The majority of China’s emerging rich obtained their wealth not through academic performance, but through family connections, entrepreneurship and social networking. The rise of the middle class has seen more and more affluent Chinese parents move away from traditional parenting, or simply sending their children to school abroad.
Beijinger Zhou Xiang, a graduate of Rice University and mother of a 4-year-old, told NewsChina that she spent 2,000 yuan (US300) per month on various family classes teaching parents to play with their kids. “I want my child to consider me a friend, not an authority figure,” she said.
Recent waves of emigration among China’s rich are partly driven out of concern for their children’s education. Zhu Youjuan, whose brother has emigrated to the US, told NewsChina that she is trying to secure a green card for herself and her two children. Zhu’s primary concern is for her daughters. “I don’t want them to be burdened with homework and exams like I was when I was a kid.” Zhu said her second option was to send her kids to Singapore, which is known for its combination of Chinese and Western education methods.
Class Difference
For some, the new preference among China’s rich for foreign schooling shows that the debates drawing a line between “Chinese” and “Western” methods lack substance and overlook an important aspect of the issue of “right” and “wrong” parenting – class differences.
“The truth is that success in the modern US, as in many other countries and regions, comes from money and opportunities, not parenting,” commented James Palmer, editor of China’s State-run Global Times.
Chua’s critics hint that, as a daughter of famous Berkeley professor and herself a Harvard law professor, she can afford the luxury of allowing her kids to enjoy their lives, rather than resort to “desperately authoritarian parenting.” If Chua was an impoverished immigrant mother on the bottom rung of society who managed to send her daughters to Harvard through strict discipline, her critics might be less vehement.
Indeed, the fact that more and more Chinese mothers, the majority of whom are middle and upper class, are adopting Western-style education methods whether through supplementary education or expensive private schools in China or abroad, is more the result of their increased means rather than a dramatic societal transformation. Even in education-obsessed China, academic performance alone does not guarantee success. Western-style education itself does not only make allowances for leisure time, but also exposes children to greater social interaction, giving them key skills for dealing with others and broadening their opportunities.
For the majority of Chinese working-class parents, examples of successful college dropouts such as Bill Gates have little relevance. Excellent academic performance still remains the cheapest and most reliable way to move up the social ladder, as it has for millennia. What they lack in cash and connections, they make up for in effort.
“For the rich and powerful, if their kids fail their college entrance exams, they can send them to colleges overseas or use connections to get them into a domestic college. But what can we do?” said Yu Qinhua, a father from Qingdao. “Good grades may not be everything, but getting into college is at least a foot in the door.”
Central attempts to reduce the importance of examinations in college enrollment met with strong resistance, mostly from working class and rural residents concerned that arbitrary criteria other than grades would lead to a further abuse of the system by wealthy families.
Convergence?
Regardless of their methods, Chinese parents are no different from their American counterparts, in that they want their offspring to stand out in an increasingly competitive society.
Take a recent Chinese bestseller From A Slow Start to Harvard for example, which tells the story of a boy who, despite uniformly flunking school exams, finally enrolls in Harvard University through a combination of pluck and creativity. The book advocates an “alternative” Western-style education approach for Chinese parents concerned about the competitiveness of their children, but ultimately repeats the age-old adage that the goal is for them to get into a top-notch university and become rich.
The China-US rivalry underlies much of the debate Chua’s book kindled in the West. For years, Chinese parents have craved a Western education system that nurtures innovation and creativity, seen as the secret to realizing the American Dream. Schools have responded by attempting to broaden a limited curriculum to give students a more comprehensive education.
Ironically, perceiving China’s rise alongside the seemingly parallel decline of their own nation’s supremacy, Americans are associating the perceived discipline and perseverance of Chinese students with the country’s economic boom. Realizing its education system may not be adequate to prepare youngsters for an increasingly competitive marketplace; the American government has extended school days and increased the number of standardized examinations both at state and national level.
“As the world gets smaller, competition has crossed national borders, which has led to a convergence of Eastern and Western education methods,” commented Cai Jiangnan, a researcher from the Massachusetts Department of Health, writing in China’s Liberation Daily.
What nobody seems to be able to confirm is the ultimate validity of either approach. As China liberalizes while America and Europe revert to educational conservatism, parents are waiting to see if the two systems will converge, or simply switch places.
