Yanyu takes the pain out of homework
Source: Xinhua |
August 27, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ATTENDING classes is not usually a way to make money, but using what you have learned to do someone else's homework can be quite lucrative.
As the end of the summer holiday approaches, Chinese pupils increasingly find themselves bogged down in too many school assignments.
But "Yanyu," a college graduate in north China's Hebei Province, is enjoying a business boom. Yanyu, a screen name meaning "misty rain," is a staunch defender of students' freedom during the holiday season. Freedom, however, that comes at a price.
"Seventy yuan (US$11) for an exercise book for a senior-high student, 10 yuan for an exam paper and 5 yuan for a short essay," says Yanyu in an advertisement posted online.
With a team of three, Yanyu says his ghostwriting services can rake in several thousand yuan for each of them during the summer holidays, as many students come to them for help with their holiday homework.
"Schooldays are a vital period in one's life and should not be buried in homework," he says.
Yanyu is one of many ghostwriters, mostly college students, profiting from a widespread problem of too much homework and too little time to play.
"Half of my summer holiday has been in remedial classes, with piano courses and loads of homework. I find the holiday more tiring than semesters," said Wang Qi, a senior high student in Hebei.
Even life in primary school is not easy. Holiday homework for a 11-year-old can include four essays and more than 60 pages of exam papers.
However, experts say the real danger suggested by the emergence of homework ghostwriting was that the "fake culture" of the adult world seemed to be filtering down to infect adolescents.
"When adults hire ghostwriters to write a thesis or reports, they may not realize that they're setting a very bad example for the children," said Han Xiaoyu, a teacher at Shijiazhuang No. 40 Middle School.
Wang Zhongwu, a sociologist at Shandong University, said the phenomenon is due to China's high tolerance for fakery.
"The lenient penalties have prompted fakery to spread like cancer cells, severely compromising social credentials," Wang said. "But the impact of homework fakery is worse than counterfeit products or false accounts, as it dirties the soul of our children."
As the end of the summer holiday approaches, Chinese pupils increasingly find themselves bogged down in too many school assignments.
But "Yanyu," a college graduate in north China's Hebei Province, is enjoying a business boom. Yanyu, a screen name meaning "misty rain," is a staunch defender of students' freedom during the holiday season. Freedom, however, that comes at a price.
"Seventy yuan (US$11) for an exercise book for a senior-high student, 10 yuan for an exam paper and 5 yuan for a short essay," says Yanyu in an advertisement posted online.
With a team of three, Yanyu says his ghostwriting services can rake in several thousand yuan for each of them during the summer holidays, as many students come to them for help with their holiday homework.
"Schooldays are a vital period in one's life and should not be buried in homework," he says.
Yanyu is one of many ghostwriters, mostly college students, profiting from a widespread problem of too much homework and too little time to play.
"Half of my summer holiday has been in remedial classes, with piano courses and loads of homework. I find the holiday more tiring than semesters," said Wang Qi, a senior high student in Hebei.
Even life in primary school is not easy. Holiday homework for a 11-year-old can include four essays and more than 60 pages of exam papers.
However, experts say the real danger suggested by the emergence of homework ghostwriting was that the "fake culture" of the adult world seemed to be filtering down to infect adolescents.
"When adults hire ghostwriters to write a thesis or reports, they may not realize that they're setting a very bad example for the children," said Han Xiaoyu, a teacher at Shijiazhuang No. 40 Middle School.
Wang Zhongwu, a sociologist at Shandong University, said the phenomenon is due to China's high tolerance for fakery.
"The lenient penalties have prompted fakery to spread like cancer cells, severely compromising social credentials," Wang said. "But the impact of homework fakery is worse than counterfeit products or false accounts, as it dirties the soul of our children."
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