Families whose children attend British schools have to confront and make sense of the considerable differences in educational philosophy and practice educational between Britain and China. Although reference will also be made throughout this chapter to the relevant literature on this question for both China and other eastern countries, the main emphasis will be on the views expressed by members of seventeen Mainland Chinese families in Reading who formed part of the same social network as the researcher.

At least one parent in every family had come to the UK in the first instance as a postgraduate student; most were still in higher education, either as post-doctoral researchers or in the process of completing a higher degree. In a small number of cases, one of the parents was in permanent employment outside the university sector. In this sense, they form something of a rarified sample and cannot be held to be representative of the wider Chinese community. It will be argued, however, that many of the values which they demonstrate are held in common not only with other Chinese groups but with many other eastern societies. 

As was explained in chapter one, interviews formed an important source of data for analysis in the present study. A first round of interviews took place in respondents' homes. After initial analysis, a second round was conducted. These additional interviews offered an opportunity to check that my understanding of the views they had expressed was correct and to explore in greater detail some of the issues arising from the first round of interviews. 

The children were usually present when their parents were interviewed.  However, their level of fluency in English - and therefore their ability to understand what was being said - varied a great deal. Children were interviewed on two occasions. The first occasion was immediately after their parent's interview, especially in the case of younger children, it was felt that the presence of a parent might help them feel more comfortable. It was suspected, however, that for some children, the parental presence might be inhibiting. For this reason, the five children were interviewed on a second occasion in small groups. 

The interview data were transcribed and analysed using NUD.IST, a standard software package for the analysis of qualitative data. The analytical categories were allowed to emerge from, rather than being imposed, on the data. 

The discussion which follows will concentrate on three main areas which arise from their comments: the aspirations and expectations of Chinese families and how these manifest themselves in very different attitudes towards competition, and the praise and criticism of children; the different emphases on knowledge and skills and the ways in which these give rise to conflicting views on the importance of memorization; and the very different curriculum that is offered to children in both countries, particularly in the areas of life skills and mathematics. 

Educational aspirations

Socail theorists such as William Sumner, William Ogburn and Gunnar Myrdal argue that it is difficult for people to change deeply held sentiments in response to social change(Holmes, 1981). The experience of overseas Chinese in this study leads support to this arguments. 

Parents' expectations of academic achievement and educational aspirations are extremely high in the Chinese community (Wong, 1992). A range of assumptions rooted in the cultural history of peoples throughout east and south east Asia inform these expectations. The situation in Japan, for instance, where 'parents see their child's achievement as a matter of family 'face' much more so than westerners do' (Biggs & Watkins, 1996: 273) is very similar.  

For thousands of years, Chinese education has been dominated by Confucian educational thought, an important assumption of which is that everyone is educable, everyone can become a sage(Tu, 1979), a realisation which has the potential to spur us on to achieve greater things. Confucius also proposed that the perfect person should combine 'inside sageliness and outside kingliness' (内 圣 外 王  neisheng waiwang) (Cheng, 1991):圣 sheng (wisdom) and 王 wang (kingliness) are presented as the two main qualities which we should strive to achieve: in this worldview, people need to study hard and aspire to public office. 

Mencius, one of the most important philosophers in the confucian tradition introduced another important principle, namely that human nature is good: people are born with a sense of compassion, shame, respect, right and wrong, which leads in turn to humanity, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. This position further underlines the notion that everyone is educable and everyone can become a sage (Lee, 1996). 

The influence of Chinese philosophy is evident in the education systems of many Asian countries, which are labeled by Ho(1991) as Confucian Heritage Cultures or CHCs. Leestma et al (1987: 3), for instance, point out that:

The origins of the Japanese commitment to education lie in the Confucian and Buddhist heritage in which great respect is accorded to learning and educational endeavour as the means to personal and societal improvement.  

Similarly, Bae (1991) suggests that Koreans have a similar enthusiasm for education which they consider to be the most reliable kind of property. 

The Confucian belief that everyone is educable and that everyone can become a sage means that failure to achieve in school is looked upon as a disgrace by both parents and children. School work is considered by children as a duty towards their parents; they feel their performance is a reflection not on themselves, but on 'significant others, the family, the group, or the society as a whole' (Yang, 1986: 114). As Biggs & Watkins(1996: 275) points out:

While their attributions encourage them [Chinese students] to work harder and harder thus maximizing their likelihood of academic success, they are likely to feel guilty and to be blamed by their teachers and parents if failure results. 

