Asian parents here in the U.S. where I live are the same too. I remembered getting thrown in piano class, guitar class, violin class, saxophone class. Also, I remembered always going to private tutoring after school for math, english and some more math classes. And every Summer it is Summer school and no free time. Even at home I had to practice typing and writing. Overall it made me hate school and hate learning. And the end all be all was me going to the best U.S. Universities that America had to offer, and of course those were my parent's wishes. Since I was very young, I was into comic books and wanted to draw comic characters, but my Dad yelled at me for looking at comic books, like Hulk and X-men comics and such.. I ended up serving the U.S. Navy at 18 and got out to become a graphic designer/entrepreneur (never graduated from college btw)

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein

As a university teacher in China presently, I have to say this is pretty much my take as well. The building and classrooms shown here are very similar to the ones in which I teach. On the topic of grades, we were told it's ok to fail students, though some said the school will just change their grades to passing grades anyway. Regardless, I am definitely failing a few students that didn't show up for a single class until mid-terms. If the school passes them, insulting the students that worked really hard (and some of my students have been working very hard), it's beyond my control. However, I refuse to follow along with the mentality that college should be easy -- my students are in an international program and part of the point of this program is to get them ready for Western schools. It's really difficult to get them to stop cheating, though, unfortunately, because most of them do it. Finally, I confronted a couple students in the middle of class and one tried to say that because he was the one giving the answers to someone else, he wasn't cheating. Since then I have tried to make it as difficult as possible to cheat by giving more free-form assignments and steering well clear of worksheets and the like. Original thought, either in writing, debates or speeches, is rare, which supports the idea, espoused by Chinese, that Chinese students have a hard time with creativity (or generativity, if you will, because I think this term sheds light on the problem as well.) It seems that they're so used to having a set of rules, a proscribed mode of interaction in the classroom that they get quite befuddled the first time I have them debate or do anything but stand up and answer a multiple-choice question on the projector screen.

As a student of a Chinese university and studying in Canada, I may be qualified to comment the difference between Chinese or western university-level education. Not all of Chinese universities is easy to pass. Most of top-100 universities in China do not make students graduated easily. However, like the university I am studying in Canada, the difficulty level is always held by the professors.

the city looks like Chernobyl.

North American children have a lot of free time to play with their siblings and friends. Think this freedom encourages creativity.

06:10 So right....I'm a professor in tax law at a highly rated Chinese University in a big city in the South of China....we've recently been told by the *_Dean_* of the faculty that we must *_'help'_* those students that have failed before, and need to pass to graduate.... My daughter of 4 is driven relentlessly by her mother to *_memorise_* hundreds of words and characters (literally) -- zero creativity, zero brain development (memorising does not improve brain function, in my humble opinion), but my wife's like the proverbial irresistible force (Tiger Mom - all based on the fear that our kid will do less well than her peers, about which, frankly, at this point, I couldn't care less about)

Pretty similar grading standards in Taiwan. I taught business English at a government post secondary institute. Basically, I was not allowed to fail anyone, the only exception being if the student fell below the minimum attendance standard (in which case admin would handle it anyway). Grades were exercises in creative use of the 'participation' component of the grade. Students who received abysmal scores would suddenly get a huge boost and the top students would get penalized in order to bring their scores back in order to make a nice, neat little bell curve.

The basic difference is socratic thinking vs. confucian thinking. Socratic thinking teaches you to question and doubt, confucian thinking teaches you to obey without question.

I’m Chinese and I almost went through the entire Chinese system (except for Kindergarten) and I completely agree. It’s living hell. It’s a bit better for the coastal urban middle class (which I am), but really unbearable for the rural poor. Students don’t learn how to think, they don’t learn how to write, they don’t learn how to read, they don’t even learn that much at all. They just memorize the s**t out of everything, and 15% to 30％ of their time is spent on studying ideology or Xi’s latest slogans. This might work well for STEM subjects, but in terms of humanities and social sciences it’s a complete disaster.

