First Essay

In China today there seems to be some similarities to the west especially in the rural setting. The population that makes its living in the agricultural sector is finding it very difficult to survive. It also seems that people who live in these areas have to work very hard in order to meet the rising expectations of the upwardly mobile. As well with the education system it has become very difficult to compete. Here in China the rural areas have to score much higher on the entrance exams, for example students in Beijing can score almost one hundred points less than students for Hubei province and still be accepted ahead. This shows a sort of stratification in China. This paper will examine the lives of students, with a focus on those from the rural dwellings, the increasing competition and the desire for change among them all.

With China’s growing population it is becoming increasingly difficult to get into universities and colleges, never mind trying to get into one of the top two schools. Yesterday the entrance exams began and there were 9.5 million students participating. Out of this large number there will only be about 5 million who will be admitted into a program of some sort. This is a disappointing ratio because given the importance of education in the modern world a lot of individuals are missing out. Even if a lot of the students perform well it is still a race, it will come down to mere percentile points to determine who will be ranked above the other. This seems a little hard to understand for someone who has come from a very relaxed system. Competition in Canada has very little to do with education; unless of course you are applying into graduate work or some other high end college, for example that of medicine. Canadians do not and probably may never experience the pressure that these Chinese children face. From my interviewees I have obtained some first hand testimony and information as to how tough the system can be.

The Fujian province, the community which we discussed had a very small population, a mere 200. Here Davis was not able to retain his education in his home village. He had to go to a neighboring community since the age of 12. He new that he would have to support his parents some day so despite the pain of missing his family dearly, it was what he had to do. Like most people in his village most became farmers; included in this group were his two sisters. In rural areas alike; from Canada to China; it is almost expected of sons to stay home and take over the family farm. Davis’s parents knew that they would need someone to go to school and become educated. Farming is getting more difficult as the years pass, and a source of outside income is what many of these rural families depend on. In Fujian province the points needed to get into the top university were 900. That seems almost unachievable. He scored 705 and said that Jiao Tong University is where he wanted to study. Davis happens to be the seventh person from his entire community to ever go to university. For such as small, poor village I have found out that that is a large number for such a community.

Lily another of my interviewees comes from a little bit better family situation. The village she grew up in had many thousands of people. In Gansu province where she lived the total score for their examination was 750. That is quite a difference compared to Fujian. She had mentioned that if you received a score of 600 then you could go to Beijing. This is a common comparison to students, even though Jiao Tong is one of the top schools in the country, the students feel a little disappointed that they did not get into the top two schools in China. Lily was in a unique situation, the state paid for her education. This type of thing is becoming increasingly unfamiliar, the government is paying less and less for education every year.

Simon from Sichuan province also grew up in a village of a few thousand. He received the third highest score in his hometown, which he and his mother are very proud of . Simon scored 578 points in his exam. In his career he really wanted to get into the computer science program at Jiao Tong but his score only allowed him to be admitted into the college of economics, which at first he was not fond of but has grown to really enjoy it In Simon’s class only 30 out of 70 people were admitted into some kind of educational institution. This is on the low side considering that usually about 80% of students go on to further their education.

Another student, Catherine, also grew up in a village and she scored 622 out of a possible 750. She was disappointed in herself because she really wanted to go to one of the top two universities in the country. She has started off in the English and social science program but for her post graduate work she plans to enter into the school of management. She feels that it is very necessary to make money because as most Canadian students finds that loans are becoming increasingly overwhelming. Catherine believes it is going to take her until the age of 40 to come out of debt and make a comfortable living that will support her parents. She has received some scholarship money but it will not cover even half of what is necessary to survive for a year.

