Competing for privilege –aspirational youth at a Chinese high school entrepreneurship competition

Abstract

The recent expansion of the overseas education market in China has led to the rise of “Background Promotion Projects” designed to strengthen the applications of elite university aspirants. Based on ethnographic findings of a particular Background Promotion Project, a Chinese high school entrepreneurship competition, this study analyses how international applicants to elite Western universities learn “the art of aspiration” by constructing and performing entrepreneurial subjectivities. Building a link between Arjun Appadurai’s concept of “the capacity to aspire” and Elizabeth Currid-Halkett’s theory of “the aspirational class”, this study reveals how deepening social stratification in China and the rise of a global meritocracy reinforce each other. Demonstrating how privilege is consolidated and justified through the (re)production of aspirations, this study further contributes to the theorisation of class reproduction and education during a time of post-industrial change and international mobility.