Still remember when I was a kid living in China and how strict the school system was

I’ll never forget when she said, “the parents are concerned because their children have too much fun in your class.” I asked her, “are there children learning English?” She said, “Yes, but maybe they shouldn’t have so much fun.” I thanked her for the feedback and kept it moving. I refuse to have retired from a long and hard career in corporate management to move to the other side of the sun and not have a good time. If you are learning with me, you’re going to enjoy it. You have no choice

Have a friend that used to teach piloting classes to Chinese foreign students here in California. They send the ones studying to be airline pilots to the USA to push them to think as individuals and not as a collective so they can have the necessary mindset for piloting. It is almost like reprogramming.

chinese invented lots of scams . Who can deny that ?! That's creativity at best !

It is all very similar to Japan and Korea and all other Chinese community throughout Asia. It has been fundamentally laid by confucianism 25 years ago. Committed suicide among young teens 10-15 are common not only in China but also in Japan and Korea as well some in Singapore where majority are Chinese. There are approximately 7 million Chinese descent in Thailand. The educational system is similar where college entrance exam consider the most important part however, the pressure to force kids into college and university is not as great as the East Asia countries. Suicide incidents on the new as I know of not as much in China.

I was one of the sufferer in this system, wasted a lot of my treasure time, when i see back, the respect person who were born in 1960s,70s suffered this also and wasted more time than me. Anyway no choice when we were young…

The other day when I finished one of my ESL classes here in China, I was approached by one of my students (high school). She said "you gave us homework because maybe in your country, you do not study as much as we study here. We don't even get enough sleep during the night, we always wake up at 5:30 in the morning, spend all day at school until 6 or 7 in the evening, then we go to sleep at 10 or 11pm maximum..." At that moment, I really didnt know what to say and felt so bad for loading them with homework but since then I thought of another method of teaching English which is more fun so that at least they can have fun and learn in the same time. THE TITLE OF THIS VIDEO IS VERY PRECISE

About the university business, it is not always like that. If u achieved a high score in Gao Kao and enrolled in a considerably good university, it can be fairly hard to keep up with the pace. I was graduated from Beijing Jiaotong University and life can be hard there. Basically it's like the difference between Harvard and Prairie View A&M.

University is a business in the USA as well. Most universities are subsidized through government loans and will take just about anyone and give them a useless degree. Grades have been inflated to keep students for the money.

Not totally disagreeing with your opinions or anything, but to be honest the place you guys went to is really not an actual university. It even says it on the wall at 8:07 , it's an "innovation center" of some sort for tech workers. It barely qualifies for a community college. Go check out some 985 or 211 universities.

Even the building lacks imagination. Concrete jungle.

In my college there are PSA signs that advise you to conserve power by turning off lights and computers when not in use. Every one of these signs was next to 3 refrigerated vending machines that have to run around the clock to stay cool due to poor insulation

6:06 I don't know why KZfaq recommended this to me, but I watched it and found my home in China was literally in the scene. So weird to see this in Ireland.

About copy-paste of Chinese companies: I say it's just because it's safe to do so and it makes money. About the GaoKao, it's simply because poverty, and uneducated parents are not able to teach their children well because the lack of money and knowledge. There're tons of creative student in well-developed city. However, most of China is poor.

I was really interested to hear about the 100% pass rate. I live in Australia and I was attending a Chinese Language night school. The curriculum was full on and the Institution clearly stated that you had to succeed in a certain number of units in order to receive a Certificate of Achievement (instead of a Certificate of Attendance). I really busted my brain and invested a huge amount of energy and time into ticking every box in order to obtain that Certificate... to the point that I got really upset when I didn't do well in a listening comprehension exam. I was then very deflated and disillusioned to discover, on the last day of the course, that our lecturer awarded everyone the same Certificate of Achievement.... even the students who didn't attend the required number of classes or make any real effort. That's really bugged me ever since, but now I've heard your observations it really makes a lot more sense now. My lecturer was, as you'd expect, Chinese. She was pretty awesome - a great teacher and a lovely, caring person. She'd only moved to Australia as an adult, so I suspect this system greatly influenced her approach to how she assessed her students. I'm not really so bothered now. At least my determination meant that I learnt a stack and came out with a greater understanding than the students who weren't so fussed. Many thanks to you both for your brilliant series, you really do a great job and your balanced, informed insights have really made an impact.

