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There are some journals here, like [school's] own journal, for example.  I am sure some or even many publications are of some acceptably high standard.  At my school? They have even spelled the word "Journal" wrong on the cover. This is no exaggeration. My other western colleague actually showed it to me.  He said that the amount of plagiarism that can be encountered in there is incredible.

At several schools I know an anti-foreign Chair rolled out of bed one morning and fired the foreigners.  At another all the foreigners were fired, and were not told for five months.  At yet another, a foreigner was canned at the semester's end for no reason and not paid salary owing under the contract.  One foreigner I know had his contract torn up and substituted by a secret one, without his knowledge or consent.  And so on.

One of the most amazing things about Taiwan is the intense pettiness of the major issues.  Although the academe in the US gets its own share of abuse for pursing the trivial, they are dilettantes compared to what goes on in Taiwan universities. Some of the most common problems are encapsulated in this resignation letter.

The previous semester I had applied to teach a course entitled "Reading Taiwan History in English" which I envisioned as a small readings course with lots of discussion and interaction. My how naive one can be after so many years here! I figured no one would sign up for a boring readings course....so the class would be small. The application was approved by the General Education Center, in charge of history classes.

The class instantly filled to its limit, and more students were permitted to join.  The result was more than 60 are in it; the break-even point for profitability is 15.  I'd like to attribute the popularity of the class to my dynamic teaching but in fact the students never have enough electives even though they are required to graduate, so any elective is eagerly snapped up (students often have to go for extra semesters because they can't get enough electives). The plain fact is that I could have offered a course in "Better Living Through Self-Mutilation" and students would have flocked to it. The University hates offering electives; it costs money.

In any case, halfway into the Fall 2002 semester the Gen Ed Center held a meeting about my class. I wasn't invited. A staffer from our department, whom we'll call Yvette, was there for reasons mysterious to me. The meeting about my class was reported at our department curriculum meeting using Yvette's notes. The General Education Center, which is responsible for teaching required Taiwan history courses, reported that:

1. I was not qualified to teach a history class.
2. It wasn't really a history class.
3. It wasn't making money.

Several other reasons against this class were put forth and duly reported at our department meeting (I was not present). The General Education Center said that under no circumstances would I be allowed to teach this course again, and it was killed.

Question for the bureaucratically-minded: how should I have handled this? What is really going on here?

Pause for thought.

Now that you've thought about it, let's do a little Taiwan analysis. First off, walking in and blowing them away on points was entirely wrong. In fact, I am qualified to teach a readings class, or a history class, and it is making money hand over fist. Moreover, why didn't they just reject it in the first place when we applied for permission to open the class? But that is entirely irrelevant. There wasn't any situation to "handle" here. You can never win an argument in Taiwan by being in the right (what a dumb idea!). You can only "win" by contriving the political defeat of your opponents, which I am not in a position to do (nor did I desire to).

The explanation is simple. The other Taiwan history teachers at the center felt threatened that someone else had chosen to "invade their territory" by teaching history, and so banded together to expel the alien presence in their midst. The reasons were symptoms of the level of insecurity there, not causes for action. Just imagine how, at a progressive university, this might have been handled. The other history profs might have decided to help me, or sit in on the class to see what is going on, or to make the course a permanent part of the curriculum to give the students the option to take it in English. All sorts of positive solutions are possible...but instead, they killed the class.

The actual handling was ably done by another, older, teacher in our department at the department meeting. Peeved as hell, she ordered the offending notes destroyed and lectured Yvette that it was unacceptable for her to gather information on one of our teachers, hand it over to another department, and to permit another department to criticize one of our department teachers in such a manner. 
 

In the Fall of 2002, on the night before the last day grades could be changed, she approached me. I had made a mistake, and could I change her grade? I said I'd check my records and would of course be happy to if there was a mistake.

The next day she shows up at the office and asks that her 61 be changed to an 88! My records indicated that I was correct, so I took no action.

The following Monday, her advisor pulls me in for a meeting. Could I change the grade? Obviously I just lost the midterm test paper, he said. He implied that I was incompetent and pressured me to change the grade. I told him I'd see what I could do, then sent him a note saying that the grade could not be changed, and that this was the last I expected to hear of the matter.

A few days later the Dean called. The Chair of the Department and her advisor had both written letters asking that the grade be raised. The Dean was loathe to do this, because by that point a grade change would have required many meetings (the Dean is very by-the-book). I was loathe as well, since any change would require me to commit to paper that I had made a really silly error, a point which might be held against me at any promotion meeting. My Department Chair also backed me 100%. Do students get to pick their grades? she complained. The Dean asked to see my paperwork. Did it support my case?

What did I give the Dean? ONLY the ONE line from my Excel file relating to this student. That's all.

The Dean backed me 100%, of course.

Lesson: NEVER give extraneous information. If I had handed over the whole file from my class, they would have used it for a fishing expedition into my grading system.  Nor did I write a letter explaining my actions or commenting on the matter. I just handed over one line from a table, period. No more, no less. NEVER commit anything to writing that you don't have to, and NEVER hand over information that is not necessary. The other side is looking for any information it can find to discredit your position. It is not interested in "finding out who is right" or "solving the problem." Never presume that the people you deal with will act in good faith. They almost certainly won't.

And here's another thought. Both the other department's Chair and the Advisor had taught this girl. If they wanted her grades raised, all they had to do was raise the grades they gave her. Why me? They thought they could bully the foreigner, is all. I was the target because I was a foreigner, period. Neither of those two other teachers wanted a black mark on their record.

and always:

DEAN: Does anyone have any suggestions?
YOU: No, Dean.

Never make suggestions or give opinions openly or in meetings. Make them privately and informally (why drag out a meeting?). You are a foreigner and YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! There is nothing you can say that they haven't thought of (your "outside" perspective does not give you insight they don't have. Instead, it renders you a complete idiot. So shut up and quit imagining that you actually know something.)

Make jokes. You can seriously reduce your threat level by having a robust sense of humor.

Get along to.... get along. 

Keep your trap shut about your plans, personal life, jobs you have outside the university (technically illegal) and anything else that anyone could grab and screw you with. If you go for promotion, don't announce it to the world. Stay quiet until you make your move. 

And don't forget, someday you may return, and it is a good idea to lay the groundwork...

At most schools a student who fails goes on to the next level, but must retake the failed class at some point in the future.  In other words, if a student fails Econ 101, she goes to Econ 201 anyway, but must take Econ 101 and pass before she can graduate.

Schools also vary widely on test policies.  Some schools are very rigid and have teachers give a fixed number of tests at fixed times.  At  both the schools where I have worked, on the other hand, I had complete control.  Better ask if this is an issue for you.

This is true of the English classes as well. The incredible apathy you see among your students is the result of this insane system.

As a result of a lifetime spent in study for the testing system and failing, your daytime 4-year students in the vocational university system will have had no experience of the world. They will never have had jobs, been overseas, had boyfriends/girlfriends, seen old movies, read books, owned a business, had a hobby, gone camping, and so on. They are a people utterly devoid of passions. On the weekends they spend their time playing basketball, watching TV, and sleeping.

You will no doubt come to have great compassion for their stunted lives, victimized by a brutal cookie cutter system that neither stimulates their interests nor addresses their talents.

These classes, typically called the A and B classes (for example, second year A class is invariably referred to as "2A") are the center of the students' lives for the next 4 years. 

For the next four years they take all their classes together, go to activities together, and essentially form a surrogate family, support system, and network that in many cases will hang together for the rest of their lives.