I find it pretty laughable that Western Media don't focus on the actual things that trouble us.
- The Gaokao is inhumane, and so is the Zhongkao. Zhongkao is kinda like Gaokao Jr., where you take it at the end of 9th grade. It is considered to be even more important in a student's life, especially in resource-lacking provinces such as mine (which is why I decided to go to an international department of an HS, do AP courses and go to the US for college). In extreme cases, only less than 50% of Zhongkao takers are eligible for any high school at all. Rest of them either has to go to a technical training school (where because most people there are neither academically accomplished nor morally well-behaved, rendered them virtually useless in society and looked down upon throughout the entire society) or even worse, has to start working at or even under minimum wage. But, if you go to a regular high school, it is another prison for 3 years, you are just not sentenced to community service. This creates social divide, and nobody has fun.
- Colleges in China have barely any campus culture. Well, maybe except for those toppy top ones like Tsinghua. Most people are simply too burned out from Gaokao to strive for actual greatness in college. In fact, the admissions system is broken: you decide for the major AFTER gaokao which transpired about 5 days ago, and annually. I applied to US universities so I know how important it is to have a major in mind at least by the start of senior year(this is already as late as it should be humanly possible). Result? Prefroshes don't know what they actually like to study and go into fields that make money without loving the field. Another reason why they slack.
- They push the 3-child subsidy even through PSA advertisements on streaming websites despite nearly nobody wanting to because rent is so high it would be unsustainable for the average family to start 3 kids.
- Socialist ideological education isn't being done well enough. They fit a set of information so expansive in one semester that nothing is being explained clearly enough from the average teacher to the average student. Thus, many people's understanding of socialism even after graduating college stalls at "china good, socialism good, marx good, america bad" and some disconnected buzzwords picked on the night before the finals. Most college students agree that this class is taught like crap and complain about it. There is someone who is basically Wylted's idea of me, times 200, teaching this course, named Dr. Ai Yuejin(He literally made fake stories about Chairman Mao), and he was actually considered to be an above average professor at this field! Crazy.
- Job culture is toxic. Not only is the working hours not regulated enough, competition is so extreme that people with a Masters are applying for menial jobs and people with just a Bachelor's are jobless because of that. Many people are inclined to get a Masters of a Doctorate just to get a job rather than out of the pleasure of learning.
- Nepotism runs rampant. A PI scolded his grad students because he trusted them to help with his daughter's project in a middle school competition and did not win. Soon it was discovered that a lot of the projects there were done due to nepotism. This was far from the only case.
- Parents are toxic and make kids no-life all the way until college. Ramifications explained above.
- Dining ettiquete, where employees must be completely submissive to their bosses to the point there are tutorials on how to effectively overdrink and how to say stuff in a way that pleases your boss. This exists even in the research settings with one's higher ups. Here is a joke here: If Hawking was working in China, he would be demoted for not knowing how to give a toast!
- Moving holidays around so for every extended break you would get quite a few 6-day workweeks if not 7. This should not be allowed. (Cue Anakin from Ep. 3)
- The music industry went south quickly in the last 20 years to the point where a small singer from the United States was able to sweep a national level music competition aired on TV.
None of what I said here is slander. All of these are actual issues we actually care about. I am not a bootlicker or a stupid ignorant kid. I just know that if you don't live here, chances are that you don't know what is actually the pressing issues. This was a quick browse from Bilibili, our equivalent of Youtube. If they think it is my problem and even arrest me, well, just pretend I am adding another line to this post. But the point is still the point.