Guangdong Peizheng College / Pei Zheng College

[jasminade]

Molte volte il fatto tir vien meno!

[ThirdView]

"I need to add a short note about John Oxley (bigjonox). He says wonderful things about Peizheng because he is very lucky indeed. After all, his wife teaches there, but she isn't a native speaker of English. She is from Poland. So yeah, they have a nice life as a couple together in Peizheng. They never get lonely or bored. They save lots of money. And she isn't even an English speaker! Maybe she's upper-intermediate in English at best."

1. What does his wife being Polish have to do with anything?
2. She's fluent in English. Her Chinese is pretty good too.

[ThirdView]

"Additionally, one poster wrote somewhere of the quick response time to daily needs in the apartments offered to the teachers. This is not the case; this has never been the case; this never will be the case. The apartments are absolutely ill-tended although I will say that there is a cleaning for the stairs and floor corridors who does occasionally appear."

My repeated experience with the dorm supervisor is that she is ALWAYS on top of the situation, as far as the situation is within her control. None of the foreign teachers here have told me different. If she was a chronically bad manager, she would have developed a reputation by now, just as Karl, Arthur, and Max have developed an exceptionally bad reputation, just as Eric and Jessica developed an exceptionally good reputation.

[ThirdView]

Under the current foreign supervisor, Program B is fit only for gluttons for misery. Program A is safe for the moment. But as the Program A foreign supervisor continues to tolerate and cooperate with increasingly abusive and increasingly out of control Chinese managers, and continues to protect the Program B foreign supervisor, Program A might become a riskier place to work. Forget getting into FLD. There’s less than half a dozen foreign teachers there and no turnover.

[ThirdView]

The chief cook of the Magick Café was eating lunch in the teacher’s dining hall when the FAO director came over to his table and said, “It would not be in your best interest to go to the Magick Café.” What a classic veiled threat! This is beyond reactionary. This is beyond vindictiveness. This is outright thuggery. Rumor has it someone higher up in administration made the FAO director apologize.

[TheTruth]

There are many issues that need to be addressed here.

1. There has been far too much discussion of personalities in this rubric and not enough discussion of facts.

2. Whether John O. is a bully or not, and whether is wife is Polish or not are subjects that indeed are not germane to the issue at hand.

3. Peizheng College truly is a case of the "inmates running the asylum". It is an avoid for nominally sane foreign teachers at all costs. There are three complete avoids in Guangzhou -- one is Alcanta; one is Baiyun, and the third is Peizheng and frankly, I am not sure that they are not all owned by the same crew.

4. Peizheng, at least the setting, is idyllic. The campus is truly gorgeous but it is remote. Guangzhou is quite a trek and even the neighbouring exburb of Huadu is a good trek. If one is an Emerson-like persona who enjoys sitting on a rock and contemplating nature, then the place is ideal.

5. Peizheng, at least some of the teachers, are just real fringe types. Real, real fringe types. One teacher, still there, who was decidedly a British colonialist a la 19th century, decided that Peizheng needed a "proper" English croquet club, with wickets, and lawn and the like. Why not raise a monument to Queen Victoria in the process?

6. Karl is vicious beyond vicious. There is no way around that. On a good day, he is at least palatable. On a usual day, his mouth runs to highly acidic, hence the revolving door of foreign teachers.

7. Really, to MESL or whatever his or her moniker here is, we don't need all of these flashes and salacious details about the inner workings of the place. It has, very unfortunately, a malodourous reputation, deservedly so or not. It does not seems to be improving with time and age.

8. As for one poster's comments that "he is sick and tired of all of this Peizheng bashing", well, frankly, that's irrelevant. While this one poster was very, very adept at intimidating all and many at the college, this is still the Internet, and here we simply don't care and our opinions will be heard, thank you very much.

9. Most importantly, to all prospective teachers in Guangdong, unless you want to walk through the gates of hell, avoid the place. There is no stability and there is even less civility. Guangzhou is a great, great city. There's a lot better out there.

[ThirdView]

The former chief cook of the Magic Café was never actually the chief cook. He helped launch the restaurant, but never had an official position, official duties, or official schedule. Because of his extensive food service experience and because of his work in the kitchen, foreign teachers had the PERCEPTION that he was the chef. Just as certain Chinese administrators have the PERCEPTION that the manager is the owner because he launched it and because he spends so much time there. He didn’t start it as a business, he started as a cultural exchange project and a service to the expat community. Eventually, the café will make money, but the vision is for students to practice their English with foreigners and learn about western culture, and for the foreign teachers to have a culturally familiar place to hang out. They have addressed these misconceptions many times to many people, but the myths persist.

