The American Education system is what is deemed as a “Elite” system. While Bill gates and his enterprise might be someone/something the Americans hold on a banner for display of its success, it begs people to see the totality of the situation: Elites are meant to be FEW in numbers. I think the reason you can say the American Education System is better is because the infrastructure of this country can afford to do that. and just like what the Professor said in the vedio, Chinese young adults, especially those who made it to the top universities are not in a “zero-sum” game with the Americans. America being an immigrant country it adopts a large portion of its elites from other parts of the world, therefore, this competition does not really exist (for now). China’s infrastructure is not nearly as solid as that of the USA’s, therefore there is a need for a systematic push for higher quality of the average workforce. the amount of the knowledge an average high school diploma holder in the U.S. has is so little compared to one from China, so much so if one is to know reality of the matter such comparison would only deem ridiculous. yet a huge portion of the American workforce is able to lead a good life while an “average” high school graduate in China is a person labeled as without a future.

I think the Chinese case is extreme in that it over-emphasizes the results of two entrance exams (because of the limited educational resource available to a poor country with 1.2 billion people all wanting to go to college. They *have to* ration it). And the failings of American education system are that the students are not held to any meaningful academic standards from K-12 and academic excellence is not encourage as much as it should by society. It would be the best to introduce a system that holds the students responsible, not just the teachers and the parents, but the students themselves for their own successes.

Generally speaking, I get the sense of a old man who is “fat and lazy” watching young people who are “lean and hungry”. Inspires me to work a little harder and appreciate what I have. But it also scares me just a little knowing that they will be entering the work force in 4-years :)

In my opinion elite higher education and its role in providing social mobility is, curiously, more similar than different across the world.

As a Chinese-American parent, it has been my wish to raise my child to be culturally sensitive and linguistically competent in any setting, but especially navigating the complex world of East-West divide.

After viewing this film with my daughter, who has been a student in China and in the States, we both agreed that the most visible difference between U.S. and China is the relationship between student-teacher-parent.

In the States, there is a definite cultural preference for independence and self-discovery in schools that seems not as prominent in China. However, there is a cultural heritage of respect and deference to the teacher that seems to prevail in China that educators in the States yearn for.

I hope in the global era, we do not make education the battleground, but the common ground from which parents, teachers and students can all work together to build a better world and to become better people.

The great Renaissance humanist, Euremas once wrote – “the best society is the one that educates its young.”

The great Chinese philospher, Confucius once wrote – “the good student is the person who learns from everyone s/he meets.”

Because of the cultural and social differences between China and the US, I don’t think the documentary itself is self-explanatory to most American audiences. I have the following questions after watching the documentary.

1) Why?
Why do so many youngsters spend years in this cruel and tedious process? Some fragments answered this question, indirectly. Some consequences of alternative routes, like working as a factory labor after high school, might shed some light on it. In a word, the motivation behind studying for Gaokao.

2) How?
The method of study. We saw the students were studying in the documentary, but we didn’t know what exactly what they were doing. American audiences might not able to comprehend the Chinese-exam-perpetration style. I remember when I was preparing for GAOKAO, we had mocking tests every another day for almost a year.

3) Cultural differences
Studying for the others, though reluctantly, while bearing the burden of the whole family, is acceptable and deemed normal in Chinese culture. The same thing might be considered as being in violation of personal freedom and rights. Some background information might be helpful.

4) Payoff

Did the effort and time pay off? I’m not referring to the results of GAOKAO, rather where the college-education road leads later in life.

How large is the living standard gap between college graduates and the others, if any?

Do the people who went through this rigorous filtering process, including those from Korea, Japan etc, have advantages in global competition?

5) Under the tables.

Literally. The girl (Peng Kun, Part5, 04:00) said it right, the students had to somehow entertain themselves and seek their own way to study in this year-long torture. When I was in high school, I taught myself physics in maths classes, English in Chinese classes, since I found the teachers’ teaching style didn’t suit me. And the political/patriotism education class was the unofficial “game” class for all students, since no one believed in communist ideals any longer, even the teachers.

My classmates and I, in the year preparing for GAOKAO, played chess by drawing chess boards and pieces on tables, played cards by making cards from scratch paper, drawing comics on notebooks and reading novels with textbooks as camouflage, even made sculptures out off mashed test papers …..

Chinese teenagers are still teenagers. I’m sure the students today had invented more ways to have fun, to keep them sane.

6) Some politics

With this “all Chinese are brain-washed by communist propaganda” theory from the right and the left of the West, especially in recent months, I’d really like to hear the younger generation’s thoughts regarding communism and democracy.

It is hard to believe that how most Chinese students, who can solve high-order equations and only pay lip-service to political education, can be “brain washed”, while rational and critical thinking is essential to crack high scores in Gaokao.
I thought that my generation, born after the economic reform, is the most open-minded, rational and pragmatic in the world. We don’t fall in love for any ideology without doubts, no matter communism or western democracy. (hmmm… since I was brain-washed by propaganda, my opinions don’t count, I guess)

Overall, this is a wonderful documentary. I’m looking forward to the sequel. Thanks

Like every high school student who was forged in the Gaokao system, I hate Gaokao. I;m still getting nightmares, almost 10 years after the exam. And I know the one-exam-determining-fate strategy is not the best. However, the people who were tested in that vigorous process have advantages in international competitions. Not just in knowledge, but also in character and willpower.

Not everyone can voluntarily endure suffocating boredom and suffering to study for a dream of bright future, which is usually forced upon by the loving others, like parents. In today’s world, when selfishness and ignorance are revered as virtues, we really need to preserve Gaokao, even if it can be categorized as cruel and unusual punishment.