In 2014, about 7.26 million new Chinese undergraduates were produced, which is more than 7 times the number 15 years ago (Sharma, 2014, p.2). Besides, “China is making a $250 billion-a-year investment in what economists call human capital” ( Brandisher, 2013, p. 1). Specifically, the Chinese government has spent a huge amount of money and energy in expanding higher education to improve the current system, and to provide a broadly educated public. However, the alarming rise in the number of new undergraduates has sparked a hot debate -- will the effort pay off ? Many researchers argue that these investment has led to undergraduates boom directly, and has resulted in high unemployment among new undergraduates. For illustration, the unemployment rate among Chinese new undergraduates six months after leaving university is officially around 15%” (Sharma, 2014, p.2). After witnessed such cruel fact, the whole society even some scholars has started to blame the government. Admittedly, the government should take some responsibilities for the boom. However, the number of undergraduates was constantly increasing before these investments, and education is more than just policies. Education is closely connected to cultures as well, so many other cultural factors may also impact on people’s choices. Hence, it is unfair for the government to take all the responsibilities for the undergraduates boom, and it is vital to find all the causes and correct them. Comprehensively, the
Since the reform and opening up, the economy of China grows significantly, as an emerging economy, China's economy has made tremendous contributions to the global economy, and Renminbi has become one of the most important currency in the world. According to the survey conducted by China National Bureau of Statistics found that from 1979 to 2012, China has attained an annual average growth rate of 9.8% for its national economy, while the annual average growth of the world economy is only 2.8 % during the same period. In past 30 years, China's GDP surpassed Japan’s, China became the world 's second largest economy, in addition, the huge total volume of trade makes China become the world 's largest trading nation. The contribution of China’s
Shao is not an average Chinese student, his family is wealthy and they live in Shanghai, one of
Although I have lived in America, I still feel infinitely grateful for my birth country, China. As Malcolm, Gladwell writes in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Chinese is innate born with diligence since the thousands of their ancestors have been working on the rice paddies days and nights to cultivate the corps, in the hope of earnning the fortune to the whole family. They believed that work hard, and the reward they will attain will respectively increase. This iron rule could also efficiently apply to Chinese education. Since China is a developed country, a large part of its population struggle to make a living under the average line of poverty, therefore it has a high demand on elite, with which to progress the whole society in all
Although the future of higher education may seem trivial, it is in fact crucial in terms of today’s concern over unemployment. With the way the job force has changed due to the fall of the economy, we can no longer rely on our trade or jobs that were lucrative and provided enough income for our families in the past. As it has been proven at Evergreen State College, “despite the university’s reputation as a countercultural bastion, 82 percent of its graduates found full-time employment within a year, and 93 percent of those who applied got into graduate schools” (188). This idea alone proves the fact that one has a larger change of attaining a job, if one has a college education. The notion of having a better likelihood of obtaining a job, or broadening my options, puts my mind at ease about unemployment.
The Chinese government set up a wide system of primary schools. For the first time in all of China’s history the majority of the population received a complete basic education. Even though the government’s “Great Leap Forward” program didn’t put
Each country has its own kind of education, and education always plays an important role in affecting students’ life and study on many aspects. Having received ten years of education in China and two years of education in the U.S. I would like to compare and contrast a few significant aspects of these two different kinds of educations. Knowing that no two education systems are the same, the differences between American education and Chinese education allow countries to take the essence and discard the dross through learning from each other so as to improve their own current education systems.
The China Boom: Why China Will Not Rule the World, by Ho-fung Hung. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.
I believe that this individualistic ideal is indeed a consideration in why such a great emphasis is placed on study and academic success both in ancient and modern China. But whilst looking into the topic, I discovered that there was an underlying model of communitarianism with their ethos on study. Chinese people believe that a sound education does not only ensure the future of the individual, but also the future and the development of the family and country on the whole. What this means is the Chinese people believe that that only through study, will China be able to ensure the longevity of its people and nation. The maxim from the Three-Character Scripture (an ancient Chinese writing) states, “if no proper education is given to children, their nature will go bad.” I believe the word “nature” can easily be substituted for the overall health of the future of the nation.
One experience so far in China that left a strong impression on my mind was a visit to the Shaanxi museum of history. Our tour guide was a locally educated young woman in her twenties. As she took us through the different periods of Chinese history, at every exhibit showing some sort of tool or mechanistic contraption she would turn and say “as you can see, the Chinese people are very smart!” She also recounted a story in which she was very offended that an American made a comment that Chinese people are short, to which she replied “yes, we are, but we have five thousand years of history and culture!” Both the richness and vastness of Chinese history was a huge source of pride for her, as her slightly illogical response to the American’s comment shows. In retrospect, her age denotes that she grew up on the government’s campaign in the 1990s to educated students about China’s greatness, to foster pride.
The differences that exist between the Chinese and American education systems are great and obvious. However, some of these differences don’t play to the strengths of the representative country. American schools allow for greater freedom of movement and choice, while Chinese schools decide the “what”, “where”, and “how” of educational circumstance for the students (Bush, tony, and Qiang Haiyan). These differences in structure should lead to a greater educational standard being held by China, but that isn’t always the case. This paper will examine the differences in education system in the two countries and show that the Chinese system, while
In today’s’ society, success is often measured by academic and professional achievement. Higher education provides more opportunity and freedom. Statistics verify that generally, the more highly educated have higher earnings and there is a significant difference between wages earned by employees with College degrees and those without. Higher education is often perceived as a means to a ‘better life’ .Though many recognize the benefits of higher education, the rate at which students leave in their first year of College is still very high. Students leave their first year of College for
The differences between the Chinese education and the American education are more obvious in people’s mind, not only to the international students, but also to the native students and some people who study on this. As more and more Chinese students come to America to have better education, we should think about why the American education system is better and how could we change our system to have a new education system in China. These differences have some deeply reason, like the American is the nation which loves freedom. It took long time to make such a big difference between the two education systems, and we need longer time to change it. An undeniable
“As a international students, I care a lot about the difference of education system between the U.S. and China.”(culture shock) I realized that the educational ideas
I found this article "Foreign direct investment: Companies rush in with the cash" on the financial times website (www.FT.com) published December 11, 2002 written by John Thornhill. The reason for choosing this article is my personal interest in the Chinese economy and its attractiveness to the foreign investors. Apart from the foreign direct investment this topic has also helped me in understanding the impact of Chinese economy on the global market.
Because of all the factories closing, and difficulty finding jobs growing rapidly, some people are going to be forced to look for work in other countries, and maybe even another continent. And that’s where we come in. While they are losing factories (and jobs) we are making more to replace what they used to make in their factories. And the Chinese see this. They cram studying in as much as possible. They can be found studying all day on weekends, and it had even come to the point where the study so much that it damages their vision. They strive for perfection as work gets harder to find. They also have more people graduating from college each year than us. They have 7 million while we only have 2.8 million each year. This means that they have many very good student graduation that may try to come here to get jobs, which therefore takes one away from an American. This will affect me because the more they continue their changes in China, the more Chinese will look for jobs here, and the harder it will be for me to find one after I graduate college.