Wong (1992) states that overseas Chinese parents expect their children to take advantage of the British education system to get more academic improvement for their future work. Meanwhile, they hope their children have a strong link with Chinese culture which 'will help them to maintain certain traditional cultural values' (p. 35). 

According to a survey of the Chinese community in Lambeth, more than half of parents expect their children to go on to a university education(Yau, 1983). The desire to excell was very much a feature, for instance, of the interview data collected from the five children who were in their last year of primary school and had been in the UK for long enough to have developed strong opinions on the British education system. All were committed to striving for the highest possible level of achievement. The only one who was not already among the best in the class was a boy who had arrived just eight months earlier. Three of them had passed the voluntary entrance examination to Reading School, a selective school for boys. One of them remarked, 'It's good to be number one, others will admire you'. Another said,  'You feel good when you are number one' .  

Competition

The expectation, then, is that children should be good 'all-rounders' and children's progress is measured against age-related standards. This situation is very different from the norm for British education. whereas Confucian philosophy stresses that everyone is educable, western education accepts the view that different children have different educational potential and attempts to address this issue by providing differentiated programs of study which respond to individual needs. 

An obvious concomitant of high aspirations for children is the very competitive nature of Chinese education. This has always been the case. Luk (1991) describes the traditional 私 塾 si shu school as beginning with two years of literacy training, proceeding to the memorisation of prescribed Confucian texts, and culminating in years of drill to perfect the essay style required for the imperial examinations. Intense study and memorization were encouraged and matched with prestigious jobs. Hard study and extensive knowledge of formal language helped students escape from the servile life of the feudal peasant (Wong, 1990). 

The emphasis on service to the emperor has had far-reaching implications for Chinese education. It set the scene for a highly competitive system in which only a very few could succeed. The ancient Chinese novel, 儒 林 外 史 ru lin wai shi (written by Wu in the Qin Dynasty), for instance, tells the story of how a candidate took the imperial examination time and time again and finally went mad when he succeeded. 

A brief review of the structure of Chinese education will serve to underline the central role still played by competition. Children currently spend six years in primary school, three years in junior high and three years in senior high school. On average, only two thirds of students proceed from primary to junior high school. Of those who do, over 30 percent fail to pass the graduation examination in senior high school (Lewin, 1987). 

Since the 1980s, many 'key schools' have appeared at national, provincial, city and county levels. These are selective schools which accept pupils on the basis of their performance in an entrance examination and they account for only 4 percent of the secondary population(Lewin, 1987). Only students from key schools have a realistic chance of being accepted for university. Recent political changes are likely to make competition even keener. In 1997, for instance, urban unemployment topped 12.1 million and rural unemployment 150 million(Parkins, 1998). According to new rules issued by government labour departments, only senior high-school graduates with one year of training and junior high-school graduates with three years of training qualify for a licence for skilled work. In circumstances such as these, Chinese students, not surprisingly, develop a strong sense of competition at an early age. 

Literary sources also confirm the importance of competition in Chinese education. Huang(1997) in her novel I want to be a good child gives a flavour of what competition means for Year 6 students who are tested on their work with great frequency. After test papers have been corrected, teachers rank students according to their grades. They draw a circle in red pen around the child's position in the class. Students then take the paper back to be signed by their parents.  For those who don't have good grades, this is a very difficult time which can seem like 'endless torture, taking their breath away'. 

Higher education offers the prospect of a prestigious government job or a well-paid post in the expanding international commercial sector. It is especially attractive to the children of peasants because it offers an escape route from the rigour of rural life. University entrance is based on performance in a national competitive examination. As well as key schools, there are key universities: traditionally, state universities are considered more prestigious than those in the provinces. There is also more competition for some subjects than others. The highest scoring students are admitted, for instance, to schools of management or international business studies or computer science. 

Competition is evident, of course, in British education where currently in the region of 15 percent of students go on to higher education and there is increasing emphasis on student performance in the form of league tables. None the less, the pressures on British children are more subtle and are countered to some extent by the ability to take formal qualifications in further education colleges, by access courses which provided non-standard entry routes to higher education for  'mature' students and by the increasing attention given to the idea of 'lifelong learning'. The more subtle nature of competition in British schools is particularly perplexing for parents who are mindful of the needs of Chinese education. As the mother of a seven year old girl commented:

In China there's a lot of pressure for a child to be within the top five in class. Here, my daughter doesn't care. 

Similar sentiments were expressed by the mother of a ten year old boy:

I think that testing is important because children can know their level through it, and they can catch up. Competition and pressure are all important for they can encourage children to study hard. 

