Authoritarian schooling in Shanghai vs. the American approach

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2017

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When American journalist Lenora Chu moved to Shanghai, she faced tough choices about where and how to educate her kindergarten-age son. She chose an elite state-run school down the street, but soon found that its authoritarian teaching style offended many of her sensibilities of how to nurture a child. At the same time, she found herself appreciating the discipline and mathematical ability that the system was instilling in Rainey. She embarked on an investigative mission to answer the question: What price do the Chinese pay to produce their “smart” kids, and what lessons might Western parents and educators learn from this system? Her book, Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve, tells not just the story of Lenora and Rainey, but also the story of China’s educational system as a whole, backed up by research and interviews with a variety of students, teachers, and experts. Jeremy and Kaiser sat down with Lenora to discuss the Chinese educational system and the range of pros and cons it presents, and to compare that with the dramatically different American system. Recommendations: Jeremy: A Washington Post article titled “To deter North Korea, Japan and South Korea should go nuclear,” written by Bilahari Kausikan, formerly the permanent secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It’s an interesting and compelling argument, whether or not you agree with it. Lenora: Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, the new book by Ellen Pao, a woman trying to pull back the curtain on gender discrimination in Silicon Valley. Kaiser: He recommends that residents in his town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, vote for Hongbin Gu, a woman running for the Chapel Hill Town Council who is a quantitative psychiatric researcher originally from Shanghai. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the cynical podcast, a week in discussion on current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SubChina.
0:14.9	SubChina is the best way to keep on top of the torrent of news coming out of China through our daily email newsletter, our handy smartphone app,
0:21.7	and of course, at our website, supChina.com. It's a feast of business, political, and cultural
0:26.5	news about a nation that is reshaping the world. I'm Kaiser Guo, and I am in New York this week,
0:31.8	where I'm joined by Mr. Jeremy Goldcorn, who just won't know what to do with himself,
0:35.5	now that Senator Bob Corker is not going to be running for re-election since, you know, Jeremy has been calling him every day since the election last November. Jeremy, man, what are you going to do with yourself?
0:44.3	Well, you have all this time now. There'll be another senator.
0:47.3	Right, right. And that app that I use five calls, it gives you, you know, several issues every day and the right number of your local
0:54.6	representatives to call. So there's a bunch of people on my list. Pester the Pauls. That's what I'm
1:00.5	for. That's what I came to America for. Anyway, a few episodes ago, I recommended the book
1:06.2	Little Soldiers, an American boy, a Chinese school, and the global race to achieve. Today, we are delighted
1:12.5	to be talking to that book's author, Lenora Chu. Lenora has worked as both a television and print
1:19.2	journalist, and she still lives in Shanghai with her husband, Rob Schmitz, who's been a guest on
1:23.9	our show a couple of times, and her two boys, Rainey and Landon. She's now touring
1:28.6	in support of this wonderful book that Kaiser and I both thoroughly enjoyed. Lenora, welcome to
1:35.0	Senega. Thank you for having me. Lenora, I think Jeremy and I like the book so much in no small
1:39.4	measure because we've both raised young children in China. Well, Jeremy moved his over earlier than I did,
1:43.5	but then, you know, we did move to the U.S. And we've been both puzzling through exactly the same
1:47.5	sorts of issues at the center of little soldiers. Nor than that, I think that it wasn't just about
1:53.4	your parenting journey. I mean, you really talk about, you get to the heart of the major issues
1:57.9	that are really bedeviling both the Chinese and the American pedagogical
2:02.1	systems.
	...

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