China’s wealthy elite rigs its university arms race
Children from poor and rural areas have little hope of keeping up with their rich counterparts
IN CHINA’S TOP-GROSSING summer film, “Successor”, a rich businessman seeks to motivate his son by raising him in poverty. Young Jiye believes his family is truly poor. He is told to “change his fate” by studying hard and doing well in China’s university-entrance exam, known as the gaokao. But just in case, his father also hires undercover tutors. Fake street peddlers test Jiye’s English. The neighbourhood butcher gives him maths puzzles. A tutor posing as the family’s grandmother tells the boy that her dying wish is for him to study at an elite university. After her (staged) cremation, a grieving Jiye rushes back to his textbooks.
Explore more
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Study hard, be rich, get ahead”
From the August 17th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from China
Liberalism is far from dead in China
Despite an intense clampdown, it may even be drawing more adherents
How to get kicked out of China’s Communist Party
Officials are trying to expel slackers and the superstitious
Why Xi Jinping is envious of his predecessor
China’s ruler would like to grab Deng Xiaoping’s legacy
China’s new age of swagger and paranoia
It wants to be a “strong tiger” not a “fat cat”
Is Xi Jinping an AI doomer?
China’s elite is split over artificial intelligence
In China’s “median city” people are surprisingly risk-averse
Our columnist travels there to ask ordinary people two mega-questions