This fuckface. This fucking piece of shit is the new frog-eyed creepy rapist avatar for every foreign English teacher in China. I fucking hate him. As a reformed Catholic, I reserve vast reservoirs of contempt and genuine vitriol for authority figures who abuse their power at the expense of children. With all of my private and professional life force, I hate the bastard, hopes he gets a life sentence and dies in a Chinese prison.
For some intents and purposes, this fucko is me, now. He speaks English, I speak English. He is white, I am white. He is an experienced foreign teacher in China, and so am I. Never mind that we grew up 5,000 miles apart and one of us — the one that is not me — is an animal wanted in Britain for child rape. To many Chinese people we look the same and therefore we are the same. Once this blows up in the Chinese media, foreign teachers in China can expect to spend a lot more time in the near future explaining that they didn’t move there to molest kids. And in the classroom, they’ll have ample opportunity to second-guess themselves — am I coming across as too nice? was that high-five inappropriate?
Sleazeballs and scumbags have always been openly hiding in China’s classrooms, of course. Robinson’s case is only making the rounds because he allegedly committed his worst crime outside of this country. But if we are to salvage any glimmer of silver lining from this, hopefully China tightens its visa policy and schools begin doing real background checks (are you listening, Beijing World Youth Academy?). The current system is paperwork-heavy and low on actual verification. Rubberstampocracy at its worst. It took me five months to finally obtain a legit Z visa at my first school in Henan. Most of that was spent mailing documents back and forth between China, Denver and the visa service I was using — school contracts, government contracts, letters of invitation from the local PSB, Z-visa forms.
If I’d gone the gray-market route a lot of teachers use, I could’ve gone over almost immediately on a tourist visa, without a college degree or native fluency. After a month I’d be sent to Hong Kong with a forged BA (side note: without my knowledge or permission, my school photoshopped my college degree to obtain a residence permit for at least two totally underqualified, shitty teachers), and China would have a new “foreign expert.” At one point at my school, which is actually a pretty good training center by most Chinese standards, only two of the eight teachers actually met the requirements of being native speakers with four-year college degrees.
This is not to bash my former school or any of my colleagues; in my experience, non-native speakers are often some of the best TEFL teachers. They have an innate understanding of how they learned the language and have an easier time passing it on than a lot of the shitty native speakers who come over. But having regularly-enforced standards for foreign teachers ensures that fewer pariahs like Neil Robinson find jobs educating children.
One simple addition to the visa process from other countries, if it had been implemented in China, would have stranded Robinson back in the UK, or at least prevented him from teaching in China for five years. South Korea and Vietnam, for example, require all foreign teachers to obtain notarized government background checks in their home country in order to obtain a work visa. They also require a physical, apostilled/notarized bachelor’s degree. Someone could still force his way into the country as a sex tourist or something, but it’d be much toucher for him to find legal, long-term work there.
I don’t know if the problem lies within the foreign teacher community specifically, but I implore teachers (everyone, actually) in China to keep a look out for suspicious activity. I’m not going to write up a snarky profile of a stereotypical child molester, as it’s probably unfair and counterproductive. However, if you come across, for example, a colleague inappropriately filming 10-year-olds, or jokingly telling students he’s writing a porn novel (as Robinson reportedly did), the correct response is to alert school management, if not local authorities. It’s for the potential welfare of children, who deserve so much better.
Greg is an ESL instructor who spent two productive years teaching in China. He writes BJC’s weekly Chinagog column.
UPDATE, 4/27, 12:26 pm: Robinson is now in custody in Beijing and awaiting transfer to UK authorities.
Ed’s note, 4/28, 11:13 am: Headline amended.
“To many Chinese people we look the same and therefore we are the same. ” And this is my problem because…? Really… you want to worry about the 土包子? Yeah uh… no. If Chinese people are talking about this (and I doubt it will happen… I doubt it will even blow up), and they question you on this, you tell them its not your business. If they equate English teachers with this guy, its their fault. At some point, people need to be called out on their stupidity. If you feel you need to second guess yourself because maybe you can be mistaken for a pediophile, then you have issues.
