China university offers course pushing students to call strangers to build confidence, social skills

Read the original at South China Morning Post ↗
Cite

Lu, F. (2026, October 21). China university offers course pushing students to call strangers to build confidence, social skills. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3371570/china-university-offers-course-pushing-students-call-strangers-build-confidence-social-skills

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

South China Morning Post · collected 2026-10-21 · by Fran Lu

Quick Summary

At Nanjing University in China, a course called “Oral Expression” led by Xu Kai challenges students to build confidence and social skills by calling strangers for phone interviews. Launched in 2015 at this prestigious institution in Jiangsu province, eastern China, the class goes against traditional Chinese values that emphasize humility over outspokenness. Students share their struggles with this assignment on social media.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-21, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

In 2026, Nanjing University in Jiangsu province, China, offers an unconventional course called "Oral Expression" that challenges traditional Chinese values by encouraging students to call strangers and conduct phone interviews. The course, launched by former television producer Xu Kai in 2015, aims to build social skills and confidence among students who typically adhere to the principle of "do more, speak less." Despite initial difficulties reported by some students, the course has become popular at the prestigious institution.

Written for “China University Confidence Course” on 2026-10-21, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 China University Confidence Course
Education · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
7
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 7 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
64/100
South China Morning Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-21 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

South China Morning Post · 2752 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Fran Lu
21 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 21 articles by Fran Lu →

Topics

China Chinese Jiangsu province Nanjing University

Subjects

China GPE · 2× Chinese NORP · 1× Jiangsu province GPE · 1× Nanjing University ORG · 1× Xu Kai PERSON · 1×

Narrative

An unconventional course at prestigious Nanjing University encourages students to call strangers to hone their social skills, challenging the traditional value of “do more, speak less”.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-21
2026-10-21 · South China Morning Post
China university offers course pushing students to call strangers to build confidence, social skills · assertive framing

Claims (7 extracted, 0 hedged)

China university offers course pushing students to call strangers to build confidence, social skills asserted
university → offer → confidence
The unique course defies the traditional Chinese ethos of keeping a low profile and living by the mantra, ‘do more, speak less’ asserted
course → defy → less
An unconventional course at prestigious Nanjing University encourages students to call strangers to hone their social skills, challenging the traditional value of “do more, speak less”. asserted
course → encourage → less
At the top-tier institution in Jiangsu province, eastern China, former television producer and director Xu Kai launched a course called “Oral Expression” in 2015. asserted
Kai → launch → 2015
Over the years, it has become one of the students’ favourite public courses. asserted
it → become → courses
The course includes a legendary assignment: students must call a stranger at random and interview them over the phone. asserted
students → include → phone
Several students have posted on social media about how difficult they found the task. asserted
they → post → task
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