Exam-oriented educational systems tend to curtail creativity indeed! Speaking form experience, education here in Greece shares many of the characteristics you guys describe in this video with the Chinese, and I've lived through 16 years of it (up to upper): Rote repetition, stressful exams upon which one's entrance to upper education is dependent etc. That being said, I have to say that there IS creativity in Greece, despite the country's financial status (or...lack thereof). Surely there are other factors whose effects on creativity are more pronounced.

I imagine it is hard to be creative with a padlock on your mind and spirit.

I'm showing this in my presentation at uni!

As a Chinese, I can tell you more details and give you more footage about how Chinese education industry works. I study linguistics and psychology, and our early education becomes like entertainment business and more focus on making money.

Winston & C-Milk - as usual I would say - a very very good upload - Winston, one of your bike's Meters isn't working - Ehhhh?? - Have noticed that before!!!!

I was born and raised in China, and went through K to high school, nearly graduated, then immigrated to the US. I completely understand what you guys are trying to say in this video. A lot of these points do resinate with me as I have experience in Chinese ed system and a western ed system, particularly American. The following is my personal opinion based on what I know. One of many reasons, and I would say primary reason that Chinese ed system is the way it is - i.e. discouraging independent thinking , is a POLITICAL reason. Having said that, you gotta take the Chinese recent history into context as far as how its education system was put in placed and expanded. This primary political reason to build such an education system is to ENSURE THE CPC HAVING A LONG LASTING RULE and to MAINTAIN SUCH RULING. The standardization of Putonghua is a good example. Putonghua is really Beijing's dialect, which most people in other parts of the country were not able to speak and understand. How would a political party rule its subjects when these subjects couldn't understand the government's language. Therefore a standardized language had to be in place to communicate political ideas and message to the common people. It is, in a sense, a prison, an intellectual prison that restricts free thought. By comparison, the education systems in the West are less restrictive and encouraging to individual thinking, However, such state of Western education did not happen in a short period of time. There were times where a lot of early European and American thinkers were suppressed by various forces in their own societies simply because they held different views on how certain things should be, i.e. scientific view against establishment clergy, etc, and in America, the slavery based economic system and its education system completely suppressed any thoughts of freedom for African slaves, etc. I would say, nothing is certain, but the only certainty is that CHANGE IS CERTAIN. My guess is the Chinese education now is quite different from what it was ten or twenty years ago. It is gonna keep changing, evolving, despite the fact that CPC still has a tight grip on it. Sorry, i am a bit all over the place. Finally, let me challenge you, both Winston and C-milk, with these question: Do you really think your prior education gave you complete freedom? For C-milk particularly, Are Americans really free as you think they are in terms of academics? Do you guys know Noam Chomsky? He has written some very interesting books, maybe you'd find his writings quite refreshing. Stay AWESOME, LOVE YOUR VIDS. Love from an ordinary joe in NYC!

South Korea, Japan and China’s Education are almost the same. They focus very much on education.

I think it just depends on the school you go to in the west. I remember that Elementary school was rather laid back but I Will never forget how stressful middle school and high school, and I think it’s because that the school I went to was ranked in the top 100 list in the US. I also took dual credit and advanced placement courses so college was not necessarily easy, but I felt that high school was definitely more stressful than college. The entrance exam for college and China definitely a stressful. I guess that the SAT and AC T are nothing to complain about.

www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/11/20/myth-chinese-super-schools/ "..Zhao quotes Zheng Yefu, a professor at Peking University and the author of a popular book in 2013 titled The Pathology of Chinese Education, who wrote: No one, after 12 years of Chinese education, has any chance to receive a Nobel prize, even if he or she went to Harvard, Yale, Oxford or Cambridge for college…. Out of the one billion people who have been educated in Mainland China since 1949, there has been no Nobel prize winner…. This forcefully testifies [to] the power of education in destroying creativity on behalf of the [Chinese] society..."

