power in China, it is argued, should also include the behavior of Chinese students when they are overseas.

According to Chinese authors Han Bo and Jiang Qingyong, overseas Chinese students had given Chinese a bad name. They refuse to take part in class discussions, are reluctant to think, and have a tendency of copying their homework from other classmates.

Students in one New Zealand university was said to be so frustrated with their Chinese counterparts that its campus newspaper published an article in 2007 titled "We Do Not Want to Be in the Same Study Group as the Chinese." (不要和中国人一个小组！) Teachers in New Zealand also lamented that "中国人的作业全都一样" ("Assignments submitted by Chinese all look the same!")

As Han and Jiang noted, "相比之下，日本人和韩国人虽然也比较沉默，但却不会抄作业." ("In comparison, the Japanese and Koreans are also relatively quiet (in class), but they will certainly not copy homework from one another.")(韩勃 江庆勇 著 软实力：中国视角 人民出版社2009）

Certainly not copy homework from one another? Hmm. I am not so sure about that.

Another example cited include how Chinese students signed one-year cell phone contracts with British phone companies just so that they can get the free cell phone. But immediately after signing, they leave the country, and of course there will be no way to trace them thereafter.

Yet another example is how Chinese students apply for credit cards and spend to the card's maximum limit just before leaving the country. As later Chinese students lamented, this had given all Chinese students a bad name, and British banks have since decided only to grant minimum credit limits to Chinese students.

As Chinese students later lamented, this is known as "前人砍树，后人倒霉." ("Those who come earlier on cut the trees, while those who come later suffer the consequences." - A twist on a more popular expression 前人种树，后人乘凉，or "those who come earlier plant the trees, while those who come later can rest in the shade.")