Am I Really Human? : The Dissection of the American Businessman

         The American business man, an image of clean, crisp suits, perfectly trimmed hair, and a wallet full of bills. An image of honor, integrity, hard work; an image that represents American values and aspirations. However, how "clean" and perfected is the actual American businessman? For years you've heard of
 corruption on Wall Street, financial scandals, swindling money, and just down right cheating people.

         Bret Easton Ellis, the author, and Mary Harron, the director, produced a satire of the American businessman, American Psycho, illustrating in extremes the corrupt nature of Americas working elite. American Psycho, produced in 2004, is a film in which Patrick Bateman, the main character, takes over his fathers business as an investment banking executive. Bateman is OCD, and obsessed with success, fashion, style, and image. He is also a serial killer who murders and rapes random strangers and people who he is in close proximity to. As the movie develops, the viewer gets an inside look at Bateman's obsession with competition, and being the best. Ellis and Harron are critiquing the reality of an honest businessman, displaying their views that competition and material prosperity destroys any real honor or integrity a person may have had. American businessmen are fueled by their thirst for wealth and status which in turn destroys any desire to help benefit anyone other than oneself.

          In the above clip, Bateman feels the need to convince himself of his own worth by wearing Valentino suits, flaunting his reservation to Dorsia, a 5-star highly acclaimed restaurant, and by believing that his haircut is always slightly better than the rest. Bateman's obsession with beating out everybody on something as miniscule as a business card illustrates the importance of such minute material details in the business world. As displayed through the look of failure on his face, Bateman's sanity hangs on his ability to be one step above the rest. The world he has placed himself in has taught him that if he is not the best, he is a failure, and the pressure of such a situation drives him to corruption. However, Bateman's inability to curb his appetite for success lead him to search for it in all the wrong places. He feeds his competitive hunger by achieving dominance over others through murdering and destroying them. Such aspirations of the "American Businessman" lead to unrealistic, unachievable expectations leading to corruption and malpractice in order to achieve them. The hunger for material prosperity, physical beauty, and the use of conspicuous consumption to display ones wealth destroys true human connections and emotions.

         Bateman is used as a critique of the corrupt self-centered nature of the American Businessman. His relationships with the people around him emphasize the distance and disruption that social competition causes. American Psycho satirizes such people and projects such disconnections. Bateman often confesses his sins and discrepancies to his coworkers and acquaintances only to be completely ignored due to the self obsession his companions have. A blind eye is turned  to everyone's actions unless it is beneficial to the individual. The destruction of the human is pinpointed to the desire to connect with others only to be able to hear oneself talk, and such self absorbtion destroys compassion corrupting ones influences and driving factors.
         David Mamet's play Glengarry Glen Ross links the same ideas about loss of human connection and the corruption of values through competition as American Psycho. One of Mamet's main characters, Moss, says "the pressure's just too great...'I got to  close this fucker, or I don't eat lunch,' 'or I don't win the Cadillac...' we fuckin' work too hard" (30). Mamet is illustrating the pressure put on success, how it is chief in importance and comes before all else, including the well being of oneself. The characters in Mamet's play work non-stop, competing to win the Cadillac, the symbol of success.                                                          

 This constant competition wears on their ability to connect and make friendships. Mamet uses a technique called faux dialogue where each character is not really talking to each other, but is having a conversation with themselves and using each other as a tool to benefit their own desires. This illuminates his understanding of the corruption of such men.  These men have been programmed to look at a person not for who they are, but for how they can benefit oneself. Moss and Aaronow, two characters from Mamet's play, refer to certain customers as "Polacks and deadbeats". Moss says:

       How you goan'a get on the board sell'n a Polack? And I'll tell you, I'll tell you what else. You      listening? I'll tell you what else: don't every try to sell an Indian...They like to talk to salesmen. They're lonely, something... Never bought a fucking thing. (29).

