Ted Chyn's Reviews > Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve

This book is a personal journey through the Chinese Education system from 2010 to 2017. The story begins with the experiment of sending the author’s preschool son Rainey to a coveted preschool in Shanghai after her family’s relocation. The motivations for sending Rainy to a Chinese public school were rooted in their own backgrounds– her husband’s Peace Corp experience in rural China, and her own Chinese American background by birth. As parents, they felt it was important for Rainey to learn another culture and they wanted a nimble child who could handle a rapidly changing world as a global citizen.
The author has mastered the Chinese language not only the written characters and 4 tones associated with each character but also the phrases and the associated stories behind those phrases which allow her to give additional insights in her comments from the perspective of an American. Given her exposure to Chinese culture as a daughter of immigrants who unwillingly attended America Chinese School before her coming of age, combined with her professional journalist background and first-hand experience in Chinese education of sending her precious toddler through the pipeline of the Chinese school system, Ms. Chu is in a unique position to write this riveting and revealing story about the current Chinese education.
Following the arduous steps of getting Rainy into school, Ms. Chu had entered a brave new world of Chinese Education system where she mastered the art of dealing with Chinese school including the knack of gifting, connecting to school with constant webchat, roaming Shanghai on her bicycle amid the congested traffic, reconciling education in Chinese style vs that of western style, and how to fit in with a Chinese parent group by attending birthday party, how to talk politely to the teacher getting her point across with respect for the teacher, how to walk around the established rules etc.
More interestingly, the author interviewed many Chinese friends and even ventured into the country side to observe a middle school examination in addition to her prior first-hand experience in accompanying one of her young friends in his college entrance examination. As an outsider Ms. Chu gained first-hand knowledge how these examinations are conducted and the associated deficiencies related to this high pressured events.
With the assistance of two older teenaged friends: Amanda- a rebellious exchange student who visited the US, and liked to read Camus and Proust; and Darcy- a more conventional bright student from rural China who is ready to climb the social ladder by joining the communist party; Ms. Chu discovered more interesting aspects of their lives growing up in China. Despite their divergent path, both these teens agree that hard work will eventually pay off for their respective future endeavors irrespective of what they may think (the central doctrine of Confucianism). Both kids realize democracy is a luxury whose inefficiency may impede the progression of China to be a developed country, keenly aware of the existence of the censorship and the power it wields over ordinary citizens and the vast gap in wealth and social inequality between the rural poor and nova rich city dwellers as the result of private enterprise. Despite the mandatory infusion of political ideas into public education, the state has overestimated the impact of state advertising on the youth as Darcy whispered to Chu that “China is growing a nation of patriots who worship the party in public but cultivate alternative thoughts in private”.

Ms. Chu also broached the difficult subject of social and economic inequality. For her research Ms. Chu ventured from prosperous Shanghai to the rural part of China thru a migrant domestic worker– Lauren as she explained the plight of a hundred million who are separated from their family and kids in the village because the antiquated household registration system and the disparity in economic and educational opportunity between urban and rural China- the very condition foment the rise of Mao and communism 70+ years ago.
In the book, Ms. Chu explained the difference in educational philosophy between China and the US results in the difference in altitudes of the public toward children’s education. These dissimilarities evolved into vast different teaching methods and school discipline in guiding students. Her comments relating to what she learned are worthwhile reading for many who are not familiar with Chinese culture.
I have enjoyed reading through the book as the story moving from Rainey’s registration and admission to Soong Ching Ling School to the successful graduation for both the author and Rainey in adapting to a new education system in spite of her initial misgivings about the cultural differences. Kudos to Ms. Chu for sharing one of the oldest ritual practiced in the Chinese family- the thought process in naming her sons. For Rainey, she chose the word comprised of three stones stacking on top each other（磊）. Stone symbolizes an upright person in Chinese literature and 3 uprights will last more than a lifetime. For her second son Landon, the word gold is repeated 3 times denoting lifetime prosperity（鑫）. For a family, there is nothing better than to have a child upright in character and another with three-fold prosperity.
In addition to other well-written education books such as “Grit” by Anglo Duckworth and “The Smartest Kids in the World” by Amanda Ripley, this book is a must-read for those interested in education in general and Chinese culture in particular as the world turns toward a new China century.