I need to speak for Chinese university on this topic. I suspect you guys went to some of the worst universities in China. What happened to me in Chinese collage was, I was busy all the time, with my courses and experiments. Passing exams were always difficult. For some course, the first attempt passing rate was a mere 60%. By the end of year 4, more than half of the students has failed at least one subject. After graduation, I went to UK for master course, suddenly life became so easy. I used only half the effort and got distinction.

I don't think you guys are intending to make this argument, but I think it's important to note that while the majority of Chinese aren't very creative by Western standards, this doesn't mean they are incapable of it for cultural reasons or whatever. The Chinese invented a lot of stuff in history and were basically the most advanced country in the world for a long time. Also, the education system is starting to go through reforms (and has been for some years). Cities like Shanghai are piloting new approaches which will most likely be implemented country wide over time. In other words, don't expect the status quo to remain for too much longer.

I happened to have a conversation about this yesturday. Here are my Chinese friend's reflections on the differences she experienced. She lived in China until she finished her second year of university as a physics major in Shanghai. Then she came to America did a BS in computer science and then her masters as well. She graduated and is going to work at Amazon now. Here is what she said:i remember there was one time i was waiting for 4B in downtown, and started chatting with a guy next to me who turned to be from Ivy League. he was talking about him dropped out for a few yrs b4 college and i was asking why, and that was when an angry old teacher came from nowhere started to educate me about how chinese education system was like shit when he taught in china... but i remember one thing he said, was that american kids are just distracted. and i've been thinking about the difference in education between china and america ever since.( to be continued in next comment)

I would say the place you visited IS NOT A UNIVERSITY! It's a training institution for tech worker....

Great video as usual guys. I will comment that things have become a little tougher in the U.S. since we've gone through school. I have two nieces. One is in her 2nd year of college and another who is close to finishing high school. I mostly interacted with them either on holiday or summer vacation. When they were going through primary, middle, and high school they always had homework to do or books to read during vacations (usually both). Even during summer vacations! It just blew me away how much they had to do. And of course, now most states have the exams at certain grades to measure the progress of students. Not as bad as the exam you guys talked about in your video. I think they were mandated by common core.

Just for clarification, I think"gao kao" is the exam for 17, 18 yr old high school students trying to get into college and universities, while "zhong kao" is the exam for 14,15 yr old middle school students to get into high school. The exam for 11,12 yr old is the "chu kao", which is for elementary school students to get into middle school.

i knew someone who commited suicide at the end of high school cos of the exam pressure, and this was in the UK, so i think that kinda thing happens everywhere, some kids just can't handle pressure. I think you just might hear about it more in China cos there's so many people.

People born in USSR might find it easy to adapt the education in China...

Foreigners must understand that there are several different tiers of University in China. The two Universities you two mentioned in the video are not even qualified for the second tier Universities. Keep in mind that there are more than one hundred Universities that are in the ranks of first and second tier. And the quality of students as well as equipments are surely to be different from what you two had experience.

When I look back, the classes where my professor was Chinese were my easiest (and therefore, my favorite) classes. I would hand in warm-up quizzes at the end of the period and they would take them; during the midterm, they would let the students that were really struggling use their textbooks towards the end; one professor just played movies every class for the entire period. It's ridiculous and absurd, and to be completely honest, they were probably the classes I learned the most in.

Why would you need creativity when you can just copy the works of others? Great cuntry.

All hail Professor C-milk

So true! I lived at a boarding school in china as a teacher and it was hell for them

Really interesting talk about how they are more relaxed at university. I was driving to Zhuhai with some random wedding attendees just this last year. We stopped at a university on the way; they wanted to get some positive nostalgic feelings from being there in the past. I was amazed because it felt more like a community where people just hanged out and got drunk.

