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Abstract

This article examines new students from rural areas admitted to Peking University from 1978 to 2005. In order to illustrate the intense maneuvering between social status groups for the benefits and prestige accordant with admission to Peking University, it analyzes the status struggles of these rural students and the special barriers they must overcome. Regional disparities in admissions, the sizes of elite selection circles across different provinces and cities, and the distribution of resources for quality basic education are also analyzed. By examining the culture, institutions, structures and processes of the selection process in China, the authors argue that a seemingly fair and merit-based selection process actually obscures complex and powerful interests capable of manipulating it. The study also raises two issues associated with cultivating elite students, cultural capital shortages and cultural discontinuities, that are in need of further consideration.

Keywords

Educational selection Social justice Peking University admissions Rural students

Footnotes

¹ See 韦伯/Wei Bo (简慧美/Jian Huimei trans.), 中国的宗教——儒教与道教/zhongguo de zongjiao—rujiao yu daojiao, (Guilin: guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2004.5). (Weber, Religions of China—Confucianism and Daoism); 张仲礼/Zhang Zhongli (李荣昌/Li Rongchang trans.), 中国绅士——关于其在 19 世纪中国社会中的作用的研究/zhongguo shenshi—guanyu qi zai 19 shiji zhongguo shehui zhong de zuoyong de yanjiu, (Shanghai: shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, .7). (China’s Gentry—Its Role in 19th Century Chinese Society).

² See L. 华康德/L. Hua Kang De (李康/Li Kang trans.), “解读布迪厄的 ‘资本’ 概念”/“jiedu bu di e ‘ziben’ gainian”, in 苏国勋/Su Guoxun et al. eds. 社会理论的政治分化/shehui lilun de zhengzhi fenhua (Shanghai: shanghai sanlian shudian, 2005.6), 355. (L. Wacquant, “Reading Bourdieu’s Capital” in Political Fragmentation in Social Theory). Here we borrow Talcott Parsons’ two factors for determining success and status: ascribed factors (status at birth, talent, ancestry) and achieved factors (contributions, achievements, and industriousness).

³ See L. 华康德 /L. Hua Kang De (李猛/Li Meng trans.), “论符号权力的轨迹对布迪厄《国家精英》的讨论”/“lun fuhao quanli de guigi: dui bu di e《guojia jingying》 de taolun”, in 苏国勋/Su Guoxun et al. eds. 社会理论的政治分化/shehui lilun de zhengzhi fenhua (Shanghai: shang hai san lian shu dian, 2005.6), 357. (L. Wacquant, “Discussing the Pathways of Symbolic Power: A Discussion of Bourdieu’s National Capital” in Political Fragmentation in Social Theory).

⁴ Ibid., 359-360.

⁵ 李强/Li Qiang, 社会分层与贫富差别/shehui fenceng yu pinfu chaju (Xiamen: lujiang chubanshe, 2000), 15. (Social Stratification and Wealth Inequality).

⁶ In Shandong, in 2005, 731 thousand graduating high schoolers took the college entrance examination. That year, Peking University’s quota for Shandong was 75 students. The saying “one chosen from ten thousand” was right on the mark. In the last ten years, Peking University has admitted more than half of the provincial “number one scorers”; in recent years, the vast majority of medal winners at international olympiads for mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology have gained admittance to Peking University as well.

⁷ I.Q+Effort= achievement.

⁸ Data included place of birth, sex, political status (政治面貌), household status, secondary school graduated, nationality (民族), entrance examination score, department of enrollment and major. To take one example, one of five values would be assigned for place of birth: village, county (county seat city), prefecture city, provincial capital city, or directly-administered city. In the household status section of the registry, values included: cadre, peasant (农民), worker, intellectual, military, and teacher, among others.

⁹ The 2000-2005 data contain relatively few entries on place of birth compared with 1978-1998; the new hukou data, however, are quite complete and binary, with the values ‘village hukou’ or ‘city-township hukou’.

¹⁰ 陈锡文/Chen Xiwen (Director, Central Agricultural Working Group Office) “农村转型”/“nongcun zhuanxing”, 财经年刊: 2008 预测与战略/caijing nian kan: 2008 yuce yu zhanlue (2008). (“Agricultural Transformation”).

¹¹ Sources: “中国人口统计年鉴2000”/“zhongguo renkuo tongji nianjian 2000”, “中国教育统计年鉴2000”/“zhongguo jiaoyu tongji nianjian 2000”, (Almanac of China Population Statistics 2000, Almanac of China Education Statistics 2000), data compiled from the student archives at the Peking University Office of Educational Administration.

