Meritocracy and Its Discontents

M. Howlett Zachary

Description

Meritocracy and Its Discontents investigates the wider social, political, religious, and economic dimensions of the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, as well as the complications that arise from its existence. Each year, some nine million high school seniors in China take the Gaokao, which determines college admission and provides a direct but difficult route to an urban lifestyle for China's hundreds of millions of rural residents. But with college graduates struggling to find good jobs, some are questioning the exam's legitimacy-and, by extension, the fairness of Chinese society. Chronicling the experiences of underprivileged youth, Zachary M. Howlett's research illuminates how people remain captivated by the exam because they regard it as fateful-an event both consequential and undetermined. He finds that the exam enables people both to rebel against the social hierarchy and to achieve recognition within it. In Meritocracy and Its Discontents, Howlett contends that the Gaokao serves as a pivotal rite of passage in which people strive to personify cultural virtues such as diligence, composure, filial devotion, and divine favor.

Sujets

• Histoire
• History of Asia
• Anthropology
• China

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501754449
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

MERITOCRACYANDITS DISCONTENTS

MERITOCRACY ANDITS DISCONTENTS AnxietyandtheNationalCollege Entrance Exam in China

CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESS

ZacharyM.Howlett

ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2021 by Zachary M. Howlett

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,orparts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2021 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Howlett, Zachary M., 1976– author. Title:Meritocracyanditsdiscontents:anxietyandthenationalcollegeentrance exam in China / Zachary M. Howlett. Description:Ithaca[NewYork]:CornellUniversityPress,2021.|Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers:LCCN2020025194(print)|LCCN2020025195(ebook)| ISBN|kc)9875110754432(hardcove|)rBSI79N05185417346ap(pbaer ISBN98775441501eboo56(BSI|)k051879N9445417)df(p Subjects:LCSH:Gaokao(Educationaltest)—Socialaspects.|Universitiesand colleges—China—Entrance examinations. | Achievement tests—China. Classification:LCCLB2353.8.C6H682021(print)|LCCLB2353.8.C6(ebook) | DDC 378.51—dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020025194 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020025195

Cover photo: Parents pray at a temple to Wenchang, the God of Examinations, for their children’s success on the College Entrance Exam, Fujian Province, 2013. Photograph by the author.

Contents

Acknowledgments NoteonTranslationandOrthography SelectedTwentiethCenturyTimeline Prologue:TheFinalBattle

1.  A Fateful Rite of Passage: The Gaokao and the Myth of Meritocracy 2. Mobility, Time, and Value: The High Stakes of Examination and the Ideology of Developmentalism 3. Counterfeit Fairness: State Secrets and the False Confidence of Test Takers 4. Diligence versus Quality: Merit, Inequality, and Urban Hegemony 5. Courage under Fire: The Paradoxical Role of Head Teachers and the Individualizing Moment of Examination 6.  Magic and Meritocracy: PopularReligious Responses to Examination Anxiety Epilogue:LostandConfused

Notes References Index

vii xi xii xiii

1

41

77

116

146

182

226

235 241 259

Acknowledgments

Myexperiencewritingthisbookdemonstratesoneofitscentralpremises.We often credit people’s accomplishments to their individual merit; however, the foundations of merit are social. My name appears on the cover of this book, but countless people contributed to its formation. First thanks go to all the people in the Chinese high schools where I conducted my fieldwork. My students in these schools were my tireless teachers, and many of the teaching staff and adminis trators became close friends. Although I cannot name them in public, this book owes its existence to them. MyadvisersSteveSangren,MagnusFiskesjö,andTJHinrichsnurturedme throughout my time at Cornell University. I owe each of them a great intellectual debt. Many other teachers at Cornell also inspired me: Dominic Boyer, Sherman Cochran, Petrus Liu, Robin McNeal, Hiro Miyazaki, Viranjini Munasinghe, Ter ence Turner, Sofia Villenas, and Andrew Willford, to name a few. I also thank classmates, friends, and staff at Cornell who helped and supported me, includ ing Kevin Carrico, Jack Chia, Donna Duncan, Lim Wah Guan, Pauline Limbu, Laura Menchaca, Margaret Rolfe, James Sharrock, Nguyet Tong, Erick White, and Taomo Zhou. Fundingformyresearchcamefrommanysources.TheUSDepartmentof Education financed my graduate training with a fouryear Jacob K. Javits Fellow ship. My fieldwork was supported by the Mellon Foundation, which stepped in to fund projects selected for the FulbrightHays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship when Congress suspended the program in 2011. The funding was administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE), and I owe special thanks to the IIE program manager in Beijing, Janet Upton, who kindly shared her wisdom about fieldwork as a fellow China anthropolo gist. In addition to external funding, I received generous support from Cornell University. Two summers of preliminary fieldwork were funded by a Mario Ein audi Center Travel Grant and an East Asia Program Lam Family Award for South China Research. The Cornell East Asia Program also supported the writing phase of my research with a Hu Shih Fellowship in Chinese Studies. InChina,avarietyofinstitutionsandindividualsprovidedcrucialsupport. In the Department of Anthropology of Xiamen University, I was hosted by Zeng Shaocong, now at the Chinese Academy for Social Sciences. Professor Zeng wel comed me into his community of friends and students and helped me secure

