Monday 12/01/2025
In the morning I had to run AV for a book talk. Here’s how Gigi described it,
Stanford Professor of Economics and co-director of Stanford’s Center for China’s Economy and Institutions will talk about his book, The Highest Examination: How the Gaokao Shapes China.
What is the gaokao? It is the college entrance examination given by the Ministry of Education throughout China. It is the modern version of the 1,400 year-old Imperial Examination that Chinese emperors gave to choose their bureaucrats.
Professor Li had some interesting slides, unfortunately his English was hard to follow. I fear the video recording will be less than good. Anyway, the gaokao might be the single biggest difference between Chinese and American culture. Far older than the similar British exam, a young person’s score determines their future educational path and much of their life.
Right after the talk I headed FOPAL where I didn’t get everything fixed like I want, but I had to break off and head back for the 4pm Poetry Out Loud. My contribution was to read Billy Collins’s “Questions About Angels“.
After supper I practiced “Feliz Navidad” again. Earlier I did a little more furniture rearranging, moving my leather Ekorns lounger to a corner. This is why so many people follow this blog, for gripping news like that.
Codgerville 