The topic does not come from nowhere. As a Chinese students, I hear all kinds of stereotypes all the time, and often these stereotypes make me feel extremely surprised and confused. After studying in the US for several years, I found out that these stereotypes are not rare, but fairly common in the US society. The most common stereotype is that Chinese students are smart, at least in the meaning of doing math and finishing homework. Is it true that Chinese students are smarter than students from other places?
First, I have to clarify that I did not make up the stereotype. A study done in Midwest University supports the existence of this stereotype. Midwest University was chosen to take the study because 47% percent of the students in that school were from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, so the American students there had a lot of opportunities of encountering Chinese students. One hundred American students were chosen and asked to describe the Chinese students they saw, and the most frequent impression Chinese students made to Americans is that they were smart. Sixty-seven out of the one hundred students thought Chinese students were smart.
Another test was conducted to further research American’s perception in Chinese students, and the goal of the send test was to find out how many students agreed with the result from test 1. One hundred and forty-six students did an online survey and chose what they thought was true about Chinese students, and the result again, showed that Americans thought Chinese students were smart. (Not that hard-working though)
The result from both tests can be due to chance because the sample size is not really big and is limited in one university. However, because the goal is to find stereotypes, which is very culturally dependent, the result we have now is good enough to be used as a reference, to see how Americans think about Chinese students.
The question that is posted on the introduction paragraph is still not answered: are Chinese students really smart? To find out the answer, the result of PISA test can be used. As the Wikipedia says, “The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading.” Because the test in 2015 did not show the total number of students who took the test, I will use the statistics in 2012 instead. In 2012, 510,000 students from 65 countries took the test (about 8000 students per country). Students from Shanghai got the highest score in all three subjects, Math, Science and Reading.
Asian countries showed advantage
Before coming to the conclusion, an assessment on the test should take place. The sample size seems to be large enough to get the result and because the test is worldwide, the only different factor in the whole process should just be the students. However, there are still criticisms that show the flaw of the test. As other countries had students all over the nation taking the test, China just took the students from Shanghai. Shanghai, as the economic center of China, has probably the most developed education resources and system in the country. Also, although the students were “randomly chosen,” it is said that children of outside workers in Shanghai were not chosen in this test. Those critics are basically saying that China chose the best students in the country to take the test, as other countries were randomly choosing.
Even if the test is not quite accurate, Chinese students still show an advantage in their abilities. There is no evidence that China cheated on student selection and there is no evidence that other countries did not cheat on the selection. The test can, in some degree, proves that Chinese students can do better academically than students from other countries. It is not definitely that they are smarter, as smart is hard to measure and define.
The academic achievement can be the result of many things besides intelligence. Chinese schools do have longer sessions, harder curriculum and more rigorous test and homework system. These differences can lead to better academic achievement. There is no clear correlation between academic achievement and IQ, as there are so many “third variables”.
In conclusion, it is hard to say if Chinese students are smarter, in the meaning of having higher IQ. The academic achievement Chinese students have can due to many variables such as past experience, family environment, and even thinking patterns. Besides the “smart” stereotype, there are also “not creative”, “rich”, and many other stereotypes about Chinese students. Are these true? In the end, they are just stereotypes.
Works Cited
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147176712001411
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147176712001411
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26249042
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment
I have a lot of friens from China and I talked with them about it. One of them told me that because of large population and students have to compete with each other on a larger scale and this is why they put so much effort into studying. The thing is that Asian students may appear smarter to foreigners but they do not think at each other the same way.
It good also be due to chance , being as tho its an Observational study , there could also be a third variable present , humans are prone to stereotyping an article on ABC news stated that humans do stereotype because that is what our brains are “wired” to do. We do this because as social creatures we like to categorize and put people in groups to differentiate between a “friend and a foe”
here is the article
Good post. I am an American student and yes I am guilty of believing the stereotype. But I do differ. I do believer Chinese students are smarter but I also believe it is because they put in more effort int school. For example in my SOC 003 class we have a pretty diverse class between Chinese and other Asian students and American students. The professor pointed out the seating arrangement. Everyone was confused. The professor then asked all the American students to raise their hand and all the international students to stand. It turned out that all the international students sat in the first couple rows and all the American students sat in the last couple rows. Thats work ethic not given talent.
Hi Jiamin, I am also a Chinese student. There are a lot of stereotype for Asian such as Asian is really good at Math. Just as you said, this kind of stereotype is only a cliche because there are still a lot of student that I know of is not really good at study. I think one of the reason that people could find a lot of Chinese student in the top college is the population. Because the population for China is so large, so the relative amount of Smart student will be greater than other nation with much less population.
Hi. I am a Chinese student, too. I appreciate that you have courage to pick this topic out. This is a very interesting topic. I think the reason we can hear such stereotype is because we were trained well since we are kids. We were trained on the aspect of memory poet, formula, essay. It leads to we have a good memory. It seems like we are smarter, however, everyone can do this if they were trained earlier. Besides, because we always trained to memory other people’s accomplishment. Sometimes it lead to we lack of creativity. It is somehow a disadvantage.