Awkwertaining

There have been a few awkward moments in the last couple days of teaching as we tackle the thorny subject of censorship. For some of these kids, it's obvious that government censorship of all types of media is good. For others, it's clear that the system has problems and that the truth isn't being altogether being reported. Either way, standing in front of a class of 35 Chinese students and asking them "what kind of censorship have you come across in your life?" and "what are some reasons to censor material?" sort of seems like asking to get into trouble. I feel like I have to tell them that I'm not encouraging them to seek out "bad material" but in a way, I guess I am.
We discussed censorship in general and whether total free speech was a good idea. There seemed to be pretty general consensus that a society without any form of censorship would quickly descend into anarchy and 'social instability', would be confusing and full of truths and fake truths, but in the end, it would be quite creative.
My favorite comments though, were along these lines:

"It is a good idea to ban certain books in small towns and villages, because the people there are simple minded and cannot think well about all the ideas. They cannot understand what they should follow and they will be confused. They will believe everything in the books including some lies."
"Sometimes, censorship is necessary. For example, there is a religion that is evil. Information about the evil religion is censored otherwise, people want to follow it. The government protects the citizens from the evil religion." (we all know what she's talking about but no one is saying the words, though one student named the "evil religion" and everyone was shocked that she had said the F-G words.)
"The government censors some information because it is not good for the citizens to know everything. If they know everything, maybe they will not trust the government and there will be a unstable society... [pause for thought] I think this is not good."
"A society with no censorship is bad. One example is Germany... If before the Second World War there had been no censorship, we could have avoided the war." (as a colleague responded today when I related this, "I'm pretty sure there was censorship of things like "I like Jews"- by shooting you in the street". Another colleague who also has classes at my level said his students had also referenced WWII, but said that if there had been more censorship of books, like Mein Kampf, we could have avoided the war. What have they been taught?!)

There was also a reference to a period of Chinese history of about 10 years that was not taught or included in many books (at least not accurately) because it did not reflect well on the government and China in general, and talk about more abstract ideas like censorship in news being bad as we cannot get the whole truth if we only read government-approved stories, censorship of movies and books to protect kids and the like.

We then had a discussion about specific aspects of censorship that were mentioned in our book:
- Should publishing a book that some consider disrespectful to a certain religion be allowed?
- Should burning the national flag to protest government policies you don't agree with be allowed?
-Should distributing pornography be allowed?
-Should people be allowed to encourage young men to refuse military service because they disagree with a certain war or war in general?
-Should making fun of the U.S. president and making rude or disrespectful comments about him in the press be allowed?
-Should selling rap music with obscene lyrics or lyrics that encourage anti-police sentiment be allowed?

Some of these ideas were obviously easier to discuss and more relevant to the students than others, but mostly, they believed that publishing the book, selling porn to adults, making fun of the U.S. president and selling rap with such lyrics should be allowed. Selling porn to kids, burning the national flag and encouraging refusal of military service did not get so many supporting votes, though we did get a little debating going at least about flag burning. The idea that it was dangerous was shot down but a student saying "it is a powerful way to show that I disagree and it doesn't hurt anyone" got a few more responses from both sides. There seemed to be disagreement about what a flag stands for; if it was the country itself, then burning it to protest government decisions would be wrong, but if we hold it as a symbol of the government, then it might be more ok. Selling porn to children would be a good idea only in so far as it might encourage parents to explain things to them at an earlier age, but mostly, we unanimously voted for keeping kids' illusions about the birds and the bees. A student last year who was voting against distribution of pornography quickly changed his mind when another classmate pointed out that his vote would mean that he would not able to view it... there might have been a similar sentiment among my male students this time!
The military service question was a little harder to tackle with such platitudes as "it is our duty to defend the country" being thrown out but, for me, the best answer came from some who quite articulately pointed out that maybe the situation of war would make a different. She explained that, in her point of view, if the country is invading another one, refusing military service and encouraging same would be okay since it is not harming our own country. However, if our country was being invaded, it was our duty to protect it and therefore, refusing military service would be wrong, and encouraging others to follow us would be really bad. I really enjoy students thinking a little further and am very impressed when they can put such thoughts into coherent English words.
I managed to shock a few students by starting this discussion class with pictures and asking them whether they thought censoring them was a good idea by forming a line of opinion.











We definitely got some good conversations going about what it's reasonable and advisable to hide and what is unnecessary, among all the giggles those pics generated. I might be going for shock value, but I don't know.... I think they're old enough, no?