[ThirdView]

A foreign teacher who has been here for several years said of Karl Wang, the Foreign Affairs Office Director, “Karl wasn’t always like this. Over the past several years, I’ve watched him transform into a monster.” A former FAO staffer explained to this same foreign teacher why he quit: “I watched Karl become rich and I don’t like the way he did it.” As we discovered with the new foreign supervisor, give someone some power and you discover what they’re made of.

[TheTruth]

To the previous poster:

More judicious misinformation a la sovietskaya.

I know Karl Wang far longer than you do. Far longer. I knew the person that he replaced and I knew the person that replaced that person. Richard - Karl, etc, etc.

Richard was mercurial, burnt-out, cantankerous but with a heart of real gold and kindness to the foreign teachers. Karl Wang arrived as a Harbin refugee, fleeing the cold winters of Harbin, brought on board by various senior managers of the school who also were from Harbin -- some of whom have been fired, some of whom remain.

Karl was egregiously out-of-balance from the moment he arrived. He has been running his office like a KGB-style office with "it has been reported to me..." and "I have learned, etc, etc." He dealt in half-truths and misconceptions from the moment he arrived. He used to be protected by the old president who has been eased out and by one person that I will not name in the President's office. He has terrible relations with the Guangdong Foreign Experts' Bureau and with the PSB, as a result of which visas are held up routinely, not issued, delayed, snickered over, over. Why don't you just wander across the road and ask the old Canadian why he and his wive had to live in two different countries for nearly 18 months because Karl wouldn't issue the papers for a spousal visa? And more, and more.

Karl is the controller, so to speak, of the foreign teachers, and a highly malevolent one at best.

All of this can contribute to a highly unpleasant atmosphere (if one likes feeling one is in a KGB camp, then one would love Karl's presence).

Finally, he has several "unresolved" personal issues which I will not name directly but they are very evident to the nice coterie of bearded young foreign men in his entourage.

Again, enjoy China and just avoid the place. True -- the scenery is great but the other factors highly mitigate the bees and the birds.

[ThirdView]

-- KARL WANG IS USING HIS PROFESSIONAL POSITION TO ATTACK A PRIVATE BUSINESS FOR PERSONAL REASONS.

-- THE MAGICK CAFÉ IS NOT IN HIS JURISTICTION AS FOREIGN AFFAIRS OFFICE DIRECTOR.

-- THE MAGICK CAFÉ IS NOT IN ANY WAY GOVERNED BY OR AFFILIATED WITH THE SCHOOL.

-- VOLUNTEERING AT THE MAGICK CAFÉ IS NOT A VIOLATION OF A TEACHER’S CONTRACT.

-- THE MAGICK CAFÉ DOES NOT ADVERSELY AFFECT THE SCHOOL.

-- IF ANY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR HAD A LEGITIMATE BASIS FOR TARGETING THE MAGICK CAFÉ, WHY WAIT 3 YEARS TO TAKE ACTION?

[TheTruth]

To the previous poster:

1. What does the Magick Cafe have to do with Peizheng College?

2. The guy that runs the Magick Cafe was a Program B director at the college for less than one term. His name is M**k. That should tell you that I know what I am talking about. He has a son that visits him occasionally from the States.

3. The Magick Cafe was founded as a lucrative, money-making, rip-off-the-foreigners institution. It was not founded as the Peizheng branch of the Chinese Red Cross to engage in charitable, benevolent works of kindness with the foreign teachers at the college (most of whom require psychiatric intervention and not the Chinese Red Cross).

4. So Mark got burned in his business! Big deal and how does that relate to this thread at all?

5. Is the Magick Cafe a cover for drugs, or prostitution or some illicit activity? If not, I fail to understand all of this hooplah.

[puzzlebox]

To the previous poster: Truth? addressing your 5 points.

1. Right! What does the Magick Cafe have to do with Peizheng College? Close proximity is about all. And maybe, because a Foreign Teacher spends most of his free time there to make the only place for cultural exchange to happen at that school.

2. Wrong! I believe "That guy" was program director for 1 year until he resigned. And one of his sons came to live there for a year; adding some color to the place and enjoying some time with his dad "that guy". It is clear that you don't actually know what you are talking about.

