Chinese Sign Language - Perception

Perception

There is a growing awareness about deaf education and care in China. China Disabled Persons’ Federation website reports that China has 21 million people with hearing loss. There is a bilingual-bicultural school for the deaf and a deaf university in China’s third largest city, Tianjin. For the majority of the last 50 years, CSL has been discouraged, even banned from most classrooms. Instead an oral-only policy has been pushed. The China Disabled People’s Federation runs nearly 1,500 pre-school “hearing rehabilitation centers” established since the 1980s. Less than 10% of the children who attend these schools are able to have an adequate enough grasp on the Chinese oral language to enter public school. The few who enrolled in public school were children with residual hearing or who were able to afford cochlear implants. As mentioned before, Chinese is a tonal language, making it very difficult for deaf children to learn to speak, for they can’t see the changes in tones that drastically change the meanings of words. Most deaf children leave school with an education three grades lower than their hearing peers, presenting few job opportunities available. Only recently have the local authorities in Tianjin with the cooperation of organizations such as UNICEF begun to create new job opportunities to the deaf population. In 2001 the Tianjin school for the Deaf adopted Chinese Sign Language as their main method of communication and made an effort to have deaf employees. The school has had very positive results in education and attitude among the students. The Tianjin Technical College for the Deaf, a partner in PEN-International at the Tianjin University of Technology, is the first technical college for deaf Chinese students. The college was established in 1991 and focuses on computer technology education, giving deaf Chinese students an opportunity to work outside of a factory. Now there are also schools for the deaf in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, Yantai, and Hong Kong.

Despite the growing awareness about deaf needs, there is a lack of awareness about deaf culture and what constitutes deaf culture, even among the deaf community. Chinese people seem to view deafness as a disability, even deaf people view themselves as disabled. Many parents of deaf children spend tens of thousands of yuan on various types of medicine to “cure” the deafness. Treatments include: acupuncture, Chinese medicine rehabilitation centers and hearing aids. Many parents believe that sign language will only inhibit their child’s ability to speak and therefore see signing as a bad influence and have forbidden their children to associate with others in the deaf community. As a result of this kind of upbringing, many deaf people have difficulty coming to terms with their deaf identity and often look down upon deaf people. Many deaf students would prefer a hearing teacher to a deaf one as a result of this stigma. There are no role models to look up to for no famous deaf people are known within China. Deaf people in China commonly try to integrate with the mainstream and do not want to be associated with the deaf community. The schools have begun a movement of embracing deaf culture, but the change is slow. More facilities are now available to the deaf community than ever before. There are more schools specialized for the deaf, and in Shanghai there is a medical center focused on hearing loss and oral communication that is jointly run by the Shanghai health bureau and Fudan University.