I wasn't telling people not to research. Of course there is nothing wrong with research. I try to research so as to improve the quality of my teaching. Research helps us to find causes of problems, to solve them and to attain higher standards.

What I was referring to was the seemingly deliberate effort that you and your friends made to put yourselves in a difficult situation. I thought that there were two types of foreigners that came to China. First there are those that carry out an adequate amount of research on China and their schools before they travel over here, and are thus well-prepared. Secondly we have those that come over blindly, carrying out little or no research, and often as a result find themselves in desperately uncomfortable conditions. Now it seems that there is a third type: Those who hold the title of researcher but yet still manage to find themselves in an awful predicament. Can't you see the irony here?

Of course as researchers you already knew of Frank Zhang and his many aliases. Of course you did a lot of advance research before you came to China. Of course you knew that Frank Zhang operated in and around the Shanghai area. Of course you knew about all the negative publicity surrounding him. The only conclusion I can come to is that you deliberately wanted to experience bad conditions FIRST-HAND. Your initial post spelled out quite graphically the disastrous results that ensued.

Wouldn't it have been better to use your research skills to find the best conditions you could find in China, so as to have a COMFORTABLE base to work from and research the bad schools? Do you have to experience these things first-hand in order to do proper research? It seems that your main focus was to highlight the worst aspects of Chinese education.

If I was a black guy living in 1960s America, and I wanted to find out how racist the Ku Klux Klan was, would I have to try dating the daughter of the leader to find out the answer? Would it be wise to hang around their headquarters or bars where they relax, trying to hang out with them, and pleading with them to join the organization? Or would there be better alternatives?

I wasn't telling people not to come and do research. I was warning people not to come here with the deliberate intention of finding poor uncomfortable conditions to work in, whatever the motivation. I think it is dangerous. In fact I've seen enough with my own eyes to KNOW that it is dangerous.