Huawei video in Chinese school exam sparks product placement row
- Primary Five pupils had to watch three-minute video of tech giant that education official claimed brought their exam question closer to real life
An exam question that required Primary Five pupils to watch a video about Huawei mobile phones has blown up into a controversy over campus advertising.
The question, given to pupils at 27 primary schools in the district of Jianxi in Luoyang, Henan province, instructed them to watch the video twice before answering four multiple-choice questions. One of the questions was: “What is Huawei’s competitive advantage? A. quality. B. design. C. functionality.”
Gao Wuqiang, an official of the district education bureau, told Shanghai-based news site Thepaper.cn on Monday that the clip was produced by a television channel to introduce the product and did not advertise Huawei.
He watched the three-minute video and thought the clip’s high resolution, standard accent, and subtitles made it the perfect exam material.
“Teaching materials have remained unchanged for years and students got bored,” Gao said. “Students’ parents all use Huawei mobiles. I hope the exam could be closer to students’ lives.”