A hard look at heroes - and their heroics

Soft or tough, handle with care

If you look at China's top 100 artists and writers, such as Zhang Yimou and Mo Yan, you would realize that had English testing been rigorously applied to their college examination, the majority of them would have been denied advanced education, and by extension, the chance to excel in their fields.

Of course, nowadays, college education itself is not as crucial as it was 30 years ago in striving for excellence even as it becomes increasingly available to the nation's youth. If you write a book that sells a million copies or make a movie that grosses hundreds of millions of yuan, your college degree or the lack of one doesn't matter. Neither does your ability to ace the English test.

The way I see it, the need for all college students to pass the same English test has not raised English proficiency per se. For most people, hundreds of hours of rote learning has fostered a culture of using English to create Chinglish. A hundred or so words in a vocabulary are not enough for any real-life use of the language. Such a limited vocabulary is good enough only for what I call "decorative English".

Decorative English is designed to show goodwill or other attitudes. When you speak a few words of English to your English-speaking host, you are essentially saying you have made an effort to be a good guest. In China, you'll see the flip side of the coin every day when you attend international events.

"Ni hao" or "dajia hao" has almost replaced "good morning" or "good evening" as the opening remark when business executives who have just descended from their chartered planes flood you with their newly memorized Chinese words. The tactic never fails to warm the atmosphere.

How can you not smile when your foreign guests overcome their jet lag and talk in a funny accent but in your language? Sometimes when I'm in a cynical mood, I even equate it with the ancient kowtow ritual.