Every September, the campuses of Peking and Tsinghua Universities, often called the Harvard and M.I.T. of China, brim with eager new students, the winners of China’s cutthroat education system. These young men and women possess the outlook of cosmopolitan youth worldwide: sporting designer clothes and wielding high-end smartphones, they share experiences of foreign travel and bond over common fondness for Western television shows like “The Big Bang Theory” and “Sherlock.”
They are destined for bright futures: In a few decades, they will fill high-powered positions in government and become executives in state banks and multinational companies. But their ever-expanding career possibilities belie the increasingly narrow slice of society they represent.
Sadly, not a new issue, but a problem that keeps getting worse. Deng’s vision saw perhaps one generation with a significant wealth disparity, a temporary downside accepted only for necessary growth. But now the PRC is faced with an institutionalization of that wealth gap, as it is reinforced from pre-K schooling to the influence of money on policy.
The longer this sort of thing goes on, the more difficult it is for society to break the cycle. In the U.S., the problem is now so intractable, we probably need a Constitutional Amendment to get money out of politics. Will China face an analogous situation a few years from now?
via China’s Education Gap – the New York Times
© Stan for China Hearsay, 2014. |
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