 These men have been trained to discriminate in order to assure their own personal gain. Instead of looking at each human being as an individual, they are looked at as profit. Mamet suggests that the American Businessman has been trained to dehumanize themselves to their surroundings, clumping individuals into groups of worth just as Moss does by glazing over Indian leads, claiming they never amount to anything. Such perceptions destroy basic interactions such as how Bateman cannot have basic interactions without critiquing himself. Even as Levene is being accused of fraud and theft, Roma cannot let go of his desire for the best leads and tries to take advantage of Levene's situation, yelling "I GET HIS ACTION. My stuff is mine, whatever he gets for himself, I'm talking half. You put me in with him" (107). Roma's obsession with success impacts his ability to realize when it's time to forget about money and work and focus on the issue at hand. Although American Psycho is taken to new extremes, both Patrick Bateman and Roma lose their sense of honor and conscience to the race for material wealth.

"I had a _______, but P$G bought it": New Money vs. Old Money in Soccer

Jokes on how PSG buy everyone or everything found on Soccer Memes

The idea of “new” money and “old” money has been seen in many ways in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, such as the two different suburbs, East Egg and West Egg, where Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby lived, the World Series of 1919, and the idea of rags to riches or the American Dream. “Old” money represented the people who earned their wealth from a long time ago and was passed down by generations, such as Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, who was born from a wealthy family and graduated from “New Haven,” or Yale, and was all about the traditional beliefs. “New” money, or also known as Nouveau riche, was represented by the people who just gained their wealth recently and made them rise up the social hierarchy. Unlike Tom, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of the novel, represented the “New” rich people because he was once a person who lived in poverty and never went to a school like Tom’s, but used illegal crime and businesses to earn his wealth.

Although the conflict between “new” money and “old” money is an important theme in The Great Gatsby, it can still be shown in professional soccer nowadays. The most famous professional soccer clubs in the world have to face this conflict every day when people, such as news reporters, journalists, and critics, bring up the idea of how the “new” rich teams are buying their success by buying world class players. Most people and the media exaggerate the fact of this conflict between the two social classes by making fun of the “new” rich teams only being able to win because of their money, while at the same time, the “old” rich teams are as wealthy as the “new” rich but the people in the world don’t criticize the “old” wealthy teams because they have been doing it for generations and it’s more traditional.

The most notable “new” wealthy professional soccer clubs consist of Chelsea Football Club, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City Football Club.

       

Roman Abramovich

Chelsea F.C is owned by Roman Abramovich, the 5^th richest man in Russia and the 50^th richest man in the world according to 2012 Forbes list, who has an estimated fortune of $19.6 billion as 46 year old. He started his ownership of Chelsea in 2003, and since then, he has made them one of the world’s richest soccer clubs. In April of 2012, it was ranked as by the Forbes Magazine as the seventh most valuable soccer club in the world, at $761 million. Chelsea has won around 9 major trophies since Roman Abramovich’s era of being the owner, and most people believe that by being one of the wealthiest persons in the league, he has the power to buy the most expensive players in the transfer market. Abramovich, in 2006, spent 43.875 million euros on Andriy Shevchenko, which was the British record transfer fee at the time. In 2011, he bought the Spanish giant, Fernando Torres, for £50 million, which is now the record for the British transfer fee and which made Fernando Torres the sixth most expensive player in soccer history. Chelsea is considered “nouveau riche” because of recently gaining their success by buying expensive players and coaches.  

                 

2011 was a big year for one of the most respected clubs in French soccer and in the world, Paris Saint-Germain. In May of 2011, Paris Saint-Germain, or PSG, Qatar Investment Authority attained 70% of PSG’s capital. After the taking of QIA, PSG became the richest club in France and one of the richest clubs in the world, spending €108m in the season 2011-12 and being the biggest spender in the world that year. The QIA provided the club with their wealth to become one of the best teams in Europe by spending an enormous amount of money in the summer of 2012 to buy 3 world class stars, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Thiago Silva, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The summer of 2012, PSG had a total of €146 million spent on players to construct a winning team. By spending a lot of money on these kinds of players, the social media puts a lot of pressure on PSG for tying games andlosing games because they rely on their newly gained wealth to win them trophies and are expected to win the UEFA Champions League in the upcoming years.

