2023 Pierre Bourdieu Award for the Best Book in the Sociology of Education
A first-hand look at the scene of elite education in China
Xueshen: China's Young Elites Towards Global Competition
Study Gods：How the New Chinese Elite Prepare for Global Competition
作者: 姜以琳（Yi-Lin Chiang）
Translator: Zheng Xinyuan
Publisher: CITIC Publishing Group, Insight City-State
Published: June 1, 2024
Pages: 340
Pricing: 78
Binding: Double cover, paperback
In the world of Xueshen, student A applied for a doctoral program ranked among the top in the world after graduating from Tsinghua University, and student B received offers from many well-known companies before graduating from Cambridge...... They seem to be able to get into the world's top schools with ease, and they have no trouble joining large multinational companies, and these high-performing Chinese students are going global at an unprecedented pace. How did they do it?
Sociologist Jiang Yilin sampled 28 students from the top 10 high schools in Beijing to conduct a follow-up survey, they were born in the 90s of the 20th century, and they are the young generation from elite families (family income ranks in the top 10% of the country), this observation of more than 7 years recorded their key stages of life from high school to university to the beginning of the workplace.
The study found that China's elite students formed four grades according to test scores and ease of study at the high school level: learning gods, learning masters, learning scumbags, and learning weakness. To win, but also to win easily is the god of learning, the top of the god of science enjoys unlimited support and special resources from parents and schools, and has the unanimous respect of other students; If a scumbag can't be promoted to a top student, he must try his best to be relaxed so as not to become a low-level student who is regarded as "inherently dull...... Students follow the rules of the system and use them to guide their interactions with others, and their further education, employment, and even lifestyle choices are influenced by them. Young elites, their schools and families work together to develop strategies to win in this competition for the reproduction of education-based meritocracy.
This study provides a rare insight into the process of cultivating China's new generation of elites, and provides a glimpse of how China's young elites will be shaped by society.
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About the Author
姜以琳（Yi-Lin Chiang）
He is an assistant professor of sociology at NYU Shanghai, specializing in anthropology, family sociology, educational stratification, and contemporary Chinese society. She holds an M.A. in anthropology from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Xueshen: China's Young Elites Toward Global Competition won the American Sociological Association's 2023 Pierre Bourdieu Award for Best Book in Educational Sociology, and Jiang Yilin became the first non-American winner in the history of the award.
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Editor's Choice
Examining the Rare Theme of China's Elite Education: How to Cultivate the Divine Spirit?
From key high schools to key universities, it seems that those worshipped gods of learning can easily get into first-class colleges and universities and get high-paying positions. How did they do it?
The book takes the reader on a journey and reveals the diverse image of the "heirs" in reality and the set of rules of competition that they follow to maintain their position.
A close-up view of the bystander: Sociologists don't believe in innate talent
The author lasted 7 years, through other follow-up investigations. In this hierarchy, students attribute test scores to talent, ability, and genes, without realizing that they are there. The author's objective account of the process of status reproduction from the perspective of an onlooker helps the quasi-elite to form an accurate perception that will shape a better society.
Praise recommended
Although sociologists pay much less attention to the elite than the general public, it is still one of the main themes of attention. Pareto, Mills, and Bourdieu discuss the family background, institutional path, and mode of reproduction of these "dragons and phoenixes" in different times and in different ways. In contrast, this book, written on the basis of seven years of ethnography in a number of middle schools in Beijing, preserves or reproduces the originally secret personal life history of young people with good family backgrounds, intelligent brains, lofty ambitions, self-restraint and interpersonal sensitivity in Chinese cities in the context of opening up to the world, how to enter world-class universities through "cold window" hard study, and enter internationally renowned companies after graduation to participate in global competition. Compared with traditional China's study and later scholars, and modern China's "gilded" return to China, although the growth of this group of "young elites" in contemporary China and the way they choose and retain after their studies are full of controversy, perhaps one day it can really help the world to see the figure of the Chinese no longer disappear and hear the voice of the Chinese no longer cowardly.
Zhou Xiaohong, senior professor of humanities and social sciences at Nanjing University
Like a stick figure, the book outlines how global neoliberalism and meritocracy create "learning gods." As a "rite of passage" for a generation of teenagers, this "god-making" experiment not only erodes China's family upbringing, but also alienates school education, and puts on a complex mask for them: divine power and vanity, autonomy and loneliness, "suffering in suffering" and "being a superior man" with great prospects and dangers...... How do they harness the power of light and darkness in their personalities and get out of their ordinary path?
