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Opinion | Stanford admissions scandal is a cautionary tale for crazy rich Chinese on the perils of playing up ‘hard work’
- The backlash against Zhao Yusi, whose narrative of reaping the rewards of her own efforts earned scorn after it was revealed that her family had paid a large sum to Stanford University, is a reminder to the wealthy to be honest about their advantages
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“Those more outstanding than you also work harder.” This is a trendy aspirational phrase in China in the digital era, meant to remind people who do not come from well-to-do families that the only way they can catch up is by working hard. Had the Stanford University admissions scandal involving, among others, sophomore Zhao Yusi not made headlines, she would still be looked up to as living testimony of how diligence alone pays off in the end.
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But last week, the fairy tale unravelled. It turned out that Zhao’s “hard work” combined with US$6.5 million that her parents paid to college consultant William “Rick” Singer, the largest such payment that has come to light, probably got her into Stanford. US federal prosecutors have accused Singer of falsely packaging Zhao as a competitive sailor.
A Stanford spokesman said Singer gave the university’s sailing programme US$500,000 tied to Zhao. In March, Stanford expelled Zhao.
Court filings note that Singer’s American clients paid between US$15,000 and US$400,000 to get their children into prestigious universities. The only two families known to have paid more than a million dollars were Chinese. The family of Sherry Guo allegedly paid US$1.2 million to get her into Yale; she was falsely represented as a top-notch soccer player.
As the news broke, Chinese internet users ruthlessly mocked the Zhao and Guo families. The stereotype of Chinese “new money” being “crazy rich” yet easily deceived was once again reinforced.
The anger online is a reflection of the frustrations of the many hardworking ordinary people in China’s stratified society. A 2010 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences entitled “Contemporary Chinese Social Structure” found that China’s social structure lagged its economic development by about 15 years.
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