BBC - Chinese Schools - Episode 1, Part 6 of 6, School Holiday and Mock Exams

[woodensurfer]

Learning with a stick shift!

That was how I did it as well.

[gmedespair]

Comparing the US and Chinese systems is a little futile....in the US (unlike China) the secondary education is of little importance, it's about teaching skill sets, whereas in China, you ARE studying for the GaoKao - that's the ultimate goal.

However, in China, after you pass the GaoKao (and especially if you are accepted into a Key University), you are finished, for the most part. Whereas in the US, college is much more involved generally speaking.

[AiPing15]

she made me cried when the gradnpa showed up!!!

[lucymorepower]

@AiPing15

I cried ,too!!! I had a same experience of waiting my parents to pick me up from my kindergarten

[lost619]

Aww I cried when her grandad showed up, she must have felt so abandoned!

[SuperMusicalDreamer]

If this was shown at my school, the regular ed people would make fun of this and stereotype. The advanced ed would make Asian jokes made by the Asians.

[priceclub4L]

i almost cried when her grandfather came lol

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

And now, these 2 of my friends were good living now, which can consider as white collar. So it make me thinking, how stupidity and abuse the human right if USA and western wanna to encircle China to halt the economic development in China, they will also halt the poor people leaving from the poorness. If USA and western did it and successfully, how many family will eat sweat potato in every meals, how many family will still need wearing mixed clothes , how many gal child will need cut bald hair.

[Inspirer]

@fdfasfa5345dfgd Many thanks for your kindness and understanding!

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

Ohh, my leaving meassage should read from bottom to top, this is the original orientation.

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

Another China friend in NorthWest provinve of China, she told to me during in her high school, due to the poorness of their family, she had eaten the sweet potato for a few years in her every meals, breakfast, lunch , dinner , only sweet potato plant by her family, no others, no rice, no noodles, no meat, she said now after working, she will fell scare after she look on sweat potato.

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

the time they are poor, so during her primary school, they do not have extra money to buy clothes, hence her clothes was made up from many pieces of the small clothes to form to a complete clothe by her mother. The time she was cut the hair in bold by her father hence may be to save the shampoo? i am not to sure why her parents want cut her hair in bold, the time, she is a little primary school girl as video film above. May be wanna to prevent hair go long.

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

One time, her father was carry something that she need from the house inside the mountain to her school in town, to save the bus fee, her father walked along the way to her school. She said she was cry after she knew that. Tears were also swell up from my eyes after hearing this story.

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

After she proceed to secondary school, she was moved to a hostel sec school in the town, and where she was now living in hostel, she will go back to home visit every holiday, but sometime she didn't back to home during holiday because she lack money to take the bus ( may be 1yuan?, i had forgotten), to take note that the bus service only stop at the main road, and she need to walk a few hours to her house along the road in the bush.

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

During winter they will using a tin with coal inside to warm up their body during the journey walking to school. Most of the very rural area hostel was not provided in school. The hostel school you saw above video were may be located in some not very rural area.

[fdfasfa5345dfgd]

One of my friend in China, she walked everyday 2 hours to school, they are living in the mountain area, she wake up everyday 5 am to start walking, once she had fallen into a pool and was rescued out by her friend. She continue to walking everyday to complete her primary school.

[fopoooy]

man I cried when that girls grandad finally came , that moment was just so sweeet o.o ..... 

[yichuan2010]

His first driving lesson was a total mistake from start though. No one was wearing seat belt, but that's how folks drive in China, big cities and small towns alike.

[lwpengk]

nice documentary! Finally BBC got some positive(Or mutual) attitude towards Chinese society. I think the Chinese education system roots in its history. Same thing cannot survive in the North American society.

[lmodema]

@lwpengk

i see it the other way around: FINALLY, china has let the west tap into some of china's inner cultural workings without the horrific explotations by the western medias! YES AND KEEP THEM OUT AND HOPE TO SEE CHINA SELECTIVELY COLLOBORATE WITH CERTAIN MEDIA ONLY!

china has been hidden from the west for thousands of years, which is a good thing.

BUT true of your view of the northern american societies.

[iluvric]

although the little kids are poor, they look so happy. i like the headmistress, she is really talented

[SuperBluesky1982]

i just cant stop crying when i saw the little girl criying for waiting for her granddad,,,,

[liepzig]

Watching the girl run to her granddad made me so happy

[dars2607]

In primary school, I was always the one having to wait the longest before any of my parents would show up.

[81jcvs]

Thanks for uploading these documentaries, they are breath-taking. Great documentary from BBC, as usual.

