Linda, with your regard about 2nd chances. Perhaps you should investigate more into private colleges (民办大学， think of them more along the lines of DeVry and ITT rather than Stanford) in china as well of 2 years programs (大专 as opposed to the regular 4 – 5 year program 本科) many colleges and universities offer. These things are no where nearly as competitive to get in as regular 4 year programs at a national university and its quality are no where nearly as good. However, I do have a few childhood friends in China that went this route. Now they all seems to have semi-decent office jobs, and one of them started a business. So there definitely 2nd chances in China.

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Note to editorial staff, please delete my first comment. I forgot to look though it, and I correct some mistakes in there. Thank you

2,You really have to put things into perspective while talking about fairness and freedom. The higher education resource is so scarce, let alone those top universities：the participants of 08 GaoKao were well over 10 million while the top 10 universities(a kid’s future is set at very different level between these 10 and everything else) will only accept about 30 thousands.

3, You also have to put things into perspective when comparing American system with Chinese. I don’t see it as American kids wouldn’t/couldn’t work as hard, rather they don’t have to work as hard. Why would you? If the education system gives you much higher chance to enter the top playing field(top 30 school in USA?) with much more flexible rating mechanism.

4, Don’t compare apple with orange, the kids you saw in the program and most of the Chinese students and scholars you met in USA are top 1% of the Chinese student population, you need to compare them to Harvard/MIT undergrad. I honestly don’t see any advantage there.

I guess my comments sent to you yesterday were not positive enough to post on your web page, I think you will do very well in China system of government.
Yoel Cohen

2. Once Chinese youth have chosen a university program, they do not get to “transfer schools” until the end of the program. A college student at Chang’An University could go on to graduate school elsewhere (although this is rare), but would have the option of finishing that college program at Chang’An — or nothing. So, the discussion of freedom is appropriate and ironic. When your major is fixed before you ever attend college and see if you like it (and there aren’t “workshop” or “internship” type classes in most Chinese high schools), that is not freedom.

3. The moderator’s interview of the Chinese Harvard University professor (Vanessa) was interesting. I agree with her — that everything I saw and heard on the news and from people, while living in China, confirms the fact that they desperately do want to be a superpower.

4. I thought the show was excellent in that the “face” showed so many things. However, I think that the moderator’s focus, on whether the “gao kao” is fairly administered, was off-base from the main focus. I would agree with the professor that the gao kao is the fairest thing in China — I had students from literally everywhere, every situation. Many students told me, “I was the only student from my village to get in.” What should be questioned for fairness is: “Is the government exploiting young people when it recruits its nation’s best young minds with the promise of great economic advantage and job placement, if they only agree to become a Communist? What are they selling, to gain these perks? Do they know?” And — “If a person cannot choose their major, and their major determines their job, then will this lack of freedom result in a level of discontent that undermines the future of China?” I thought the point was made very well, about “second chances” and the lack thereof in China. As Taiwan has become more democratic, it has increased its “second chance” factor, allowing students who do exceptionally well in night school or a lesser school, to eventually move into a state-recognized school.

Note: My students in China were also indoctrinated on a number of points. They saw Taiwan as “always” a part of China, because that’s what they had been taught (contrary to fact). They saw their country as “liberators” of Tibet (despite genocide). With the coming of the Internet, information cannot be as hidden, but old prejudices die hard. So much of the news is anti-America or one-up-manship of America. The professor was disingenuous on this point. China see America as king of the mountain — its only real competition — and their specific aim is to “beat” America.

I would love to see a follow-up show on Chinese college students, and how they handle it. Some don’t, and become positively dissipated. When I was there, there was an occurrence of a young man who died after spending three days and nights in an Internet cafe, playing computer games. Many of my less bright students never studied at all; they played. Taiwan also had this problem — all that work to GET to college meant that, now independent and with some measure of freedom — quite a few students abused that freedom. Many of my students weren’t even grateful. All that hard work made the culmination — university — a disappointment. They had thought it would be Shangri-La. Would love to see this kind of sequel.