On several occasions parents remarked that certain children respond better to this kind of pressure than others, sometimes producing children who achieve high grades but are actually of low ability.  In China, considerable importance is attached to children being placed within the first few in the class. Many parents in Reading expressed puzzlement that children's reports did not specify their position.  However, the children whom I interviewed had a very clear idea of their relative position in their class and were confident that they would be ranked in the top few. Significantly, parents were still not satisfied, even when their children were high achievers. One mother said to her son, for instance, 'You shouldn't compare yourself with your classmates, you should compare yourself with Chinese children.' Another mother expressed the view that her daughter  'would be even better if she was in China.' 

In China, targets are set for children from a very young age and there is little time for leisure. Again, Huang(1997), in I want to be a good child, gives us an excellent insight into the effects which this pressure can have upon children who are not succeeding. The central character, Ling, has felt since the first year of school that her mother looks like a hedgehog whose spines prickle at her low grades. From the parental perspective, however, responsibilities are clear. One recently arrived mother whose son was in year 3 in China said:

If you cannot enter the key secondary school, you cannot enter a university. In China, if you cannot enter a university, you will not find a good job and you will not be a successful person. Now in China, if a student only has a few marks less than required, their parents can spend considerable sums of money so that their children will be allowed to enter a key secondary. In order to let my child have a bright future, I'd be ready to spend money in this way. 

Parents remarked that children in Britain have a great deal of free time and some expressed the fear that this might make them lazy. They were also surprised by the fact that their primary age children were not given any homework. As one mother told us:

In China, children will spend at least two hours in the evening in term time. In the holidays they will have to do exercises and will expect to spend time in study every day - it will probably take half a day. 

This same mother had turned the TV to the wall in a very successful attempt to prevent constant viewing in the summer holidays. 

Parents appear generally dissatisfied with children's progress in the UK and continually make comparisons with their peers in China to try to spur them on to greater achievements. However, children tend to see this issue in a rather different light. Liang Suo is eleven years old and came to Britain when he was three years old. He had just passed the entrance examination to a selective boys' school when I interviewed him and he felt that his parents underestimated the competitive pressures on children in British schools. He pointed out, for instance, that it is not easy to be top of the class: others envy and even bully him because he is a high achiever. In addition, he pointed to the 'pressure that others will overtake you'. 

Tan Yang had been in Britain for two years after spending three years in Chinese primary school. She pointed out that if you do your homework very carefully, you have to spend more or less the same amount of time in Britain as in China:

Although you only have one piece of work, it will often take you off on several different paths. You could only say that there is less homework here if you put in the minimum amount of effort. All the same, compared with China, I feel there is less pressure here. But this doesn't mean we don't have pressure. 

Praise and blame

Parents consulted as part of interviews for this project often pointed to the very obvious differences in educational philosophy between China and the UK. Traditional Chinese families expected their children to play roles and perform duties independently of children's personal feelings or goals.  'Children must defer to adults, who determine what their children can do and tell them when they should do it' (Heath, 1986:158). In conversation, parents control the topic, length of time and direction. They initiate and monitor their children's talk and activities through verbal correction, explication and evaluation(Hu, 1944; Liu, 1959; Stover, 1962; Heath, 1986). They also monitor their children's behaviour and give punishment or praise to reinforce this behaviour. At the same time, they require their children to listen and even obey the teacher, emphasizing that the direction of the teacher will help ensure their future job opportunities(Heath, 1986). 

In China, parents tend to use strong discipline to control the behaviour of their children from the outset and seldom offer praise(Ho, 1991).  Salili(1996) explains that Chinese mothers usually react negatively to their children's performance because of their high expectations. 

In Britain, there is a strong belief that all human beings in society are  'free men' who are capable of reasoning and rationality. The society is organised in a way which allows the democratic participation of free men: there is an emphasis on logical explanations as free men are logical animals(Holmes, 1981). This philosophical stance is quite different from Confucius' concept of harmony society and family relationships. 

Different philosophies are reflected in different educational systems. One mother reflected, for instance, on the very different routes to educational success in east and west. In her view, the British education system places great emphasis on encouraging children and, she felt that, in comparison, the Chinese education system was oppressive. In China, teachers like to stress the negative to encourage children to fight back and prove their worth. This tendency to use praise sparingly while being liberal with criticism emerges as a theme in chapter six. 

Generally speaking, the parents in the sample appreciated the more relaxed approach of western education, feeling that too much pressure is placed in China. As one father commented:

Getting knowledge is just like drinking a cup of tea. The British try to let children feel thirsty and have a desire to drink tea but the Chinese education system just asks children to drink too much tea even when children don't feel thirsty. 

