Aesop

The gods were discussing whether a being could change its nature.
Jupiter said, "Yes," but Venus said "No."
To try the question, Jupiter turned a cat into a maiden wed her to a young man. The couple sat down at the wedding feast.
"See," Jupiter said, "how well she behaves. Who could tell she was once a cat. Surely her nature has changed."
"Wait a minute," replied Venus, and let loose a mouse in the room. No sooner did the bride see this than she jumped up from her seat and tried to catch the mouse.
"You see," said Venus. "Nature will out."

I included this fable as an allegory of some Taiwan students who befriend a foreign teacher until "relationships" require they betray them, which they seem to do with apparent ease. I mentored several students here but that did not prevent them from signing defamatory letters against me opportunistically to advance their interests. One of them quickly and sincerely apologized and wrote a public letter admitting he was pressured to write his defamatory letter against me and admitting I treated him well (see attachment). That student I forgave unconditionally, as it behooves us to do and, as a courtesy, despite his wrongdoing, his or her name will never be revealed by me. But it's remarkable how a student could write one letter could also write the other (accusatory) letter. That indicates the kind of political pressure placed on students here in order to collaborate with officials who have their own agenda. Another student, for whom I wrote a letter to insure his admission to a university abroad, to this day refuses to admit he did anything wrong, prevaricating what he did to the point of absurdity. I wrote him an email comparing him to Aesop's cat, referring to the above fable. Instead of apologizing he advised me to be more polite to him, even though he wrote the defamatory letter, he was my student, and I wrote him a letter to insure his admission to a foreign graduate school. Instead of acknowledging his gratitude he recently emailed me back that other professors offered to write a reference letter too. Go figure the moral standards of a person (now a teacher!) like that.