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Why China’s Ivy League Universities Are Mad at Each Other

As high school graduates are applying for university, an online feud between China’s ivy league schools has gone viral. It turns out that China’s universities will go to extremes to enroll the best students of the country.
Manya Koetse

Published

7 years ago

on

As high school graduates are applying for university, an online feud between China’s ivy league schools has gone viral. It turns out that China’s universities will go to extremes to enroll the best students of the country.

Trending on   Sina Weibo this week is an online feud between China’s top universities Peking and Tsinghua University. It appears that China’s higher education institutions will go to extremes to get the top scorers of the national College Entrance Examinations in their school. Netizens wonder if it is okay for them to persuade students to register at their university through money (topic: “Should Colleges Buy Top Scorers of the College Entrance Examination?”).

In the past few days, Chinese high school graduates have been busy handling their applications for college, as the scores and results of the College Entrance Examination were released earlier this month. While the students are busy looking for the right university, the universities are also busy looking for the top students. Two Chinese universities have taken their fierce competition online. The Admission Office of Peking University in Sichuan and Tsinghua University blame each other on Weibo for buying the top scorers. Tsinghua University claimed on its Weibo account that Peking University (PKU) was buying students. PKU turned tables and pointed the finger at Tsinghua. The feud went viral on China’s social media.

Many netizens cannot believe that the top two universities in China would pay students to enroll because of their good grades. But the practice of recruiting top students is actually quite common in China, where most colleges and university have a ‘recruitment group’ that is specifically focused on getting the best students to join their institute. They are ready to fight off other universities to get more top scorers enrolled by offering them scholarships, better majors, or even give them bonuses.

Under the contemporary Chinese education system, the College Entrance Examination is the most common way to enter a college or university. The social status of an educational institute is related to the number of excellent examinees (top scorers) it recruits. That is why the majority of colleges in China will set up Admission Offices in every province, in order to get the best examinees from all over the country.

Recruitment is just one step within China’s higher education system. It reveals a problem that is at the core of the system; namely that in the present Chinese education system, it is all about the grades – not about the cultivation and motivation of students.

The problem is twofold. By solely focusing on grades, only top-scoring students will be praised as the best. And because universities get measured by the amount of top-scorers that attend them, only those will be listed as the best universities.

China’s Ministry of Education has openly criticized both universities for their conduct. The comments from both Tsinghua and Peking University have now been deleted from Weibo.

Sources:

http://edu.sina.com.cn/gaokao/2015-06-28/1342475443.shtml

http://edu.sina.com.cn/gaokao/2015-06-29/0743475446.shtml

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Manya Koetse

Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.

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China and Covid19

Anger over Guangzhou Anti-Epidemic Staff Picking Locks, Entering Homes

While these Guangzhou homeowners were quarantined at a hotel, anti-epidemic staff broke their door locks and entered their homes.
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Published

3 weeks ago

on

July 19, 2022

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WEIBO SHORT ｜ Weibo Shorts are concise articles on topics that are trending. This article was first published

Dozens of homeowners in Guangzhou, Guangdong, were angered to find out the locks of their apartment doors were broken during their mandatory hotel quarantine.

The residents had gone to a quarantine location after a positive Covid case in their building. Afterward, anti-epidemic staff had entered their homes for disinfection and to check if any residents were still inside.

The incident happened earlier this month in an apartment complex in the Liwan district of the city.

The incident first gained attention on July 10 when various videos showing the broken door locks were posted online. During the morning, the property management had conducted an ’emergency inspection’ of 84 households. The doors were later sealed.

The case went trending again on July 18 when the residential district apologized to all homeowners for the break-ins and promised to compensate them.

“What’s the use of apologizing?” some Weibo commenters wondered. “Where is the law? If this even happens in Guangzhou now and people in Guangdong put up with this, what else will they dare to do in the future?”

On Chinese social media, most comments on the Guangzhou incident were about the break-ins allegedly being unlawful.

Media reporter and Toutiao author Kai Lei (@凯雷), who has over two million followers on Weibo, said the incident showed that those breaking in “had no regard for the law.”

To read more about Covid-19 in China, check our articles here.

By Manya Koetse
With contributions by Miranda Barnes

 

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China Local News

Shanghai Ruijin Hospital Stabbing Incident

The police opened fire and subdued the suspect, who stabbed at least four people at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital on Saturday.

Manya Koetse

Published

1 month ago

on

July 9, 2022

By

WEIBO SHORT ｜ Weibo Shorts are concise articles on topics that are currently trending. This article was first published

On Saturday July 9, a stabbing incident that occurred at Shanghai’s renowned Ruijin Hospital (上海瑞金医院) shocked Chinese netizens as videos showing the panic and chaos at the scene circulated in Wechat groups and on Weibo.

At around 11:30 AM the police department started receiving calls that there was someone stabbing people at the hospital, which is located in the city’s Huangpu district. At the scene of the incident, at the 7th floor of the outpatient clinic, they found a knife-wielding man holding a group of people hostage.

According to police reports, the police opened fire and subdued the suspect. Four people who were injured during the knife attack are now being treated, none of them are in a life-threatening situation.

The case is currently under investigation.

According to The Paper, Ruijin Hospital resumed its outpatient services at 14:08 this afternoon.

This is the second stabbing incident in Shanghai this week. On Monday, a man was arrested after going on a random stabbing spree in Shanghai’s Jing’an District.

While some Shanghai residents say the recent incidents made them feel less safe, others praise the fast police response to the incident.

One doctor from Shanghai posted on Weibo that hospitals should have proper security checks in place in order to prevent these kinds of incidents from happening again in the future.

By Manya Koetse
With contributions by Miranda Barnes

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