Education officials yesterday claimed that a wide-ranging survey showed students were turning their backs on Chinese culture and embracing the West.

 

According to a survey of more than 3,300 students by Fudan University's sociology department more than 93 percent of respondents rated learning English as very important. Just less than 87 percent rated Chinese in the same category.

 

More than 51 percent of middle school students said they spent at least two or three hours studying English at, and after school, every day. The students spent an average of 796 yuan (US$99.50) a year on learning English, according to the survey.

 

"Obviously English has gained a landslide victory over Chinese. The impact is so strong that Chinese, and even Chinese culture, seems to be marginalized," said Yu Hai, a Fudan sociologist and the survey program director.

 

A report along with the survey said that in the city's major commercial streets about one-fifth of signs were in English only. Few Chinese characters could be found in some downtown bar streets such as Tongren Road and Maoming Road S., the report said.

 

Even the "China Top 10 Athlete Award," a competition that’s been running for 24 years, took on a foreign name when it became the "Laureus China Top 10 Athlete Award" in 2004. This triggered a nationwide debate.

 

Zeng Fang, an official with the Shanghai Education Commission's moral education division, said the phenomenon signaled that Chinese culture was an embarrassment.

 

But the students in the survey disagreed. About two-thirds of high school and university students said it was natural to have English signs in the street mainly because they were commercial activities.

 

Only 20 percent of respondents said that they saw a lack of national confidence behind foreign language-only signs.

 

(Shanghai Daily January 16, 2007)