Must Fairness Be Harsh? Contemporary Chinese Culture Lecture w/ Biao Xiang
About this Event
Must Fairness Be Harsh?
The Organization of Educational Competition in China
1 Silber Way, Kenmore Room (floor 9, room OSW 916)
Contemporary Chinese Culture Lecture with Dr. Biao Xiang
Many Chinese share the view that “the Gaokao (national college entrance examination) is China’s fairest system.” Yet the fairness of the Gaokao also feels brutal to people. The single exam with a uniform standard determines over ten million youths’ life chances every year. Based on an analysis of how educational competition in China is organized at different levels, I argue that the perception that “fairness is necessarily brutal” reflects a particular understanding about the tension between the systemic aspect (how authorities structure competition) and the interactive aspect (how individuals compete with each other). In order to change the political economy of competition, we will need a public consciousness that combines the interactive notion of fairness with notions of systemic justice and individual quests for meaning.
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