Above: Creativity, innovation, continuous learning, professional managers, all now discussed at Chinese companies. Picture gallery of Beijing WangFujing shopping street, below.Gifted Children and Education in China
WHEN HIGH SCORES ARE NOT ENOUGH
Transition towards market economy sets new rules in China. Society has noticed that past times education is not enough for market economy. Chinese are now eager to learn what is needed for success: creativity, how to solve problems, how to handle critical situations, communication, leadership.
In China the Confucian education system still teaches to copy and imitate. Only seldom education leads into great success or individual competitiveness. A man's errors are his portals of discovery but not yet so in China.
Teachers Day comes every September. Chinese families prepare gifts for their child's teachers. This year shops advertised expensive cosmetics as the best gifts for teachers. Competing with gifts for teachers.
Every Chinese parents expect their child to be "head taller than the others", ChuRenTouDi or out-people-head-ground. But this expectation has influence on teamwork, trust and sharing.
While foreign universities, education methods, MBA and EMBA programs bloom in China, third of Chinese university students face unemployment. There is no match with education and work life needs.
Today Chinese define success as a good job and high income. They want to know all secrets which enable career and consumption.
Picture:
Artwork in Beijing.
- Need RAID?
HIGH SCORES
In the late 70s, after the Culture Revolution, Chinese government made a comeback by focusing again on science and technology.
The educational success was defined to be based on “high scores”, which became a set goal. Education system's target was to produce students with “high scores”. This target has now proved to be too narrow for market economy needs.
PROBLEMS
During CCTV9 Dialog, a professor from Beijing University told about problems what hard working Chinese students often have:
-
- difficulty of being independent
- decline of taking care of themselves
- limited ability to control emotions
Picture:To be successful, one got to be a "normal man", take care about himself, be able to cook his own meal, said professor, in addition, students need freedom to choose their own major and change it when they want.
Chopsticks in Beijing.
- Fork and knife?
SUCCESS
Ms Chen Xiaowei, herself a high score student, former officer at China's state-run media CCTV and now General Manager of China.com portal, pointed that Chinese kids are over burdened. They don’t have enough social works with other kids and adults.
Picture:Let kids be kids, don’t even push them to be creative. Let kids play and grow with other kids Ms Chen said, success is about whether you are happy or not happy, and useful or not to society and your family.
Artwork in Beijing.
- Have hobbies?
WORKLIFE NEEDS
I agree with professor and Ms Chen. High score can be achieved by "working harder", not necessarily need to be a talent to achieve that goal.
I have searched for talents for new teams in China. I have interviewed many high score candidates for positions in marketing, business development and research. A high score would be easy but often wrong selection into those positions.
High scores have done hard educational work. Recruiting a high score enables person and family to move into Beijing, and that might already be the main achievement. How much more hunger is there for continuous learning? Or sharing information which is a must in modern work life?
JOB INTERVIEW
I want to share an interview question for Chinese job seeking candidates interview.
-
Tell me about the difference between
- Chinese state owned enterprises, SOEs (1/3 of economy)
- Chinese privately owned companies (1/3 of economy)
- Foreign companies operating in China (1/3 of economy)
EPILOG
Match with education and work life needs are not always enough. Many positions in SOEs and institutions are still filled by added power of Guanxi.
But why today's Chinese "high score" talents so seldom shine at foreign companies? I found a Chinese answer to this difficult question. It's a well known saying among Beijing business managers: High Score equals to Low Capabilities.
BeijingMan aka Kippo
List of all BeijingMan Postings
______________________________
UPDATE 18th April 2006 - HARMONIOUS INTERNET: Ms Chen Xiaowei, former officer at state owned CCTV, appeared at CCTV9 Dialog interview again. She has 6 months work experience at China.com portal, and says that media outlets have responsibility to clean-up the content.
Together with a state media representative Chen Xiaowei called for "healthy content pledge" by Chinese Internet portals, 700.000 of them. "Blogs are not cleaned... of curse words, violence, morality, taste" she says.
China has tight Internet laws by 9th National People’s Congress, December 2000, and regulations and rules for web content, discussion boards and emails. Chen Xiaowei wants Chinese portals to go further and voluntarily clean up content based on good taste.
"We serve the people" says Chen Xiaowei of China.com "for harmonious Internet self-discipline is important." Many Chinese believe that with Chen Xiaowei, China has got a case of over sized China heart.
______________________________
All photos in this post are from WangFujing shopping street area, Beijing. I used mainly Canon 20D with EF-S 10-22mm zoom.
Above-1: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-2: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-3: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-4: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-5: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-6: WangFujing, Beijing. Welcome.
Above-7: WangFujing, Beijing. He is famous Wang Ping Gui, workers' model citizen who used to work here. He sold candies. His hand was very exact, he managed to weigh f.ex. 300 grams by one lift, then he packetized candies quickly but carefully. His service was always friendly.
Above-8: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-9: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-10: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-11: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-12: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-13: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-14: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-15: WangFujing, Beijing. Fast food.
Above-16: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-17: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-18: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-19: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-20: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-21: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-22: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-23: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-24: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-25: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-26: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-27: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-28: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-29: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-30: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-31: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-32: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-33: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-34: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-35: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-36: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-37: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-38: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-39: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-40: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-41: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-42: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-43: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-44: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-45: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-46: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-47: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-48: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-49: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-50: WangFujing, Beijing.
Above-51: Health campaign at WangFujing shopping street, Beijing.
Above-52: WangFujing, Beijing.
===END===
_________________________________
© BeijingMan aka Kippo 2008, 2009
