Why Chinese minds still bear the long shadow of Keju | Aeon Essays
aeon.co · 4,015 words · saved by 4 readers
Keju, China’s incredibly difficult civil service test, strengthened the state at the cost of freedom and creativity
On 7 and 8 June 2023, close to 13 million high-school students in China sat for the world’s most gruelling college entrance exam. ‘Imagine,’ wrote a Singapore journalist, ‘the SAT, ACT, and all of your AP tests rolled into two days. That’s Gao Kao, or “higher education exam”.’ In 2023, almost 2.6 million applied to sit China’s civil service exam to compete for only 37,100 slots. Gao Kao and China’s civil service exam trace their origin to, and are modelled on, an ancient Chinese institution, Keju, the imperial civil service exam established by the Sui Dynasty (581-618). It can be translated…
saved by
related reading
- Iza Ding · Studying is harmful: China sits the Gaokaolrb.co.uk
- My Experience Living and Working in China, Part I | Frank’s Ramblingsfrankzliu.com
- Structure and Interpretation of the Chinese Economy – Yuxi on the Wiredyuxi.ml
- America Against China Against America - by Jasmine Sunjasmi.news
- A Teacher in China Learns the Limits of Free Expression | The New Yorkernewyorker.com
- You Are Not The One - Chinese Dating Dystopiaterminaldrift.substack.com
- Song dynasty - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- The China Tech Canon—Asteriskasteriskmag.com
- The Civil Service of Great Britain by Robert Mosesupload.wikimedia.org
- The Search for Modern China | bookshelfmasonjwang.com
- Structure and Interpretation of the Chinese Economy – Yuxi on the Wiredyuxi.ml
- Exam - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org