If it took you 5 months to get a Z visa, it means your school – you know, that organization that hires you – fucked it up. Which means that your school is not all-in-all legit… like all the other schools in China. You already know this. But you calling for and end to “shitty native speakers.” Like… you know… most of the foreign teachers in China. Who, despite not having qualifications, mostly do the job which their fake-schools ask of them to do, and do it well.
I’m a real shitty teacher. Its something I do because my main business is not making enough money now. I put my heart into it of course. I can do this job even though I don’t have credentials. And even though I don’t think I’m good at it, I do know I’m a better teacher than many credentialed teachers (for reasons I will not get into).
Yet the school I work at is basically a scam… like all the other schools. Although you are in the same professional (or part-time profession) as me,don’t seem to see clearly the nature of what you are here. You are a grunt. A worker. You are maybe respected by your students, but as far as the school is concerned you are a commodity asset. Your qualifications only help you gain extra income at the top-tier institutions (higher-end public schools) that can afford to pay this, while most schools (private and public) cannot or will-not. And that is because most schools are about maximizing profit. This is why tightening restrictions will not work. The demand for English is too high. So please don’t get high-and-mighty about all the shitty teachers around you; you are in the same boat. Moreover, you seem to take-to-heart the stupid preconceptions of the people you teach.
“Yet the school I work at is basically a scam… like all the other schools. ”
Hell yeah!
I’m as appalled as you are, Greg, and I’m also worried about getting cornered in a dark alley because of guilt-by-association. But be really careful writing pieces like this. This is dangerously close to defamation territory. I am not a lawyer, but I believe the proper approach is *If this guy is guilty*, then he’s a fucker and a bastard and all that shit.
As for Jesse, I don’t care what a Tubaozi thinks of me, but incidents like this tend to lead to random foreigners getting beaten up, searched by the police, erroneously arrested and the like. Also, expect a serious crackdown on all the English schools soon, and you can thank Neil for that (*if he’s guilty*)
Explains something. In our corner of Beijing, in the last week, the police, very quietly asked us to start carrying photocopies of our passport, so I’d wager there’s a relationship. Have yet to be hassled, thankfully cos the police around here are useless fuckwits and couldn’t be arsed.
It’s ridiculous that he even got in here, if he was fucking wanted. Rubber stamp morons, who do SFA
When have you heard of any ‘foreigner’ getting beaten up because people are angry about something on the news? The only people I can think of are Japanese that might have this problem right now; Japanese businessmen in Shanghai get beaten up on the Bund by drunken Chinese after escalations rise… Unless you live in Xinjiang or Xi’an you shouldn’t have a problem. This is just another case, sick as it is, of Chinese lack of laws/checks and balances.
That libel. Or defamation. Can’t be bothered to look it up.
Also, he’s not going to get a life sentence in China is he?! Derp.
Besides. He doesn’t LOOK like a paedo.
I declare Robinson not guilty!
2 more things. Most likely that Robinson guy was here all legit. He worked for an international school so he had to go through all the right checks (unless the school faked it). So the question of background checks are not so relevant.
Another thing. I used to be almost-friends with a child-molester here in China. A man who raped his own daughter, filmed it, and put it on the internet. When I look back, I remember a great guy. Someone who was cool, collected, funny, and brave. Big guy… a body builder. Really into exercise. A good project manager. I didn’t know he was on the FBI most-wanted list until he got nabbed while going to HK. (which, BTW, is an important lesson about this… original reddit poster should have gone to the police or British embassy first). Looking back, I should have susspected because he was always too cool. He was always too in-control. His workspace, his apartment… it would put a Japanese 5S fanatic to shame. He was always what others would hope for… a cool, nice and friendly guy. To the point, you can’t tell who is a monster like this just by looking at them. Child Molesters hide that deed down.v
“Another thing. I used to be almost-friends with a child-molester here” That guy from Chengdu? I read about him on reddit china.
Hi, no he was based in Suzhou.
Was it this guy? Kenneth Freeman: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2003771260_webabuse02m.html
I’ve just noticed OP is an ESL teacher so it’s obligatory that I correct his English. “Rapist fucker” is a bit redundant isn’t it? I mean, show me a rapist and I will show you a fucker.
Besides, if you’re a paedophile (unlike Neil Robinson who is totally innocent) you’re not making love to kids. You’re fucking them.
That headline was my fault, I’m afraid.