                 

Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan

 Another “nouveau riche” team is Manchester City Football Club, who is owned by Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a United Arab Emirati politician and a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. He is the half-brother of the current president of United Arab Emirates. Since his takeover of the club in 2008, him and his wealth has made them earn the FA Cup and their first Premier League trophy since 1968. Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan spent £481.3 million on 30 players from 2008 to 2012. By Manchester City having so much wealth from the owners in 2009, it meant that they could buy experienced international players, which made them spend more money in one season than the other Premier League teams. Like PSG, Manchester City goes through pressure on a weekly basis when they don’t get the results they should be getting. With their wealth and players, people and media think they should be dominating the English Premier League

Shows that Manchester City are getting more popular after gaining a lot of wealth and buying success 

Manchester City and PSG spending a lot of money

                                                  

Although the “new” wealthy teams are pressured every day and looked down upon because of the money they have, it is not the same for the “old” wealthy teams who have tradition. Teams such as Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, FC Barcelona, and Manchester United Football Club. According to the Forbes List of the most valuable teams in sports, these three teams are in the top 10 of the list, with Manchester United in 1^st ($2.23 billion) and Real Madrid behind them in 2^nd ($1.88 billion). Although these three clubs are the wealthiest soccer clubs in the world, people don’t judge them because they’ve had this money for a very long time. These three clubs connect to Tom Buchanan of The Great Gatsby because Tom is all about the traditional beliefs and is “old” money. Manchester United, FC Barcelona, and Real Madrid have been successful and wealthy for generations.        

 

        

Here is an article about the last clash between these two teams, where the fact that these two teams have different economic traditions did not pass unnoticed by the press.

The social social immobility in China and Six Degree of Seperation

During the 1980s, China entered one of its greatest eras and began its new journey under the market ecconomy. The new opening policy lead to an incredible economic growth: the number of people live under the property line (1 dollar per day) dropped from 750 million in 1974 to 70 million in 1998.

Though most people had a much better life than before, the revolution caused the immense inequality in China and led to a social immobility.




Here is a video about the China after the opening policy.

Two major reasons caused the social immobility in China : the huge difference between rural part and urban part and the conflict between the working class and upper class.

The rural and urban

The difference between the rural part and urban part of China become much bigger than before because of the opening policy. In 2010, there are 600 million people live in rural China and more than half of them never have access to get on the internet. 90 percent of people who lived under the property line are from rural part or come from rural part. On the other hand, in some large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the average personal income is around 15000 dollars a year, which is remarkably close to some developed countries. The in equality is not limited in economic life. According to an investigate made by the Beijing University, the best university in China, 90% percent of its students in past five years came from urban part which had been only 60% in 1980s.
















It is extremely hard for people to imagine the children from the pictures above lived in the same country. It is also very hard for people who live in the rural part take a part in big cities because they lack the modern ideas to live in urban area and they cannot afford the cost of living in large cites. Moreover, the Hukou system, a household registration system in China, limits the immigration from a rural area to urban area. Though it doesn't limit urban factories hire cheap rural workers, Hukou system prevent rural people translate from farmers to citizens of these great cities. In conclusion, the rural part of China is left behind during the industrialization and urbanization.






"The ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and then stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight." (23 Fitzgeraldj)





The valley of ash in the book the Great Gatsby is parallel to the rural part in China. These people build and support the urban cities like Shanghai and New York. The fancy and luxury life system of the citizens in big cites are built on their poorness. The people lived in the valley of ash and rural China supported the large cites but these cities forgot them. They did not share the modern lifestyle of the cities.

Lower class vs. Upper class

The difference between lower class and upper class in China is also very big. In this country, the top 10 percent of people controlled 90 percent of wealth, and they build social hierarchy which causes social immobility. The children from upper class could have a much better education than these from lower class. For example, the cost of an English tutor is the same as a worker's salary. Moreover, in china, children often do the same thing their father did. Doctors children became doctors, officers children become an officer and farmers children were still farmers, workers children are still workers. In conclusion, it is extremely hard for Chinese to improve their social status.