[happyey]

the education in China is really tough, and i think the students have too much pressure. But one thing i appreciate, is that the kids need to wash their clothes and help to clean up in the campus, this make them responsible.

[CDiaz63]

such a beautiful scene at 2:40 2:50

[PrometheanRunGood]

@CDiaz63 I think everyone can relate to that kid. One of the worse feelings as a kid is waiting for your parents to pick you up when they are running late and the fear of abandonment (however irrational) 

[richardhaw]

education has been long cherished in chinese and other east asian societies. this type of pressure education started with the mandarin exams 2 thousand years ago. where a good result in the mandarin exams can be your family's ticket out of poverty. education and respect for teachers are paramount to a gentleman's attitude.

[maimai5744]

Although they do very well on the exams, it has downside as well...because for those who do good but don't meet the expectations or fail just a little bit, they can be suicidal as if their future's all gone when they fail the test. I feel bad about that.

[look59ful]

@maimai5744 that's true.  Actually the exam system changes in adjust to the fairness, though not entirely and not in whole country.

[joelthemole98]

I feel sad for that girl :'(

[EdT586]

These are rural country schools,  the big city high schools, colleges and universities would put North American institutions to shame !

[holyparmesan]

I don't understand, why is there insane studying for the mocks? Knowing that you're probably going to do well doesn't mean you slow your work, and if you do badly on the mocks there's no time left to spend on extra studying... even the PSAT, which gives scholarship money, doesn't get that kind of studying in the US.

[justlisten2010]

I think this documentary should be shown in every school across America!While I strongly disagree with Chinese parents putting pressure on their children to the extent that they do,I do admire the students' desires to do their very best in school!I'm only 17 and I know I was motivated to try harder in school after watching this!Thanks for posting!

[Caramoon100]

@justlisten2010 I totally disagree and don't get it why you got many thumbs up... just think about it: why children go to school? to get good jobs. But in fact many will have no jobs + the jobs benefit the system: increase unequalities between people. Controversial for China... On one side push dreams and organize people lives. On the other side give them nothing or little for their efforts.

[lmodema]

@Caramoon100

thats were capatilism fails and chinese government has held onto communism. they realize a balance of a form of demoracy, commuism, socialism, and free enterprise are mixed necessites. UNLIKE the brutal self-image importance of the USA that gives to their citizen and thats why the USA is so fucked up. People, government, corporations, police and citizens abusing the system of democracy to its extremes. And when extremes are pushed/shoved to much-it gives UP and caves in or out.

[Caramoon100]

@lmodema you don't understand China if you think that. You can not be more capitalist than China: All Chinese dream of money, cars, good jobs, great clothes, buy their own appartment... even in this documentary you can see the young student: they study hard and hope to go shopping for craps on hollidays... totally brainwashed by the consumption. As for the government it is 100% unfair: same people keep power from fathers to sons. They control and use force + sugar. Corruption is everywhere

[lmodema]

@Caramoon100

no i know you don't understand china. you haven't seen the USA during pre-WW I and WW II and during the rockefellar rule. push back 100 years and then compare USA to china. China is safeguarding it national pride just like USA did but less violently and less brutally.

you are comparing on apple and oranges. a developing natioin vs a fully developed extreme democracy!

China's system will graudually be better as the young rise and succeed those political successors!

[lmodema]

@Caramoon100

corruption is rampant no more than USA but less severe than USA. And corruption only exist because of the WESTern capitalism introduction and prevlance!!!

the presence of google, ebay, and alot western food industries, western manufactering is destroying the very essence of china and using the talented and gifted citizens acdemic background in a very demeaning method. And effecting the very essence of GREED AND FEAR!

so you don't understand china.

[Caramoon100]

@lmodema I am sorry but Corruption in China is huge much more than in western countries. Have youy ever been to China? Have you lived there? worked there? I have! You take the train you need to pay intermediaries= corruption. You take the taxi you need to pay illegal taxi. You own a shop you need to pay local police. You want to good job in the administration, you just need to buy it (yes this is true I have seen it). I could go on and on... Did you see the food scandal? people died...

[Caramoon100]

@lmodema As for western companies, they helped develop China and made money, as Deng Xiaoping planed. Yes life is different companies and education ask more and more. This not social economy anymore when you don't need to be the number one. Corruption has always been part of Chinese culture. You should know that: since old time. Even the first emperor of China was a beggar on the street. All the jobs went to corrupted Mongol clan. Not depend on people work but on network: part of culture.

[Caramoon100]

@lmodema the only good thing about China is its huge population: you can not control such a huge population easily. Government sometimes needs to give to the population to keep control. However with technologies this might not always be the case? I think if change comes it has more chance to come from USA or Europe: imagine build new system. In China people are too much about making money. You would need several disaster environment disasters or... to change minds.

