Justifying Distinction: Becoming Adolescent Elite in "Meritocratic" China

This study seeks to understand the mechanisms of elite distinction through education. Existing research on adolescent elites points to the crucial role of schools in elite status reproduction. Yet, the broader cultural contexts in which students and school are placed have not been sufficiently recognized. It is unclear how privileged students develop and identify status markers in a meritocratic culture that celebrates individual effort. Collaboration between family and schools to transmit privilege and students’ costs in the process of elite formation while subscribing to meritocracy is in need of further investigation. Studies show elite distinction through demonstrating various forms of cultural capital, but have yet to examine the role of field in determining the value of cultural capital. China, with its similarly meritocratic ideal but different educational system from Western societies, provides an opportunity to complement existing literature and examine elite students in their broader context. Through year-long participant observation in classrooms and families and interviews with students, parents, and teachers in elite high schools in Beijing, this study provides an ethnographic account of elite formation during high school and sheds light on the mechanisms of educational inequality through the inspection of elite formation through education in China. Results show that students use academic criteria as an important measure of meritocratic effort to establish student hierarchy and actively defend their perceived boundaries. Parents and schools engage in labor division in the schooling process to instill privilege in disguise of meritocracy. Other than using academic ability as the primary marker of distinction, signals of status boundaries are somewhat similar with findings in the U.S., which points to the possible existence of a global elite culture shared by students across educational systems.