Marketised “Educational Desire” and the Impetus for Self-improvement: The Shifting and Reproduced Meanings of Higher Education in Contemporary China

ABSTRACT

In recent years, higher education in China has experienced drastic transformations along with the expansion of university enrolments and the ongoing privatisation of the job market. Students today increasingly engage with extra-curricular activities due to the uncertain value of university diplomas and in preparation for their future socioeconomic challenges. I explore this phenomenon through an ethnographic study of a group of student entrepreneurs on a prestigious university campus. These students heralded an image of market-oriented self-improvement that has become widespread throughout Chinese university campuses via state policies. My analysis considers the theoretical perspectives on the self-responsible “enterprising self” that characterises neoliberal societies and the culturally embedded “educational desire” that regards the moral prestige of education in China as being independent of market calculations. I argue that while the ethic of self-improvement indicates the changing meanings of higher education, it is through their student identities and lifestyles, separated from the job market, that students experiment with self-improvement and can sustain their positive image of the market economy. Higher education is hence reproduced as a distinct moral life-stage that precedes one’s entrance into “society”.

ABSTRACT IN CHINESE

近年来, 随着大学扩招和就业市场的持续私有化, 中国的高等教育经历了重大转变. 由于大学文凭价值的不确定性以及迎接未来社会经济挑战, 越来越多的学生卷入额外课业负担. 本文将通过人类学视角, 针对大学生企业家群体来探讨这一现象. 目前, 市场经济导向的自我提升概念引领着学生, 这种概念通过国家政策在大学校园中广泛传播. 本文结合新自由主义社会里自我责任特征的“进取自我”的理论观点 (Rose, 1998) 和中国文化的 “教育欲望” 的观点 (Kipnis, 2011) ——后者探讨教育的操守在中国不遵循市场原则. 我认为, 虽然自我提升的内涵意味着高等教育的意义在不断变化, 但学生能尝试自我提升, 并对市场经济维持积极的态度, 主要是由于学生特定身份和大学里的生活方式与就业市场分离. 于是, 高等教育被强调为中国年青人在进入 “社会” 之前所经历的道德生活阶段.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• anthropology
• higher education
• market economy
• self-improvement
• soft skills
• Chinese education
• Chinese youth
• entrepreneurship
• individualism

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. I also express my gratitude to the 2017 committee of the Ted Bestor Award for Outstanding Graduate Papers of the Society of East Asian Anthropology – namely, Glenda Roberts, Andrew Kipnis and Jenny Chio. The committee offered me this award based on an earlier version of this article and offered helpful remarks. Finally, I thank Yu Ang for making valuable suggestions on an earlier draft of this article and George Baca for a generous and thorough review that guided me during a later revision.

Notes

1 Several factors limit the implementation of educational reforms in China: the difficulty of measuring students’ abilities in methods other than numerical exam marks (Woronov, 2008), the widespread belief in the meritocracy of exams, and the practical imperative of disciplining children through strict measures (Wu, 2016, p. 14).

2 In Chinese, there is no colloquial expansive term that conveys “self-improvement”. The term ziwo tisheng (“self-improvement” or “self-elevation”) is used mostly by individuals engaged in activities associated with psychotherapy. Most students instead spoke of their self-improvement in terms of “improving my abilities” (tigao ziji de nengli) or by emphasising the specific skill they were cultivating.

3 Similar ideas were expressed in a proposal by Tang Min, an economist in the Asian Development Bank Mission in China, who advised the Chinese Ministry of Education prior to the stipulation of the reforms (see Bai, 2006, p. 132).

4 During my year at Qilu University, Gao Rui undertook different intern roles in three enterprises. Her ultimate aspiration, as of January 2016, was to run her own training school for children aged 7–12.

5 A 2013 survey in Zhejiang province found that 44.3 per cent of adults aged between 18 and 44 regard businesspeople as their primary “role models”, among whom Ma Yun is particularly esteemed (Today Morning Press, 2014).

6 In Shandong, the statistics for 2015 indicate that 27,500 new postgraduate students enrolled, compared to 23,200 who graduated (see Shandong Provincial Education Department, 2016).

7 Dorothy earned 3,000–5,000 CNY a year from university scholarships, but this did not cover her expenses.