Parents expressed approval for the greater individuality which children in British schools are allowed. One mother described the experience of her son in drawing flowers:

The teacher asked them to draw a pot of flowers. You have to think and draw by yourself. Some children drew the flower too long, some children drew the pots too big. My son drew some crosses on the pot. 

While parents appreciate the fact that British teachers, unlike their counterparts in China, do not apply undue pressure. They worry that their children are not receiving clear messages about the importance of studying hard. Most parents felt that the ideal would be a balance between the educational practices and philosophies of China and the UK. 

Children's views on parents' praise and criticism are also pertinent. Xu Ge, for instance, remarked that his parents praise him but tell him not to feel complacent. In general the five children consulted felt that their parents used the same amount of praise and criticism. However, their reactions to parental criticism varied. You You thought 'sometimes they ［parents］ are right, sometimes they are unfair'. Liang Suo, however, placed greater trust in his parents' judgment:

When my parents point out that l'm wrong, I have to ask myself why I speak so rudely to them. I should reflect first and never complain about my parents. 

None of these younger children, however, disagree strongly with their parents' criticism, consistent with the patterns which will be reported in chapter six. 

The apparently harsh treatment meted out to children is also counter balanced by the attention lavished on them by parents and grandparents, as described later in this chapter. Children who had primary school experience in China agreed that Chinese teachers are not as friendly and kind as British teachers. This was because Chinese teachers and parents both think that to be strict is good for students. Parents never complain about teachers being strict, and even harsh attitudes to students in China. The Three Character Classic, composed of 356 alternately rhyming lines of three characters, which has served as an elementary guide to knowledge for students for six hundred years, explains this approach in the following terms (Lee, 1996: 26):

To feed the body, not the mind-fathers, on you the blame!

Instruction without severity, the idle teacher's shame...

Diligence as its reward; play has no gain

Be on your guard, and put forth your strength. 

The emphasis, then, is on the importance of education and the significance of diligence(Giles, 1972; Wu, 1989; Lee, 1996). A similar sentiment is expressed in another old Chinese saying: 'Strict teachers train excellent students'. There is thus an expectation on the part of children that their teachers should maintain strict discipline. 

Knowledge and skills

Another important area of difference between China and UK lies in the relative importance attached to knowledge and skills. Whereas the emphasis in Chinese philosophy is on the group, the focus in the west is much more firmly on the individual. Since the 1960s the notion of a child-centred education, in which all children are encouraged to achieve their potential, has been very influential. In the final analysis, Chinese and British approaches may seem very different but the end result is often very similar. Tan Yang, for instance, pointed out that, because British teachers usually treat students well, they develop a strong relationship with their students. Thus if the teacher simply looks at the culprit in a disapproving way rather than by giving a lecture as would be the case in China, the student in question will experience exactly the same feelings of shame. 

It's quite clear that British education places considerable emphasis on the development of children's skills for learning, including the ability to draw on a number of different sources, to display a critical approach to information and to express a personal view. In contrast, the emphasis in Chinese education is on developing a knowledge base on which they will be able to draw throughout their lives. One of the fathers interviewed as part of this study summed up this difference in approach between Britain and China in the following terms:

Chinese education stresses learning facts. British education stresses productive ability. In Britain the function of education is to try to open your eyes, then you go by yourself while in China the function of education is to try to let you know what you have seen. 

Parents also pointed out that British education attaches great importance to applying knowledge. One father gave the example of a class undertaking a project on bikes: the teacher takes the students to a bicycle shop, shows them some types and bike parts and gives them some basic information about the bike there and then. They are thus dealing with a real life situation, not with second hand knowledge from a book. 

Textbooks and teachers play a pivotal role in the development of this knowledge and the emphasis is on whole class teaching. This is in marked contrast with the practice in British schools in recent years. Despite recent developments arising from the implementation of the national curriculum and the National Literacy Strategy(DfEE, 1998), there is still an emphasis on small group teaching with an increased emphasis on individualised programmes of study and collaborative learning techniques(Lyle, 1998). 

Understanding and memorization

Memorization is the cornerstone of learning in an education system which place great emphasis on knowledge. Although parents recognised much of value in the education their children were receiving in the UK, few felt comfortable with western views on the role of repetition and memorization in learning. The western perception is that eastern schooling places great emphasis on repetition and memorization, while western teachers stress the need for understanding (Marton, et al 1996). 

