Overview

How privileged adolescents in China acquire status and why this helps them succeed Study Gods offers a rare look at the ways privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. Yi-Lin Chiang shows how these competitive Chinese high schoolers first become 'study gods' (xueshen), a term describing academically high-performing students. Constant studying, however, is not what explains their success, for these young people appear god-like in their effortless abilities to excel. Instead, Chiang explores how elite adolescents achieve by absorbing and implementing the rules surrounding status. Drawing from eight years of fieldwork and extensive interviews, Chiang reveals the important lessons that Chinese youth learn in their pursuit of elite status. They understand the hierarchy of the status system, recognising and acquiring the characteristics that are prized, while avoiding those that are not. They maintain status by expecting differential treatment and performing status-based behaviours, which guide their daily interactions with peers, teachers, and parents. Lastly, with the help of resourceful parents, they rely on external assistance in the face of potential obstacles and failures. Chiang looks at how students hone these skills, applying them as they head to colleges and careers around the world, and in their relationships with colleagues and supervisors.

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9780691210490

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"""The importance of this study is . . . that while most research so far om social inequality and status reproduction (as distinct from upward social mobility) has considered thewe phenomena as restricted to one country, it is now shown that the elite students of China are part of the dynamics of elite status reproduction on a global scale.""---Bart Dessein, Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies"

"""Highly readable. . . . [and] fascinating.""---Zachary M. Howlett, The China Quarterly"

Author Information

Yi-Lin Chiang is assistant professor of sociology at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. Twitter @chiang_yilin Instagram @yilin.chiang

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