Deep Dive: How China’s urban-rural divide affects students, hurts economy

Zheng Yajun, a mainland-born PhD graduate of the University of Hong Kong, knows from experience how difficult it is to break through China’s urban-rural divide.

She was raised and educated in a small town in the northwestern province of Gansu. She sat for the gaokao, China’s university entrance exams, twice before she was admitted to Shanghai’s Fudan University in 2009.

Life wasn’t easy at the prestigious Fudan, and Zheng struggled to understand her instructors and classmates from big cities. She said many of her classmates from less developed regions had a similar experience.

“In my first year of university, I couldn’t understand why – although I had worked hard since childhood and never wasted a day – I still looked so bad compared to other students [from big cities],” she said.

She managed to survive the fierce competition. After graduating from Fudan, she expanded her master’s thesis on the gap between urban and rural students at top universities in China. Her findings were published last year.

Zheng’s book discusses class differences from a sociological perspective. Several works on similar topics have been published in recent years in China. The topic sparked widespread media coverage and public debate.

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These discussions all point to the same question: are class divisions and the urban-rural divide impossible to fix in today’s China?

The Communist Party leadership knows that if the urban-rural divide continues to widen, it could impact China’s sustainable growth.

Zheng said that despite their efforts, many students from less developed regions, especially rural areas, have found it increasingly difficult to enter the middle class.

She interviewed 62 students from Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Shanghai’s Fudan University and found that the differences in their life choices at university and after graduation were greatly affected by their background.

Students from big cities have a better understanding of how to survive at elite universities and are able to plan their careers, and it is easier for them to find an “elite” job after graduation. Students from rural areas, however, are at a disadvantage in this game.

The elite university students interviewed by Zheng are already at the top of the rural student pyramid. The situation seems even more sensitive for the vast number of students at the bottom, who are largely invisible.

According to her research, rural graduates from top universities still achieved social mobility compared to their parents but fell behind their urban counterparts after graduation.

Staff writer

1. Which of the following statements are true based on News?

(1) Upon entering Fudan University, Zheng had no trouble communicating with her peers from big cities.
(2) Zheng did her master’s thesis on how students’ backgrounds impact their experience at top Chinese universities.
(3) Students from cities have an easier time finding elite jobs after university.
(4) Zheng’s research did not gain much traction or interest from the public.

A. (1), (2) only
B. (2), (3) only
C. (1), (4) only
D. (3), (4) only

2. Based on News, indicate TWO ways in which students from rural areas struggle in university and after graduation compared to their peers from cities.

3. Explain how Zheng conducted her research for her master’s thesis and what her findings suggest about the urban-rural divide in China.

1. What is the artist trying to say about the urban-rural divide in this graphic?

2. Have you experienced any hurdles throughout your education due to your background or where you are from? If so, how did you work to overcome them?

• Lack of skills puts rural workers at a disadvantage

• Public opinion has shifted, and now more people cite lack of opportunity as a main reason for poverty

Although Beijing is aware of the gravity of the urban-rural divide, resolving the problem is no easy task, especially in education, observers have said.

Scholars have pointed out that the deficiencies in China’s rural education start when students are young, and if the urban-rural divide persists, the world’s second-biggest economy will face a serious human capital crisis.

Scott Rozelle, faculty co-director of the Stanford Centre on China’s Economy and Institutions, said that low- and middle-income labour in rural areas “could be a major long-term obstacle to China’s economic growth”.

This is because a lack of skills has made it difficult for rural workers to compete in the urban labour market.

According to research by Rozelle, 40 to 50 per cent of rural children have delays in cognitive development, which can lead to difficulties in maths, science and languages.

Big Data China, a collaboration between the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies and Stanford University, recently published an analysis showing how Chinese people’s beliefs about effort and inequality had changed based on surveys conducted over the past 20 years.

Drawing on work by Rozelle and Martin Whyte, a professor emeritus of sociology at Harvard, the report found that between 2004 and 2014, respondents believed that “lack of ability”, “low education” and “lack of effort” were the biggest factors explaining poverty in China.

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But by 2023, “unequal opportunity” had become the top reason respondents cited for why people were poor, while “an unfair economic system” ranked third, with only “low education” remaining in the top three.

In addition, the share of people who agreed with the statement “in our country, effort is always rewarded” fell from 62 to 28 per cent over the past two decades.

Yuan Changgeng, an anthropologist at Yunnan University, warned that public awareness was still lacking in the discussion of the urban-rural divide.

