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This is a series of articles on education in Shanghai (I tried to avoid big topics like Education in China. The previuos several articles are:After I talked about the choice between Chinese and International Education, let me dive into details about how the current educational system, and why it has failed.
Worry about Yifan's Education and
Worry about Yifan's Education - Part II
Is China Changeable? Chinese or International Eduction?
The University Education is Bound to Hukou
I hope it will change in near future (and I have seen the positive move toward this direction), but till today, the university education in China means much more than most people outside the system thinks.
China has a Hukou system, or residential permit, a system to bind a person to the land and do not allow people to relocate easily. You can read more about it in my previous article about Hukou System in China. To put it in simple sentence, your Hukou follows your parents. It does not matter where the kid is born. Even the kid is born in Shanghai, if the parents have Hukou of a village, the kid also have to register back to the village, which may be thousands of miles away.
Is Hukou important? Although it is not as important as before, it is still pretty important. You don't have medical insurance, or social insurance, and most of the benefit the city offers to its citizen. A typical example of this weird situation is that someone who live in Shanghai for 10 years still needs to get back to the place where he came from to get a passport, or do most of the government related tasks.
Is there anyway to get Hukou in another city? Very hard, if not impossible. You can think of Hukou as a green card for US. Some research shows that the criteria to "immigrate" to Shanghai is higher than to immigrate to Canada. Most people cannot get it.
Village Hukou vs City Hukou
To make the situation even worse, inhumanity, and confusing, there are basically two types of Hukou - the Village Hukou, or the City Hukou. If you have a Village Hukou, it is like a sticker that follows you all your life time, and passes down to your child, and grandchild... not a big chance to remove it. So what is the difference? Huge difference. Village Hukou can own farm land, but don't have most of the social benefit like medical and social insurance as the people in city has. That is an area the government is working on.
Before the situation change, people has village Hukou always wanted to have a city Hukou (at least at the time I went to university).
The only feasible way (if not the only one) is to get to a university first. A university admission a first step to change people's identify. If you lose the chance when you are 18 years old, you almost lose the chance forever.
The Struggle to get a Hukou
I don't know the current situation. It may be changed already, but I guess not in a big way.
When I graduated, only very limited number of who can get a form to apply for a
For most of people like Yifan, he does not need to worry too much because his father, and mother have done the hard work to get themselves Shanghai Hukou (residential permit), so he don't have to get one for himself, but for most of people who want to get a Hukou from a big city, the most feasible way (if not the only) is to get university degree in that city.
by Jian Shuo Wang on May 21, 2009 under