Dan Banik and Yasheng Huang discuss the recent protests against COVID-19 lockdowns, the role and attraction of merit-based recruitment to the civil service, and how the civil service examination has historically shaped state-society relations in China.
Ever wondered why the state in China is so powerful? Yasheng argues that Keju — the Imperial civil service examination — has historically maximized a specific type of knowledge in the minds of the population such as memorization. It also reduced the scope of, or eliminated, alternative ideas. Keju made the state all powerful. The state was able to monopolize the very best of human capital. And in doing so, the state deprived society access to talent and pre-empted organized religion, commerce, and intelligentsia. While it is China’s blessing, Keju is also a curse as it decimated society.
Yasheng Huang is a Professor of International Management and Faculty Director of Action Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His forthcoming book, which will be published by Yale University Press, is The Rise and the Fall of the EAST: Examination, Autocracy, Stability and Technology in Chinese History and Today. Twitter: @YashengHuang
Key highlights Â
Introduction – 00:52
Recent protests in China – 03:15
Protest strategies and logistical capacity – 13:25
Why is the Chinese state so powerful? – 19:35
The role of the civil service exam in China – 35:00
Meritocracy and the Chinese bureaucracy – 47:15Â
Â
Host:
Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPod