Gaokao: The Gateway For Low Socioeconomic Class

GaoKao is the gateway for low socioeconomic class students to leave and have higher social mobility. The idea of GaoKao to change your socioeconomic status actually been rooted in Chinese history. Education in Chinese history and the modern day was mainly influenced by Confucianism. Confucianism was founded by Confucius during the warring state period of China. It generally focuses on improving oneself. It has sets of books and guidelines that help people learn how to act properly, even the emperor. Thus, it has become the study material for the civil service exams in ancient China. Scholars have to study and review the writings of Confucius, Sì shū wǔ jīng, to prepare for the exams and go through three tests. If you were to pass the three

This is evident in China and America. My family never really gave me another option aside from college. For many people in America, college is just another option and it is not for everybody but there were no other options aside from college I can choose from. Education is the gateway upward bound but the reality is that education is bounded by the resources by the area. In America or China, if you live in a poor village or city, you do not get the same resources as a person that comes from a rich neighborhood. This can evident in the book, Only Hope, the poor families must borrow from other families and work long hours so they can be able to send their child to a better school or after-school tutoring programs. They can only do so much if you are in a poor economic class and students will try their hardest and still not get a high enough score to go to college. If they were lucky to go to college, the next question is how will the poor families pay for the tuition. In many stories, you would see parents asking the author if she can sponsor them to go to America because they have better opportunities

Because many families are too poor to provide education to all their children, One child policy actually benefited many youth in China. During the 1900s, China’s population was growing at a significant rate and they did not have the resources to provide for the population. Thus in 1979, the One Child policy was passed. It limited to many people to only one child but there were a few exceptions. If you were a minority or rural farmer you might be allowed to have more than one. To many people that is a tyrant and oppression because you are taking the rights of having more than one child. Although that is absurd to many people, it was necessary for China as it went from an agrarian to a manufacturing country. If your family is part of the lower socioeconomic class, how would you be able to provide all your children the right resources to have the social mobility to leave the poor economic class? By dividing the minimal resources that you have, all your children will not be able to move up but if you focus all your resources on one child, he or she will have a higher chance. In the book, Only Hope, you can see that many parents focused everything they have on the children because that was their only hope when they retire. In the book, you also see that because they are only allowed to have one child, gender equality among the youth was