[hin6487]

@justlisten2010 its a different culture, the hardships their parents grew up around and the one child policy just manifests itself into that pressure. here in australia, you can leave high school early and get a $40,000pa job as a mechanic or plumber, the gaps between the classes are alot smaller in developed countries. over there because the gap is much bigger and the competition is so much fiercer, parents feel they owe a duty to their only child to see that they make it out of poverty

[spongeboob09]

awww the little girl brought tears to my eyes when she was waiting for her grandad

[ChineseSlaves]

why did BBC focus on top students? it would be better to scrutinize lives of those ordinary students who are the real sacrifice of that backward Chinese education system.

[zubatzu]

@ChineseSlaves If its so backwards why are Chinese kids so smart and behaved unlike for example in america where everyone is dealing drugs and popping bullets in each other.

[kayper54]

@zubatzu Because they are only showing the best of the best of the best. We aren't seeing the vast majority of the population who live in appalling poverty and receive little or no education whatever. There is at least one parent of a Ping Min student who admits she will not be able to help her child with his homework because she never went to school herself and can't read or even write her own name. They do have drug and gang problems there, we just aren't seeing them in this documentary.

[encoregirl66]

@kayper54 Maybe this is not showing the poorest area in China, but definitely the real countryside education instead of "showing the best of the best of the best". There are drug and gang problems everywhere around the world, but I've never seen anyone around me using drugs or guns during my 18 years' life in China, when a white girl sitting next to me in a top American college lecture today asked me if I wanna smoke weed with her sometime.

[kayper54]

@encoregirl66 I'm so glad you replied! I genuinely appreciate feedback from someone who actually KNOWS that life. China is too rich and diverse a country (in a way the US will never be) for a single documentary represent all of it. I wish I could say that I've never seen anyone around me use drugs or carry guns, but I have. :(

But LOL about the the "weed" invite. "Do you want to do weed with me some time?" is the new equivalent of "Do you want to have a drink/coffee with me some time?" ;)

[encoregirl66]

@kayper54 Thank you for letting me know about the "weed" invite! I enjoy my life in US so far, it's way more than what we saw in movies like "American Pie"... I guess everyone has stereotypes of other cultures, like you said, a single documentary can never fully represent a country. But it's so nice that we are still working on it, and trying to understand others. =)

[ymhktravel]

@kayper54 These schools shown are definitely not the "best of the best of the best" in terms of facilities, teacher quality, curriculum, etc. The "best of the best of the best" is in big advanced cities like beijing and shanghai. But they are not the "worst of the worst of the worst" yet in terms of facilities, etc. I'd say they are somewhere in the middle. Frankly, every country has some kind of drug problems, but none as rampant as in american schools, n kids dun cherish their opportunities.

[kayper54]

@ymhktravel Thank you for your reply and clarification, but I'm not sure what you mean, the word "dun?" I assume you mean "don't," as in "the kids DON'T cherish their opportunities." I don't know if "dun" is a typo or an idiom for "don't" that my hopelessly UNcool, middle-aged self hasn't seen before. But, yes, even though most of the kids profiled here seem so optimistic/grateful for what they have, the filmmakers wouldn't focus on the kids who are indifferent or resentful about their lives.

[lmodema]

@zubatzu

because asians are genetically endowed to succed regardless of what the tasks are(they are highly nomadic, but the spoils of the west can taint or even evaporate those nomadic skilles). And in the WRONG environment(nurture), nature cloaks or clouds those hidden genetic capabilities, but nevertheless, they will still survive better in those environments respective to their peers and counterparts in those contingent environments!

[Rahab111222]

@zubatzu

Chinese crime rate among youth is pretty staggering to say the least, so that assertion is baseless. Crime is present in every walk of life especially when it comes to living under the iron fist of an authoritarian exploitative state.

[ShizukaYuui]

@ChineseSlaves Thank you for posing this question. It made me stop for a moment and realize that still all is not well in this education system. I think especially the motivation of these children for trying so hard is really off the mark. Your comment made me snap out of the overall succesful mood of this documentary and think of those students who fail to live up to the school's/parents'/society's insane expectations.

[rvaughanwilliams1988]

annoying how the English use "revise" for "review"!

[zubatzu]

@rvaughanwilliams1988 Not really since language spoken by english is the true english

[yelizaveta8]

Thank you for these episodes, very very interesting and I owe you for uploading them! Xie xie!!!! Xie xie ni men!

[detective603]

does anybody know the name of the background music?

[mmai1234]

keep these up. They're awesome!