Exam-Centered Meritocracy as a Reproduction Mechanism in China

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Abstract

This study employs qualitative methods, conducting in-depth interviews with 26 college students (13 from working-class and 13 from lower-middle-class backgrounds) enrolled in prestigious Chinese universities. The research aims to investigate how China’s exam-centered meritocracy influences the educational experiences and outcomes of students from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds.
The study reveals that the exam-centered meritocracy in China, despite its ostensibly egalitarian premise of facilitating social mobility, functions as a mechanism for reproducing and reinforcing existing social inequalities, ultimately disadvantaging working-class and lower-middle-class students. This study also expands the scope of educational inequality research beyond the typical focus on rural, working-class or low-income students, and shows that China’s highly hierarchical society and exam-centered educational meritocracy disadvantage even relatively better-off lower-middle-class students.

Author

• Li Zhu, University of California - Berkeley