Was it completely necessary to put that on a blog?
Sometimes what you think should stay in your head rather than be placed forever online. Your language just made you seem nearly as offensive as him. You certainly don’t come across as very pleasant or even articulate in described a man wanted by the people for disgraceful offenses, yet whom you no nothing about and likely never will,
Let the authorities do their job – your opinion is just stupid, obscenity filled rambling.
Yes, because saying ‘fuck’ is nearly as offensive as child rape, isn’t it?
“South Korea and Vietnam, for example, require all foreign teachers to obtain notarized government background checks in their home country in order to obtain a work visa. They also require a physical, apostilled/notarized bachelor’s degree.”
Um, any legit school requires this. If a school is not requiring a police background check, then they are possibly not the best school to seek employment from…. Same goes for the physical presentation of a degree.
Outrageous article. Has this man ever been convicted of any crime anywhere?
Perhaps you don’t believe in “innocent until proved guilty” , but you come across as a nasty, vitriolic prick, anyway.
This should be deleted.
I actually did admin work for a couple of weeks at a crown court back home. You would not believe how much money it costs to run those things!
We could save a bundle by outsourcing the whole judicial system to internet commentators. This guy is accused of kiddie fiddling and he’s in China working as an English teacher… do we really need to know any more?
Jealous, much?
Crimewatch has deleted his page and this one just comes across as an attack against very many innocent teachers that are just trying to make a buck in these hard times, shame on you.!
btw, if you are such a hot shot qualified tutor, how come you can wait for months and months for a job in China but don’t have schools kicking your door down back home?
Good point. .. So is a ‘hot shot tutor’ like a hot shot dishwasher?
Since when do the recruitment tactics of English Training Centers ever resemble LBJ Free Agency 2010?
Look, the guy’s obviously a total freak, we don’t need to look into it too much. String him up by the balls on Chang’an road, or worse yet, take away his passport, and have him stuck here in China for 40 more years. Cruel and Unusual punishment.
I think you”ll find that’s ‘alleged’ English-Teaching Rapist Fucker. Whatever this guy has supposedly done, it’s indefensible and shameful. He get won’t jail time in China like this article bizarrely states but I hope if found guilty in a court he is given the full weight of the law.
But before we grab the pitchforks there are a few things we need to consider. As far as I know, this guy has no previous convictions, how would he have been caught in a background check if his name was spotless?
Let’s face it, English teaching in China has had a poor reputation amongst locals and other expats well before this guy came along. For all the professionally minded teachers there are just as many teachers here on an extended vacation. The system here is antiquated and easily manipulated both for visas and work qualifications. It doesn’t look like it will be fixed soon.
Even as an opinion piece,this article is extremely poor. As I read “to many Chinese people we look the same and therefore we are the same.” I found it hard to continue; some breathtaking stereotyping my friend. I suggest you pause for reflection before writing such a knee-jerk piece again.
I think what he was worried about was getting tossed in the same bin as this guy because of his job and skin color. Wouldn’t be the first time this has happened in China, a nation with many people with very little experience of the outside world… Also there’s a bunch of racist nationalists (fascists???) who jump at the first chance to flash mob outsiders. Even the government and police get in on it from time to time, as with all the “visa checks” at bars after that British guy was filmed (framed) supposedly raping some two bit whore on a Beijing street. This could balloon into some right wing holier than thou nationalist campaign against the evil laowai… It’s happened how many times before? Wasn’t that what led to the founding of the PRC, hatred of outsiders???
Got an email from the school I used to teach for:
“Follow the , all teachers who teach in XXXXXXXXXX shall carry with you your passports or copy of the first page of passport & valid visa page for possible examination by police.
Aliens who fail to carry their passports with them may be served a warning or fined up to 500 yuan (RMB), and those whose offenses are serious may at the same time be ordered to leave the country within a specified time”
And so it begins…
I’m not going to carry my passport, but I will carry my knife. No balls Chinese nose picking idiot cops, you have been warned. lol!!!!
Thanks for your pointless observations. I will go elsewhere to find some actual information on this story after wasting 2 minutes reading your irrelevant twattle. You are not in China, you will not be affected by this, you are not informative, helpful or interesting.
God, this is fucking great.
An invitation to join a good old fashioned US KKK lynch mob.
