Gaokao and Social Class: Hope for the Lower Class, Necessity for the Middle Class, Game for the Upper Class

In the minds of many, the college entrance examination (Gaokao) is a fair competition for selection, the main battlefield for "children from humble backgrounds to rise," and a channel that does not consider one's origins but relies solely on scores. In reality, the Gaokao is no longer the only lever for the fate of the entire population; its significance varies greatly across different classes: for the lower class, the Gaokao is the only path for upward mobility; for the middle class, it is a necessary safeguard against falling down the social ladder; for the upper class, the Gaokao is merely a form of "symbolic compliance." In other words, the Gaokao is no longer a unified battlefield but a systemic stage where different classes take what they need. To understand the true structure of the Gaokao, one must first see the real structure of society.

I. The Gaokao for the Lower Class: The "Only Channel" for Upward Mobility, but with a Very Low Success Rate#

For many, the Gaokao is like "thousands of troops crossing a single-log bridge." In reality, the Gaokao is just a single-log bridge for the lower class. For lower-class families, the Gaokao is not only "hope" but also "the only hope." They lack the resources to start a business, connections to arrange jobs, and family backgrounds to provide a safety net. The child's path is almost singular: study, take the college entrance examination, enter the city, and find a stable job. This is a structurally passive choice. It is not that they do not want to find other paths, but the social structure offers no other options.

In this context of highly concentrated resources and a bet on education, the Gaokao has become the "battle of fate" for the entire family. It is not just the child taking the exam; the whole family is gambling their lives. But the problem is—while hope exists, the success rate is extremely low. Very few lower-class children actually achieve a leap in social class through the Gaokao, and this number is decreasing. More people fail to get into top universities, and even if they do, they struggle to find subsequent resources to support them, often reverting to their original status after entering society. The Gaokao can indeed change the fate of some individuals, but as a tool for changing fate, its value is diminishing. Moreover, it cannot change the fate of the class structure. It can allow some individuals to move from one class to another, but the social structure remains the same. In other words, the system has opened a window, but the door remains tightly shut.

II. The Gaokao for the Middle Class: A "Rigid Demand" to Avoid Class Decline#

Middle-class families participate in the Gaokao primarily not to break through upward but to avoid being pushed out of their current class. The middle class is generally educated, has certain social resources, recognizes the rules, and believes in hard work. But because of this, their greatest fear is that they are "not working hard enough," which could lead them to be pushed out of the middle-class track.

Their children attend private schools, key junior high schools, and well-known high schools. Parents cultivate their children's study habits, manage their social interactions, and invest money, with a clear goal: at least get into a top university to secure a decent future. In the logic of the middle class, the Gaokao is a form of bottom-line thinking. It is not an ideal starting point but a guardrail to prevent falling. However, the cruelty of the Gaokao lies here: competition among the middle class is the fiercest, educational anxiety is the most severe, parents are the most "knowledgeable about the rules," and the stakes are the highest, with the outcomes being the most uncertain. If you work a little harder, others will not stop either. All children are searching for that glimmer of hope in high-intensity competition. What they invest is not hope but a wager.

III. The Gaokao for the Upper Class: Symbolic Participation and Ritualistic Fairness#

True upper-class families have a very calm attitude toward the Gaokao. They have resources and pathways. They can send their children to international schools, plan for overseas studies, or directly arrange job placements. The Gaokao is not necessary for them. However, they still "participate" in the Gaokao—only this participation is symbolic, a posture of "following the rules," and a compliant display of social norms.

For example, when a child is admitted to a prestigious school, the media might report "the son of a certain entrepreneur scored 700 on the Gaokao," which seems to promote fairness but is actually constructing a narrative of legitimacy. This is a typical "legitimacy construction"—not because they must rely on the Gaokao to succeed, but because they use the Gaokao to prove that they "do not enjoy privileges." This "decorative participation" instead builds an illusion of trust in the system, making the lower and middle classes believe that "as long as you work hard, there is a possibility." But in fact, the Gaokao is just one of many choices for them, merely a backup option.

IV. The Essence of the Gaokao: Selecting Talent and Screening Compliance#

From a systemic perspective, the Gaokao has a deeper significance. It is not only a talent selection mechanism but also a social stability mechanism. The Gaokao selects a group of young people who can endure hardship, understand the rules, and are most compliant through standardized testing, unified processes, and exam-oriented approaches, injecting them into the system, research, and management sectors, becoming the backbone of the institution. These individuals are most likely to become "loyalists to the system"—because they are beneficiaries of this set of rules, they believe in the rules, respect the rules, execute the rules, and never question the rules.

The system is not afraid of some people from the lower class rising; it fears that the lower class has no hope. As long as the Gaokao exists, as long as there are still people who can get into top universities, the sense of hope in society will not collapse. Therefore, even if the structure has long been solidified, there is still a need to create a small number of "channels" within the system, releasing controllable quotas to maintain order and stability. The existence of the Gaokao is essentially about stability rather than mobility, about selection rather than fairness: on the surface, it is about selecting talent, but in essence, it is about the transfer of power, granting limited upward mobility quotas to different classes to ensure that the pyramid structure of society remains stable.

V. The Gaokao is Useful, but Does Not Need to Be Mythologized#

The Gaokao remains the most transparent and lowest-threshold competitive mechanism in society today. It is much fairer on a rule-based level than relationships, money, civil servant selection, and public job arrangements. However, we should not mythologize it or place blind faith in it, nor should we overlook its deeper function: distributing resources by class and maintaining social structural stability. Different classes play different roles in the Gaokao, receive different results, and ultimately have different fates. Understanding this, you will realize: the Gaokao is not a key that everyone can use to change their fate, but a ritual for the system to allocate "limited upward channels." You can participate, but do not become obsessed; you can leverage it, but do not place blind faith in it. You must also see that true class leaps and changes in fate are never accomplished through a single examination.