The Most Amazing Fact about Chinese Students

There are a lot of differences between Chinese and American students. And there are, unsurprisingly, a lot of differences between the Chinese and American educational systems - from the primary school through graduate work.

But the most amazing fact (and difference) about Chinese students and their experience of the educational system is: THEY DON'T CHOOSE THEIR OWN MAJORS! Think about that for a minute, or a few hours, and think about the consequences of such a policy. Then also think about what Chinese society must be like for this to be just another ordinary fact of life for Chinese students.

These are some photos I took last semester in one of my classes. It was a low attendance day, but the students were amused at the photos. The girl giving the V sign above is one of my better students - Chen Dongmei. The student below, Zhu Zhijie, is also one of my better students.

In any event, I wanted to briefly discuss the fact about being assigned a major. Well, it is only partially true. About 20% of students (the best) get to choose their majors. This comes right out of high school. When students take the big national exam (that determines everything) they list three schools that they would want to attend. But it's tricky. You can only list one good school [in China called "a key school"]. That's because if you list two key schools - for instance if you put Peking University first, then you put Xiamen University second, then Xiamen University will not admit you because you listed them second. This means that you have one shot at a good school, then the other choices are for colleges and universities that are more provincial [these are inferior, don't try to think of it as comparable to the US where you can go to a good school that is small, etc.].

You can also list three majors of your choice. Remember, you are a high school student when you do this. So now the students take the all important national exam. Here is the story of one of my students whose family name is Wang [which is about 1/4 of China]. She put Xiamen University first, and regional schools from her province second and third. She scored high enough to be admitted to Xiamen University, but not high enough to get one of her desired majors (for instance one of them was English). She was assigned to be a philosophy major. She had no clue what philosophy was. But she decided that the best thing for her was to go to XiaDa even though she wasn't clear about the major. Well, as you might expect, she does not like philosophy. She can't figure it out - what are they talking about?? She has been studying it for years but still can't make heads or tails of it.

I think that this is a very common reaction. Now philosophy is a tough subject, and clearly not for everyone. But imagine being forced to study almost nothing else for years - and not liking it, and not being able to change. That's tough. When I was in Jinan, I brought this up and a professor of political science said that he thought about 50-60% of the political science students hate the subject.

Recently at Xiamen University they have instituted a double major, such that you can choose your second major. At least I've heard this but I am not sure about it or about any conditions that are placed on it.

To give you some examples, students filled out a sheet of questions I gave them. To this question about majors:

One student who went to undergraduate at another school in another province wanted to major in English or History: she was assigned Ideological and Political Education.

Another student from another school wanted to major in Literature or a Foreign Language: she was assigned to Marketing.

Another student wanted to major in Physics or Music [hey, they are 17]: he was assigned Chemistry ["It's okay, but I'd rather do something else"].

Another wanted Foreign Language or Law: got Ideological and Political Education.

Now, several students got the major that they wanted and are happy. Several students got the major they wanted and then found themselves unhappy. Several students got philosophy by choice, but several did not. Several who got it assigned are now happy with it. But this is what you would expect. The difficulty is the ones who are forced, don't like it, and are trapped.

This system is more efficient, but at the cost of much misery and suffering. It is these issues about freedom and choice that still highlight cultural and political differences the most to me.