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> I have never been to china, but my Chinese lab mate says that the best translation for Chinese outside of the cities is "peasant" not farmer. One good example

by xiaq 12y ago

> I have never been to china, but my Chinese lab mate says that the best translation for Chinese outside of the cities is "peasant" not farmer. One good example of the way these people are treated is the lack of public education for people in these areas. I live in China, and I wonder which rural areas you are talking about. From my knowledge, primary and secondary school (known as 9-year compulsory education) attendance is virtually 100% everywhere with two notable exceptions, namely extremely mountainous areas and the autonomous regions. In extremely mountainous areas transportation is almost impossible and schools tend to be underfunded; the problem with autonomous regions is beyond my knowledge. To back my claim with statistics, a report from the Ministry of Education (http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_633/201407/171144.html http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe..., the report is in Chinese) estimated the net primary school enrollment ratio at 99.71%. A more dated UNESCO report from 2000 (http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/china/rapport_2.html http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/china/rap...) estimated the net primary school enrollment ratio at 98.5% in the year 1998.

adventured 12y ago
Rural China is basically one of the three poorest places on Earth, with the average person earning $2 or $3 per day. It's comparable to the poorest locations in India and Africa. I'm not sure how that's even remotely a valid comparison or point of reference to the standard for American poor.
- xiaq 12y ago
  Yes it's very poor, but we're talking about education here. Primary and secondary education is free except for a yearly contribution that is typically 100 to 200 Yuan (16 to 32 dollars), which even the poorest family can afford. I heard that even the contribution has been cut in recent years, but I cannot verify that.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  It is not the poorest place on earth, Africa is much poorer. Even a poor farmer in Guizhou does much better than say many parts of India or Africa. Incidentally, China is a middle income country, and you can't really compare it to lower income countries anymore (even that poor farmer in Guizhou is going to have a TV and is not going to steal highway signs to make cookware as happens in Africa leading to serating just to keep them around). Just draw a thick line between lower and middle income countries (e.g. India is upper lower income). Incidentally, Guizhou, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, etc... are fairly mountainous and autonomous (based on ethnicity), so education is a problem as xiaq said. But education in China up to the 9th grade is north of 95%, most people aren't illiterate and can at least use their smart phones (which even poor farmers have now) for texting their friends.

by xiaq 12y ago

adventured 12y ago

Rural China is basically one of the three poorest places on Earth, with the average person earning $2 or $3 per day. It's comparable to the poorest locations in India and Africa. I'm not sure how that's even remotely a valid comparison or point of reference to the standard for American poor.

xiaq 12y ago
Yes it's very poor, but we're talking about education here. Primary and secondary education is free except for a yearly contribution that is typically 100 to 200 Yuan (16 to 32 dollars), which even the poorest family can afford. I heard that even the contribution has been cut in recent years, but I cannot verify that.
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
It is not the poorest place on earth, Africa is much poorer. Even a poor farmer in Guizhou does much better than say many parts of India or Africa. Incidentally, China is a middle income country, and you can't really compare it to lower income countries anymore (even that poor farmer in Guizhou is going to have a TV and is not going to steal highway signs to make cookware as happens in Africa leading to serating just to keep them around). Just draw a thick line between lower and middle income countries (e.g. India is upper lower income). Incidentally, Guizhou, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, etc... are fairly mountainous and autonomous (based on ethnicity), so education is a problem as xiaq said. But education in China up to the 9th grade is north of 95%, most people aren't illiterate and can at least use their smart phones (which even poor farmers have now) for texting their friends.