昨天晚上因为看奥运比赛，PBS Wide Angle的节目只看了个尾巴，不过感觉很好，最后主持人和原书的作者(哈佛大学教育学院教授, 中国人) 的对话也不错。昨天的节目是关于中国高考的，跟踪采访和录制的对象是成都一所重点高中高三的应届考生及他们的家长对高考的预备，付出和回报。今天查了PBS网站，对这次的节目有更多的了解。这里转贴PBS网站的介绍，有兴趣的话不妨去看看。去年PBS的另外一个纪录片China From Inside 我也很喜欢，播了不少在一般的关于中国的纪录片里面看不到的情况，看问题的角度也不错。

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/china-prep/introduction/810/ (retrieved on Aug.13,08)

China Prep
Introduction

• China Prep ~ The Gaokao: How Would You Fare?

• China Will Not Tolerate Cheating on College Entrance Exam

• Chinese Students Return to School at Earthquake’s Epicenter

• China Prep ~ Audio: When China Becomes the World’s Largest Economy

• China Prep ~ Production Diary III

• China Prep ~ Resources

• China Prep ~ Production Diary II

• Japan’s About-Face ~ Audio: The U.S.-Japan Alliance

• Japanese Destroyer Docks in China

• China Prep ~ Production Diary

As the world’s attention turns to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, WIDE ANGLE reports on how the next generation of Chinese leaders is being molded.

China Prep follows five Chinese students through their final high-pressure year at an elite high school in Sichuan Province. Eighteen hundred students vie for spots in Beijing’s top two universities. Last year only 59 made it.

Studying seven days a week, the students’ lives are regimented almost every minute of the day as they prepare for the end-of-year exam that can determine their fate. For many students from poor or rural backgrounds, a strong performance on the test is the only way to climb the social ladder and excel without connections. Competition is fierce and the majority of high school seniors will be relegated to vocational schools.

We meet Zhang Lie, who wants to study law and become a Communist Party member like her father; Mei Jiachin, a genius mathematician from a farming family; Chen Zhibo, a misfit science student with big plans to become China’s Bill Gates; and Gao Mengjia, a dedicated student who loves money and aspires to be a hedge fund manager.

Nicknamed the “I want” generation by the Chinese press, these only children,  the sole focus of their parents’ and grandparents’ nurturing under China’s one-child policy, will be the new class of corporate managers, lawyers, and civil servants who are expected to propel 21st century China to surpass the United States as the largest economy in the world.

How do the ambitions of these teenagers reflect the realities of today and tomorrow’s China? Who among them will be most likely to succeed, the daughter of the Party official or the farmer’s son? Who will be the boss?