<p>PG, It was only a writing exam for the time allocation of 45 minutes. Language, literature, philosophy, and style are always subjective. Different folks, different strokes. You don’t like Pascal. :-)</p>
<p>Gaokao is for entrance to universities in China, so expectations from US universities on essays, don’t apply here. The author is probably attending Beidai now. It was a writing exam for the Chinese subject, with an essay prompt “Reject Mediocrity”, which included literature, philosophy, poems, and verses, instead of a B-school-style marketing plan of an idea. So you don’t expect an execution blueprint at all. In addition to fluidly blending Chinese literature and philosophies, the author actually expanded on an idea from Pascal, which was the reason I said “you don’t like Pascal”. And the flow of the language is far better appreciated in Chinese afterall. By the way, I am STEM major. Long live STEM. :-)</p>
<p>Like Cobrat (I think), my parents were Chinese immigrants. They came to Iowa in 1950. They came from, I daresay, a more genteel and sophisticated China. It is true that you cannot ignore political or historical aspects here. There was a whole generation of young Chinese kids who were literally taken away from their families and “brought up” in the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s, with no idea of family or honor or history. Then, as capitalism was allowed to be born again in the 80s and 90s, these kids (now parents) were schooled in greed. My dad was saddened mightily by the China he traveled to as an engineering consultant in the 80s and 90s, and if he were alive now, would be appalled. But it’s not altogether surprising, given how the adults who run China now grew up.</p>
<p>Yes, of course, long live STEM @@.</p>
<p>Oh, for the lives of normal people who don’t classify themselves into liberal arts/ humanities teams and STEM teams, but value it all.</p>
<p>Ha! Daughter of Chinese immigrants, one an engineer, one an artist. Three kids-- one physician with an artist daughter, one marine biologist with gifts of both STEM and art, and one full on artiste. </p>
<p>Yay for STEM/arts hybrids!</p>
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<p>As a life-long student of Chinese history and parents who were from around the same generation, I’d say that only applied to the subset of the Chinese population which appreciated intellectualism for its own sake and felt some disdain for the worst aspects long-developed Chinese merchant culture which actually has many parallels with the worst aspects of Western capitalist culture. </p>
<p>There’s also been a millennium+ worth of contestation and some compromise between the Confucian-oriented literati elite and the merchant class who despite their wealth…were regarded as the lowest class among commoners in the Imperial Confucian social order. </p>
<p>In short, all the Chinese Communist Revolution did was suppress and simultaneously stripped away any remaining cultural restraints against the extremes of Chinese merchant culture. In short, the forces which brought about the modern “dog eat dog” capitalist culture in modern Mainland China is not a new phenomenon…but a manifestation and release of latent forces present in Chinese society for around 2,000+ years.</p>
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<p>The China-born mother of my daughter’s elementary school friend said she was taken from her parents at the age of 9 when she displayed a talent for math. She was educated in Beijing, and didn’t see her parents again for many years. She and her husband immigrated to the US in the 80’s and both became extremely successful as software engineers. They are very bitter about their upbringing, and have found it difficult to parent their daughter (they are now divorced). </p>
<p>Although her story is extreme, I think there is some value in identifying and nurturing nascent talent from a young age rather that attempting to produce a crop of STEM majors.</p>
<p>Cobrat: True. I guess I should have said it was my parents’ China, their socioeconomic group.</p>
