I saw somewhere that the reason elite Chinese families send their children abroad to study is not (just) the usual story about western universities being "prestigious".

The Chinese educational system is simply too meritocratic and doesn't give the elite special treatment. If a Chinese student is not a top performer they will not get into a top university, no matter who their parents are. The western universities are often a plan B for the less brilliant children of the Chinese elite.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 hours ago

The western universities are often a plan B for the less brilliant children of the Chinese elite.

shit universities like mine survive off of students like these and they were a majority of my classmates; they literally paid 10x as much for than i did.

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 13 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I've heard from a few professors that Chinese universities are very formulaic to a negative extent. It's anecdotal though. I am considering studying my master's over there, so if someone can tell me more I'd love to hear it.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 12 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

That is common tripe from people who can't cut it.

The issue is that you have to actually read and know things. Like, memorization is a huge part of the Chinese curriculum. To Westerners, this means that there is a lack of 'critical thinking', but what that really means is that you can't just vibes-based bullshit your way through something by paraphrasing it.

Now, does that mean that sometimes you might have a valid disagreement in interpretation of a reading and then be marked as incorrect despite having presented a solid case? Sure, that happens. But that is because unique research and interpretation is meant to be something that you do later, the point of the education is that you understand and can explain how it is interpreted right now.

For example, I would struggle under a Chinese teaching method of a Western interpretation of Marxist ethics, as I think most of what these western scholars have to say on Marxist ethics is complete bullshit not based in actual readings of Marxist texts. However, if those Western scholars had to adhere to Chinese standards of memorization and citation of Marxist texts, we probably wouldn't have that issue to begin with.

[–] coolusername@hexbear.net 21 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

i dont know anything about elites but that's definitely true for the children of rich ppl who aren't that great at studying but their families still want face

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 25 points 15 hours ago

"My son went to Harvard", person ends up being dumb as shit but they dumped money into the uni.

As opposed to, my son went to meritocratic mid-rate local uni.

Yeah checks out.

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 13 points 15 hours ago

Distancing from a capitalist country makes your own country more fair and meritocratic, huh - who woudda think it?

Everyone. Everyone.