Yi-Lin Chiang - Study Gods (Princeton Studies in Contemporary China)

STUDY GODS

PRINCETON STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

Mary Gallagher and Yu Xie, Series Editors

Study Gods, Yi-Lin Chiang

A Decade of Upheaval, Dong Guoqiang and Andrew G. Walder

Governing the Urban in China and India, Xuefei Ren

Chinas Urban Champions, Kyle A. Jaros

The Contentious Public Sphere, Ya-Wen Lei

Study Gods

HOW THE NEW CHINESE ELITE PREPARE FOR GLOBAL COMPETITION

YI-LIN CHIANG

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON & OXFORD

Copyright 2022 by Princeton University Press

Princeton University Press is committed to the protection of copyright and the intellectual property our authors entrust to us. Copyright promotes the progress and integrity of knowledge. Thank you for supporting free speech and the global exchange of ideas by purchasing an authorized edition of this book. If you wish to reproduce or distribute any part of it in any form, please obtain permission.

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to

Published by Princeton University Press

41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR

press.princeton.edu

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Chiang, Yi-Lin, 1984 author.

Title: Study gods : how the new Chinese elite prepare for global competition / Yi-Lin Chiang.

Description: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021059955 (print) | LCCN 2021059956 (ebook) | ISBN 9780691210483 (paperback) | ISBN 9780691210490 (hardback) | ISBN 9780691237190 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: AdolescenceChina. | Elite (Social sciences)EducationChina. | Social statusChina.

Classification: LCC HQ799.C55 C447 2022 (print) | LCC HQ799.C55 (ebook) | DDC 05.2350951dc23/eng/20220211

LC record available at https: / /lccn.loc.gov/2021059955

LC ebook record available at https: / /lccn.loc.gov/2021059956

Version 1.0

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

Editorial: Meagan Levinson and Jacqueline Delaney

Production Editorial: Jaden Young and Ellen Foos

Jacket/Cover Design: Lauren Smith

Production: Lauren Reese

Publicity: Kate Hensley and Charlotte Coyne

Copyeditor: Joseph Dahm

Jacket/Cover Credit: Cover images (left): metamorworks/iStock, (right) Fabio Formaggio/Alamy

For my parents, with love and gratitude

1. xi
2. xiii

1. .Meme for the National College Entrance Exam
2. .Status System in Top Chinese High Schools

1. .Extra Points Available for Beijing Students
2. .School Schedules at Capital and Pinnacle
3. .Elite Youth Demographics

THIS BOOK began as my dissertation project at Penn. I am deeply indebted to the many people who have supported me throughout this journey. My greatest thanks go to Annette Lareau, my advisor and academic parent, for her mentorship and undying support. Her invaluable feedback and encouragement have sustained me from the beginning of fieldwork to the completion of this book. Annette taught me how to collect and analyze ethnographic data, how to frame a question, and how to navigate academia. Her persistence in inquiring about the conceptual contributions of my work was especially illuminating. This book would not exist without her guidance. I am also extremely grateful to Randall Collins, who taught and led me through the theoretical concepts critical to my research. His encouragement fueled my motivation to complete this study, and his suggestions greatly shaped this book. Emily Hannum introduced me to the field of Chinese education and continued to play an important role throughout the project. As the only committee member who could visit me in Beijing during fieldwork, she was a source of invaluable insights. Special thanks to Hyunjoon Park for his intellectual and emotional support. My committee and their genuine interests in this project have kept me afloat through the struggles of academic writing. I extend my deepest appreciation to Jere Behrman, Irma Elo, and Guobin Yang for their support and encouragement throughout graduate school. Yeonjin Lee, Li-Chung Hu, Sarah Spell, Hyejeong Jo, Aliya Rao, Natalie Young, Sangsoo Lee, Phoebe Ho, Chris Reece, Doga Kerestecioglu, and Duy Do made my life in McNeil Building brighter.

At Beijing, I was lucky to meet friends who shared similar interests at the Chicago Center and in Taiyueyuan. Chen Chen, Denelle Raynolds, Chenjia Xu, Stephanie Balkwill, Mary McElhinny, and Nathan Attrill turned fieldwork into a fun and exciting experience. Genuine thanks to my uncles and aunts in Beijing: Dong Zhao, Deng Zhengrong, Yan Shijian, Liu Xiufang, and Liu Yong. They took me under their wings in the city, helping me with everything I needed from apartment hunting to introducing me to school personnel. I could not have carried out this study without their relentless support.

I returned to Taipei after living in the States for twelve years. My colleagues in the Sociology Department at National Chengchi University gave me time to readjust and space to develop. Other Taipei-based faculty supported me by expressing their constant excitement about this manuscript. Hsuan-Wei Lee, Jack Neubauer, and Kevin Tseng are wonderful colleagues and stimulating interlocutors. Friends outside Taipei also provided unwavering support and assistance. Thanks especially to Alice Yeh, whose advice and support I can always count on. Junhow Wei, Ran Liu, Cole Carnesecca, and Jaap Nieuwenhuis are friends in need and friends indeed.

Fieldwork is economically costly, especially longitudinal work conducted overseas. During the course of research, I received generous financial support from Penn and in Taiwan. I was able to carry out fieldwork in Beijing through the Otto and Gertrude K. Pollak Summer Research Fellowship, the Judith Rodin Fellowship, the President Gutmann Leadership Award, and the Provost Fellowship Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation offered by the University of Pennsylvania. The book writing grant approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology (1082410-H-004194-MY2) financed my follow-up visits with students around the world.

I wish to thank Meagan Levinson at Princeton University Press, who brilliantly suggested that I turn my initial yearlong study into a longitudinal one. She was incredibly patient as I spent years gathering follow-up data, undertaking new analysis, and completely rewriting the manuscript. Many thanks to Jaqueline Delaney and Jaden Young for their assistance throughout the production process. Ideas from this book were presented at Princeton University, the University of WisconsinMadison, the Pennsylvania State University, Peking University, National Tsinghua University, and Academia Sinica. I appreciate the comments and insights I received there, as well as those of the anonymous reviewers who read an earlier draft of the manuscript. Peter Harvey, Sherelle Ferguson, Blair Sackett, Soo-yong Byun, Jonathan Mijs, and Ben Ross read and commented on chapters of the manuscript. The ideas presented here have also benefited from the feedback of anonymous reviews and suggestions by Murray Milner, Yu Xie, and Shamus Khan.

I had the privilege of enduring support from my family, who has been integral in supporting me throughout my research endeavors. My parents instilled in me the habit to focus on research and led by example. They are not only my source of entry into fieldwork but also the earliest onset of this study. Their decision to send my brother and me to a private middle school in Taipei introduced me to a foreign world of the elite. Unbeknownst to them as they consoled a then-traumatized teenage girl, the differences between middle class and affluence would a decade later spark her interest in studying elites.