CANCELLED Screening: Education, Education + debate

This film is part of Why Poverty?, a cross media event, online and on TV, using films to get people talking about poverty. The screening will be followed by a panel debate.

Just over fifteen years ago a major change in China’s society took place, the commercialisation of higher education. The Chinese government continues to tell its citizens that the country is a meritocracy where individuals’ best efforts will contribute to the overall success of nation and party. However, the industrialisation of education has dramatically changed the situation, freezing social mobility and leaving many Chinese people with no way of changing their lives.

In Education, Education director Weijun Chen looks at Chinese education system through the lives of Wang Zehziang, a tutor at the private Hongbo Education college; Wang Pan, a high school graduate and would be student; and Wan Chao, a graduate job seeker who goes from one unpromising interview to another.

The lives of these three young Chinese show a reality in which good grades, confidence and ambition are not enough to secure a salary that will cover the cost of living, let alone pay off any undergraduate debt and where offering worthless diplomas has become a lucrative business for private colleges.

Directed by Weijun Chen
Duration: 58′
Year: 2012