Liu Yunshan, a professor at the School of Education, Peking University
Thanks to Elinn, this multi-year follow-up study gives us a glimpse into the world of China's new elite youth – a world that has never opened doors for many. With delicate observations and honest dialogues, this book reveals a hierarchical pattern of status deeply embedded in China's school education system, and also reminds us to reflect: in what way have I consolidated this "rule of the game" and in what way can I challenge and change it? This book is recommended for colleagues engaged in educational research, as well as for all teachers, parents, and teenagers who want a better education.
Young Scholar, PhD Student, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong,
"After the Title of the Gold List" is written by Zheng Yajun
You can do everything you can do right
In the competition of elite reproduction based on education, learn how to cultivate gods
Introduction (excerpt)
Elite education and the game of status reproduction
Teenagers always have a variety of dreams and goals. Some have very specific visions of the future, such as becoming musicians, lawyers, doctors, actors, or undercover agents, while others have vague ideas about career advancement or simply want to live a good life. However, the future they envision is not a fantasy, but a career ambition rooted in everyday life, where they are constantly negotiating or compromising. For example, children may initially form their visions of the future through observing the lifestyles of their parents and those around them, and then in their daily interactions with their peers and teachers, they may change and reevaluate their original goals, as these people's thoughts and expectations shape their self-expectations and career aspirations.
In short, expectations of the adult world are closely related to the socioeconomic background of the individual. A child's family background, personal traits, the demographics around them, and the people they meet as they grow up will have a profound impact on their future, and these influences will continue throughout their teenage years, which is why intergenerational status is often strong. The phenomenon of status reproduction can be observed in many societies, as the ancients said, "Where there is a father, there must be a son". The Chinese proverb "dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and the children of mice will make holes" is also said of this phenomenon. In many societies, including China, the children of the elite grow up to remain elites, the children of the middle class remain middle-class status, and the children of the working class remain workers.
According to Pierre Bourdieu's theory, the reproduction of social status is like a card game, in which families compete for status as participants. Every family is dealt a hand of cards and must develop a strategy to maximize their chances of winning. However, from the beginning of the game, players are not equal to each other. Their hands are likely to be very different, with a few having a good hand and many being stuck in a bad hand. Players also have varying skill levels, with some families being more strategic, and others may not even have any strategy at all. And, despite sitting at the same table, players have varying levels of knowledge of the rules of the game, from those who are comfortable with the special rules and wildcards to those who may not know anything at all.
The elite is like a group of privileged players in a status reproduction game who are dealt a good hand and have a lot of economic, social, and cultural resources at their disposal. Elites are also usually players who value strategy. For example, wealthy elite parents place great emphasis on the nurturing of their children, thus increasing the probability of their children's success. These parenting practices include "collaborative nurturing": intense time management and interaction with agents in powerful positions, usually teachers and school staff. Faced with all kinds of problems in the process of their children's education, elite parents can be described as "exhausted" and inevitably consult with teachers and school administrators. Although some elite parents do not interfere with their children's daily routines, when they think their children are in trouble, they will resort to strategies that other under-resourced competitors cannot afford to adopt. Most importantly, the elite is familiar with the rules of the game. In essence, the elite group is the rule-maker and the operator of the game. After all, in the multitude of "cultural repertoire", it is the elite who determine the benefits that a particular taste can bring. It's no wonder that they place a higher value on their tastes.
Children and teenagers need degrees and certificates to envision the future. Elites who are committed to the reproduction of social status often see education as a key means of passing on privilege, and they develop the skills they need to succeed as students. The literature on social stratification argues that education is an important predictor of future development. When a society places more and more emphasis on credentials, educational achievement often becomes a prerequisite or marker of an individual's status. Elite young people train themselves in schooling and prepare themselves for global status. At the high school level, young elites need to cultivate a class-based cultural taste, acquire the ability to skillfully use knowledge, and be able to interact with each other easily and cleanly of non-elite traits from their bodies. After entering the university, these elite young people will continue to polish the hallmark characteristics of the elite and establish connections with fellow elite alumni. After graduating from college, these youth are more likely to find employment opportunities in large corporations and gain more power. Given the importance of education and the extent to which it affects individual achievement, education is arguably the most critical means for the youth elite to attain the status of the future socio-economic elite. In other words, a dozen or twenty years in school is a precious time for elite students to familiarize themselves with the rules of the game for the reproduction of social status.
