Iza Ding · Studying is harmful: China sits the Gaokao

In a country plagued by corruption, China’s national college entrance exam, the gaokao, is remarkably clean. ‘Open...

Vol. 48 No. 2 · 5 February 2026 Studying is harmful Iza Ding Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share Email Print 2696 words The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China by Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li with Claire Cousineau . Harvard, 256 pp., £24.95, September 2025, 978 0 674 29539 1 Show More Show More I t 's ​ almost impossible to read any work on meritocracy without being reminded that the word was first used in mid-20th-century Britain to portray a dystopian society, a rigid caste system in which a smug elite claimed power on the basis of superior effort and ability. But it was

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