“Everything we are in the world, this paltry thing --- our life– he wanted it. He stabbed him self to get there”. (116 Guare)







The envy of Paul to Flan and Ousia is the same as the lower class to upper class in China. These people find their inferior compare to others and they try to level up their social class. But the society did not give them a chance. Paul because he is black and homosexual, for the Chinese is because the social immobility.

American Dream in China

Like Americans, Chinese also want to improve their social status though hard-working and self-improvement.1980s was a time period which made these dreams come true. A lot of Chinese made them rich and became "the first generation of rich". In fact, my father's generation is also called the "golden generation" because that generation was not only full of idealism but also reached their "American Dream".



China's Durable Inequality: Legacies of Revolution & Pitfalls of Reform



It is hard to believe that a young businessman is come from a poor rural family.



Like American Dream, Chinese also began to realize that it become harder and harder for them to achieve their dream. Though they were hard-working enough, they still could not win the competition with people from rich families--- "the second generation of rich." The second generation of rich hugely benefits from their fathers. They had better education, wider social-network and more opportunity. Chinese begin to find their dreams are paralyzed.







"The boy can't function. And at the end, before he can run away and start a new life. It begin to raining and he folds".(33 Guare)



The paralyzed of Holden in the Paul’s speech was the same as the paralyzed of the dream of these Chinese. They want to change something though their hardworking but they can hardly change anything. Holden want to prevent his sister from the real world and these Chinese want to improve their social class though their hard-working. They dream were so brittle compare to the real world. When it facing the cruelness of reality, it fell apart and nothing left

Welcome to The Jungle

Welcome to The Jungle

America: The Land of Opportunity  

     We all want to believe that our precious homeland of America is truly a place where dreams can become a reality if you work hard enough, but in reality, that just isn't the case. We are sold on hope every day by those who believe in the integrity of the American capitalist system, such as politicians, advertisements, and even our own teachers in school; but what's it really like out there? From the viewpoint of housewives, children, students, and anyone who is financially supported by someone other than themselves, the capitalist system seems to be working out pretty nicely. But for those who put capitalism to the test, such as the breadwinners, the interns, and the less fortunate among us, the American Dream isn't quite so easily attained; capitalism seems to be an intensely competitive system, to the point of downright hostility. Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" is the epitome of an introduction to the sphere of the rat race of the American capitalist system. As the title shows, the song appears to "welcome" you to the vicious "jungle," where dreams come to die in a cutthroat struggle to reach the top of the food chain. Through Guns N' Roses' hard rock atmosphere, and Axl Rose's distressed yet passionate voice, the nature of some harsh environment is embodied through their raw, unaffected, and severe tone.

     The general concept of the American Dream exaggerates the number of rags-to-riches stories that seep through the strainer that separates the "closers" from the "losers," while those who get left behind are completely excluded from the equation in patriotic discussion. In fact, those who are filtered out of the success story are the majority of those who chose to participate in this rat race, and end up being circulated through a corrupt system that only awards the good leads to the closers, while tossing the dead leads to those who hadn't been able to make a close. This would seem fair, yet closing a deal is almost completely left to luck, as a salesman can only convince a customer to purchase if they have the means and motives to purchase properties. As Claudia states in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, "it was the fault of the earth, the land of our own, of our town. I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigold that year. This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live," which parallels to the impervious nature of the boundaries between businessmen and their success as breadwinners (Morrison 206).