Sherry is being educated in Canada. She feels that this is a very good opportunity because she will be fluent in two languages and not a lot of people can do that. She and her mother decided that this was best, as they both did not want her to go. She also finished her high school education a year early so she was able to come to Canada when she was very young. Sherry plans to receive her masters degree before she comes back to run the family business in China. Sherry and her business will be based in a city where the rest of her family is. Sherry has a different outlook on the system and believes the pressure has to be maintained because there are just so many people and this is the only way the country can manage the situation. She has enjoyed her education is Canada because they have encouraged her to be critical in her thinking, where as in China students are told what to do, they are not allowed to make their own choices. As mentioned in an issue of China Today there is a new method “ having sat in on a foreign teachers’ class, I am impressed at how they seldom tell students what and what not to do. Their method is to explain the positive and the negative aspects of an issue and let students decide for themselves” (Xueying 2006; 14). So it seems some ideas are open to change in China. Sherry has had the advantage to experience this type of thinking that will help her growth as a business leader upon her return.

So as I have tried to show there are many types of students in this university. It is also evident that many of these students feel great debt to their families. All of the students love their families dearly and want to make money so that they can support their parents as soon as possible because they are all getting older. Many of them had to sacrifice much to get their children into one of the best schools in the country. Simon in particular was raised in a single income family; his father passed away when he was only six years old; so he loves his mother very much and wants to give her the life that she has given up to put him and his brother to school. With the increasing costs of undergraduate education many parents are put into a bind that creates tension and hardship among the entire family. They expect children to prosper because they have given up so much for them to do so.

This type of competition has been going on for many years; “the traditional education system had trained China’s elite for more than 2,000 years” (Hutchings 2001; 116). The reform movement and especially the great leap forward was a movement that benefited those who could not otherwise go to school. The Great Leap was meant to abolish “the division between mental and manual labor” and abolish the idea of education for educations sake” (Hutchings 2001; 119). Although this movement never realized its goal, it was a good intention. Rural people were put onto an equal playing ground. The gap between the rural population and the rest of the populace has increased dramatically over the past many decades; rural people especially the farmers have been left behind and many still can not read and write. It is said that this is most evident in “impoverished rural areas, especially in the remote and pasture areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the Loess Plateau. China still has more than 85 million illiterate adults, with some 90 percent being in [the above mentioned areas]” (www.china.org.cn). With such statistics it will be difficult for the children of these areas to prosper by today’s standards.

Today children still seem to be learning many of the same things; “the village curriculum shows the very same texts were studied, and by some students mastered, in village, towns, and cities throughout China” (Cohen 2005; 24). So as the years have gone by there is still evidence of the old system that has allowed the Chinese government to keep control over the masses. All of which is quite apparent in these students. They all mentioned the things they wish to change within the system. Simon in particular believed he came from a very narrow environment. He mentioned that in the social science department any student that was to enter graduate studies had to defend Marxism and show how it is the right thing. Simon believes that the system is changing gradually especially in his field of study which is economics. Today they can learn about micro and macro economics, but prior to the 1980’s western thought was not allowed and the only approved theories were those of Marxism. An article in China Today shows how the system is changing in fact and their access to information is widening; “ Young people are becoming increasingly precocious, and will eventually know far more than their parents or teachers. A broader, more open approach to education will nurture the creativeness of today’s young generation, and enable them to find their best way of off setting pressure and so achieve their potential” (June 2006; 15). So with this in mind and the government’s goal of decreasing illiteracy, maybe their goal will some day be realized.

There is the belief that education is to strict. Most of the students envied the west because they could choose the classes that they wanted. Take the campus we are on for example, even with the status of being a famous university, they still only teach the approved subjects and contents. Our presence here is putting a curve in this, but I believe that we have also put them in an uncomfortable position. When we mentioned that we were studying religion all the flags flew up and the guards were on red alert. The students that we have conversations with are dumbfounded as to what it is that we are actually students of. The students here all fit into tightly knit little boxes like economics, management, Chinese literature and so one. Like many students, Lily especially believes that it is important for students to free their minds and their spirits and take the emphasis away from the examination system. She would like to become a teacher in a college, that way she believes that there is a greater sharing of knowledge and students in this level will appreciate this to a greater extent; high school students just want to receive a good mark on their examination. When Lily finishes her graduate studies she plans to move to the east coast because there are more ideas that come into these centers and Xi’an is still very much closed minded. Xian is much like Saskatoon in this respect; that we are sheltered from the greater world of larger centers. It is very similar in that many students in both places do not plan on staying where they received their education, for greater opportunities and more money lie elsewhere.

