Education ⁽³²⁾

If, like me, you went to university once in the 1990s and again in the 2020s, you might be quite surprised by the changes in Chinese higher education. Because today's Chinese universities are becoming more and more like high schools: some so-called university students today…

Last Saturday, as usual, I went to the library to review. The weekend library is packed, and seats have to be grabbed. I am usually among the first batch to enter, so I always manage a good seat. A mother of a 10th-grader grabbed the…

Since I wrote that I am preparing for next year's college entrance examination (gaokao), many parents have messaged me asking how I prepare and hoping I would share my revision experience for their children to learn from. Because such requests are numerous, today I write…

Because my child wants to major in mathematics, I learned of Paris-Saclay University-the university ranked first in the world for mathematics. (Actually, the one truly ranked first should be the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, but ENS is too small in scale and does not…

The day before Labor Day this year, my son said he wanted to keep a pet. So we went to look around the pet market, and the child took a fancy to a cat. The cat was lively and cute; not only did my son…

After this year's college entrance exam, I took my child to Mount Tai. On the mountain path he grew tired, so we found a place to sit and rest; he leaned on my shoulder and fell asleep. The other day I took my son out…

My son has long planned to study abroad; even before the college entrance exam, my wife and I had considered letting him go abroad for his undergraduate or graduate studies. After the exam, his mother and my elder brother actively urged him to study English…

Medicine is full of uncertainty. After years of studying and practicing, I have grown used to seeking certainty in an uncertain world. But after my child took the college entrance exam, I was at a loss for a while, unsure how to help him choose…

Today, four high school seniors close to me are taking the national college entrance examination (gaokao) in three different cities across the country. One is my son, one is my nephew, and the other two are students who have studied medicine with me since childhood.

Today my son’s head teacher announced that, starting tomorrow, these third-year (grade-12) students no longer need evening self-study. This is to make final preparations for the national college entrance exam (gaokao), which takes place in a week; the school wants the seniors to get adequate…