     David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross is all about the jungle of the workplace; a savage rat race to the top, in which the characters relentlessly chase the unreachable pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Mamet's play can be best described by Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle," as the song describes an introduction to the domain of the cutthroats, applicable to the situation in which Roma, Levene, Aronow, and Moss find themselves. "Welcome to the Jungle" parallels Glengarry Glen Ross, as it describes the same unattainable goal that is at the end of the rainbow of the American Dream; you're always chasing after that ideal of success, but you can never quite get there before the game changes on you. In Glengarry Glen Ross, the hot leads are given to the closers, and the cold leads are given to the losers, securing the caste-like system, so that the winners keep winning, and the losers keep getting fired and losing their sales. This disproves the American Dream, as it maintains the same system of the social hierarchy, smothering equal opportunity in the work field, so "the rich get richer, and the poor get children" (Fitzgerald 95). 

Welcome to the jungle we've got fun and games

We got everything you want honey, we know the names

We are the people that can find whatever you may need

If you got the money honey we got your disease

     The Jungle, an increasingly enticing environment as seen from the outside looking in, seems to be a setting in which the thrill of life flourishes through a constant stream of adrenaline. By "we got everything you want honey," Axl Rose seems to lure the victim into the grip of The Jungle, just as the salesman from Glengarry Glen Ross most likely joined the business as young men with big dreams. It seems almost a direct reference as "we know the names" could be interpreted as the leads from Glengarry Glen Ross, as the company was in control of a solid list of good and bad names that could lead to possible sales. The sales team seemed to be in constant demand for the leads, as it was their way of betting on themselves to be able to make a successful pitch to the customer. Their obsession with the leads turns into an addiction, which leaves them dependent on the company, which took advantage of their "disease" in exchange for "the money" through sales of properties, and even leads themselves.  

Welcome to the jungle we take it day by day

If you want it you're gonna bleed but it's the price to pay

...

You can taste the bright lights but you won't get there for free

     In the office, success is measured "day by day," and the salesmen get a chance to prove themselves through the board. One day, Roma might be a closer at the top of the board, yet he might end the day by losing a sale with Lingk, as he did in the play. Luck plays a large factor in this success, as Levene defends himself for having a bad streak, "... and what is that, John? What? Bad luck. That's all it is. I pray in your life you will never find it runs in streaks. That's what it does, that's all it's doing. Streaks. I pray it misses you. That's all I want to say," which he later backs up, as he is able to break his "bad luck" streak with an $82,000 sale to Bruce and Harriett Nyborg (Mamet 16). "If you want it you're gonna bleed, but it's the price you pay," because the salesmen must ALWAYS BE CLOSING, which means that they must sacrifice everything else, their families, their social life, their own health, to maintain their records as salesmen. In the film adaption of the play, Alec Baldwin says, "And your name is you're wanting. You can't play in the man's game, you can't close them? Then go home and tell your wife your troubles. Because only one thing counts in this life," forcing the men to surrender everything else for the sake of the leads, closing, and, above all, money. 

Welcome to the jungle it gets worse here every day

Ya learn to live like an animal in the jungle where we play

If you hunger for what you see you'll take it eventually 

You can have everything you want but you better not take it from me

     In the hostile work environment in which Glengarry Glen Ross takes place, it becomes evident that the pressure to succeed grows greater and greater everyday, while the men desperately struggle to maintain a steady path to the top. "It gets worse here every day," as the chance that they will fail grows greater, since bad luck infamously runs in streaks, and at some point they know they will hit that streak that puts them out of business for good, unless they can quit while they're at the top. Learning to "live like an animal" is a huge part of life in the dog-eat-dog world of the office, as every man is for himself, and must fight for survival if he even wants the chance to rise above his peers. In this society of Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest is an essential part of life, yet only a few will be able to survive and make it to the top of the hierarchy, while others are left at the bottom, oppressed by their own misfortune and the authority of their former peers. If you "hunger for what you see, you'll take it eventually," as Levene demonstrates his hunger for money, power, and success through his desperate plea to Williamson for a shot at the good leads. "I got to eat. Shit, Williamson, shit," he pleads, but to no avail (Mamet 17). Levene gets backed into a corner, and through his helpless desperation to be successful again, he breaks into the office and steals the leads, as he sees it as his only way to achieve greatness again. 