Greg, can I provide the petrol and tyres? Please. Please.
Trying to think of a cinematic analogy here, but could only come up with Birth of a Nation or maybe some John Wayne.
How about ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’ ?
God, this is fucking great.
An opportunity to join a good old fashioned US KKK lynch mob.
I’ll bring the petrol and tyres. The rest of you can bring the booze.
Trying to find a cinematic analogy here, but could only come up with Birth of a
Nation or maybe some John Wayne.
Every single visa longer than 3 months should require an FBI background check or the equivalent for whatever country you’re coming from. Ban all the losers.
Wait…all this is NOT about Neil Heywood? Oops, my bad…
This post is a blemish on an otherwise pretty decent blog.
The emotional, uninformative, immature rantings of the author belong on his personal blog. The headline is just as bizarre.
Those of us expats who have been in China long enough know not to get all pedantic when a foreigner misbehaves. Believe it or not, Chinese don’t assume everyone is a bad apple because of the actions of one douche or criminal.
Thank you for demonstrating how insecure some English teachers are about their profession.
Who reckons Greg Donohue’s was interfered with as a kid and secretly loved it?
How else to explain his hysterical, self-loathing, klansman style of argumentation. . .
The problem with Beijing Cream is that it has allowed comments to be made about plenty of other expats in China where they’ve been labelled as “peodophiles” and even worse, mainly because they’ve been successful, and you’ve seen fit to poke what you term “fun” at them. Some of those guys have (or had) family and children in China. You think that’s funny. Actually I’d like to hear what your expat victims think about your rants and hatred and the effect it had on them. But you don’t take respoecnibility for that do you? It’s all “fun” to you. Everyone is game, right?
Now you have a “real” peodophile on your hands. But bizzarely, it looks like you had a blog article masturbatory orgasm as a result. Now I think THAT is kinda sick.
Robinson is wanted for questioning in the UK. He hasn’t been convicted of any crime. There may be any number of reasons why he ran away; it doesn’t automatically mean he is a child molester. It doesn’t look good, I admit, but there’s no need for this kind of language. Besides, we’ve heard Beijing Cream call out many other people – some pillars of expat society you just don’t like – as criminals, or liars, or full of bullshit, and even “peodophiles”. When. They. Are. Just. Normal. People.
But its so much fun, isn’t it, when you do that? Oh how you titter in your cheap Tsingtao happy hour beers at the outrage you’ve caused.
So what is it Beijing Cream and the non-entities behind this site? You call out expats and allow comments calling some of them “peodophiles” online under articles written about people you don’t like, but when a REAL one turns up you have an orgasm, and spunk it all over your blog pages.
WHO are the sickos?
To me, it seems Beijing Cream, Anthony Tao and Greg Donohue are rather too fond of calling people paedophiles for their own good. One is starting to think you love it, lets say, just a little too much for the sake of normality.
“Pedophile” is not our pejorative of choice, Jim: http://beijingcream.com/?s=pedophile
I hope, and even sometimes pray (whatever an atheist might pray at), that someday all universities and schools in all of China will demand for foreign teachers certified copies of transcripts, certified background checks, and legitimate references.
It ain’t gonna happen in my lifetime, but it is what I wish. If wishes were fishes, and so forth.
Also, along the wishing thang, wish shit-bag foreign teachers would spend less time frequenting bars, and more time getting into their teaching.
I’ve been in China for near on 13 years now, (I am Canadian) have a couple of cars, a nice house, and a great family (my wife is Chinese). MOE in BeiJing invites me to come and speak a few times each year. I have plenty of income, not too much work.
Living is good (outside of BeiJing), life is good. So sick of whining in general, and shite-bags specifically.
In summary, go blow yourself. Your holystone rubbing of this British jerk makes you look as if you have a few dangly-jangly bones in your own closet. It took ‘you’ so long to get a ‘Z’ visa to “teach” here? Try a State-run school. Get a real job, grow up, learn to cast aspersions well and with accuracy.
PS – I make most of my income these days from consulting for Chinese companies dealing with USian exports, but I am still invited to lecture at various Chinese universities from time-to-time. And, just guessing, you teach at a semi-legitimate kindergarten or some such?
Your high-horse is dead. Kicking it should sicken you as much as it sickens me.
