I had an internal debate as to whether I should even bother to respond to Turnoi's latest childish rant. It will never cease to amaze me that someone who has no problem hurling insults at anyone who DARES to disagree or speak ill of him is himself so thin-skinned. This thread has absolutely nothing to do with him and yet he says what I'm saying, as someone who actually worked at the institution this thread is about, is "irrelevant." He has instead chosen to hijack the thread and call me names rather than stick to what the real subject is.

Here’s my story: My name is Christopher Lane Davies, though I'm usually referred to as "Chris." (My REAL name. Feel free to call the school and ask if you want. They won't say much nice about me, though.) I'm American. I worked for GDOU for one contract term, from February, 2008 to February 2009. For half that time I taught at the main campus of the university and for the other I taught at a middle school in the city of Zhanjiang that was affiliated, in some murky way, with the university. (It was mostly a guanxi thing where the middle school principal was a buddy of the head of the uni's FAO.) I loved the city of Zhanjiang but not the schools where I worked. (I was promised that the middle school’s students were “the best in the city.” Total nonsense. They were among the worst, as the Chinese teachers there openly admitted.) The FAO I had to deal with was, from what I saw, flagrantly corrupt. Like the OP said, and I agreed with, it is notorious for consistently cheating FT's out of airfare. I was also paid a full 1000 yuan less per month than I was promised when I agreed to move there and I'm still convinced someone, somewhere was pocketing that 1000 yuan that was budgeted for my salary. Another teacher, a British national who I'm now out of touch with, had the same thing happen to him. (I won't name him because I don't know if he would want to be named.) He, like me, was also cheated out of airfare and engaged in at least one shouting match with the FAO about this. I could, and maybe someday will, write at least a chapter of a "War and Peace" length novel about all this but I don't want to bore anyone since I've already been accused of being "uninteresting" by at least one person here. I left the city in February, 2009 even though I was still owed anywhere from 10 to 15 thousand yuan, depending on one’s “interpretation” of the contract. It was only after threatening to notify the SAFEA office in Guangzhou that the school reluctantly wired 5000 yuan to my bank account and I finally gave up trying to get any more.

So, when I saw the post about GDOU by “Shawnee” I was, of course, “interested.” If you believe my choice of a pen name lacks imagination, well, I’m sorry. I suppose I didn’t think it through. I noticed that Shawnee used a QQ number as her email address so I contacted her. She returned my message a while later while I was not signed in. In it she asked me if I knew a couple who worked, and are in fact still working, at GDOU. She used their names, which I will not do here because, again, I did not ask them if I could. Since I was not signed in I could not respond “yes” so she continued. She went on to accuse them of entering her apartment while she was away and rifling though her things “like spies.” I knew these folks and while I wouldn’t exactly call them “friends” they were basically OK to me and are decent people. I don’t believe Shawnee’s story. Everything she said in her original post rang at least semi-true, and I told her so, but she crossed a line when she accused the couple of being spies. THAT I don’t believe. She then went on to say, for reasons that are still not clear to me, that my Qzone was “disgusting.” I’m still not sure what it is about my Qzone that repulsed her so. It’s mostly just pictures of me and a few comments about how I see China and the world. It took me maybe 12 hours in all before I discovered that this person, who claims to be an American woman from Orlando, FL, was openly trashing me to any of my QQ contacts, most of whom are my current and past students, she could reach and encouraging them to add her so she could tell "the truth" about me. I honestly don't know why she is doing this since my original motive when I contacted her was to tell her I agreed with what she posted.

I contacted the couple I know at GDOU, where this person clamed to have worked, to tell them what was happening and they maintain they have no idea who “she” is. I’m inclined to believe them after what this person has chosen to do to me. Again, I simply wanted to tell anyone reading the original post that this Shawnee person might not be who or what she claims to be. Why I deserve to be abused for telling the truth while the OP is defended, despite not saying who or what “she” really is, is beyond my limited ability to comprehend I guess. Some people here just automatically leap to the defense of anyone who says something negative without bothering to find out the facts. It’s starting to get a little old.

By the way this “Zhufu” person’s QQ number is 1695116436. She posted it here. Those of you have QQ can do a search for her. My QQ is 897902524. I’m not going to add anyone after this latest fiasco but you’re welcome to search for me to see I’m a real person.