Wall Street (1987)

Wall Street (1987)

While you are reading my Blog, you can listen this song as a background music. "Money" by Pink Floyd. 

Wall Street is a classical business crime movie. The movie talks about how Wall Street really looks like. A young man just graduated from New York University named Bud Fox, he is a stock salesman. He has to repay all the loans for his studying. Although he is extremely hard working, he struggling a the bottom of Wall Street. In the movie, every successful people can find their previous lives on Bud. By chance, he uses his intelligence to talk with Gekko. Gekko is a typical capitalist, all he cares is about money. Gekko says if Bud wants to join his company, Bud should do something which can interest him. Bud gets lots of information from his father, his college friends and his associates. These information are available for Gekko to do the inside trading. Although inside trading is illegal, it can make easy money. After Bud works with Gekko, he got everything he wants, money, luxury house and beauty. But when Gekko ready to dissolve and contradict the promise to sell the Blue Star, which is company that Bud’s father works there, Bud feels full of guilt. Finally, Bud got his conscience and justice again. He fought against Gekko and saved the Blue Star. He is also arrested by police because of the inside trading. 

Napoleon said that a successful man only exists in two places: on horseback and on woman. In the peace era, there is no war. People cannot ride the horse and kill the enemies. But on the stock market or the financial market, you can find the feeling. Through the computers and networks, you could be flight in an invisible battlefield. You could be a general or a commander. Dispose all the money in the stock market is like you are managing thousands of troops. This is a zero sum game. There would be people who get lots of profit, and there would be people who lost all the money. 

As Gordon Gekko said, “You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. It was better than sex. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it's a day's pay.” 

  

Bud Fox: How much is enough? 

Gordon Gekko: It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

This implies how they desire for the money. People cannot earn all the money in the world. There should be a limited. But for Gekko, he is so greedy that he thought earning money should not have a limit. He said the stock market is a zero sum game. But for him, it is an unfair game. He uses his information to control the stock. Although it is illegal, and many people has chance to report Gekko, they didn’t do so. Because they are also “greedy”.  

Define Zero Sum Game

Conflicting among greedy, money and humanity happens every second in movie. In reality, it also happens. Even though people work so hard and they are full of ambitions, they are struggling on the edge of survival. Those people do not work; however, they have inside information. They make tons of money every day. At this moment, those poor people may change their beliefs and principles of justice. 

This is like what Gekko said to Bud, “Hard working? I bet you stay up so late to analysis those stocks that you want me to buy, right? What’s the advantages? My dad is a salesman for electronic components. He worked so hard everyday, but died of a heart attack at 49. He also owned lots of taxes which is not paid.”

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.”

This is what Gekko said when he was at the shareholder’s meeting. I thought it’s pretty meaningful. In the Wall Street, “greedy” is not a negative vocabulary. The greedy is a spark which can provoke people doing better. 

This is about the Gekko's Speech. 

I feel this movie has the common point with Glengarry Glen Ross. Both of the main characters are so greedy on money, though Bud changes his mind at last. And both of them use a cheating way to earn illegal money. I think this could be a familiar phenomenon in 1980s society. People expect the imaginary American Dream too much. In their dream, the standard American Dream should be lots of money, a nice house which is described in The Bluest Eye, and the mother takes care of her children. But all those things are based on money. If you have no money, then the dream would be collapsed. So people start to earn money in a immoral way. 

This is a standard American Dream, a nice house, the gorgeous front yard and a married couple. That is what exactly described in The Bluest Eye. 

In the Wall Street, Gekko wants to purchase the Blue Star, which he can make a huge profit on that. But he knows the result, if he do so, he would destroy the whole company. Thousands of works would be employed. This would create starving among the civil. Gekko doesn’t care about anything but money. 

Gekko said, “It’s all about bucks, rest of the conversation.” 

