The power of positional competition and market mechanism: a case study of recent parental choice development in China

Abstract

The positional competition reflected in the current parental choice fever in China is highlighted by the introduction of market mechanisms: buying houses near preferred schools, paying choice fees or co‐founding fees, giving donations and spending money on spare time training classes, etc. All of these work effectively together with the traditional tools of power and guanxi in carrying out one’s parental choice. The involvement of huge amounts of choice fee money has resulted in changes in government policies that work to the middle classes’ advantage by giving the green light to the intake of choice students in senior middle schools and allowing the former key primary schools and junior middle schools to change into ‘converted schools’ for the sake of charging high choice fees in a legal way. The development of the series of government policies has resulted in a shift of the parental choice process from being a meritocratic competition to a largely private competition between families based in large part on wealth, power and guanxi.

Keywords:

• parental choice
• market mechanism
• positional competition
• choice fee
• converted school
• middle class

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Hugh Lauder of the University of Bath for his insightful suggestion on the improvement of the first two drafts of this paper, without which I could not have made it to the present form. I am also grateful to Don Barnes and Karen Barnes as well as the two anonymous referees for their helpful advice.

Notes

1. Mandarin Mengzi, (born c. 372 – died c. 289 bc) Chinese Confucian philosopher who taught that people are innately good and that one’s nature can be enhanced or perverted by one’s environment. His development of orthodox Confucianism earned him the title ‘second sage’.

2. The Ministry of Education was changed to the State Education Commission from 1985 to 1997 to show the importance given to education at that time since commission is more powerful than ministry.

3. It refers to registered permanent residency (household registration) issued in Chinese mainland. A household registration record officially identifies a person as a resident of an area. It can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household registration record is issued per family, and usually includes the births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and moves, of all members in the family.

4. 15 yuan equals 1 pound.

5. In China, all the work places are called units, like a school, organization, shop, etc. Hence in Chinese ‘Which unit do you work for?’ is often used as an alternative for ‘Where do you work?’

6. An examination designed by the Testing Centre of the Ministry of Education for all the citizens in China regardless of age, occupation or educational background. There are five grades (1–5) ranging from low to high. The focus of the exam is the communicative ability in English.

7. An English test designed by University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) for children between the age of 6 to 12. There are three grades: Starters, Movers, Flyers. It was introduced to China in 1996.