Imbalance of resources
The studies conducted by Yang and Jin reflect the root of the problem – the unevenness in China's education system.
Most of the prestigious universities in China are located in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and other provincial capitals, making it much easier for urban students out of high school to get into good universities. In addition, a slew of policies, including lowered entrance scores and scores given for special talents (such as in arts or sports), have further guaranteed admission to better universities for students in the cities.
Like Lu Ming, Tong Shiyimei, a student at Peking University, comes from a small village in Cangzhou of North China's Hebei Province. Tong considers herself lucky to have had the privilege of studying at a prestigious provincial-level high school, a "springboard" to a first-class university. Her former classmates who studied at county-level high schools all ended up in local colleges.
The school Tong attended is one of the "super" high schools in China. Most of these schools, based in provincial capitals, have taken up more of the country's already uneven educational resources, allowing them to frequently recommend their best students to universities like Peking, Tsinghua or Fudan.
"The door to Peking University would have been shut before I even sat for the exam if I hadn't attended the high school," Tong said.
According to Yang Dongping's research, most students from small villages only attend local colleges and technical schools.
Another survey of 34 universities by Xiamen University in 2004 found that the percentage of students from urban workers' families attending first-class universities had also dropped by 7.9 points.
"Poorer family, worse school," concluded Lian Si, an intellectual who has studied China's "antizens" for years. Antizens are college graduates who earn meager salaries and live in small rented apartments and resemble tiny, laborious ants.
In fact, there is a growing group of village youth who are reluctant to even attend technical schools, Lian said. Most of them choose to work for small local workshops and factories, where conditions are poor; some of them even go to the cities as migrant workers.
The country is under profound transformation, while the lives of people like these young men and women are at a standstill, Lian added.
One thousand kilometers away from Beijing, Lu Ming's hometown is like a movie playing in slow-motion – many teenagers have become idlers, with no will to continue their studies, while others leave the villages in search of better opportunities in the cities.
Lu says he doesn't like the environment in his hometown and has become detached from his old friends. The "university student in Beijing" has little in common now with his peers studying at technical schools.
But there is one thing Lu shares with them: the hope that their children will have the courage to change their destinies.
