Hello ESLteachersboard.com friends,

Yes there is a five year rule in China and yes it is used very arbitrarily, usually as a way to get rid of a mettlesome foreign teacher.

I should know ... it happened to me.

I lived in China for nearly fifteen (15) years almost all of it at the same government school. I can't believe that I stayed in China that long -- I had no intention of staying more than one or two years. I kept saying to myself that things had to get better in China, that things couldn't always be this bad, that the Chinese ESL world had to have some decent people to it, and I got sucked farther and farther into it.

One fine day, around year 14, a decent friend of mine, a former Roman Catholic priest with a Jesuit education, who had been teaching in China also for a long time, but with comings-and-goings, sat me down and said to me : Ben, you have a real serious case of Stockholm Syndrome. I became deeply offended with him, although I must admit that I had no idea what Stockholm Syndrome even was.

Indeed, I realize how, the son-of-a-b*tch FAO, who is well known on this particular board for his corruption and abuse of foreigners, indeed had succeeded in Stockholm Syndromeing me.

In any case, come December, before the Western New Year, with six months left on the then current contract, and this prick says to me (after we had some words about unpaid overtime) "Sorry Ben but the school just became aware of the Five Year Rule and unfortunately you will have to leave China at the end of this term -- meaning in 10 days. The local SAFEA office agrees with us and there is nothing that can be done".

At this point, I knew what the game was. I bought my ticket for London and left a few days later BUT BUT not before making sure that the apartment was very, very clean. Indeed it was so clean because I gave every single thing in their fucking apartment to the poor. I even cancelled the Internet completely, had the gas shut off and had the electricity shut off. Only the four walls remained. Was the shit FAO angry but what could he do!

To make sure that I left the country, the shit actually accompanied me personally to Pudong Airport in Shanghai and put me on the plane.

In all the years in the school I was considered a model teacher, a good teacher, like by the parents, lots of awards from the Suzhou, Jiangsu local government offices for being a good teacher, etc., etc. But when I confronted the drunken, smelly lazy FAO (after 14 years of being Pollyanna with Stockholm Syndrome), he "suddenly" remembered the rule.

Do I regret all the years spent in China? Maybe 50%. Was the retransition to the West difficult? It was for the first 18 months. Would I ever go back to China? Not in this life and not in the next.

In the end my impressions of the country are impressions of pollution, of garbage and refuse everywhere, of the persistent odor of urine everywhere, and finally of a complete lack of freedom, a complete lack of freedom.

So in the end, thank God for this arbitrary five year rule. It brought the light of daylight back into my life.

And let me see if anyone can guess who this FAO is....

Ben Witherspoon
London