ABSTRACT
Every July, Chinese elite universities announce their undergraduate admission results for the coming academic year (starting in September). The interviewees were two Chinese students who received their admission letters from Chinese elite universities. The first quotation is attributed to a Chinese urban student; the second quotation comes from a Chinese rural student. Quoting the rural student's words above does not glorify the poverty and any other difficulties experienced by Chinese rural people. Instead, both testimonies paint a vivid picture of Chinese urban and rural students' access to elite universities in this book: two trajectories, one destination. The metaphor of ‘two trajectories, one destination’ is used to illustrate Chinese urban and rural students' differentiated life experiences prior to arriving at one destination: Chinese elite universities. The existing theoretical explanation of Chinese urban and rural educational disparities has largely adopted the capital approach based on social production theory. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