However, it can be argued that this interpretation rests on a limited grasp of what actually happens in CFCs. 

In western discourse, repetition and memorization are closely associated with rote learning, defined in the 1992 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as 'the mere exercise of memory without proper understanding of, or reflection upon the matter in question'. While Chinese students undoubtedly make greater use of repetition in their learning, western observers often fail to appreciate that repetition cannot always be narrowly equated with rote learning (Marton, et al 1996). 

In an overview of eastern philosophy of learning, Lee (1996) makes it clear that the aim of memorization is to deepen understanding: memorization has never been viewed as an end in itself. Su Shi, the famous Chinese ancient poet, for instance, argues that rote learning  'debilitates a man's talents and blocks a man's eyes and ears' (Bol, 1989: 174). Eastern scholars' conception of memorization is very much more complex. Thus, Wang Yangming, the famous Ming dynasty Confucian philosopher, identifies three approaches to learning: memory, understanding what is in books and incorporating what is in books into your own experience (Chiang, 1924: 87). In a similar vein, Zhu Xi, the most famous Confucian philosopher after Mencius, considers that reciting, thinking and understanding reinforce each other in the process of learning (Chu 1990: 138). 

In recent times, western researchers have become more sensitive to this more sophisticated approach to memorization and repetition. Gardener(1989), for instance, explains the differences in eastern and western approaches to learning in terms of the ordering of priorities. Westerners believe that exploration should precede the development of skill. The Chinese believe that skill development comes first: repetition - though not rote learning - will provide the basic material for later creativity. 

Marton & Saljo (1976) identify two approaches to learning: deep and surface. The deep approach focuses on the meaning or message underlying the learning material; the surface approach focuses on the learning material itself. Later writers including Laurillard (1978), Ramsden (1981) and Van Rossum & Shenk (1984) make use of this same distinction, as does Biggs (1987a; 1987b) in a study of deep and surface approaches to learning in secondary and tertiary students in Australia. The results suggest that students from south-east Asia pay more attention to deep learning than Australian students at corresponding levels. 

This same attention to deep meaning can be seen in Chinese approaches to memorization. Marton et al(1996), for instance, report a study of 18 teacher educators from Mainland China attending a course for English language teachers in Hong Kong. The results indicate that Chinese and European notions of memorization, learning and understanding differ in important respects. Whereas westerners see memorization and understanding as mutually exclusive, Chinese tend to see them as related phenomena. Comments from the teacher educators illustrate this point:

If you understand something, really understand it, you will have a very strong impression and memorize it without effort (p.73). 

Each time I repeat, I would have some new idea of understanding, that is to say I can understand better (p.81). 

These writers reflect the views of eastern philosophers that memorization and understanding are best understood as intertwined and enhancing each other, rather than separate phenomena. 

There would also seem to be a developmental dimension to this subject.  Thus Watkins(1996) suggests that, in Hong Kong, school children proceed through a number of stages. In the first stage, children rely exclusively on rote learning; in the second stage, important things are memorized through rote learning; in the third stage, the aim is to understand before memorizing; and in the fourth and final stage children combine understanding and memorization. 

The question remains as to why CHCs should place so much emphasis on memorization. Biggs & Watkins (1996: 272) argues that the Chinese writing system requires repetitive strategies to a greater extent than alphabetic systems:

Thus, the Chinese learner is not so very different from the westem learner: what differs are the perceived demands of common tasks learners from each culture typically face in their home environment. 

In support of this position, he draws on the findings of Volet & Kee  (1993) that the differences between local Australian students' and newly arrived Asian students' approaches to learning had disappeared by the end of their first semester. At the beginning of their stay 'learning lecture material by heart' was rated as an important strategy, but at the end of the first year in Australia the perceived importance of this strategy had greatly diminished. Biggs & Watkins(1996) argues that these students have no rigid rote orientation or even a predeliction for a repetition strategy. Rather they have a well-developed cue consciousness: because their motivation to succeed is high, they are alert to any cues that help them achieve their ends. 

The parents' view

Although a small minority of the parents interviewed expressed the view that the western approach was superior, most were adamant that memorization and repetition are essential for children's learning. Some parents accepted at face value the necessity for rote learning in activities such as multiplication. As one mother pointed out, 'Some knowledge simply needs to be remembered; you don't need to know the reason.' Other parents thought in terms of helping children develop strategies which would be useful in later life:

I think there are some things that children simply have to remember. When they're young it's easy to remember. But if you don't get into the habit when you're young, you'll have all sorts of difficulties when you're older. If you expect children to do this, they will. 

