JOHN G. writes:

There is a manga from China called “Cheating Craft” about a boy who spent all his time learning to cheat at casinos, but now he has to pass the entrance exam, and so he uses all his skills for that purpose. When he gets to the test, all the other students are cheating as well in various ways.

Although this is fiction, it reflects the culture from which it arises, in which test-cheating abilities are like a new form of martial arts.

Karl D. writes:

Chinese cheating is so bad, the Chinese government is launching drones to hover over the heads of students to make sure they don’t cheat during tests!

Laura writes:

These tests make or break a Chinese student’s future. Communist control of education and the economy encourages dishonesty.

— Comments —

Michael H. writes:

This sort of thing long predates Communism.

One of the old Chinese gods is Kui Xing, the god of examinations. Access to the imperial civil service, and thus the middle-class for many, depended on passing an examination. Kui Xing was said to oversee the test-takers, and punish cheating harshly.

June 10, 2015

Buck writes:

To get a wider perspective on this, I googled: “statistics on U.S. student cheating in colleges and universities.” Wow. Based on the studies on just the first page of the millions of results, the Chinese have a long way to go to catch up with us. The Chinese may appear more deligent, conniving, creative and technologically prone, but that may be because they have to be. The Chinese, at home, appear to be much more concerned and much less casual about cheating than we are. The mountain of data, surveys, statistics and fact sheets produced by our own top tier institutions of “higher learning” reveals that the overwhelming majority of U.S. students, college and high school, routinely cheat, in astonishing numbers, at every level, and with little to no apparent compunction. And, the schools themselves, don’t seem the least bit disturbed by it, but seem rather, only interested from an “academic” perspective; something more to study. They’ve been studying it and accumulating the data for decades, but appear to be making no effort to stop it. I suspect, that at this point, they can’t. It may not be possible to reverse course without ruining the institutions and the money machine. We’re a country full of educated cheaters, and our high schools, colleges and universities are the organizing, sanctioning training grounds.

If there’s a cultural difference between us and the Chinese, it’s that the Chinese seem more conflicted by it as they also seem more mission oriented than we are. It’s casual and routine to us. It appears that it is us who have openly adopted cheating as a normal and indespensible part of our academic “rigors” and “achievement”.

Laura writes:

I don’t doubt that many American students cheat, and that many schools do not combat it adequately. I’m sure it is a problem. But, judging from personal experience with schools and colleges, I have never encountered the lax attitude toward cheating you describe. I know it is considered a serious offense at many colleges (which is why Chinese students have been expelled) and high schools, with failing grades given to anyone caught cheating. Also, I would be surprised if an “overwhelming majority” of American students cheat (and I doubt a majority of Chinese students cheat) on exams.

You write:

Based on the studies on just the first page of the millions of results, the Chinese have a long way to go to catch up with us.

In other words, you found comparative statistics that show many more Americans than Chinese cheat on formal exams.

Buck writes

This is all a revelation to me. I simply related what I discovered that the academics who have
studied this themselves are saying. The lax attitude is discussed by them, but is also and obviously born out by the simple logic of the facts, unless, of course, all the of the decades of data is false. It’s also said that cheating is and has been on a steady rise.

The statistics aren’t comparative. The data shows that a clear majority of U.S. students regularly
cheat at all levels in a variety of ways, and that they have been cheating for many years. A minority of the Chinese students are said to cheat, as is clearly shown by the available data referenced in your first post, as cited by Donald. He linked the Wall Street Journal article which links as its primary source: White Paper on Dismissed Chinese Students in the United States.

Anti-Globalist Expatriate writes:

Yes, American students cheat as well.

But it isn’t ingrained into the culture that it’s OK to cheat – not,  yet, anyways. U.S. parents (unless they’re recent immigrants of Asian descent) don’t typically pay teachers to inflate grades, rally around demanding that ‘there is no fairness if we can’t cheat’, etc.

In Asia, it’s routine.

Also, a lot of the U.S.-based cheating is a) done by Asians/Asian-Americans, and/or b) is led/inspired by them. There are many news stories one can find to this effect.

Based upon my observations of many years in Asia – not a scientific study, of course – approximately 99.999% of Asians in Asia cheat in all levels of education, as well as in business and governance. In their culture, cheating and other forms of sharp practice do not carrry a moral stigma, as long as one doesn’t engage in them against members of one’s own immediate family.

Anti-Globalist writes:

Buck writes:

‘ A minority of the Chinese students are said to cheat, as is clearly  shown by the available data referenced in your first post, as cited by Donald’

I would phrase this as ‘A minority of the Chinese students are caught.*’

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