The ad had stated that two well-known hairdressers from Hong Kong, one of them a woman, would teach the class and that a third from Shenzhen and a fourth from Guangzhou would also teach. But as turned out, one of the "Hong Kong hairdressers" was a man from Henan Province who had been living in Shenyang since his marriage, and the woman hairdresser was from Guangzhou. The one from Shenzhen never materialized.

The ad also stated that a Hong Kong beauty salon would provide textbooks for the students. But the texts turned out to be only pamphlets rinted by a jobless young man.

The ad promised to provide an official ertificate from the city' s education bureau at the end of the course, but the seal on the certificate was that of the school.

The ad said that a spacious and well-furnished classroom would be provided, but a small and dilapidated room which could hold no more than 100 people was used instead.

A conference room was added, but half of the students still had to stand during the lectures.

The school took a group photo of all 348 students on the first day of the course and started to hand out certificates the following day. A total of 160 certificates were sent out in 20 days, loag before the students completed the course.

As a result of the suit, the library was fined 15, 000 yuan and the jobless young man had to pay 2,000 yuan.

The proliferation of vocational training courses in China has given rise to a proliferation of related advertisements - in newspapers and on radio and television. A study of a locai newspaper by Shenyang's Industrial nd Commercial Bureau found that from January to March 1988 the paper ran 220 advertisements and that 99 of them, or 45 per cent, were for vocatoinal training courses.

With flowery phrases and possibly empty promises, these advertisements re often tempting to those who want to get rich quick.

In most cases, the shorter the vocational training courses, the easier they appear and the sooner the enrollees hope they can start earning money with what- they learned in class. So, naturally, the ads for short courses are all the more tempting.

Who could resist an ad like this:

"Want to learn the most updated technique of making detergent? You need no equipment except four tubs. Attend our course, and within a week you will learn how to produce 150 kilograms and earn more than 150 yuan a day."

The eagerness with which many people rush to attend vocational training courses in the belief an easier life awaits them afterwards leaves them vulnerabIe to cheating.

In 1987, a man from a rural area in Shenyang who was anxious to make money met the manager of a soap factory. By various illicit means, he got hold of the business license and the seal of the factory. He decided to open a training course on soap and detergent production under the factory's name and to charge a tuition fee of 200 yuan from each applicant.

He advertised in newspapers read by farmers in Liaoning, lilin and Heilongjiang provinces. He immediately received applications from 100 people from 60 counties. The man pocketed 20,000 yuan in tuition fees, but never gave the course. He endcd up in jail for fraud, and the factory's business license was revoked.

　

4. Fake Advertising Seeks the Gullible

Want to make gasoline and diesel fuel in your own home?

Want to have the capacity to drink a thousand shots of booze without being tipsy?

Want to add three centimetres a month to your height?

Sounds ridiculous? These impossible dreams have been offered to people in this country. And they are just a few examples of the false advertising that has become one of the major problems hounding a modernizing Chinese society.

Last year, the Chinese Consumers ' Association alone received 55,871 complaints about the deceptive advertising, more than doubling the figure for 1987.

In spite of repeated crackdowns their numbers are still increasing each year, according to officials with the State, Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

Fake advertising, which appears mostly in print media, cheats consumers, and in some serious cases, threatens gullible people's lives.

As part of the latest campaign against phoney hucksters this year,the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce has just forbidden all publications to carry the column called "Tips on how to get rich. " Though many people have learned about a product or a technology through the column, much of the information in the column is provided by swindlers.

For instance, after a private school advertised that it was offering a course on how to make fluorescent lamp tubes at home, a farmer from Jilin Province came to Beijing to learn the skills.

However, after spending 30, 000 yuan of family savings, the farmer didn't produce a single tube. Realizing the whole tbing was a hoax, the bankrupt

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