Youth, exams and the pressure to conform

This chapter explores the experiences of the segment of Chinese youth – namely, those whose lives are implicated, in one way or another, with processes of education. It focuses on the sources and symptoms of the pressures to which students are subject, especially highlighting the stresses engendered by exams, particularly the gaokao. Public discourse in China has debated the prevailing “exam-oriented”, or yingshi jiaoyu, system with “quality” education, or suzhi jiaoyu, often mooted by educationalists and policymakers as a means of remedying the deficiencies of the former. The educational landscape in which such travails occur has been altered by changes, from the top down and bottom up, with reforms also being made to the gaokao. The conformity they display is, meanwhile, logical, although, admittedly, the practical utility of their toils is arguably undermined by changes in the educational landscapes in which students compete.