<p>Well, to be honest, I haven’t read this thread… but I’m a white exchange student to Taiwan so I’ve been able to see firsthand for myself the extent of these stereotypes.</p>
<p>Firstly, I just like to say that Asian education systems put unimaginable amounts of stress on admissions tests, the smart seniors literally have zero free time here–they go to to school 6 days a week, 7am to 9pm.</p>
<p>Also, tests are much more clearly defined (scores) than ECs for example so it is easier for parents to blame their kids for not studying hard enough and in turn do scary things (physical abuse).</p>
<p>Secondly, teaching philosophy dictates intense repetition of everything, from studying the same paragraph in english all week to prescribing ways to answer every math problem.</p>
<p>I think in general, Asians have about the same ratio of dumb/smart kids that white people do it is just that in order to get from say China or Taiwan to the states, you have to be insanely smart, simply because the competition is that much more intense. In order to go to say UCI, you first have to be able to speak english fluently (not an easy task when you’re a native Chinese speaker), and score well on all placement exams (vs all of Chinese/Taiwanese) so you can get into the best highschools and have the opportunities to do the things that would distinguish you from the international pool of applicants.</p>
<p>My two cents</p>