My Middle School and University Days

My elementary school was in the suburbs of Hangzhou, a pretty ordinary one. But I was incredibly lucky to get into a rather special middle school in Hangzhou, the Hangzhou Foreign Languages School. According to my elementary school teacher, I was the only student from our elementary school in nine years to get into this middle school. Life can be quite dramatic sometimes. I won an award in math Olympiad, and my teacher suggested I take the entrance exam. Before that, I barely knew what this middle school was about, let alone doing any review, preparation, or practice tests. After receiving the acceptance letter, I even told my teacher I didn’t want to go. I thought from the name that it was a school solely focused on foreign languages. I wanted to go to a middle school that was strong in science and math. Later, the elementary school principal called me in and persuaded me to go. Looking back, I’m so glad I did!

Hangzhou Foreign Languages School was a great middle school. Both the teachers and students were excellent. In the early 90s, we had foreign teachers, exchange students from abroad, and opportunities for homestays overseas. It was the only school in Zhejiang Province at that time that could recruit students province-wide from elementary schools. Other middle schools only admitted students from nearby areas, so it had a near-monopoly on selecting top elementary school graduates within the province. Moreover, it was a six-year program, with direct progression from middle school to high school. Its university recommendation rate was also very high, over 80% every year. So, getting into this middle school was almost equivalent to getting into university. The teachers were less influenced by the pressure of the gaokao (national college entrance exam), so they often had more freedom in their teaching. I remember we even had several classes where we watched American blockbusters (back then, it was rare for American movies to be shown in Chinese cinemas).

Our middle school had about 160 students per year, the vast majority admitted through standardized testing based on scores. A small portion with slightly lower scores were admitted by paying sponsorship fees. Within these 160 students, there were quite a few children of government officials and wealthy businesspeople. Starting from the first year of middle school, we were required to live on campus. We were together every day, from morning runs to evening self-study to bedtime. The interaction and mutual influence among us were much greater than in other middle schools, and our relationships were also closer. These six years, from ages 12 to 18, shaped a unique set of values and worldviews among our small group, different from those from other middle schools. Compared to other middle schools, we were exposed to Western culture earlier, to a greater extent, and in higher proportions. Many of us became more liberal compared to our peers.

After graduating from Hangzhou Foreign Languages School, I was recommended to Zhejiang University’s Hybrid Class. The Hybrid Class was the predecessor of Zhejiang University’s Chu Kochen Honors College, a kind of elite education experiment in universities. Every year, students recommended to Zhejiang University and those with high gaokao scores could participate in a selection exam for the Hybrid Class (including written tests and interviews). About 200 people could get into this class and then “enjoy” different “treatment” compared to students who directly entered their respective departments. For the first two years, this class didn’t divide into departments. We studied fundamental science and engineering courses, using more challenging textbooks and having excellent teachers. However, a certain percentage of students were eliminated to the departments at the end of each semester. If you weren’t eliminated in two years, then at the end of the two years, you could choose a supervisor and join a lab. Based on your supervisor’s specialty, your major was naturally determined.

Although Zhejiang University couldn’t yet compare with Tsinghua University in terms of overall resources and strength, the resources, opportunities, and freedom the Hybrid Class enjoyed were quite good. On one hand, the supervisor system gave students a good excuse to drop some time-wasting or boring courses. On the other hand, some resources and opportunities that were difficult to allocate across the whole university often ended up with the Hybrid Class.

For example, my fortunate selection into the Melton Foundation in my freshman year is one example. This foundation was established in the early 90s by the founder of Verifone, a leader in POS systems. He had already successfully sold Verifone and also invested in AOL and PayPal. Seeing the fall of the Berlin Wall, he realized the world was about to change significantly. So he had an idea to select young students from representative emerging areas around the world and have them interact with each other long-term, grow together, so that maybe in the future they could work together to bring positive change to the world. Zhejiang University’s Hybrid Class was the only place in China where the Melton Foundation selected fellows. The other four locations were India, East Germany, Chile, and predominantly Black areas in the US. Each region had five people selected every year. After being selected, they would send you a computer and free internet access for the whole year, allowing you to first establish contact with peers in other regions online through email and instant messaging. Then, every year, everyone would fly to a member country, stay together for about 10 days for an annual meeting, discussing and having fun together. The annual gatherings gave me the opportunity to observe the daily habits of peers from other countries up close. A side benefit was that I got used to Indian English very early on. This undoubtedly helped me a lot later when I went to the US for graduate school and work, attending lectures by Indian professors, and communicating with Indian colleagues.

This foundation didn’t have a big impact on society as a whole, but it had a huge impact on me and the other fellows. It made me deeply realize how different different races and cultures in the world are. Their starting points, ways of thinking, and ways of doing things were completely unknown and unimaginable to me before. There weren’t many people in our foundation, and the relationships we formed were relatively close. Within it, not only did many Chinese classmates become couples, but also many cross-national couples were formed.

Looking back now, compared to my peers, my middle school and university experiences were extremely lucky, even somewhat special. This experience made a deep impression on me about a few things very early on:

• A “golden phoenix flying out of a ravine” (山沟沟里飞出金凤凰, meaning someone from a poor background achieving great success) is a low-probability event. Most of the children of the wealthy, especially the children of officials, are very excellent.
• Like the story of Tian Ji's horse race (田忌赛马), being able to create local advantages in a situation of overall resource disadvantage, and thus have the opportunity to win the entire “battle.” Thus, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.
• Money is a tool, not a goal.

Overall, my middle school and university years were lucky and fulfilling, but there was also a considerable regret, which is that I was too goal-oriented and wasted too much time pursuing first place and trying to be a good student, losing a lot of time for rebellion, mischief, and purely enjoying my youth. I only gradually realized many years later that “60 points is enough” (60分万岁) is a good philosophy.