If people were amazed by how fast China is catching up with the world in such a short period of some 30 years, that is the reason. You sacrificed something for something else, that is just the way life is. Most Westerners don't understand how Chinese think of ourselves and our nation. It has just no time for us to have fun even in such a young age since we need to work hard to make our families living a better life and to catch up our nation with the first world level and to make our nation great again.

"HEY TEACHER! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!" I'm looking at you CMILK!

I think your topic is phenomenally pertinent, I lectured at a private Japanese College as a mechanical engineer for 3 years. You are so true and i have had exactly the same problems as C-Milk. You are two very articulate people and i think you balance your arguments very well and don't allow too much opinion enter it. Keep producing

As a former student back in China, really, it is much much harder than Australia primary. Rank it lvl 10 to 2. Guys, gaokao is 'high school test', gets you into Uni. Student would be around 18/19 ish

Knowledge is the basis of creativity. Take √20 as an example. Not many people are able to calculate that with 4 numbers after the decimal point without a calculator. To be able to 'play' with numbers a lot of grunt work has to be done first. Also, the Chinese education system is not very much different from Japan and S-Korea, i.e. lots of rote learning. And yet those countries have creative output (Japan more than Korea). I would surmise that the lack of Chinese creativity, if it can be called that, has much to do with still being a developing country. And especially the destruction of the arts and all that during the Cultural Revolution.

Do they bring their own laptops or do they have to write code on paper?

I love anime and I want to pursue an animation career or maybe something else similar. My Chinese parents didnt care about what I major in or what I want to do in the future. I remember when I used to do piano, I quit piano after 4+ years because the teacher was mean asf, made me cry several times. I told me parents I want to quit several times but they would yell at me, but i still quit. In my middle school year I would to after school classes for 2 hours, it made me hate school too. In my sophomore year my schedule would be so busy. In the weekdays I would go to afterschool class right after school for 2 hrs and every friday i would have a volunteering meeting and have a free day off (half actually bc of school). Then in Saturday, I would go to this private lesson 1 on 1 with a tutor for 2 hours on the second semester of the my sophomore year. After that, I would go to my art class for 5 more hours for my whole year and on Sundays. Then when corona hit it was more relaxed now I dont have tutor anymore except art class for 5 hours still for only one day.

Great vid as always gents. How long has the Gaokao being going on for? I agree with what you say in the vid, which is why I'm surprised Chinese food is incredibly creative and varied. Ok no iPhone has been invented in China but amazing dishes have! The UK where I am from is known as a 'creative' culture... but what the hell happened to the food?!

Dudes, I'm addicted to your videos! Beats the hell out of the Travel Channel!

I am a Chinese living overseas and have been watching your channel for a while. So far I found most of your videos real and objective. You guys really know a lot about China. But for this one, I have to say you guys are sending the wrong message to the audience. Firstly, as a Chinese with more than 20 years of life experience in China, the name of the building tells me that it is not an university. In China you cannot find an university with only one old building. Even many selective primary schools have very decent playgrounds, basketball grounds and soccer fields, and state-of-art teaching equipment and computer labs, not to mention the high school and universities. The place shown in the video should be some place similar to training center or driving school, which only specialized in teaching particular fields. The school in the video indicates that it lacks good management and funds, which is understandable considering that it is in rural area of an undeveloped small city. The modern Chinese universities, especially those 985 and 211 universities, I would say are very close to the best state universities standards in the US in terms of infrastructure, equipment, teaching quality. And the students' abilities are even better. I want to emphasize also that Chinese students lacking creativity is largely a stereotype from the Westerners. They just don't have too many opportunities and time to show their talents and creativities. But it doesn't mean they lose these ability. I'm not trying to defend the Chinese education system, but what I want to say is that Chinese education system does has a lot of advantages in comparison with Western education systems.

Love the shots when they park the bikes!

Love going back and watching your stuff again.

