Support young Chinese venturing off the usual gaokao path

When Gong Sheng was in high school, he made a bold decision. Despite scoring well and getting into a prestigious middle school in Sichuan, the student suddenly decided to transfer to a vocational school and learn to cook.

He could have followed a standard academic path, but by chance he had a culinary encounter that brought a “spiritual awakening”, he said. Gong, who spoke to the media last week at the tourism college where he is now enrolled for a cooking and catering programme, added that “cooking has become an inseparable passion in my life”.

To a Westerner, this might simply be a classic case of a young adult finding his calling and resolutely following his dream. But someone familiar with Chinese society would know just how unconventional Gong is. When Chinese children are acclimatised to fierce competition from a young age and repeatedly told the rest of their lives will be determined by their scores in one exam, it’s rare for them to give up following what they believe to be the better path in pursuit of a dream.

But I’m happy to see more people like Gong, especially in the current economic and employment climate. It’s a sign that young Chinese are more certain about what they want, and that there’s enough support from their families and society for them to achieve their goals.

Gong Sheng is hardly the first young adult in China to have stepped off the beaten track, despite getting into a good school. But in the past, the media tended to report these stories as novelties.

A famous case is Lu Buxuan, the bespectacled butcher who graduated from one of China’s best schools, Peking University. Back in 1985, Lu had been the only one from his high school in Xian to go to university. But after graduation, a fruitless job search and a loss-making stint as a businessman, he started selling pork at a market.

  

​Read More