Studying is harmful
Iza Ding: China sits the Gaokao, 5 February 2026
The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China
by Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li with Claire Cousineau.
Harvard, 256 pp., £24.95, September 2025,978 0 674 29539 1 Show More
by Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li with Claire Cousineau.
Harvard, 256 pp., £24.95, September 2025,
“... for the ballot box. The gaokao is more than a test; it’s an enduring political institution.Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li, two of the authors of The Highest Exam, have taken the gaokao, and they combine their analysis with memoir. Jia, a professor of economics at UC San Diego, is from rural Shandong and had never ... ”
