The children of the wealthy and well-connected in China enjoy enormous privileges over their poorer counterparts: access to elite kindergartens and primary schools, expensive tutors, European vacations, flashy Italian and German sports cars and generous allowances. But in a country where cash and connections rule, one bastion of meritocracy, it was thought, remained: admission to a university. It was no myth that a high score on China’s famously difficult national college entrance examination guaranteed a spot at a top university and a ticket to the middle class, and maybe beyond. Admission did not depend on the thickness of a father’s wallet, but rather on the content of a student’s mind.

December 4, 2015 ・ From The New York Times