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Cynicism is something the Chinese have in spades. The thing is that I know that Americans will eventually realize that education is what's important and not the
by eumenides1 14y ago
Cynicism is something the Chinese have in spades. The thing is that I know that Americans will eventually realize that education is what's important and not the diploma. But the Chinese, they will latch on to the concept of a "diploma" forever.
- Alex3917 14y ago"But the Chinese, they will latch on to the concept of a 'diploma' forever." Actually, the Chinese are the ones who invented 'meritocracy'.
- gaius 14y agoYou mean Confucious' notions of the bureaucratic class? Because you were still born into it. And then there's the whole business of imperial dynasties...
- Alex3917 14y ago"Because you were still born into it." That's no different than college today. That's why I put meritocracy in quotes: it's basically a scam that's designed to perpetuate the ruling class and keep down minorities while appearing fair on the superficial level.
- seanmcdirmid 14y agoTo be fair, there were times duing the Sui, Tang, and even Ming dynasties where the imperial exam was taken seriously and quite an innovation against current practices, where at least you could move up the social rank if you could do well on the test.
- JDShu 14y agoI think what the grandparent was implying is that only landowner families would have had the means to take the exam and become a government official, so it wasn't a fully meritocratic society. Of course, these things are all relative and there was probably more social mobility in this system than other contemporary nations.
- JDShu 14y agoOK, I have to ask. Where are you getting your confidence from?