Several other parents supported this position explaining that, while repetition is not an end in itself, its effect is to train children's memory.  One commented that 'If you practise reciting, your ability to remember improves' . 

A related theme which emerges from the interviews is the Confucian idea of hard work. One of the fathers expressed the view that memorization and repetition develop children's stamina and endurance and remind you that study is a serious business. He summed this up in terms of: 'When you are young you don't want to memorize, but you have to. ' 

Most parents made a clear link between memorization and understanding; some also contrast the different routes to understanding taken in western and eastern education:

[Maths] classes here emphasis basic understanding and how to apply that understanding. It doesn't place any emphasis on remembering methods and formulae so that you can pass exams. However, the standards in maths here don't seem to be very high. Sometimes if you do a lot of exercises, you have a better understanding of the basic concept. Many British students just aren't interested in maths. I think the reason is that their preparation in primary school is poor and by the time they enter secondary school they've lost interest. 

This view is highly reminiscent of Gardner(1989) who argues that the main difference between eastern and western approaches to learning is in the ordering of activities - westerners emphasise exploration and then the development of skills while the Chinese believe that learners should first develop skills, often through repetitive exercises, in order to develop the understanding necessary for creative thinking. Not all parents, however, expressed the same level of confidence. Many recognised the importance attached to creativity in western education and were concemed that the memorization and repetition associated with Chinese learning was less effective in encouraging original thought. 

There is, of course, a real temptation for both western and eastern observers to exaggerate the differences in pedagogy which exist. It would be misleading, for instance, to suggest that memorization forms no part of western education. This is a danger of which some parents were aware. As one of them commented:

British education emphasises memory, too, but it does it in different ways. Here students are required to read first, then write. The writing process helps to fix things in the memory. The act of reading also helps students to remember. 

The explanations and importance of memorization, then, varied to some extent from parent to parent. None the less, there was a consensus that memorization plays an important role in study. In the early stages, rote learning was believed to help develop children's understanding of activities such as multiplication and character formation(c.f.Watkins' [1996]  first stage where 'the intention is to achieve through reproduction: the strategy is to rote learn everything' ). Even at this point, however, understanding is an essential element in memorization. When children study the first textbook in primary school, teachers explain how characters are formed and the meaning of sentences. In multiplication, teachers explain why 2 times 2 equal 4. In this view, memorization follows and helps consolidate understanding. 

Although most of the parents consulted had experience of higher education in the west, they continued to value the eastern approach to learning which can be summarized in terms of understanding - repetition  - memorization. 

Children's views

All the children whom I interviewed thought memorization was helpful, even in the context of western education. They were clear about the need to understand the meaning first and avoid word by word memorization. They were also very conscious of the different reading strategies used in China and in Britain. In China, students try to memorize the textbook for examination purposes or for quotations in writing essays. In Britain, the amount of reading is much greater than in China. As Tan Yang pointed out,  'If you read more, you don't need to consciously memorize: some of it sticks. ' 

The Curriculum

Chinese families also commented on the very different curriculum offered to children in British schools. Chinese education tends to focus on the selective knowledge demands of the examination to the exclusion of other objectives(Lewin & Xu Hui, 1989). Traditionally, Chinese and history were taught not only to impart knowledge but also to help encourage a sense of national identity and maintain moral standards. More recently there has been a move towards including western elements in education, although the importance of the traditional curriculum is underlined in the saying,  'Chinese learning is for the essence;  western learning is for practical application' .  

Although primary school children in China are also required to study subiects such as art, PE and music, the main emphasis is on reading and writing in Chinese and numeracy. In comparison, the British national curriculum is much broader in emphasis. Many parents recognised the advantages of the broader curriculum which is found in British primary schools, summed up by one mother in terms of:

Here (in Britain) the teacher teaches children in many different ways. Children can learn a lot of things, especially handiwork and science. They go on outings. A lot of things the teacher will do to make children enjoy schooling. In China school just emphasises the main subjects such as Chinese and maths. If children are good in these subjects they are good students. If not, they are not good students. 

Another parent commented:

The curriculum in Britain is wide and children know many things.  They have science in year 1. In year 2 they are introduced to the concepts of multiplication and decimals. The teachers teach in an informal way such as telling stories so that the students will find it easier to understand rather than the formal approach to study in Chinese schools. 

