Comfort for Scholars

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The path of Chinese study is long and arduous, both for those learning the

language and Chinese students themselves. Language learners must usually spend years applying themselves to unravel the mystery of Mandarin fluency, while Chinese schoolchildren face the grind of prepping for the monumentally important gaokao exam, before deciding whether to pursue their studies overseas, or stay at home and graduate into an ever more competitive job market. But then nothing worth having ever comes easy, or in the words of Confucius, “A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar” (士而怀居,不足以为士矣。 Sh# 9r hu1i j$, b& z% y@ w9i sh# y@). Don’t fear though, help is at hand. All of us at The World of Chinese have undergone these trials and tribulations, putting us in the perfect position to advise prospective students on their best course of action. Editor Liz Tung takes the lead with an invaluable breakdown of the relative merits of different approaches to studying Mandarin in China, from university programs and immersion courses, to less formal options like learning with friends or parachuting into a remote area and using your wits to survive (page 26). Studying in the West can give Chinese graduates a vital leg-up when looking for a job, but how many of them know who China’s first overseas student was and how much they have to thank him for? Liu Jue gives the low-down on overseas study pioneer Yung Wing, and assesses why so many Chinese are now choosing to follow in his slippered footsteps (page 42).

Elsewhere, Zhu Beijing looks back on the infernal gaokao university entrance exam, analyzing whether the test remains as important as it once was, and offering insight into how the nature of the questions has changed (page 36). Edoardo Gagliardi also tackles the gaokao, training his expert eye on“Gaokao 1977,” a film that reaches back in time to the reinstatement of the gaokao after an 11-year hiatus during the Cultural Revolution (page 78).

Ginger Huang rounds off our features by tracking the evolution of Chinese majors over the last 30 years, beginning with the halcyon days when the government made all the hard choices on students’ behalf, and concluding with the increasingly complex decisions facing today’s prospective graduates (page 50). As always, there will be chapters in the story of Chinese education that we have missed, but I hope students gearing up to study in China will find useful insights in the pages that follow, not just to aid their own progress, but also further their understanding of what their Chinese peers are going through.

Warm Regards,

David Green

Managing Editor