3. Wrong!! Again! I know the Chinese owners and yeah, for them its business. And yeah, they are still waiting to see return on their investment. For "that guy" it was always about cultural exchange, a place where he could drink coffee, and for something to do. It gets quite boring in the countryside there.

4. Again Wrong!!! "That guy" did not get burned in business. He got canned by the FAO director who used the "cafe" as a reason to get rid of him. If anyone gets burned in business, it will be the two Chinese owners who believed in "that guy" to help them develop a small western cafe in China. End of that story!

5. No big mystery about the cafe. It's only a place where FTs and students go to hang out. I think I heard "that guy" once say "The cafe is kind of a safe haven within PZ". Ha. Maybe not a safe haven for him anymore. But I give him credit for making something different happen there in the middle kingdom of PZ. To even suggest that the cafe is anything other than a cafe, is beyond reason.

6. A 'puzzlebox' point. Maybe "Assume" or "Almost Truth" will also post something sometime.

[puzzlebox]

Addition to my previous post and addressing this Thread:

Though there appears to be several minor mistakes posted here concerning the college and what goes on behind the veil of its scenery, there are also many 'truths' in most of what has been mentioned, as well. There is certainly much 'truth' posted concerning the FAO director and the mess of an office that he runs. Any FT who works there, or has worked there, will surely have their complaints; most of which will concern the FAO office. Yes! The FAO is dreadful and poorly run, at best. Yes! Many of the students can be highly unmotivated, to say the least. Yes! The FT faculty is truly a motley crew (the good, the bad, and the ugly). Yes! The administration has its faults and corruption. And Yes! The water is filthy and the living conditions are well below western standards. That being said; Yes! Newcomers should be made aware of what they are getting into here. Yes! Beware!

Hopefully, time will heal this wounded college and eventually there will be an FAO director who actually cares about the well being of their FTs and welcomes them with open arms instead of shaking hands while holding a knife behind their back. There would probably be more respect shown to the FTs if the FAO actually knew how to hire FTs. Now there's an novel idea!

And, hopefully the "safe haven" in the guise of a lonely cafe at the end of a street, will continue to survive and be the one unique place to hang out and relax after a long day of whatever happens!

[ThirdView]

If the president of an American university called all his professors into his office and announced, “Because you’re Chinese, we will not pay for 2 months out of the year,” Chinese society would go into overdrive. Headlines would scream. Talk show hosts would ask foreign guests about the issue. Meanwhile, students would bring up the subject at English Corner and in the classroom. Editorials. Blogs. Message boards. Protests outside the American embassy. Students boycotting the school.

But let a private college in China put a clause in their contract saying, “Because you are a foreigner, we will not pay you 2 months out of the year,” nobody blinks. All of the above if the same American university president told his Chinese professors, “Because you are Chinese, we are going to withhold your February pay until the end of the spring semester.”

Every other employee of this school, from the president down to the maids, gets paid every month of the year and on time.

[TheTruth]

To the previous poster aka MESL, Third View, etc.,

As the French say, "N'en deplaise au Bon Dieu", another year of turmoil and confusion has ended a the Peizheng College Psychiatric Institution. MESL / Third View has been kind enough to share with us another round of the histrionics that have occurred in this rather addled institution.

Karl Wong has won an Oscar award for his performance in the movie "Peizheng Psycho Strikes Again". Various other members have been also nominated for Academy Awards but as they have been terminated / fired / dispatched / removed from the Institution, they cannot be awarded anything but a compensatory prize for suffering for good measure.

The Magick Kafe has been shuttered or is in the process of being shuttered and rumour and reason abound as to why.

In any case, if you are considering this institution, run for your life before even thinking twice about it. Take the first train out of Dodge as the Lone Ranger used to say.

It is truly lunatic heaven (or hell) and the foreign teachers are almost as bipolar, for the most part, as the administration (or even worse).

[ThirdView]

A longer report about the wickedness and antics at Pei Zheng College. Look for additions soon.

http://www.webspawner.com/users/peizhengscandal/

[TheTruth]

Dear Third View,

Dear All Readers and Posters,

I have read all of Third View's posts. While I know this person, this person and I were never close at the College.

That being said, I ENCOURAGE AND URGE every prospective candidate for a job at Peizheng College to read very, very, very carefully what ThirdView has written. I can 1,000% attest to the fact that it is all true and that Peizheng College is sordid beyond sordid, malevolent beyond malevolent and destructive beyond destructive.