To be honest, the universities you mention or visit in the video, 惠州大學、深圳大學，they're actually not very good schools. China has different levels of universities, just like every other countries, we have good ones and bad ones, basically there are 3 different levels, good ones(一本), normal ones(二本), bad or expensive ones(三本). 惠州大學 and 深圳大學 are just normal ones.

Surely the western teachers encourage creativity to some extent these days?

We are lack of creativity. It's terrible. But when I was in kindergarten my family force me to learn piano. I used to don't hate it but also don't love it till I met an amazing piano teacher when I was at 11 grade. Then I can't live without playing piano, I love it.

The pressure of Chinese students, especially middle school students, is what Taiwanese, or anyone in other developed country, can never understand. Its suffocating and desperate point is definitely not only the invisible sea of questions and the endless fierce competition in academics, but the icy, materialistic interpersonal communication. Take my own personal experience as an example. Let me talk about the teacher, the head teacher, and the main subject teacher generally have a strong desire for control. Because students' performance is linked to their performance, they have every motivation to push students to death just to raise their salaries, and they must establish their own authority in order to make students more obedient. And the main subject teacher will really feel that his subject is the most important, and then freely occupy other subjects. The most shameless thing is that their completely self-interested behavior just has to be whitewashed as selfless. If they really want to be good for the students, why don't they ask students their opinions. Let's talk about the squad leader, he completely regards himself as the prime minister. Imagine that if a person is educated from an early age not that everyone is born equal, but that only people with power will rise to the top, then when he grows up, he will either become a flattering, double-faced pug, or a corrupt official who regards human life like a small grass. But there is no doubt that they will be greedy for power. Even the most mediocre people will be torn apart for even a vain or ridiculous goal. If you happen to be a weak person, then you will only be spurned and despised. Feel too painful? Can't hold it anymore? Other people will only step on your head after hearing this, wanting to taste the taste of superiority while using your body as a small piece of ladder for them to climb up. They won't take pity, on the other hand, they’ll be so happy for losing one competitor. Everyone sees only scores, because scores represent the hope of climbing to the top of the society, and the money they can get in the future. Money is the best proof of social status, and social status determines how much power a person can hold. See? The school is the epitome of this dark Chinese society.

I agree gaokao is deeply suppressing creativity, but it also provides mobility and fluidity in the social ladder, my experience in western country such as United States is that the richer you are the better educational resource you can get, for eg, going to best private schools. It "might" end up with better creative people, but there is clear statistic showing that it is harder for poor kids to get to rich ladder. I guess it is a fight between "Equal" and "Freedom"

Teaching to the test, projected backwards to age 3: insanity.

In Finland it's somewhat the same thing. When you've graduated from the high school (or in some cases vocational school) you usually apply to a university. Your high school diploma might be helpful but for the best universities and to the most wanted lines of study (economics, law, medicine etc..) you always have to go to an an entrance exam and for this exam you have to study quite a lot if your university is popular. But when you've gotten into the university all the stress drops, you can pretty much do whatever or take years of and return and no-one cares. For instance, my mom was in the department of chemistry for one year in the 80s and now as she did her PhD in veterinary she noticed that she's still a registered student at the department of chemistry. People get through their classes usually as well. Even though education is totally free in Finland (books cost, but the university doesn't get any money from students directly) and the government therefore pays a certain amount of money for universities. There is a basic level of money and then there is extra money if they progress enough in their studies (55 study points during an academic year, 3 year bachelor's degree is 180 study points in Finland) and so the faculties want everyone to get at least 55 points each year so that they get about 6000 extra euros/student. That means that even if you have no idea about the subject matter and you just go to the exam you have a high chance of getting "50% correct" and therefore receiving the lowest grade...

Yes, my niece is in the first year of junior high right now, and she just cried to me that she felt like in a jail. One day of weekend is forced to take tutoring classes and they are not allowed to be out of the school except one day. They are not allowed to bring food into the school. People complain to the school board but the complaints were ignored.

