Sir, – As an Irish academic lecturing this year in two leading Chinese universities (Peking University and Beijing Foreign Studies University), I find the most recent Ross O'Carroll-Kelly piece featuring an eight-year-old exchange student named Pang offensive (October 10th). The portrayal of her as as a smoking, foul-mouthed, and violent juvenile is odd in itself.
First of all, almost every Chinese child I have met has been quiet, extraordinarily well-behaved, and respectful to its elders. Even as adolescents, Chinese children do not as a rule revolt openly and certainly not violently. While some of the boys may smoke once they reach university, I have never seen a child smoke during the decade and more I have periodically worked in China. Nor have I ever been witness to – or heard of – a Chinese child slagging off his or her parents or any other older person. On the other hand, when living in Dublin, I have not infrequently seen children as young as eight smoking and, like many other older people, have had the experience of being slagged off by a young person in foul language. Maybe the writer of the piece thinks it outrageously funny. It is of course stock humour to attribute the degraded and degrading behaviour of one’s own people to those who are foreign – in this case, Chinese.
As someone teaching Chinese graduate students about Ireland, I often recommend that they consult the electronic version of The Irish Times. In this case, I am dreading that they will do so. You might also be aware that in just two weeks, teams of administrators from Irish universities are descending on China to recruit Chinese students. In this context the piece is an example of spectacularly bad timing. – Yours, etc,
Dr JERUSHA
McCORMACK,
Visiting Professor,
Irish Studies Centre,
Beijing Foreign
Studies University.