Students in China, as in Canada, are finding it extremely difficult to pay for all of this university education that everyone feels is vital for future growth. Davis had to take a loan out for his last two years of his undergraduate and post graduate studies. He hopes to pay this off, but it all depends on the type of job he gets. As in the past it has always been particularly difficult for rural families to send any children to school. In many rural areas the budget for education is the first thing that receives funding cuts. “ In some of the poorest villages… there was not enough desks and chairs to go round, and children are requested to bring there own” (Unger 2002; 185). So without adequate school supplies it is often only a hope to be able to pass the exam or even finish the now mandatory nine years of primary education. In rural Hubei province “ found that 40 to 50 percent of a family’s net income is absorbed by student expenses if all the children are at school… attendence in some parts of that country had fallen below 50 percent” (Unger 2002; 184). With statistics such as these the government needs to put practices in place to ensure that these children are not missing out on their education. Money is the evil that dictates our future it seems. In rural areas the farmers already have so many assets tied up into the farming practices. In Saskatchewan there are a lot of farmers that own land but there are also many who do not. This situation is also similar in China; “ some people were pretty poor at farming and couldn’t make any money at it, so they rented their fields out… freeing themselves to work. This was legalized and now people can take on more land if they have the human man power… in addition to turning in your state grain rice quota you’ve got to pay a sort of land use tax to the brigade based on the amount of land you farm” (Ebrey 1993; 489). This shows the desperation and the hardship that many farmers have to deal with.

With this type of burden it is often that the pressure is on a person for the next generation to perform as well. Currently in China the emphasis on education is everywhere. In many cases of numerous siblings the girls are encouraged to stay behind and the boy is pushed to get the grades necessary to become the educated. In Davis’s situation that was what happened. His sisters were married off so they finished up to there grade nine educations, they still live near his parents. All the efforts were poured into Davis because they knew that he needed to make the money and take care of them. In many poorer families this is the case; “ … one or more children is likely never to have entered primary school, especially the girls. Girls marry out into other families… while boys stay in the family, and farmers know that in old age they will need to rely exclusively on their sons’ earning power” (Unger 2002; 185). From an early age the sense of responsibility for these children weighs heavily on their being.

All of my interviewees stressed the obligation that they have to take care of their parents as soon as possible. They do not seem upset about this obligation, most of them had a sense of happiness in that they will be able to pay back or just take care of their family. Catherine thought that her parents will not need the money but she wants them to enjoy their fifties and not have to work, she just wants to have them with her. Where as Davis for example will need to send money to his parents because they enjoy the country but they do not make a lot of money in this profession. I personally find this to be similar to rural Saskatchewn. There is not as strong a sense of filiality but the obligation to help the parents is still present. In small communities we often only have family to rely on. In my small home town most often it is the sons who stay home and live with the parents so that their work is incorporated in to the families income. So in this respect there are some children who do support there parents.

In conclusion rural areas in China and in Canada have many commonalities; the sense of obligation to family, the hardship of a very physically demanding lifestyle, the missed opportunities because of location and economic status and desire to change their status. Students are in very similar positions across many nations in that they wish they were getting more out of their education. In both Xian and Saskatoon students wished for more informative classes and also for more contact with professors. So the life of student also seems to be universal. Students in both areas also have to be constantly concerned with money and strict budgeting. Many government loan setups or scholarships are not nearly enough to support one individual for an entire system. With this increasing desire to make money rural people are now led to believe that they must keep up with the urbanites. With their less than average income accessing this lifestyle becomes very difficult. It seems that in all walks of life we have lost simplicity and we have gained the desires for more of everything. h