Runaway Chinese teacher defends his flight
By Candy Zeng
SHENZHEN - When an eight-magnitude earthquake strikes, should a teacher leave
his students and run for his life, or should he risk his life to save them?
In China, with a strong tradition of collectivism, the answer would seem
obvious: a teacher would save his students so as to fulfill his obligations to
the collective body (his class). Furthermore, self-sacrifice has long been
esteemed as a righteous virtue in the Middle Kingdom.
So it was that after the Sichuan earthquake on May 12, Chinese media have been
full of stories praising the "heroic" deeds of
people - soldiers, rescuers, teachers and others - who risked their lives to
save others.
But high school teacher Fan Meizhong has openly admitted he abandoned his
students and ran away when the earthquake hit. His confession has
understandably aroused fierce criticism and he was disqualified by the Ministry
of Education (MOE), although his action violates no existing rules.
Subsequently, the MOE has reportedly revised the moral code for teachers with a
demand that they put students' safety first in dangerous circumstances.
Unyielding to such pressures, the teacher continues to defend his "individual
freedom". His position is actually beginning to win support from a growing
number of China's bloggers. Analysts say this points to Chinese society's
transition from a domineering collectivism to an era more tolerant of
individualism.
Ten days after the earthquake hit his school in Dujiangyan city, Fan posted on
his blog: "I have been extremely [hurt] for not being born in a free country
such as the United States which respects human rights. [This has led] to my
suffering [for] more than 10 years after my graduation [from university] and
from the 17 years [of] awful education. I asked god repeatedly: why do you put
me in dictatorial and dark China while giving me a soul devoted to freedom and
truth?"
But Fan never expected that his Internet confession would lead to a national
debate over moral imperatives for teachers. Nevertheless, the discourse became
heated and he was dismissed from his teaching job three weeks after the
posting.
In his blog, Fan told the dark story of the disastrous day: he fled the
classroom quickly without thinking of his senior high school students and found
himself alone in the school's playground. Later, the rest of the class arrived
and some asked him why he had left them alone. None of his students was injured
in the earthquake.
Later, Fan defended himself on the Internet: "I am a person that seeks
[personal] freedom and justice, but not the kind of person that puts [other]
people first and is willing to sacrifice himself. In this fleeting moment of
life and death, I could only consider sacrificing myself for my daughter. I
would not care about any other people even including my mother, under these
type of circumstances."
Fan continued: "I am not the kind of person that fights with mobsters with
knives either. Saying so, I am not sure how will I behave the next time [I am]
in danger. I just know that I will not be the first to challenge
totalitarianism and put myself to prison."
At the time Chinese media were praising the heroic actions of ordinary people
who'd risked their lives for others, his frank confession immediately brought
outrage. He was nicknamed "Runner Fan" and was lampooned in local newspapers.
Fan's critics considered him shameless and unqualified to teach. "Even if you
were in a free country such as the US, you would be deprived of your post as a
teacher," wrote one Chinese blogger.
However, after participating in a live debate with his critics on
Hong-Kong-based Phoenix TV, more people turned around to his side. One of his
challengers, commentator Guo Songmin, looked worse in the dialogue leveling
improper accusations and insults at Fan. Guo, who had taken his victory for
granted, threw nasty names such as "shameless" and "bastard" at Fan, as well as
humiliating Fan's schoolmaster, on the live broadcast.
A Peking University graduate and self-described Christian, Fan was more
eloquent in defending himself. When asked why he abandoned his students, he
said teachers did not have compulsory obligations to ensure the safety of
students in a life-or-death situation. Fan held that all lives are equal. "It
was just my natural instinct to flee when the earthquake happened. I've never
been trained how to react properly in such a circumstance," he said.
Before the live debate, Fan posted another blog to explain why he came forward
with his story. According to Fan, he wanted to console an editor friend who
fled alone and felt guilty afterwards. Also, he disliked people who "kidnapped
morality" to force others to donate more for disaster relief. Finally, he said
he wanted to see the reaction of "moralists" by stirring them up.