The children whom I interviewed said that they liked the wide range of subjects in the UK, even though they were aware that the broader focus might result in a more superficial coverage of some subjects than would have been the case in China. At the same time, they are impressed by the fact that children in British schools are expected to be more independent than in China, e.g. they have to do research from books in the library on their own or in small groups. They were sometimes critical of the formal Chinese approach to teaching. One child commented: 'Here(in Britain) we do research and look up something in library about science, history and geography.' Another pointed out: 'It's good to get into the habit of looking up things in the library now. When you enter a university, you will do things by yourself instead of following teacher's every word. ' 

Life skills

Parents were generally impressed with the emphasis on life skills in British education. Traditionally the Chinese have held that high achievers should aspire only to hard work and public office, and that the development of life skills is unimportant. The Confucian saying: 'Of all skills, reading and writing are the best' (万般皆下品, 唯有读书高 wan ban jie xia ping, wei you du shu gao) neatly encapsulates this view. Even films and story books portray intellectuals with glasses, holding a book and knowing nothing about life. In recent years, the birth control policy which limits each family to only one child has ensured that Chinese children are 'little Emperors', the centre of attention for both parents and grand parents and sadly lacking in life skills. Zhang(1997: 7) describes the situation in Beijing in the following terms:

The present parents treat their children as very important because one family has only one child. Parents will help their children with their homework, hand work and other activities after class. Children take this for granted. 

The inclusion of a broad range of life skills in the curriculum in British education was identified as a welcome counterbalance to the dependence and egocentric behaviour widely associated with the present generation of Chinese children. The father of a five year old boy explained the situation thus:

At first he didn't know anything such as taking off his clothes and putting them on again, and especially fastening his shoelaces. When they had a swimming class he felt very embarassed because other children were very skilled in taking off and putting on their clothing.However, the second time he did better. Now it's no problem for him to do these things. You cannot expect children to do the same things in China. 

In a similar vein, one parent expressed pride that his nine year old son could make a cake by himself and another expressed approval that his sixteen year old daughter worked on weekends as a waitress to earn pocket money. This level of independence would be unimaginable in China. However, the same level of approval did not extend to mathematics education. 

The problem of maths

The importance of maths was stressed by all, as was concern about the standard of teaching offered in British schools. Without exception, parents reported that they regularly spent time coaching their children who were achieving very high standards. However, they were not complacent. Comments made by the father of an 11 year old girl were typical: 'I think she is three years behind in maths here compared with the same age group in China and I help her a lot. ' 

This observation was confirmed by the mother of a child who had returned to China after spending three years in Reading:

He was the top of his class in maths in Britain. When he went back to China, he was only getting scores of 70, though fortunately he soon caught up. 

For Chinese primary school students, only tests scores of 95 and above are considered good. One father summed up this situation by describing his daughter's achievements in terms of: 'Compared with Chinese children of the same age, she is good in terms of life skills, but poor in maths.'

There is a great deal of evidence which suggests that the concerns of these families are not without foundation. Stevenson & Stigler (1992), for example, in a comparison of mathematics performance in China, Taiwan, Japan, and the US, found that US students were significantly worse than CHC students in grade 1, and that the difference grew progressively larger through to grade 11. Other researchers, such as Geary et al. (1992), report that Chinese grade 1 students behave more like American grade 5 students in their understanding of the concepts of addition and number sets. Hoosain (1991) speculates that this may be due to the fact that the sounding of Chinese numbers takes much less 'space' in working memory than do western number names. Biggs (1996: 48) concludes that, whatever the reason,  'the superior performance of Chinese children in elementary mathematics, for example, can be traced to the fact that Chinese students are more sophisticated in the strategies they use. ' 

All children whom I interviewed considered they were the best in maths in their class. You You was very proud that he was already learning secondary school maths in his final year of primary school; Liang Suo was very happy to receive additional homework because he was ahead in maths. Parents often admitted that their children are good in maths 'because we teach them at home' . 

It would seem from the foregoing discussion that the main emphasis in maths teaching in CFCs is on depth of coverage. On the one hand, some of the parents consulted have began to question the usefulness of extensive in-depth knowledge of maths; on the other hand, they are not satisfied with western ways of teaching this subject. In contrast, western education is more concerned with breadth of coverage which, it can be argued produces less secure knowledge of the subject and may well account for the superior performance of Chinese students in examinations. However, the question remains as to what is the aim of study? Is it to allow children to use mathematics with confidence or to pass examinations? This is a question which also puzzled some of the parents interviewed. Other perspectives on the question of Chinese children's approach to mathematics are offered by British teachers in chapter four. 

On the horns of a dilemma

The attitudes of  Chinese families towards British education can be summed up under three main headings: issues for parents; issues for children; and the very real tensions experienced by transient migrants who intend returning to their home country. 