One of the reasons why elites have been so successful in achieving status reproduction is that they are extremely familiar with the basic rules of status reproduction. However, the scope of the competition for status through education has changed: historically, the elite competed only at home, and now those with foreign degrees have joined the competition. At the same time, the number of competing individuals and institutions appears to be increasing. These changes suggest that while education remains crucial, the rules of competition for elite status at the international level may become somewhat blurred, as elites in different countries may disagree on the rules of competition. For example, the selection of elites in Germany begins as early as the fourth grade, while in the United States it takes place in the twelfth grade. In other words, Germany's elite teenagers entered the elite orbit earlier than in the United States. There are also differences in the individual talents that elite groups in different countries value and are willing to reward. In countries where only one foreign language is taught, multilingualism may be seen as an important advantage in global competition. In Luxembourg, where students are fluent in at least three languages during their school day, the elite here may have a different view of multilingualism. It is also difficult to compare the results of different education systems, and it is difficult to say which of the elite boarding schools in the United States, the public schools in the United Kingdom, or the international schools in China provides students with a stronger status advantage. Similarly, it is difficult to determine which of the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the United Kingdom, the Grandes écoles in France and Qingbei in China offer brighter job prospects for graduates.
When the process, timing, and criteria that determine educational success vary from country to country, it can be difficult for even elites to grasp the rules of competition for status on a global scale. However, in any competitive system, participants must uphold a common set of rules. So, what rules have been set by the global elite in the competition for status reproduction? What do they learn to gain elite status in the face of competitors around the world? This study shows that choosing and getting into the ideal university is a major life event for elite students in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Families in China see university as the first barrier to their child's entry into the elite of the future. It was almost a consensus among her high school classmates that a scholar like Ashley would go to top colleges and universities and reach the pinnacle of life. Teachers would even encourage students to envision their future careers as politicians. Elite students recognize that internationally recognized educational achievement yields the best returns. Ashley has received offers from Cambridge University and Carnegie Mellon University. While both universities were good choices, the University of Cambridge had a higher international reputation than the latter, and she chose the former based on this knowledge. Liu Xiangzu gave up the opportunity to work full-time as a consultant for an American company with annual revenues of millions of dollars, and resolutely pursued a doctorate because of his ambition to build a multinational company.
As scholars have pointed out, elite students choose top-notch, well-known educational institutions or pursue higher qualifications in order to compete with other relatively superior students. Ashley, Liu Xiangzu and other students all made educational decisions after careful consideration according to the rules of elite status reproduction. The children of these elites are placed in the international arena and stand out from the competition in education, thus equipping them with the necessary skills to compete for global elite status. Over time, a set of rules for the competition for the reproduction of status based on education became clear.
China's young elite
The educational achievements of China's young elite seem to have set them apart from the competition for global status. After graduating, these high-achieving wealthy children have moved on to high-paying jobs, and they seem to be able to achieve their personal career plans without the influence of international policies. In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump revised the visa policy for students in "STEM" fields, including science, technology, engineering and math, to shorten the length of time Chinese students in these majors can stay in the U.S. after graduation. However, many Chinese students remain confident, saying that their future plans have not changed. With their achievements in international competition, a predictable bright future, and a high level of self-confidence, young elites from China have become a role to be reckoned with in global competition, often difficult for other young people from developing countries to match. These Chinese students are well versed in the rules of competition for status and are determined to use all resources to implement their educational strategies. Above all, they want to achieve a reproduction of their parents' elite status not only in China, but also in the world. China's young socio-economic elite has achieved such remarkable achievements, and we know little about its path to global elite status. It's only in recent years that they've really come to the fore. In the 80s of the 20th century, China's economic reforms created a new group of socio-economic elites who achieved higher status through educational success. In the period that followed, education was an important factor in determining China's elite status, and this situation was not unique to China. Educational attainment has become a strong predictor of political and economic elites. The students selected for this study are the first generation who grew up in a period of stability, free of revolution and movement, and whose parents achieved upward mobility through education, expecting their children to enter top universities and take the first steps towards future elite status. In recent history, they are the first generation of Chinese to pursue educational achievements not only for upward mobility, but also for the sake of inheriting the status of their parents and continuing to enjoy a privileged status. In addition, the participants in this study represent