Shortly after the quake, some celebrities, including basketball star Yao Ming
and entrepreneur Wang Shi, were accused of not donating enough money for
relief. A young woman in Liaoning who complained about the three-day national
mourning period in an online video clip also drew a chorus of angry comments.
As one of Fan's foamer fellow teachers said during the televised debate: "Is it
wrong to be frank? He is also a victim of the earthquake and needs
understanding." The supportive statement made many people more sympathetic for
Fan.
Fan was born in 1972 and grew up in the countryside of southwest Sichuan. He is
the youngest son of a poor peasant family. Although both of his parents are
illiterate, Fan showed intelligence at a young age and later enrolled at Peking
University as a history major. He had the highest admission test score in
Sichuan province in 1992.
At university, Fan was shocked to see the great gap between himself and his
more knowledgeable urban peers. He chose to immerse himself in books, as he
wrote in an impassioned article "Seeking Meaningful Education" as a middle
school teacher.
But the more he read, he came to realize that what he had been taught might
largely be untrue. More importantly, he had never been trained to think
independently. He decided to teach and influence young students at middle
school and thus returned Sichuan after graduation.
As an educator, Fan regularly ignored history textbooks and introduced Chinese
and Western philosophers and ideologists to broaden the vision of his students.
He lost his first teaching job after some parents complained to the school
board.
Then he worked in schools and media in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Beijing,
Hangzhou and Chengdu, each for less than three years. The last school he worked
for during the earthquake, Guangya School, is an international school. Fan was
a Chinese teacher for its International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, of which
he was exceptionally fond. "The IB syllabus is very flexible and focuses more
on fostering independent thinking and creativity of students," Fan wrote in a
blog after his dismissal.
Qing Guangya, the headmaster and founder of Guangya School, told the live TV
program he would not dismiss Fan because he felt Fan should not be punished for
what he wrote. After the program was aired, however, he received calls from
various educational authorities requiring him to sack Fan from the faculty.
"When people criticize Fan, the pro-Fans will claim that the critics are moral
absolutists. They think people [should] not whip a person collectively for his
selfishness, otherwise it is a 'tyranny of the majority'. Why in China when we
talk about morality is it associated with moral absolutism and the majority
with tyranny? I would like to ponder why people tend to think in this
white-or-black mode," commented by Li Hongtu, a history professor of Fudan
University.
In Fan's other blogs, he openly showed aversion to past propaganda about Lei
Feng, a moral icon established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1963. People
have been indoctrinated to follow Lei's example and devote themselves to
China's great socialist cause ever since.
In 1982, a university student Zhang Hua lost his life after jumping into a
cesspool to save a peasant. His death sparked debate on the value of individual
life just as Western values were being introduced to China through the
open-door policy of the time.
In 1988, a 14-year-old student Lai Ning died while fighting a forest fire aimed
at protecting "national property" - a satellite TV station. He was lauded later
as a top teenager, but his death sparked a revaluation of life among the
general public. After the incident, minors were not encouraged to risk their
life for heroic deeds.
Fan apologized on various occasions - including the Phoenix TV live debate - to
his students, but many couldn't forgive him. The spokesperson of the MOE, Wang
Xuming, told him: "You can be ignoble, but you shouldn't be shameless." Wang
also denied that the new moral code for teachers was amended because of
disputes over Fan's confession, saying the revision was the result of
continuous effort since 2004.
As to the new moral code, Fan regards it as vague and inapplicable to dangerous
situations. "If there are causalities in school safety incidents, the
educational authority should be the first to hold accountability, not only the
teachers," said Fan.
According to a recent report by Chongqing Times, Fan said he would file a
lawsuit against the MOE. He also said it is now impossible for him to work for
any school and he planned to start a research career.
Candy Zeng is a freelance journalist based in Shenzhen, China.
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