The Chinese parents whose views form the basis for this study appreciate many aspects of the British education system, including the wide ranging curriculum, which they believe opens children's eyes. There are also areas about which they feel ambivalent.  On the one hand, they feel there is too much pressure on children in China; on the other hand, they feel British schools do not exert sufficient pressure and fear that this will make children lazy. 

Chinese families living in Britain find themselves facing a dilemma. All parents want their children, like the emperors of old, to be 'dragons': famous, strong and talented. Acceptance at a university is an important step on the road to being a dragon. In order to compete successfully with Chinese peers, parents give extra homework to their children especially in maths because they feel that the teaching of this subject in Britain is superficial and unchallenging. They emphasize memorization and hard work. However, they are very conscious that their children will find themselves at a serious disadvantage when they return to China. Although they are able to speak very good English and are very self-confident, they are likely to be weaker than their peers in basic skills such as calculation, memorization and fluency in Chinese. 

Chinese parents also feel very vulnerable when they come face to face with the different values of British society. They consider themselves to be enlightened compared with their peers in China. However, their children, especially the older ones, sometimes perceive their parents as colder, stricter and more authoritarion than British parents. One 14 year old boy wrote in his composition on 'My father':  'l wish my father would not always lose his temper with me. ' Another girl of a 13 year old said in interview, 'They[her parents] seldom listen to my suggestions or my ideas'.

Children, of course, are also able to articulate their views on British education and often hold views which are rather different from those of their parents. All the children whom I interviewed said that they preferred to stay in Britain partly, no doubt, because they were very aware that they would find it difficult to perform on the same level as their peers if they returned to China. At the same time they expressed their appreciation of British education and the view that teachers in China are too harsh to students. However, their sense of competition would not seem to have been diminished by time spent in British schools. Xu Ge, for instance, wants to apply for Oxford or Cambridge; You You plans to do a Ph.D. 

The children interviewed as part of this study have a very clear understanding of the similarities and differences, the advantages and disadvantages of east and west and are able to make independent judgments about the value of both systems. All the same they inevitably experience some ambivalence. On the one hand, they understand that their parents love them and apply pressure only because they want the best for them; but on the other hand, they would prefer their parents to behave more like their teachers, offering encouragement in more positive terms. 

The final issue to emerge from the data is the very real tension experienced by families who ultimately intend returning to the host country where educational realities are often very different. Mainland Chinese families in Britain are distinct from other Chinese communities. They come from a highiy educated elite; they are also a transient group with very real concems about how their children will fit on their return into an education system with very different philosophical underpinnings and requiring very different skills. The importance of getting things right cannot be underestimated. University education is essential for ensuring high status and securing employment, but the level of competition is such that children educated outside the Chinese system will find themselves at an unrealistic disadvantage. 

For families whose children are very young on arrival and who stay no longer than three years, this does not pose a serious problem. For families whose children are older on arrival, or who have spent a longer period of time, two solutions have emerged. The first is to attempt to prolong the stay to ensure that children complete their education in Britain; the second is to hope that children's proficiency in English will help ensure a job in the expanding commercial sector. 

This problem is not, of course, unique to families from the People's Republic. Namie (1991) and Yamamoto & Richards (1998) reports comparable problems for children educated abroad returning to Japan. Currently, special consideration is given to returnees from primary to secondary levels. There has also been a rapid development of a range of schools - boarding, day and voluntary saturday schools - which follow the Japanese curriculum. The Chinese government clearly needs to give urgent attention to the special needs of both of Chinese children overseas and of returnees. 

Most Chinese families recognise the merits of British education and welcome the opportunity for their children to be exposed to a wider range of educational experiences. Tension does not necessarily arise as a result of dissatisfaction with British schools per se, but from a very real concern that children will be ill-prepared to adapt to education in China. 

British teachers, for their part, need to understand the very different needs of children from Mainland China. They are often unaware of the linguistic differences betwen children from Hong Kong and from the mainland and of the fact that their languages are mutually unintelligible. They are also unaware of the considerable extra demands which parents place on children outside school in order to ensure the best possible chances of success when they return (see chapter four). They will almost certainly not know that the dual language materials which they may offer children are written in traditional rather than simplified characters and are therefore likely to be inaccessible. 

Interviews with the Reading families suggest that, no doubt because they form part of an educated elite, parents are receptive to information from teachers about curriculum and teaching methods and feel confident about approaching teachers when there is a problem. Parent-teacher communication will be explored in greater detail in the next chapter.