Diary of Systematic Injustices Showcase
Harry Li (li.10203)
A systematic injustice I am clearly aware of is the difference in educational opportunity among kids from different provinces or ethnic groups in China. To begin with, China has 56 ethnic groups and the major group is Han which I am also a member of. Like America has SAT and ACT, China has China’s College Entrance Exam, which is also called GaoKao. It takes place on June 7th and 8th each year only once when multi-million kids fight for their future synchronously. However, unlike SAT, the papers’ difficulties differ from region to region. For example, my hometown Nanchang has our own paper and it is always harder than the national paper. There are also a few provinces that have their own paper with obvious higher difficulty. This means if kids from my province want to go to a university in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it would be a lot harder than kids from those cities since it is harder for out-of-province students to get very high scores when their papers are more difficult. Also, except Han, kids from all the other 55 ethnic groups get bonus points for around 2 to 3 percent of the total mark. There are arguments that minority groups do not get as much educational resources as Han but honestly it has been proven that their papers are way easier comparatively. Moreover, even though a Han kid gets the same mark as a kid from a minor group, the kid from a minor group has a better shot because all universities save a percentage of the total spots just for minority groups. Therefore, the impact of this phenomenon is that parents with connections or fortune would acquire or buy minor ethnic group identities illegally for their children.
Secondly, colleges have lower bars for local students so parents who could afford would buy properties in the big cities and move their residence registration to the big cities and get their children an edge. There is an ironic joke went viral in China years ago. It goes as follows: A kid in Beijing says: “Dad, I got a 530 [on the GaoKao], 53 points higher than the lowest qualifying score for top-tier universities!” “Great job, kid! Let us go to Shanghai for our vacation!” A kid in Shandong says: “Dad, I got a 530, 20 points lower than the lowest qualifying score for second-tier universities!” “You’re not so bright … Do not go [to college]. Get out of here and go become a migrant worker in Shanghai.” However, in Shanghai: “Dad, I got a 330. Send me abroad.” “Okay, son. Go get an MBA, then come back and help me. I got another group of migrant workers from Shandong this year.”(Fu, n.p.)
Even though I did not attend China’s College Entrance Exam, a lot of my peers who took it complained about it. All in all, Chinese educational system is for certain of systematic injustice to some extent and I believe it can only be righted if people all recognize this problem and appeal for equality as one. Plus, the regulations on those “buying edge” behaviors shall be harsher.
Work Cited:
Fu, Yiqin. China’s Unfair College Admissions System. 18 June 2013, www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/06/chinas-unfair-college-admissions-system/276995/.
Wow this was incredibly interesting as I had no idea of the systemic injustice happening in education in China. I had no idea that their were “minority” groups within the asian population as a whole. As you mention Han is the dominant or most prominent sub group of the asian population and all other groups are considered minority. Learning about the different levels of difficulty within college entrance exam depending on the region of china was also really interesting. Overall very well done!
I had no clue this college entrance exam existed! This is a really good example of systemic injustice and I’m glad you shared. This is something I didn’t even know I had to be grateful for not being apart of, because I was completely unaware of its existence. That’s crazy they can even give harder exams for a certain group and seems very unreasonable.
Hi Harry! Your sharing is very informative. I am also a Chinese, so I can completely understand what the college entrance exam meant for Chinese students. Especially when the population of Chinese is huge, which means the competition is much more intense than other countries’. Many students from poverty work so hard for this exam that they can have move to somewhere urban other than doing farm work for their family.
Hi, Harry! It is great to have someone share similar opinions. I have also written about the unfair policies related to Gaokao in one of my Systemic Injustice assignments, but I mainly focused on the household registration. Your post is really informative and provide those who have never learned about Chinese education system with a chance to explore a systemic injustice. I was born in Taiwan, but I completed my study before college in Jiangsu province. So I think I have the same feeling towards the exam paper. Great post.
Wow! I am shocked. I had no idea that this kind of thing went on in China. It is not unexpected that other countries experience such drastic systemic injustices, but living in America, we are in a sort of “bubble” away from the outside world. It is so crazy that people accept that such things happen in China. It is very unfair that those who do not live in specific provinces and cities cannot go to the college that they want to attend, simply because of where they life. How sit it accepted that the tests are skewed by geographic location and/or socioeconomic class?
Wow this was inconceivably fascinating as I had no clue about the fundamental treachery occurring in training in China. I did not understand this school selection test existed! This is a truly genuine case of foundational unfairness and I’m happy you shared. This is something I didn’t realize I must be thankful for not being a piece of, in light of the fact that I was totally uninformed of its reality. That is insane they can even give harder tests for a specific gathering and appears to be entirely absurd. As others remarked here numerous understudies from destitution buckle down for this test that they can have move to some place metropolitan other than accomplishing ranch work for their family.
Amazing post! I had no idea that certain regions in China were administered more difficult standardized exams than others, and I believe that serves as a prime example of a profound systemic injustice. This post really opened my eyes to the cultural discrimination that so many people face in China and how profound of an impact it has on educational opportunities. I appreciate how you included the ironic joke that went viral in China as it helped me further understand the systemic injustices at play.
This is so intriguing and upsetting. I had never heard of this before, and the joke that you put in the entry was especially eye-opening for me. I did not fully understand how the system worked, and how incredibly different the scores would be depending on where someone is from. I thought this could be helpful for students that are not afforded the same quality education as others, and therefore there test scores did not need to be as high, but this is obviously not the case. I hope that the injustice in this system will be revealed and solved quickly.
This was a very interesting post that I, also, was never aware of occurring in countries such as China. It is interesting to see how in America many institutions will, on paper, appear to stress the importance of diversity within their institution and it appears this is the same attempt that universities in China are aiming to do as well. It seems as though success is becoming more about one’s background, identity and oppressions versus one’s potential and work ethic that they show. While it is good that these concepts are factored in, it does not solve the systematic problem at hand. Both in China and America I feel that instead of focusing on how we can adapt testing to factor in things such as quality of education by region, leaders in both the U.S. and China should work more on standardizing education so the quality is the same across the board, allowing student success to be based more on the individual and less upon what oppresses them enough to make them “deserve” a shot at higher education. However, I also feel that standardized testing in any way (SAT/ACT, GaoKao, etc.) are not fair judgments of one’s degree of intelligence; after all Einstein failed many aspects of his entrance exam when he sought to attend university, and he is now regarded as one of the greatest minds of modern history. Overall, great topic!