the educational experience of the upper strata of Chinese society. In China, where inequality continues to deepen, the gap between the ultra-high-income earners and the rest of the population has widened significantly, and academic competition is among the fiercest in the world. Elite parents compete for status through academic competition and then continue to compete in the process of supporting their children's success. In this way, the intergenerational transmission is achieved among the elite, who are very experienced and skilled in using education as a means to achieve high positions. Intense academic competition as the main way to achieve socioeconomic dominance can have both benefits and unforeseen consequences. On the one hand, the Chinese adolescents selected for this study were born in the environment of the one-child policy in the 90s of the 20th century, and some scholars commented that the goal of the policy is to build a new generation of Chinese modernization pioneers. On some level, these teenagers are indeed fulfilling the Chinese government's plans. They pursue higher education at top institutions around the world, and their salaries are in the top 20% of their developed countries. On the other hand, as described in this book, some of them anticipate and receive differentiated treatment from their peers and high-ranking peers; At the same time, they are also destined to be under extreme pressure. Although their parents, as the title of Xue's book suggests, "could buy the sky home," they often experienced greater fear and anxiety than their peers in Western countries. The most common cause of suicide in high school and college is perceived as poor academic performance. In this book, I will show in detail how China's next generation of elites have the tools they need to compete internationally. I see the micro-interactions between students and adults as intertwined dynamics in the formation of elite status. Through a closer analysis, I realized that the new generation of global elites will skillfully use tangible and intangible resources to stand out from the competition and occupy an advantageous position in the era of global expansion. About the Study Elite groups of students have made a lot of efforts to achieve their dreams, and they often have the support of their parents and the resources around them. When I started this research, I wanted to be able to see the whole process. I focused on the experiences of the students, rather than the school or the parent's perspective, in the hope of capturing students' understanding of the competition for status in a global society. This meant that I had to cross borders and examine how highly privileged students compete for dominance with competitors around the world.
There are few studies on elites. To the best of my knowledge, this study is the first project to track the socio-economic elite student population over a long-term period. The book is based on observations and interviews with elite students in China over a period of more than seven years, from 2012 to 2019. (The methodology appendix details the approach taken by the study.) I interviewed 28 students who attended five high schools in Beijing, all of which were ranked in the top 10 in Beijing (there are about 300 high schools in Beijing). To better understand the impact and expectations of adults on students, I also interviewed students' parents and teachers. Two of the five schools allowed me to conduct classroom observations, allowing me to talk freely with students. These two schools became the main places of my fieldwork, under the pseudonyms "Dingfeng Middle School", which was founded in the Qing Dynasty and has a long history, and "Capital Middle School", which rose to prominence in the 21st century. I conducted in-depth participatory observations of 8 students from Summit Middle School and Capital High School, and I followed them for 10 to 15 hours a day for 5 days. On campus, I sat in the classroom and studied and ate with them. After class, I hang out with them in Beijing, watch movies or go to theme parks. During the days of the college entrance examination, I also waited outside the examination room to accompany them. Through these activities, I got to know many of their classmates and alumni. Visiting elite families was not an easy task, but I managed to observe the homes of four of the eight main collaborators. For three of the boys, I visited the house 1 to 3 times, each lasting 3 to 7 hours. And at the girl's house, I continued to observe for 4 days. During the visit, I hope that parents and children will ignore my presence as much as possible and maintain the rhythm of daily life. It's impossible to ignore it completely, but when they focus on housework or studying, I can downplay my influence to some extent. When observing family life, I sit on the floor of the living room, and I sit in the back seat of the car while accompanying them to the test venue and restaurants. As I mentioned in the appendix to the methodology, the acceptance of students and families has given me more confidence that the family interactions I observe are the natural norm. At the time of writing, I had been in the field for seven years. In 2012, these students were in the second and third years of high school, which was the most stressful, and they were busy taking the university entrance examination. In 2019, they all graduated from their bachelor's degree and became newcomers to the workplace or graduate school. I kept in touch with 28 students through social media such as WeChat, Renren and Facebook. After graduating from high school, I met with each of these students an average of two times, and those who happened to be in Philadelphia met with me almost every year. Students told me that the process of participating in this research was enjoyable. They were very willing to come and see me and keep in touch with me after graduation. Seven years after graduating from high school, the girls still hug me, take selfies, and walk hand in hand. The boys greeted me with a smile and helped me with my backpack or showed me around. Several even offered invitations to stay in their apartments for the next meeting. They still call me "sister," just like I did in high school. Our interactions convinced me that the young people I had been with in the classroom – now a global elite – were still accepting of me and willing to share with me the landscape of their world.
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