Zachary M Howlett
Biographic Data
| ID | 749956 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zachary M Howlett |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zachary M |
| FAMILY NAME | Howlett |
| SIGNATURE | HOWLETT Z M |
| AFFILIATIONS | National University of Singapore |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0015-001X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Leftover Women in China
Navigating Geoeducational Dilemmas
In a post-pandemic world of escalating tensions between China and the West, increasing numbers of students from China are eschewing Western destinations for places in Asia, including Singapore. For these migrants, this Chinese-majority city-state has emerged as an important geoeducational hub between China and the West. A portmanteau of geopolitics and education, the term geoeducational refers to the reciprocal effects of both. Employing an anthr…
Diligent Daughters
In post-reform China (1979–present), women have advanced rapidly in educational achievement, and now surpass men in undergraduate and postgraduate attendance. Scholars tend to attribute women’s outperformance to the one-child policy, which empowered urban singleton daughters. But around 40 percent of women undergraduate students are from rural areas, where multi-child families and son preference are common. Based on participant observation, ethno…
Gaokao Warriors
Those who compete in the Gaokao, China's College Entrance Exam, are often referred to as Gaokao zhanshi, or warriors. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this article examines how Gaokao warriors combine two types of agency that are conventionally considered contradictory: the docile cultivation of virtue and the struggle against social marginalization. I argue that analyzing this nuli fendou, or diligent struggle, can contribute to a more …
Fateful rite of passage
This article argues that China’s National College Entrance Exam, the Gaokao, provides routinized charismatic ratification of elite merit and state authority. In his writings, Max Weber differentiates between original and routinized charisma. Whereas original charisma disrupts social orders, routinized charisma legitimizes them by preserving a spark of the extraordinary and the divine. Based on long-term ethnographic research in Chinese high schoo…
Meritocracy and Its Discontents
This book investigates the wider social, political, religious, and economic dimensions of the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, as well as the complications that arise from its existence. Each year, some nine million high-school seniors in China take the Gaokao, which determines college admission and provides a direct but difficult route to an urban lifestyle for China's hundreds of millions of rural residents. But with college grad…
Meritocracy and Its Discontents
Gaokao Warriors
Those who compete in the Gaokao, China's College Entrance Exam, are often referred to as Gaokao zhanshi, or warriors. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this article examines how Gaokao warriors combine two types of agency that are conventionally considered contradictory: the docile cultivation of virtue and the struggle against social marginalization. I argue that analyzing this nuli fendou, or diligent struggle, can contribute to a more …
Diligent Daughters
In post-reform China (1979–present), women have advanced rapidly in educational achievement, and now surpass men in undergraduate and postgraduate attendance. Scholars tend to attribute women’s outperformance to the one-child policy, which empowered urban singleton daughters. But around 40 percent of women undergraduate students are from rural areas, where multi-child families and son preference are common. Based on participant observation, ethno…
Meritocracy and Its Discontents
This book investigates the wider social, political, religious, and economic dimensions of the Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, as well as the complications that arise from its existence. Each year, some nine million high-school seniors in China take the Gaokao, which determines college admission and provides a direct but difficult route to an urban lifestyle for China's hundreds of millions of rural residents. But with college grad…
Meritocracy and Its Discontents
Fateful rite of passage
This article argues that China’s National College Entrance Exam, the Gaokao, provides routinized charismatic ratification of elite merit and state authority. In his writings, Max Weber differentiates between original and routinized charisma. Whereas original charisma disrupts social orders, routinized charisma legitimizes them by preserving a spark of the extraordinary and the divine. Based on long-term ethnographic research in Chinese high schoo…
Gaokao Warriors
Those who compete in the Gaokao, China's College Entrance Exam, are often referred to as Gaokao zhanshi, or warriors. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this article examines how Gaokao warriors combine two types of agency that are conventionally considered contradictory: the docile cultivation of virtue and the struggle against social marginalization. I argue that analyzing this nuli fendou, or diligent struggle, can contribute to a more …
Navigating Geoeducational Dilemmas
In a post-pandemic world of escalating tensions between China and the West, increasing numbers of students from China are eschewing Western destinations for places in Asia, including Singapore. For these migrants, this Chinese-majority city-state has emerged as an important geoeducational hub between China and the West. A portmanteau of geopolitics and education, the term geoeducational refers to the reciprocal effects of both. Employing an anthr…
Diligent Daughters
In post-reform China (1979–present), women have advanced rapidly in educational achievement, and now surpass men in undergraduate and postgraduate attendance. Scholars tend to attribute women’s outperformance to the one-child policy, which empowered urban singleton daughters. But around 40 percent of women undergraduate students are from rural areas, where multi-child families and son preference are common. Based on participant observation, ethno…
Leftover Women in China
Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Sociology (5 works) · China (4 works) · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance (2 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (2 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (2 works) · Economic growth (2 works) · Economics (2 works) · Ethnography (2 works)