<p>The Cultural Revolution had completely broken down the feudal system in China, which later allowed young workers to migrate from the villages and find manufacturing jobs in the cities, after the government had relaxed on Hukou, the household registration system. However, the feudal system was broken down by means of totally demolishing Chinese cultural structures, turning friends against friends, relatives against relatives, siblings against siblings, and children against parents, only at the whim of the immediate political climate desired by Mao for consolidating his leadership. It was a very chaotic period of about a decade. Consequently, although China has an exceptionally rich culture to draw upon, many of those born during the Cultural Revolution didn’t receive a proper dose of traditional Chinese family values, including ethics which is actually in abundance, whether it is Buddist, Confucian, or Taoist. One reason that I am glad to see that earlier Gaokao essay, is that they are extensively teaching Chinese literature and philosophies in school, for which they would unavoidably touch on ethics, no matter which school of thoughts they would teach. Nevertheless, without this cultural foundation for some in China, especially those who have done poorly in Gaokao, would fall prey to aggressive marketing from less than ethical domestic agencies and foreign universities. As far as these people are concerned, one is yearning for a dream to attend a supposedly reputable university, while the other is telling them that they can actually buy such. The fact that these stories have already hit the press, means both sides should know very well what they are doing.</p>
<p>And it’s obviously not only a subset of Chinese culture that is indifferent to western norms regarding ethics. Part of my job involves review of possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In recent years the large conglomerates in Germany, Daimler AG and Siemens AG have run afoul of this law. You wouldn’t believe how engrained the acceptance of bribery is in German corporate culture. CEO’s in Germany see it (less so now) as the cost of doing business. Also, the defense industry giant BAE a company based in Britain, has been punished by governments on both sides of the Atlantic for questionable ethics. It’s not just China.</p>
<p>StillGreen</p>
<p>As far as some in the subset of Chinese who were from the more “genteel and sophisticated” class (a.k.a. Inheritors of the Confucian Scholar-gentry ideals) are concerned, the current rampant pre-professionalism and obsession with gaining great wealth as quickly and effortlessly as possible…ethics and honor be damned is proof-positive that Chinese society has gone to the dogs. </p>
<p>I don’t agree with this pessimistic view, but I’ve heard it so often that is a clear manifestation of deep disillusion with what Mainland China, The ROC(Taiwan), and Hong Kong has become. Yes, this condemnation/disillusion is not solely limited to Mainland China.</p>
<p>Many interesting parallels one could draw from similar phenomenon in Western European/American society…specifically coming to grips/dealing with the less savory aspects of modernization/“progress”.</p>
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<p>I am afraid you are missing the point entirely. Why would anyone be surprised that a student in China might be able to write a superior essay? Perhaps one that could dwarf many US students in terms of quality and content. There has never been a doubt that China produces a great number of highly gifted and talented students. Documentaries about the preparation for the Gaokao are not hard to find. </p>
<p>But that is not the issue that causes concerns. The problem is that students who do NOT possess the talent and especially not the necessary command of English are able to hire agents for a fee or able to find plenty of “support” at companies and sites that have little reason to exist except for the abilities to cheat and break down a system that was build to defend its integrity against organized … crime.</p>
<p>Accounts of students in PhD programs who hire ghost writers because they are UNABLE to write a coherent sentence at a middle-school level should be alarming. Don’t think it happened? Search the CC archives about the stories of the hired mercenary who makes a living offering such services. Check the email sent by his “client.” Alarming might not be the appropriate term … disgusting is much better. </p>
<p>And the term disgusting is also the only one that adequately qualifies the “techniques” people will utilize to “earn” a score that they cannot possibiy deserve without cheating. And, fwiw, it is also the term that should be used to describe the results of students at US colleges who are subjected to be “taught” or “led” by TAs who presented qualifications through fake documents and cheated on admission standardized tests. </p>
<p>And, fwiw, for the latter, the blame should be squarely placed at the feet at the school administrators who cannot wean themselves from relying on cheap and untrained help to lower the demands placed on faculty. </p>
<p>The cheating takes place on distant shores, but the impact of the cheating is felt here, and by many unsuspecting “peers.”</p>
<p>"“I am afraid you are missing the point entirely.”"</p>
<p>No, you maybe missing the point instead. 
I wasn’t addressing the OP at all, while you were continuing with the same issue. And what you said were just variations of the last 100 or so messages.</p>
<p>Cobrat, if China were so corrupted as portrait in the media, how come China is still growing leaps and bounds year after year? Could there be some even more dominant positive forces at work, that the media may have neglected through ignorance or political bias? I have a probable answer in terms of economics, but I shall put it aside, because it would be too technical here. But we may talk about government corruption, so how much does it affect China? I am only writing by memory, so I won’t go into too much details. Almost 2 decades ago, when Zhu took office for Chinese vice-premier concurrently as governor of Central Bank, he was facing double-digit inflation, for which he correctly identified as excessively lending due to corruption. He closed those lending pipelines by executive orders (it worked mainly because it was corruption) and tamed inflation down to essentially zero in just 3 years. This is one of the first major blows to government corruption in China. Zhu later limited gifts received by party officials to no more than RMB 10 K, essentially declaring more valuable gifts illegal. Then came the power struggle between different factions of party officials, for which they used anti-corruption as a way of attacking the other side. Regardless of the ulterior motives, the anti-corruption campaigns did remove some of the most prominent corrupted officials, such as Chen, and other cronies, such as Lai. Although corruption is still rampant in the government, it has reduced to the levels of payments for convenience, instead of eroding major amounts out of the Chinese economy.</p>
<p>So why didn’t Zhu outright ban all gifts received by party officials? Because at that time when the Chinese economy was only about a quarter of today’s, those gifts would worth even more than their regular salary. To draw analogies, a sales-person may receive minimum wage plus a larger commission and a managing director may receive US$ 200 K plus a larger bonus. And the Chinese government has been paying the party officials with “minimum wages” and relying on the gifts to fund the rest. Until the Chinese economy would grow beyond the point, where RMB 10 K is no longer a substantial amount of money, then the gifts can further be trimmed to irrelevance. Although there are still lots of abuses, where local governments don’t necessarily follow directions from Beijing, to a good extent it is working so far. This is also the managing philosophy of the HK government. They pay above-market salaries for government officials, while limit gifts received by government officials to only US$ 64.50. Together with ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption), HK runs a very clean non-democratic government. Similarly for Singapore. The same can’t be said about Taiwan, India, Filipines, and some other democratic governments, which are in fact, corrupted to the bone. Be very cautious when somebody is implying that democracy can cure corruption. Real-life examples have shown that there is no particular relation.</p>
<p>We may talk about ethics a later time. I am hungry. :-)</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>Stillgreen</p>
<p>The fact you seem to measure success solely on the basis of economic growth and materialistic riches underscores one key reason why those of my and jaylynn’s parents generation feel Chinese society in the PRC, ROC, and Hong Kong have all gone to the dogs. </p>
<p>These perceptions aren’t from mass media, but from our parents’ generation comparing their own experiences being born & raised in the three major areas of the Sinosphere with what they see currently during their visits or from discussions with close relatives, friends, and acquaintances/associates.</p>
<p>That’s in addition to the widespread stories both in and out of the Sinosphere about political corruption and foods/medicines being adulterated by poisonous substances because the companies are trying to maximize profits…basic ethics and morality be damned. </p>
<p>While I personally view this as a mixture of excesses of latent Chinese merchant culture without restraints which isn’t too far removed from what existed under laissez-faire capitalism in the 19th and early 20th century US, they view it as a sign that current Chinese society has lost its humanity and basic moral compass it formerly had.</p>
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<p>OK, let’s try this for a bit of logic. Assuming that my post rehashed variations of “the last 100 messages” in a thread of fewer than 120 messages, could one not conclude that is quite a bit of uniformity there. Perhaps more than 100 messages also miss the point. </p>
<p>On the other hand, you post a non-sequitur message about an essay written for a test that is not discussed! </p>
<p>Oh well, that must make sense to you.</p>
<p>"“Oh well, that must make sense to you.”"</p>
<p>I was running on a tangent, would you like to bite me? Have you also realized that the posting traffic has already died down for that issue?_____ i.e. what needed to be said have already been said, unless you can bring up something new.</p>
<p>Cobrat, please be realistic. We are biological beings living in a material world. Sufficient food and shelter take precedent over most other issues. I wouldn’t be typing this message, until I finished eating. And I can’t be typing this message, unless I have access to an Internet connection. For example, despite how the media wanted to spin the uprisings in the Middle East as democratic reforms, they were in fact, ignited because of discontent in the economies. Those who said money isn’t everything, are only putting up a strawman argument. To draw another anology, money is like air, you would suffocate without enough air, but once you have enough, then you have the free time to pursue other issues. So one of the first priorities for China, is to keep the economy growing, so that the government doesn’t have to waste extra efforts in dealing with problems of life necessities (for example, the hinterlands are still poor and need further developments). Then they would have a free hand in dealing with others issues such as, eventually being able to pay the government officials with above-market salaries and eradicate corruption with the help of an ICAC counterpart.</p>
<p>On the issue of compassion, I shall draw another example from the recent tragedy of a 2-year old being run over by 2 cars, while some 20 passer-bys didn’t come to help until a trash lady showed up. The other side of the story was the incident started an uproar over the Internet with multi-millions of responses (one Chinese website, Sina Weibo, alone received some 5 million responses), condemning those dispassionate passer-bys and there are also donations to the toddler’s parents as well as the trash lady. And have you noticed the widespead support of the victim’s at the Sichuan Earthquake? Nevertheless, there were also some blood-sucking vampires trying to profit from that tragedy. It is always a mixed bag depending on where you pay attention. And yours truely donated a good chunk of those offensively materialistic riches to help the victims. Would your family and friends know about it at all, unless I told them? Serious, how many people would go around spreading the news of their own charitable acts? I am telling you here only because we are (almost) anonymous on the Internet. :-)</p>
<p>On the issue of news spreading about unethical manufacturing practices, the other side of the story was (and there is always another side), there were enough people who cared about the situations, who might sometimes even be at risks, but still tried to spread the news and alert others. The newspapers and websites publishing the news may also be in danger of retribution, because we don’t know who were behind those unethical operations. If you don’t consider this a display of ethics, then you are unfair to these people. A possible solution may still point back to the economy. The profit margins of manufacturing in China is quite thin. An increase in domestic demand would help to relieve the pricing pressure and raise the profit margins, making it less likely for unethical manufacturing practices. And da, da, da,… it would depend on the sustained growth of the economy in China… Those offensively materialistic riches… :-)</p>
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<p>What I had in mind was a relatively small district in LA or Orange county. I read about it a few months ago. But I cannot find that source right now.</p>
<p>I did not know was that many more districts in California are into it now.</p>
<p>Here is one example: [The</a> Chino Valley Unified School District is working on a foreign exchange program that it hopes will raise funds in a time of declining enrollment and revenue.](<a href=“http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_18359465]The”>http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_18359465)
From the article
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<p>LAUSD is also eager to attract paying Chinese students with a big plan. Here is a report in a Chinese language newspaper USChinaPress or Qiaobao, the title of the article says [LAUSD</a> and Chinese Consulate have joint press release: LAUSD expands admissions of tuition paying foreign students, will visit major Chinese cities](<a href=“http://epaper.uschinapress.com:81/qiaobao/html/2011-04/26/content_449635.htm]LAUSD”>http://epaper.uschinapress.com:81/qiaobao/html/2011-04/26/content_449635.htm)
The translation of the 1st few paragraphs:
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<p>Attracting tuition paying Chinese high school students to public schools is not just a California phenomenon. [Public</a> high schools woo foreign students to boost ranks|MSNBC]( <a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42419004/ns/us_news-life/t/public-high-schools-woo-foreign-students-boost-ranks/]Public”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42419004/ns/us_news-life/t/public-high-schools-woo-foreign-students-boost-ranks/)
Quotes from article:
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<p>I can’t help but wonder if the influx of Chinese and other East Asian students happened simply because other large international student groups have simply stopped coming to the US. Last year only about 4% were from, ehem, politically, ehem, sensitive parts of the world, while in the 80’s, these groups, not so, ehem, politically sensitive back then, were easily a third or quarter of all foreign born students…</p>