The first episode of the BBC documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School received over 860,000 hits within one week of being uploaded on Chinese video sharing site youku.com. I do not know if it is popular in the UK, but it is certainly a sleeper hit in China.

In the documentary, a group of five Chinese teachers teach year nine students at Bohunt School in Hampshire for a month. As requested by the documentary makers, the teachers adhered strictly to traditional Chinese educational methods in teaching mathematics, physical education, science and Chinese.

The disengaged British pupils could not catch on to the Chinese teachers' pace, and they protested by being disruptive in class so that no one could study. They painted their eyes, played with mobile phones and even boiled water at the back of the classroom for tea while the teachers were trying their best to pass on essential knowledge. Some of the students even stood up and left during the class.

This chaos and lack of respect prevented the teachers from doing their job. The situation got so severe that Bohunt staff had to become involved. The Chinese teachers said they "lacked experience" in disciplining students, since Chinese students "were disciplined by birth, by nature, by family, and by society."

So, do Chinese teachers lack experience in disciplining students? I do not think so. These five teachers were just being polite and dared not punish the British students. In primary and middle schools in China, which students have not been punished at some point by their teachers?

I remember once being spotted by the teacher while I was pouring water into the cup of my desk mate. Well, I did a little talking and laughing at the same time. The punishment I received was to stand in the corner of the room as the whole class laughed at me. I was so embarrassed that I swore to myself that I would never do such a thing again.

Please do not think that I was in the same league as these rebellious youths at Bohunt School. I was nothing like them. I was one of the top students of my school, and I always grasped immediately what we were taught in lessons. I only poured that water after I had finished conscientiously making my notes and ensuring I would pass any test with flying colors. For a top student like me, being punished like that was such a humiliation. I would rather be whipped in private than treated that way in public.

It was such disciplinary action on the part of the teachers that made us such "good students."

Chinese teachers always find the best punishments to make their point clear.

Simple punishments such as hitting the hands with rulers or scolding work well on students with high self-esteem. For those who have a lower expectation of themselves, better ways include threatening and getting parents involved. The sentence "you embarrass the Bohunt School" from the documentary is nothing compared with the line that my classmates used to hear: "you are the worst student that I have ever taught." This line is repeated year in and year out to new students in China. Some are warned that they will end up as beggars if they do not tend to their studies, and are told to "please not come to class tomorrow if you don't finish your homework."

When parents are invited to engage, the situation is already severe enough for the students to be physically punished by them. The saying "spare the rod and spoil the child" is for these occasions.

For me, and maybe for most Chinese students, the worst punishment would still be humiliation. Getting the students in front of the class or the whole school so that the others could see their mistakes and mock them usually does the trick. All these effective punishments of course result in disciplined students who obey their teachers' orders. No wonder we have become so easily controlled, reluctant to form or express our own ideas and creations.

I totally get that the British students do not buy what the Chinese teachers are trying to do. These teachers do not lack experience in discipline or class management. They are just too polite to punish foreign kids. There is no need to feel shameful if they do not beat the local classes in the test after one month. Chinese education is perfect. It just has to go hand in hand with Chinese discipline to have its full effect.