ABSTRACT
Over the past 35 years, China has undergone seismic sociocultural changes as it opens up to the world. It is now the second largest economy in the world and is emerging as a key player in the political landscape of the twenty-first century. However, despite heated discussions and constant reforms, its education system has stagnated into an uneasy compromise between the traditions of China's Confucian past and efforts at modernization that are partly influenced by the West. In response, increasing numbers of Chinese students are choosing to study abroad rather than place themselves under the immense physical and mental strain of Gaokao testing. The Chinese education system has undergone a series of reforms throughout the twentieth century. In the face of humiliating defeats by technologically superior Western and Japanese forces, officials of the late Qing Dynasty realised that they would need to reform the education system in order to incorporate Western ideas and models.