Fuck me dead. Another Master of the Cross Cultural Universe.
I taught at IBWYA for the Spring semester of 2012.
I taught along side Neil.
I was hired by Leile Li, she claimed to be the head of HR, but later I was informed she is actually the school owners daughter.
She hired me and I never received my Work “Z” Visa, as promised in the contract.
During this time, Beijing officials were checking Foreigners Visas, (100 day sweep) due to an earlier alleged rape of a local citizen by a foreigner.
Leile Li would tell me, “If asked, you are here on a cultural exchange”.
I have been teaching in Mainland and Hong Kong, China for 7 years. At both, International school and Universities. Every other school I worked with gave me a Work “Z” Visa.
At the time I taught there, I knew other foreign teachers who also did not have a Work “Z” Visa from the school.
I’m surprised to hear about Neil and I’m sick to my stomach to hear about the alleged abuses to the children!
I hope someone will go check out Leile Li and ask her why she hires teachers without providing Work “Z” Visas!!
Meanwhile, as a father of four, I would pull my children out of that school so damn quick!
A concerned Foreign teacher who loves China and it’s people.
I would request the you do a root-cause analysis on the problem. Was this situation caused by a) money problems at the school, b) improper registration of the school, c) gross incompetence, or d) combination of all of the above.
If it was money problems, the school would want to save money. But… this is a really stupid area to save maybe 2000RMB/teacher when the school probably already shells out much more than this per month.
Many schools and companies fail to process visa’s because they are not legally allowed to do so. Only certain legal entities in China are able to process a visa. JVs and WOFEs can. Domestic companies need a certain amount of guanxi or be of a certain scale in order to give a visa. But usually this problem happens at small scam English schools, and even then they often find a way around it.
The HR Manager may just be stupid and lazy as shit. That happens allot. She could’nt be bothered to do the job.
Any thoughts on which reason?
I think everyone is just about so sick of Beijing Creams so-called “morality” calling out of previous expats that when we get a real bad apple, people are fed up with you so much that it demonstrates just how OTT you went before in your hatred of others. You cried “Wolf!” towards others on this site and slagged them off far too many times for you to have any credibiity now. Even with a kiddie fiddler.
To above poster… don’t include me in that “everyone” catagory. I don’t agree with the tone of this article. But neither do I see the bias or self-rigorousness in this site that you are talking about.
This article like many others about specific expats in China would have been better off left in the wastebin. It is both assumptive and offensive, and how you manage to do that when talking about a douche bag like Robinson shows how unprofessional and attention grabbing you really are. You don’t care he’s a potential pedophile. You just love those headlines with words like “Rapist” and “Fucker” in them. .
I’ll be teaching in China soon and hopefully I don’t meet any creeps like this.
@Tarun Ashanti
Seems like you’re protesting a bit too much.
This kind of things happen because ignorant Chinese people prefer to have unqualified, unprofessional, unmotivated, playboys, alcoholic native speakers who are teaching random stuff in class above non-native English teachers who are actually qualified, motivated, have years of experience, who actually know what they are doing in class and care about their student’s progress.
With such mindset no Chinese can seriously be surprised to have learned nothing except pre-made sentences after years of learning English, just like Chinese college degrees worth nothing on the global market, their training centers are a joke. The whole educational system has to be reformed from scratch and people’s mind has to evolve to accept a rewarding system instead of a bribe system, or China will never be able to compete with Western countries or even with Japan and Korea in this domain.
Just because people were born in the US or UK doesn’t mean that their English is better, I have been working with a guy from Canada who wrote “beatle” instead of “beetle” during one of his classes where he was talking about bugs, and of course none of the students said anything even if they knew (I heard them whispering in Chinese about his mistake) because he his the all mighty native and thus can’t be wrong.
It doesn’t even mean that they know better about Anglo Saxon culture, some dude told me that regular bacon is beef, I could not stop to laugh my arse off right in front of him.
In all my years teaching in China I have seen many losers, many foreign garbages who came here just because they were not employable in their home countries, all of them were from countries where English is the official language.
Of course there are also very nice, motivated and caring native teachers in China, but it is so easy for all the losers to get a teaching job over here (just because they are native speakers) that the good ones are a minority.