It seems some in the comment section were taken aback by the "China lacks creativity" part. As a Chinese, I'm not terribly flattered either, but I think this point is worth some thought and is actually widely discussed in China. For one, the education process in China can be much more open to creativity. The textbook, the teacher/professor's ideas are vastly favored over a student's ideas. In literature for example, I feel like teaching the official interpretations of texts is much more valued than encouraging the students' own interpretations (in China, compared to "the West"). The reason for the Chinese education system (Gaokao and all) could be manifold, but an idea I heard bouncing around was that execution of other types of education would be difficult in China, given its vast population and perhaps infrastructure (consider the level of education that the teaching generation received for example). The current system is at least very standardized and thus fair (more or less). So I think there are already incentives to improve China's education, but there are also obstacles. Lastly, I just want to say that generalizations often lead to stereotypes and misunderstanding, so I encourage anyone interested in the topic to delve deeper on their own (and I suspect that some of those who seemed to take offense in the comment section really commented out of fear that the public would be misled).

THIS IS VERY TRUE. I came to USA at the age of ten, and EVERYTHING about the western education system is fundamentally more effective and realistic than the ones in China. Kids are becoming robots and machines nowadays. I met one of my classmate a couple days ago, and he is a completely different person than what I remembered from lower school.

Love the vlog. I agree with your point to some extent I genuinely loved many of my Chinese university students, but I became fed up with some of them; told subsequent classes not to bother showing up if they didn't want to work, that I would pass them anyway. Saved some headaches that way. Cynical? Realistic. However, the "nurturing of creativity" claimed for American K-12 education is overrated. We need more of the disciplined type of pedagogy -our students' performances are way below par. Yes, there are drawbacks to the regimented style of Chinese education. It does stifle people psychologically, and can be emotionally crushing. (I've known plenty of Chinese kids who could scarcely experience an emotion without first consulting an internalized parental tyrant.) But our system often leaves students unprepared. There is no earthly reason for a university student to require "remedial" math and reading courses. That is a disgrace.

I've been binge-watching your videos on my afternoon off leaving comments here and there, but I think I'll just toss out my position on this subject. So I am a fresh-off-the-plane first time English language teacher. I am here right now as part of a teaching internship based in Chengdu, allied with the Sichuan Education Association for International Exchange. I have been placed at a university just outside of Guanghan, near Deyang, and I have been teaching for nearly three weeks now. It has been an interesting education in how the education system works here. I learned that in middle school the kids are there from 7:30 am to 9 pm Monday to Friday, sometimes with stuff on the weekends. And once they get to college/university they are placed in a course with all of their subjects chosen for them. It has been a struggle getting through to some of these young adults who hate English but have to be there, but I am working my way through it. Plus, I'm just here to essentially provide my classes with time to practice their English. I have learned that the test is super easy, and most of the stuff in the textbooks is redundant so my lessons have had little or no structure so far. It has been a real learning curve right out of the gate, and I'm here until late June. Lord knows what I'm going to be doing by that time.

anytime I see ANYTHING with a 99% favorable rating I get suspicious.

I'm a former student from Huizhou University. There is a really nice little coffee shop in that building. They should have showed that instead of just the run down class rooms.

I recall an American Chinese friend who was born here to parents from China. He said he went to his first day of Kindergarten, and came home, where his parents had prepared 4 hours of homework. He was allowed to break for the evening meal, then back to studying. That was his life for 12 years, a harder academic load than anyone else in school, except the other Chinese kids.

I have a Chinese architect work mate, he moved back to Hong Kong and is the most patriotic Chinese person (despite not being born in the mainland). Even he says that the local Chinese architects have no creativity and most of the locally designed buildings are dire. In western universities the liberal arts are valued very highly, Steve jobs is famous for hiring people with a liberal arts background. Most of this takes decades to build up... So it won't take China long to catch up...

Uk schools are cutting creative arts subjects budgets just to compete with english and maths rankings of places like China South Korea and Hong Kong

Question for you both why on earth would you raise your children in such an environment ?