¹² 徐晓/Xu Xiao et al., 遇罗克: 遗作与回忆/yu luo ke: yizuo yu huiyi (Beijing: zhongguo wenxian chuban gongsi, 1991.1 with 徐友渔/Xu Youxu foreword). (Yu Luoke: Posthumous Works and Memories).

¹³ 孙立平/Sun Liping, 李强/Li Qiang, 沈原/Shen Yuan, et al., “中国社会结构转型的中近期趋势与隐患”/“zhongguo shehui jiegou zhuanxing de zhong jin qi qushi yu yinhuan”, 战略与管理/zhanlue yu guanli (Beijing: .5). (“Recent Trends and Hidden Dangers in China’s Transforming Social Structure”).

¹⁴ 陆学艺/Lu Xueyi, (), 3. After the Reform and Opening these were split into ten strata: national and societal managers, [business] managers, private business owners, skilled technicians, clerks, self-employed industrial or commercial workers, commercial services workers, production workers, agricultural laborers, and the urban and rural unemployed, laid-off and partially unemployed.

¹⁵ Sun and Li.

¹⁶ In 1978, the ratio of urban to rural incomes was 2.4: 1; in 1983, it had shrunk to 1.7: 1; by 1997, however, it had quickly expanded to 2.5: 1; and in 2000, it had grown still further to 2.79: 1. The rural population is 65% of China; yet, rural depositors had less than one fifth of China’s savings (孙立平 /Sun Liping, ). In 2001, the ratio grew to 2.9: 1; in 2003, 3.21: 1 (陆学艺 /Lu Xueyi, 2003). Furthermore, urban resident have some hidden income in the form of housing subsidies, and medical and social welfare benefits. Including these, which rural residents lack entirely, the real urban-rural income disparity should be in the range of 5-6: 1. In this age of industrialization and modernization, the resources and wealth the “native soil” can provide are extremely limited. When the West underwent this process, huge influxes of labor and population poured into cities and population on the “native soil” shrank. In China, barriers to the cities have still left the broad village populations in their locales, where almost one billion people share daily shrinking resources and wealth (Su Liping, 2002). Peasants and migrant peasant workers are a clear status group in society. For the current household registration system, however, there is virtually no likelihood of changes.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Sun, 1998.

²⁰ 刘云杉/Liu Yunshan, 王志明/Wang Zhiming, “女性进入精英群体: 有限的进步”/“Nvxing jinru jingying qunti”, 高等教育研究/gaodeng jiaoyu yanjiu (2008.2). (“Women Entering Elite Groups: Limited Progress”).

²¹ 刘云杉/Liu Yunshan, 王志明/Wang Zhiming, “女性进入精英群体: 有限的进步”/“nvxing jinru jingying qunti”, 高等教育研究/gaodeng jiaoyu yanjiu (2008.2). (“Women Entering Elite Groups: Limited Progress”).

²² The research of 张玉林/Zhang Yulin () has shown that the average expenditure budgeted per primary school student in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, is 5.9 times the provincial average. In the city with the highest middle school per-student expenditures, Henan’s Xinxiang, expenditures are 5.9 times per-student expenditures in the province’s villages. In 1999, in fifteen of China’s provinces, the percentage of graduates from urban middle schools who went on to enroll in high school was over three times that for graduates from rural middle schools. In Anhui, the urban:rural multiple was 3.6 (55.7%: 15.4%); in Hubei, 3.9 (71.4%: 18.4%); in populous Shandong, 4.4 (72.3%: 16.8%); and in Henan, 4.5 (57.4%: 12.9%).

²³ In 1987, Hainan had not yet become a province, so it is not included in the list. Though Guangdong was not yet number one, its score was calculated according to the standards; we treat it separately and did not place it among the three provincial categories.

²⁴ See L. 华康德/L. Hua Kang De (L. Wacquant), “Reading Bourdieu’s Capital”, 339-356.

²⁵ These results were selected from the list of “One Hundred Secondary Schools 2005” (“2005 年中国百强中学”) presented at the first annual Famous Secondary School Principals Conference held at Peking University’s Outstanding Persons Exchange Center (英杰交流中心) on October 29, 2005.

²⁶ See L. 华康德/L. Hua Kang De (L. Wacquant), “Discussing the Pathways of Symbolic Power”, 365-367.

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Selecting the Elite: Status,Geography and Capital—Admission of Rural Students into Peking University (1978-2005)

Abstract

Abstract

Keywords

Footnotes

References