This is a recording of my October 31, 2025 discussion with Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li about their excellent and important new book The Highest Exam - How the Gaokao Shapes China.
From a synopsis of the book:
In The Highest Exam, authors Ruixue Jia, Hongbin Li, and Claire Cousineau present a sweeping, data-rich account of China’s exam-centered education system — a “centralized, hierarchical tournament” culminating in the Gaokao, a grueling three-day college entrance exam. Drawing on decades of empirical research and lived experience, Jia and Li — both leading economists who took the Gaokao and later taught at top universities in Beijing, Hong Kong, and the U.S. — reveal how this state-managed system shapes education, labor markets, political legitimacy, and social values.
You can buy the book here: The Highest Exam - How the Gaokao Shapes China. It is well-written and priced like a normal book, not an academic one. You can not understand China without understanding the Gaokao system, so this is an important and very useful book.
If you prefer to consume the Sinocism Live episodes as a podcast, please add this URL to the podcast player of your choice:
https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/2/s/7556.rss
You can also listen to it in the app:
Thanks for watching/listening.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
sinocism.com/subscribe