Please read carefully the LONG posting concerning Mr. Max L****, a program director at the college there. No human being, not in this century or in any century past, should have to endure the evil caprices of this person. And what ThirdView writes is all true. We all saw it happen in front of our eyes so many times.

Peizheng College is a bottom-feed-pay-as-you-go institution. You pay the tuition, you go far. Simple as that. The Wild West on the loose.

It is not a place for normal foreign teachers. It is not a place for reasonably sane foreign teachers. If you are a druggie, really big-time, if you have a history of mental illness, if you live with Johnny Walker Red Label or Snow Beer as your best friends, then this is the place for you.

And let me be clear again -- if you are a nice, young, bearded handsome white male, say about 25 - 30 years old, in good physical shape, Karl Wang will give you an outstanding welcome, in all ways, shapes and forms.

If you are not any of the above, then please, don't even consider it. Not now, not ever.

There are three avoids in Guangzhou -- Baiyun University, Peizheng College and any/all of the EF franchises around the city. Baiyun and Peizheng tie for first place in terms of being most evil. EF is simply diabolical.

As for ThirdView, I wish you all the best. And BTW, do you know the real reason that the program director in Program B before Max the Shmacks was canned? Nothing to do with age, that is for sure.

[ThirdView]

For those who don't want to read the whole report, I'll post some of the more entertaining - and revealing - passages.

"Teacher R asked someone at the Foreign Experts Bureau and a civil litigation judge about a clause in the Pei Zheng contract. When he didn’t hear from one of these people for a while, he asked someone at the Canadian consulate to give them a nudge. Actually, he spoke to someone at two FEB offices. One of the FEB people consulted with someone at the Labor Board. The Labor Board person told the FEB person the clause was invalid. The FEB person relayed the message to teacher R. Teacher R relayed the message to the other FEB person. After a call from the Canadian consulate, the other FEB person called Karl Wang.

Karl promptly abandoned the clause. The clause allowed the school to withhold the February salary of foreign teachers until the end of the contract. Karl not only paid teacher R’s February salary immediately, he paid every foreign teacher’s February salary immediately.

Teacher R was standing outside the dorm explaining to a couple of other teachers his role in the situation. Max interrupted the conversation and started firing off false accusations at teacher R. “You acted on behalf of all the foreign teachers.” “I don’t appreciate you representing me.” “I don’t appreciate you tampering with the situation.” “You’re giving other foreign teachers a bad name.” “Supervisor B [ Max’s predecessor ] wonders if you’re the reason his visa wasn’t renewed.” “You threatened Karl with legal action.” “You tried to sneak around hoping nobody would discover who you are.”

All teacher R did was consult with the appropriate people about his legal status. There’s nothing illegal, unethical, immoral, seditious, misrepresentative, irresponsible, etc, about asking a government official, “Is this clause enforceable?” He wasn’t trying to unit the foreign teachers, get the February pay clause removed from the contract, or any such thing. He just wanted his February paycheck on time, it’s that simple. Max is disturbed, it’s that simple.

(Every school uses a standard contract provided by the national government. Some schools add an auxiliary contract. The auxiliary contract is just as valid as the main contract, expect that no part of the auxiliary contract can invalidate any part of the main contract. The main contract says teacher R gets paid every month and on time. Therefore, the February pay clause of the auxiliary contract conflicts with the monthly pay clause of the main contract.)

Then Max held up a piece of paper, switched topics, and got even more upset. Instead of making appointments by email or mobile phone, he left notes on dorm doors telling people when he wanted them in his office. This practice made his the object of much derision. Teachers would roll their eyes and say to each other, “Another note from Max.” Max was also known for using blank business cards. Someone expressed their contempt for him by pulling a prank. They put a blank business card on every dorm door. They also taped a cockroach to his dorm door. He discovered this a few minutes before interrupting the conversation.

Max became shrill and started saying, “I’ll find you,” “I’ll get you.” Then he started pacing and ranting. “I fight dirty.” Most of it’s on the video. One thing that’s not on the video: “I know you didn’t do it because you’re too lazy to climb to the 5th floor.” "

[ThirdView]

"Teacher J was a new arrival. He was scheduled to replace teacher L. But teacher L wasn’t leaving for another week. During teacher J’s first trip to Max’s office, he says to Max, “I don’t want to be idle for a week. If you can round up a ladder, I can paint your office.”

