《Study Gods》简介：

Study Gods offers a rare look at the ways privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. Yi-Lin Chiang shows how these competitive Chinese high schoolers first become “study gods” (xueshen), a term describing academically high-performing students. Constant studying, however, is not what explains their success, for these young people appear god-like in their effortless abilities to excel. Instead, Chiang explores how elite adolescents achieve by absorbing and implementing the rules surrounding status.

Drawing from eight years of fieldwork and extensive interviews, Chiang reveals the important lessons that Chinese youth learn in their pursuit of elite status. They understand the hierarchy of the status system, recognizing and acquiring the characteristics that are prized, while avoiding those that are not. They maintain status by expecting differential treatment and performing status-based behaviors, which guide their daily interactions with peers, teachers, and parents. Lastly, with the help of resourceful parents, they rely on external assistance in the face of potential obstacles and failures. Chiang looks at how students hone these skills, applying them as they head to colleges and careers around the world, and in their relationships with colleagues and supervisors.

Highlighting another facet of China’s rising power, Study Gods announces the arrival of a new generation to the realm of global competition.

《Study Gods》摘录：

Overall,the students share a consensus over the definitions and meaning of status groups.The fact that all students uphold the status system and its sorting criteria indicates that the system is considerably powerful. Furthermore,the terms are so common that they have become slang.When drawing attention to study gods'exceptionally high academic achievement,the students often said,"come worship the god(s)."Alternatively,"being a study-holic"indicates that one is studying.Students also said they were"under-achieving"when they wanted to take a break from their test preparations.Ininstances where students decided to give up on something,they would jokingly shout out,"loser explosion (ruobao)!"followed by bursts of laughter.