vii

viiiACKNOWLEDGMENTS

the tricky permissions necessary for a foreigner to conduct fieldwork in a rural school. In the Department of Social Work, Yi Lin served as a vital sounding board for ideas and made many helpful introductions. At the Institute of Education of Xiamen University, Liu Haifeng and Zheng Ruoling shared their profound knowledge of the College Entrance Examination and inspired me with their dis tinctive style of scholarship, which investigates the contemporary exam in tan dem with China’s imperial era civil exams. IreceivedinvaluablementorshipasapostdoctoralfellowattheHarvardAcad emy of International and Area Studies. Elizabeth Perry generously agreed to read my whole manuscript and chair a book workshop on it. Susan Blum, Andrew Kipnis, Karrie Koesel, and Ajantha Subramanian took part, giving me count less incisive critiques. I am deeply grateful to them for their insights, which run through every chapter. Cristina Florea and Malgorzata Kurjanska brightened my days with their friendship. Many other colleagues and friends helped make my time in Cambridge convivial, productive, and intellectually inspiring, including Brinton Ahlin, Rabiat Akande, Sophia Balakian, Yael Berda, Chantal Berman, Lina Britto, Melani Cammet, Steve Caton, Rishad Choudury, Arunabh Ghosh, Julian Gewirtz, Chris Gratien, Jason Kelly, Egor Lazarev, Adam Leeds, Noora Lori, Casey Lurtz, Eduardo Montero, David Szakonyi, Arne Westad, and Amy Zhang, among others. The academy administrators Bruce Jackan and Kathleen Hoover gave tremendous logistical support, which was always infused with their spiritlifting humor and kindness. Ihavereceivedsuggestionsonvariouspartsofthisbookinmanydifferent forums. I am deeply grateful to Michael Szonyi and Tarun Khanna for inviting me to attend workshops on meritocracy in China and India organized by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute of Harvard University. They and the other attendees—including James Lee, Cam eron Campbell, and Liang Chen—gave me invaluable critiques. I thank Kaori Urayama for giving me the opportunity to present my work at the Asia Fellows Seminar of the Harvard Kennedy School. In panel presentations, I benefited from the insightful suggestions of Fida Adely, Kathryn M. AndersonLevitt, Elena Ayda rova, Sara Friedman, Gerry Groot, DJ Hatfield, Jill Koyama, Huwymin Lucia Liu, Ellen Oxfeld, Robert Weller, Wu Jingting, and Roberta Zavoretti, among oth ers. Sections of chapters 3 and 4 expand on ideas first developed in a chapter that I wrote for an edited volume: “China’s Examination Fever and the Fabrication of Fairness: ‘My Generation Was Raised on Poisoned Milk,’” inEmptiness and Full ness: Ethnographies of Lack and Desire in Contemporary China, edited by Susanne Bregnbæk and Mikkel Bunkenborg (New York: Berghahn Books, 2017). AtYaleNUSCollegeandtheNationalUniversityofSingapore,Ihavebeen blessed with many extraordinarily kind and supportive senior colleagues,

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix

including Joanne Roberts, Jeannette Ickovics, Jane Jacobs, Anju Mary Paul, Nomi Lazar, Naoko Shimazu, Terry Narden, John Driffill, and Christina Tarnopolksy. Many other colleagues and friends contribute to making teaching in Singapore an immensely collegial and fulfilling experience: Emily Chua, Jessica Hanser, Annu Jal ais, Rohan Mukherjee, Ben Schupmann, Risa Toha, Christine Walker, Chitra Ven kataramani, Huong Tam, Jolene Tan, Ashlyn Thia, Daniel Yeo, and Robin Zheng, among many others. Steve Oliver created the map charts in this book. My Anthro pology colleagues at YaleNUS—Cecilia Van Hollen, Gabriele Koch, Stuart Strange, and Neena Mahadev—have given me a steady source of camaraderie and intellectual fellowship. I owe special thanks to Cecilia Van Hollen for her constant support and sage advice as well as for being such an inspiring model of kindhearted equanimity. I am likewise extremely grateful to Marcia Inhorn who, while visiting from Yale, gra ciously and unstintingly supported me and other junior faculty in countless ways. Erik Harms also provided invaluable mentorship and encouragement while on leave from Yale. My undergraduate students at YaleNUS inspire me constantly with their curiosity, passion, and diligence. An undergraduate student assistant, Liu Chengpei, read my manuscript in its entirety and provided helpful feedback.Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by a YaleNUS College subvention grant. AtCornellUniversityPress,Iamprofoundlygratefultomyeditor,JimLance, for his enthusiasm and support, which saw me through the final stages of this project. He is a paragon of kindness and professionalism. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for believing in me and this book. I also wish to thank Clare Jones for her skilled editorial assistance. Two anonymous readers for Cornell gave generously of their time to provide many important and insightful suggestions. My production editor, Karen Laun, and copyeditor, Monica Achen, improved the final product substantially. Theloveandsupportofmyfriendsandfamilyhasmadeallmylifejourneys possible. At every stage of my research, the stalwart friendship of Wang Yuan chong has given me a wellspring of strength. My friends Kyle Rand and Josh Morsell traveled halfway around the world to visit me in the field. Lee Calkins spent his vacation time reading my manuscript. Merry Li supplied crucial help at every turn. My parents have been pillars of care since the beginning. Throughout my life, my mother and stepfather, Judith and Brooks Mencher, have nurtured my curiosity. When I was a child, they dedicated themselves tirelessly to creat ing opportunities for me. Brooks was my first writing teacher and continues to guide me. He read every word of this manuscript at least three times. Although my father, Joe Howlett, did not live to see the completion of my graduate studies, I know that he would be very proud. My sister, Malinda Wagner, is a constant ally, and I thank her husband, Roger, and my niece and nephew, Emily and Eli, for being so understanding of my absences through the years. My redoubtable