The next time teacher J goes to Max’s office, Max is in the hall dancing a goofy jig and pointing at his office, with an expression on his face that says, “I have something to show you.” They step into the office and Max gestures “Ta-ha!” at a ladder. But he changes his mind and sends an email to teacher J saying, “I-DON’T-WANT-YOU-TO-PAINT-MY-OFFICE.”

(Let me pause here and say that stories involving other teachers are related as they were told to me. I was diligent to ask followup questions in an effort to get the stories completely straight, but I can’t guarantee any of these stories are 100% accurate. If I recall the teacher J story correctly, he used to be a professional painter. And if I recall correctly, he was baffled by Max’s sudden reversal and pressed Max for an explanation, leading to the shrill email. I talked to these teachers on their timeframe and took notes on my timeframe and we all had our hands full with management problems. So there might be a few details off and a few details missing. But the accuracy rate is 95% or above. If anyone in management offers their version, I’ll be glad to include it without censorship.)

Max is observing one of teacher W’s lessons. During the break, teacher W goes downstairs to hang out with some other foreign teachers. Max follows teacher W downstairs and hovers as the teachers are talking. Max is the only person present who doesn’t find this situation creepy.

Max’s early response to complaints about his behavior was to email this message to the Program B teachers: “Please remember that... the old guy from American wearing suspenders, baggy pants and a stringy ponytail ALWAYS welcomes dreams and schemes, suggestions and contentions, comments and complaints, requests and rejoinders.. especially those which helpt benefit _all_ ProgBers. Of course, I will 'read' your ecorrespondence; however, I'd prefer for you to visit the ProgB office in order to 'tell' me your ideas.
Thank ye. BTW, below the signature-block is the too-short-of-a-list of suggestions/comments which were received during WEEK 3. Those "italicized" were spoken; those marked with < > were written.”

-- "I think that we should be assigned only one classroom; that way, we could arrange and decorate the room to suit an entire semester of classes."

-- "Don't be so confrontational."

-- <Level-1 students should not be registered in a Level-3 course. Tell TAO (Teaching Affairs Office) to group students into courses according to their language-skill level.>

-- "That slob of a co-worker - please, fire him... now!"

-- "A class with an equal proportion of male and female students is usually a better combination than a class with only male or only female students. Ask TAO (Teaching Affairs Office) to assign male and females students to our courses."

-- "Resign."

-- <Stop embarrassing yourself. Resign.>

-- "Relax. Not _every_body hates you."

-- "I think that we should not be assigned one classroom. I don't mind moving between classes - as long as it's not from building-to-building."

-- Eat dead cockroaches and die.*

* Neither written nor spoken - but I got the 'message'.

Another response was to invite some of the teachers to his office for a feedback interview. After one of these interviews, he left a note on the teacher’s dorm door: “Thanks for your feedback. We have lost some battles, but the war against idiocy and absurdity will be won.”

Having lost several teachers early on because of his own behavior, he proceeded to assign overtime til the FAO could find replacements. No, he didn’t put out a call to anyone eager for overtime. He just notified them. Some of them refused to accept overtime, reminding him they were teaching the maximum allowed in the contract. He responded to one of them: “Find me a teacher to replace the one who will lose their day off because you refused to take this class.”

Max finally held a staff meeting at the end of the semester to explain final exam and score procedures. The room where he conducted the meeting was already booked. A Chinese teacher had been using that room all semester. She and her students showed up and found their classroom occupied by 3 dozen foreigners. Guess Max forgot to put a note on her dorm door."

[TheTruth]

Thank you MESL / ThirdView for all of your posts.

They should serve as a warning to anyone / everyone / all considering a position in this institution.

This current posting, however, is going to be more of a footnote than a major revelation. It is, however, a footnote that needs to be made.

There have been at least 2 - 3 posts, none of them recent, by one "John Oxley" of the College aka "John Knox" aka "husband of the Polish lady".

John Oxley is Karl Wang's "enforcer", "hit man", "bully-on-command", etc., etc. He is at least 2 meters tall,weighs easily 200 Chinese jin, and comes from purportedly a police background. He will savage any teacher at the college when ordered to do so. He will belittle them in their classroom, in public, in private. He will do what he has to do to please Karl Wang and to cause order a la Karl Wang to reign again in Peizheng Heaven. Yes, indeed, he has been at the college a long, long time and one need not look far to understand why. So anyone reading his postings here should be aware of his real role, albeit an unofficial one, in the college.

And it is for these reasons that his wife who is far from a native speaker, and whose English sounds like Zsa Zsa Gabor, has been graced to remain in the college.