Not your average class

Now that I have had most of my classes, I am getting a better understanding of who my students are. Surprisingly, they aren't typical Chinese students.

More than ¾ of my students have a sibling. Some even have multiple siblings. In a country where the One Child Policy has been in place for so many years, and not too long ago baby girls were left at the side of the road, this statistic shocked me. When I asked Elvia about it, she explained that many of our students come from very rural parts of China. In rural China, not only is the strictness of the One Child Policy hard to enforce, but oftentimes it is ignored for a price. Rural families who need more children to help farm are allowed to continue having children until they have a son. Even if they have a son already there is flexibility, as families can pay a few thousand yuan to continue having children. This is something that would never be tolerated in the overcrowded city centers.

Not surprisingly then, my students come from some of the poorest and most rural parts of China. The majority of them hail from Xinjiang, with some from Sichuan and Anhui, and one even having migrated from Mongolia. Xinjiang is the most Northwestern province of China and the largest by area. It has been in the news a lot recently because of recent riots by the Uigher minority group. Unlike most provinces in China where the Han majority dominate, Uighurs make up 43% of the population in Xinjiang. They are of Turkish Muslim descent, and are often marginalized by the Chinese government. Elvia told me that because most students come from this area of religious unrest, Pass College encourages students to become accepting of all religions. Not a Chinese mantra you hear very often.

My students themselves cannot come from particularly poor families though because my college is a private institution. In China, public universities are only for those who do well enough on the Gao Kao (the Chinese version of the SATs). Those who don’t do well enough end up paying a lot of money to attend private universities. Pass College costs 11,000 yuan a year, which is cheap by American standards but a huge amount considering the average disposable income in Xinjiang is 6,000 yuan a year.

I guess having atypical students just continues to show that China is an enigma. I'm excited to have students from such unique backgrounds as I feel it will present me with an opportunity to learn even more as I get to know them better.