Recent discussions about the disadvantages of rural students have been dominated by “middle-class and intellectual circles”, Yuan said, adding that people from small towns or rural areas do not have enough of a voice.

Yuan, who has long studied social issues in China, said the belief that success on the gaokao could lead to social mobility might have been shaken, but many people still refused to question the fairness of the exam.

Yuan grew up in the eastern province of Shandong. He said that when he was in secondary school more than 20 years ago, most of his classmates were hard-working rural students and “their efforts were rewarded compared to the living conditions of their parents’ generation”.

But Yuan said that now some of his students are convinced they will have limited achievements, reflecting social attitudes that are different from those of their parents who came of age in the 1980s, after the gaokao had been restored following the end of the Cultural Revolution and at a time when people were generally optimistic about the future.

Staff writer

1. Which of the following statements are true based on Issue?

(1) In 2023, many people surveyed felt that “lack of ability” and “lack of effort” were the greatest contributors to poverty in China.
(2) Yuan said that when he was in secondary school, his classmates lacked diligence.
(3) Research found that nearly half of rural children have delayed cognitive development.
(4) Scholars feel that rural students’ educational obstacles start from a young age.

A. (1), (2) only
B. (3), (4) only
C. (1), (4) only
D. (2), (3) only

2. Based on Issue, why do researchers believe that people from rural backgrounds are stuck in a cycle of poverty?

3. What is Yuan’s opinion of the gaokao? Do you agree with his assessment? Why or why not?

1. Using Graph, list TWO observations about the educational gap between rural and urban communities in China.

2. Using your own knowledge, explain another factor that could contribute to the uneven distribution of gaokao exam takers.

urban-rural divide: the differences between growing up and living in a big city or a small town, which may be poorer and less developed. Children from rural areas may not have as much money or access to good schools or other important resources for their physical, mental and emotional growth.

gaokao: the national university admission exam in China, held in early June. The exam lasts around nine hours over a period of a few days, covering topics such as Chinese and maths, and can be very competitive.

social mobility: how a person’s socio-economic situation improves or declines compared to their parents or grandparents. It is measured in terms of earnings, income, social class, health, education, and more.

Cultural Revolution: a political and social movement in China initiated by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, during which many people’s educations were disrupted and schools were closed.

1. B

2. Students from rural backgrounds may have a harder time understanding their peers and professors from cities when they go to university. Individual efforts and hard work are not enough to bridge this gap. Students from cities are also adequately prepared to jump into their careers and are taught how to succeed in university. This means they are more likely to get elite jobs.

3. Zheng conducted more than 60 interviews at two universities to compare the life and career choices with the students’ backgrounds. Her research found that rural graduates from top universities struggle compared to their peers from the city. At the same time, these rural graduates managed to achieve more social mobility than their parents.

1. B

2. Even from a young age, people from rural backgrounds are at a disadvantage within the school system and may have slower cognitive development. This leads to stunted learning in maths, science and languages, which are important for the gaokao exam. This makes it hard for rural students and workers to break into the urban labour market. While China’s government is aware of this situation, rural students and residents are still left out of this discussion and are not given a voice, as discussions are still “small-scale” and led by “middle-class and intellectual circles,” according to one researcher.

3. Yuan said the gaokao gave people hope and optimism when it was initially restored following the Cultural Revolution. However, while it promises the potential of social mobility, people will not do well on the exam without being adequately prepared. Students from rural backgrounds do not have the resources or materials to succeed on the exam. People do not question the exam’s fairness and use it as a blanket form of hope.

1. As this graph depicts, there is far more gaokao participation in urban areas than in rural areas in China. (add one more observation)

2. Students in urban areas can prepare more substantially for the gaokao, while those in rural areas do not have the same resources. Therefore, more students are willing and able to take the gaokao in pursuit of higher education and elite careers. China’s population distribution also plays a factor in how many students take the exam. Areas with more people – many of which also happen to be urban – is likely to see a higher rate of participation than less populated rural areas.

1. The illustration shows there are more obstacles for rural students looking to boost their education and careers. The cones on the crumbling staircase symbolise the difficult path ahead, and the student on the rural side looks very unsure. Meanwhile, the student from a city seems confident and assured, with a clear path for his educational pursuits. The staircase also has words such as “career paths” and “starting salaries” written on the steps, showing how the urban student has an easier path to reach these milestones.

2. Answers may vary.