As Teachers Day is drawing near, some people issue the good news on the Internet: This year's Teachers Day falls on a weekend, and it happens to be during the Mid-Autumn holiday, so no need to worry about giving gifts! Lots of parents are planning to send teachers gifts in the name of the traditional festival; some even started posting requests for Groupon online, mainly for gift cards from supermarkets and shopping malls.

In fact, many parents follow the trend for fear of disadvantage to their children if everyone else is "bribing" teachers. Ms. Wang, whose child is in sixth grade, said "We started this only since last year, mainly because all the other students do so. We belong to the working class. Since the child entered kindergarten, we thought instead of giving gifts that would probably be disdained, we'd rather not give any." But not long before Teachers Day last year, the child came home complaining about losing face, for most classmates would have "actions". Ms. Wang had no choice but to buy a bouquet for the child to bring to school.

"This year, our child is about to graduate from primary school. The 'gifts' trend not only prevails in his class, one of my colleagues even spent a huge sum of money on seeking the teacher's favorable evaluation.” Ms. Wang said the junior middle school her colleague chose for her child is quite famous and places great stress on the evaluation report from primary school when they audit information for admission. Therefore, her colleague prepared an expensive gift for the teacher this year, hoping that the teacher will put in fine comments for her child.

Ms. Zhang's daughter is in fifth grade this year, and they have gotten the gift cards ready. Different from Ms. Wang’s family, they started this practice—usually a greeting card with an envelope that contains a gift card for each of the three teachers in Chinese, Math and English—when the girl was in third grade. "Personally I think this is quite normal and nothing to be ashamed of. It is kind of a hidden rule that everyone follows." She said the child wrote the card herself and she would put the gift into the envelope on the excuse of checking the child’s handwriting. In addition, she would call the teacher as a reminder.

"It is a good chance to give gifts this year, for Teachers Day meets Mid-Autumn Festival." Another parent told the reporter that recently one needs to be cautious in gifts giving, since it has become a sensitive issue and many teachers avoid it.

"You'd better give gifts using the festival as an excuse. For example, I would send mooncake coupons this year. It represents two meanings."