Teaching Comparative

Recruitment of an Elite in China

The title of this article doesn't sound political, but in the fourth paragraph, New YorkTimes reporter Howard French offers a perspective on leadership recruitment. If the chase for material success has changed so much in China since 1976, has the chase for political success remained the same? If not, how has it changed? Does the textbook you use reflect any changes in political recruitment?

Chinese Children Learn Class, Minus the Struggle

"A generation ago, when people still dressed in monochromes and acquiring great wealth, never mind flaunting it, was generally illegal, the route to success was to join the right Communist Party youth organization or to attend one of the best universities.

"Now the race starts early, with an emphasis not on ideology but on the skills and experiences the children will need in the elite life they are expected to lead. In addition to early golf training, which has become wildly popular, affluent parents are enrolling their children in everything from ballet and private music lessons, to classes in horse riding, ice-skating, skiing and even polo.

"The intense interest in lifestyle training speaks not just to parents’ concern for their children’s futures but also to a general sense of social insecurity among China's newly rich.

“'Parents like myself are worrying about China becoming a steadily more competitive society,' said Zhong Yu, 36, a manufacturing supervisor whose wife is a senior accountant with an international firm and whose son 7-year-old son has been enrolled in the junior M.B.A. classes. 'Every day we see stories in the newspapers about graduates unable to find good jobs. Education in China is already good in the core subjects, but I want my son to have more creative thinking, because basic knowledge isn’t sufficient anymore.'

"Other experts say that for many others, the grooming schools, study abroad and lessons in elite sports like golf and polo are as much about a gnawing sense of social insecurity as they are about getting ahead.

“'Americans respect people who came from nothing and made something of themselves, and they also respect rich people,' Mr. Wang [an expert in comparative cultural studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in Beijin] added. 'In China, people generally don’t respect rich people, because there is a strong feeling that they are lacking in ethics. These new rich not only want money, they want people to respect them in the future.'”

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:37 PM