Failed book idea

During my first year at Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology I had quite a novel idea. I had been writing on this blog and learning about Chinese culture. I was incredibly struck by almost every story I heard from my students about their high school lives. So, I thought, why not interview a bunch of students and organize all the information into a book. Chinese high school is vastly different than that I experienced at West Des Moines Valley (Go Tigers), and probably that experienced by most American young adults. China is also of rising economic and political importance (so much so that some people dub the G20 summits, G2 summits). So, I thought that it would be pretty interesting and valuable for American and Western audiences to learn more about what life’s like for Chinese teenagers. I made it to one interview. This makes it pretty clear that I prioritized spending nights drinking Snow beer and chatting with David, Danthemanstan, Clark, Sean, or Sarah more than writing my idea of a book. Nonetheless, I find the interview I had with Zhao Min about her high school experience incredibly interesting, so, it is posted below. If you have any questions or want to learn more, let me know, and I bet that Zhao Min would be happy to email you a response.

Name: 赵敏 Zhao Min
Birth date: November 10, 1986
Hometown: 大丰，盐城， 江苏

Hometown size/description: lives in a village of 5,000 in the region of DaFeng a medium sized city, average wealth within Jiangsu province, in the northern part of Jiangsu province. According to Zhao Min, people from Northern Jiangsu are better at the sciences and tend to work harder, while those from Southern Jiangsu province are better at the liberal arts.

Parents’ occupations:
Father was a PE teacher, is now retired and runs a hardware store. Mom runs the hardware store with her father.

When did you begin high school?
Fall of 2002

Where was your high school located?
In DaFeng city
How far was your high school from your house?
40 minute bus ride

Was your high school free? If not, how much did it cost?
No, 1,200 yuan per semester

Where did you live during high school?
In a dormitory.

(if in a dormitory) how many roommates did you have?
11 roommates (12 total in the room)

Describe your dormitory (amenities)?
‘it was a very small room, no fan, only one tap’ ‘life there was very hard’ ‘it was very crowded’ had to wait a long time in the morning to wash. Estimates room was 1.5 meters by 5 meters, with one small window at the far end. Three sets of bunk beds along each wall. No heating, no air conditioning. Electricity was turned on at 5:00 and turned off at 22:20. There were two bathrooms on each floor, with six toilets each, serving 264 girls per floor. The shower building was a 20 minute walk away. No televisions. No computers, no personal computers allowed. No desks in the room. Teachers would come to monitor the dormitory rooms after 10:20, talking was forbidden. Zhao Min would often pretend to sleep until the monitoring teacher had left. Clothes were washed by hand but were difficult to dry because there was no rack or porch in the rooms, so they were forced to dry them in the courtyard, which was shaded.

How many hours of class did you have each day?
Class lasted from 5:30 to 22:00 ‘it was really hard for us to finish the high school life’


How many days per week did you have class?
Seven days a week. One day off per month. They were free at 11:00 and had to return at17:00 on the one free day. ‘it was very crazy I think, we hate that’. ‘In fact my teachers were very kind, I loved them’.

Summer vacation lasted how long?
Two months, from beginning of July to the end of August.

How many vacations during the year?
National Day (October, 7 days), Labor/Worker’s day (May, 7 days) Spring Festival (January, 20 days)

Describe the normal day, from waking up until bed?
We often got up at about 5:00. Arrived at the classroom then had required reading/studying, which was monitored by the teacher. At six o’clock they jogged 500 meters. At 6:15, returned to the classroom to read, monitored, this reading period was assigned. At 7:00, breakfast. At 7:20, returned to the classroom for half an hour silent study hall, occasionally monitored. 7:50, first class began, which was followed by four periods of 45 minutes each, 10 minute breaks between classes. 11:20, lunch, the dining hall was ‘very crowded’ ‘if you came too late, there was no food for you to eat, so you had to run, you had to run’. After lunch, 12:00, back in the classroom, for study hall, 30 minutes. 12:30-13:30, rest/nap in the dormitory, or silent studying in the classroom, often monitored. “We often slept in the classroom”
14:00, four more classes, same schedule as the morning, lasted until 17:35. Dinner from 17:35 to six. From six to seven, study hall, monitored. From 19:00 to 22:00, three review classes, 50 minutes with a ten minute break. At 22:00 they returned to the dormitory, “just twenty minutes we had to wash, wash our clothes, brush our teeth, do something casual” –I asked, did you shower, “in fact we only showered two times a week, on Wednesday and Sunday, the public bathrooms were very crowded”. They would shower during the rest time on these days. (they did not have the same classes each day, many were daily, but some were only once or twice per day)

What spare time activities did you engage in?
None, there was no free time.

When did you take the college entrance exam?
In June 7,8,9, 2005. At the end of the third year, this ended the third year (earlier than normal).

How many hours per day did you prepare for the exam?
Over one semester, they reviewed all the subjects in preparation for the exam, all the studying for the exam was done with the class. She ‘seldom studied during vacation’

How many students were in each class?
60-70

*the teachers worked about seven or eight hours per day, but the class master/teacher had to monitor the students during all the studying and otherwise monitored period. So she did not necessarily work for 17 hours, but had irregular hours because she had to monitor very early and very late.

Summary/Comments?
“I had too much pressure” “I was a good student in our class, so I often sat in the second desk, in fact the second line, third line, fourth line were the good students, but the students who didn’t study well, often sat behind in the classroom, so we seldom talked to them. I didn’t know why.” “The teachers there were very hard working, they also had too much pressure”