I am an architect and was highly regarded as an outside of box creative designer. I was in the gallery all the time. I Also was trained in the suzuki method starting at age 3. I spent alot of time with chinese kids due to the above statement. These videos shed alot of light on what i didnt get or understand about this culture.

As a chinese, i am glad to say that you are so right. And many chinese people do not agree with this and this is sad.

It's true that there are suicides happening because of Gaokao pressure, but if you say he is only 12 or 13 years old, I hardly believe that. Normal Chinese students participate Gaokao in their 18 or 19. In 13, he or she may just in a elementary school.

They are not even community colleges. Go to some world top 100 universities in China then talk about the actual universities in China.

4:35 You didn't stop at the Stop sign !!! D:

Thats why we get so many Chinese students at both universities here... The degree paper from an overseas university is worth more than a home grown degree by that count.

History teacher here in the UK. Taught in China for 2.5 years. I prefer the Chinese system, and PISA would suggest academically it is better than the 'West'

Hahahaha... some universities in Mexico have the same looks... but at the end of the day... infrastructure is not that important... and the students give life to those buildings, regardless of the ugliness of the infrastructure

What a dump you teach in. I have been teaching in a public high school in Zhuhai for over 6 years. All our classrooms have air conditioning and much better classrooms. Your stories about everyone passing in university is absolutely correct. Sadly it is producing worse new white collar workers each year. I have a podcast on iTunes called “It’s About China” that talks mostly about the small suburb/countryside area I live in. We cover similar topics on our show but I think we do have very different experiences and perspectives. Our school schedules has stalled us a few months to making a new episode. Maybe if we do get back on track you guys can come on to swap stories comparing city life to country life.

interesting, in my opinion Asian countries do not teach abstract thinking, just learning by memorising. eg Most tests are multi choice!

This video is so biased... The "university" they visited is not a university. It' just a training place for factory's technical workers.(no offense) Most universities in China do have advanced facilities and a nice environment. From the clip, I can see they were filming in a less developed area. Of course the gap between rich and poor is yet to be narrow. But they can't just jump to conclusion that education in China is shit. Why don't they visit more places, both developed and underdeveloped, and make some inspiring comments.

To be honest, never hear of this "University". Even it is a real University, it is the kind that you can get the degree by just giving some money.

Prozzie's class sure didn't look like there was much pressure. Those kids have a blast in his classes.

its qiet different in germany the husband of my daughter went to a tec university for cs and on his first day they where told that at least 30% of them will fail in the first year and quit. the uni would simply increase difficulty of the exams untill at least 30% fail. the universitys are free and dont recive ANY money from the parents or students at all and therefor have no incentive or obligation to let anyone pass. they wanted only the best to proceed and not wasting recources on the lesser talented students. he faild the math exam 3 times and droped out regardless of hard working and learning. he than applied for a apprenticeship in a big company (recaro, the car sportseat company) as computer and network tec. they invited 300 candidates for 10 positions, including candidates who already had university degrees in cs, for a intensive 3 day test. he passed and got accepted. he later was told that his math results where the best they EVER had from any applicants, including those that already succsessfully finished university. so he definitly did not suck at math but still the university rejected him. about cheating or coppying ... even the slightest suspicion and the students must redo the exam under tight control. what a difference to what is reported in the comments about universitys in the us or in china.

That attitude will keep China from progressive advancement. India may we'll pass them as the number one country because of this.

Get lost, thats not a university. Thats obviously a high school.

There's something I didn't understand. Why do students get so stressed about entering the university of their choice if all the universities are bad?

So what your saying is if a kid in china goes to college to become a surgeon, GO TO ANOTHER CONTRY TO GET SURGERY??

A Chinese university just topped MIT as the best engineering school in the world: U.S. News fusion.net/story/210068/tsinghua-mit-top-engineering-school/

These people just make their life by being a youtuber, so they need something attract your attention, no matter it's right or wrong.

c-milk you didn't leave your indicator on in this video, good job. haha

Please more ride and talk videos. I like seeing the scenery in China. It really helps me get by everyday, since it is seemingly always overcast here in Canada.