Review of The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China, by Ruixue Jia & Hongbin Li, with Claire Cousineau
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14507/er.v33.4694Abstract
This volume is the first book-length, data-driven account for a general audience of China’s national college entrance examination - the gaokao, popularly understood to be the last remaining channel for social advancement.
Author Biography
Yanming Ren, Zhoukou Normal University
Yanming (Ami) Ren is Associate Professor of Foreign Studies at Zhoukou Normal University in Henan, China. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where she was supervised by Professor Saville Kushner and also received guidance from Professor Robert Stake. She also holds an MSc in Management from the University of Wales, UK. Her doctoral research examined China’s gaokao, educational program evaluation, and research methodology. Her current work—qualitative case studies of educational evaluation—extends that methodological engagement. Her research interests lie at the intersection of comparative education, education policy, and foreign language pedagogy, with a particular focus on the social and political dimensions of education systems. Her experience of being educated both within and outside China informs her scholarship on educational opportunity and social mobility. She has published internationally on education and has taught at universities in China for more than two decades.
References
Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Saez, E., Turner, N., & Yagan, D. (2017). Mobility report cards: The role of colleges in intergenerational mobility (NBER Working Paper No. 23618). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w23618
Liang, C., Li, Z. Q., et al. (2012). Wusheng de geming: Beijing daxue yu Suzhou daxue xuesheng shehui laiyuan yanjiu (1952–2002) [The silent revolution: A study of the social origins of students at Peking University and Soochow University, 1952–2002]. Zhongguo Shehui Kexue [Social Sciences in China], (1), 98–118.
Simons, H. W. (1994). The rhetoric of social movements and political protest. In H. W. Simons (Ed.), The rhetorical turn: Invention and persuasion in the conduct of inquiry (pp. 168–199). University of Chicago Press.
The New York Times. (2026, April 7). Yi chang wusheng de fankang: Zhongguo minzhong weihe aidao Zhang Xuefeng [A silent revolt: Why the Chinese public mourned Zhang Xuefeng]. The New York Times (Chinese edition). https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20260407/china-mourned-an-education-influencer-the-grief-was-a-quiet-revolt/
Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labour: How working class kids get working class jobs. Saxon House.
Yang, X. W. (2003). Gaokao wenxian (1949–1976) [Gaokao documents, 1949–1976] (Vol. 1). Higher Education Press.
[Book reviewed] Jia, R., & Li, H., with Cousineau, C. (2025). The highest exam: How the gaokao shapes China. Harvard University Press.
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