In the Glengarry Glen Ross, there is one part that Moss tries to ask what's the name of the Blake, because they never meet before. Blake said "F*** you" to Moss. He doesn't even refer to them by their names. All he cares is about money. The way that he provokes those people to work is brutal. He made a huge "class difference" in the office. It just like the difference between Blake's BMW and Moss's Hyundai. He doesn't care how much time and energy that salesman put in, the only thing he cares is profit. There is no sympathetic relationship between Blake and the salesmen. 

If you are interested in economy, I recommended you to watch this movie. 

The Rush: From Glengarry Glen Ross to China's Education System

We are the victims, but this is the only chance.

National College Entrance Examination

        National Higher Education Entrance Examination, known as Gaokao in China, is the annual nationwide exam that almost every high school undergraduates must take in order to be admitted to colleges. It is considered as the toughest test in China.

Well, the SATs are child’s play compared to the Gaokao. If the SATs are the academic equivalent of, say, a brisk footrace, the gaokao is an Iron Man triathlon. Across a minefield and through a piranha-infested river that ends in a waterfall. With people throwing ninja stars at you the whole time! Freaking ninja stars.

        For Chinese high school students, there is almost no way to go to colleges academically without a NCEE score. Throughout the nation, Gaokao is the most significant event for each teenager because their career and future depend heavily on this exam, which directly determines which college they go to. It is controversy in China nowadays because it gives students too much pressure and generates unfair opportunities based on different regions. 

       The normal study time for a high school senior in school is 10 hour, and they are supposed to work until midnight. In order to compete with others, many schools have Saturday classes for all high school undergraduates, and extra classes on some courses on Sundays for some of the students. When becoming an undergraduate, there is almost no time for entertain or extracurricular. In addition, opportunities are exceedingly unevenly distributed among the nation by Gaokao. As people are rushing to the universities in Beijing, and Shanghai, in which the best universities are located, universities in these cities set strict baselines for each province, which favor the local Gaokao takers a lot because the universities admit local students a lot more than outsiders.

How many students are wearing glasses in this video? Why? :)

Most recently, photographs emerged of a classroom in Hubei province, showing students taking energy-boosting amino acids from intravenous drips hung from the ceiling. --BBC News.

The Machines and Academic Hierarchy

        Under the great pressure of Gaokao, more and more high school students become "study machines". Sixteen-hour study time is normal to most of the students. Gaokao takers are categorized by Arts and Science. Arts students will have six subjects: Chinese, English, math, politics, history, and geography; science students have six as well: Chinese, English, math, physics, chemistry, and biology. In the first year of high school, they will learn all of them, and at the beginning of the second year they will choose or "be chosen" to be categorized, and they can not switch for the remaining two years. Such extensive range of courses requires plenty of effort and time, and it keeps making students "study machines". Furthermore, there is little time available for high school students to do sports, activities, clubs, and games. More and more people become fat or weak not because they eat a lot, but because they don't move at all. 
        Such machines can be found in Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet; the salesmen say that they are machine. They are so disappointed at the world because they keep trying to sell people the land that they don't want. 

Aaronow: Shelly, the Machine, Levene (Mamet, 64).

Roma: It's not a world of men, Machine... it's a world of clock watchers, bureaucrats, officeholders... what it is, it's a fucked-up world... there's no adventure to it. We are the members of a dying breed (105).

These "study machines" in China will have more than ten mock Gaokao exams during their last year in high school, and their ranks are always told for estimation. In some school during the first two years, students have almost as many exams as they will have in the last year. Some of the exams are designed to categorize students. This system makes different levels of class available to students at different ranks. The high level classes, consisting of the top-ranked students at the same grade, will have the best teachers in school and different treatment, including teaching and homework; they learn things at a faster speed and have some "extra accessibility" of knowledge. The low level classes, however, will take a relatively slow pace and are less productive. This classification of students can be found at not only in high school, but also primary schools, middle schools, and colleges everywhere in China.

Levene: Get the chalk and put me on the board. I'm going to Hawaii! Put me on the Cadillac board, Williamson (63).

Such classification is similar to the board system in Glengarry Glen Ross. The salesman who close the leads, get on the board, and the more they close the better leads they will get, which gives them better opportunities to close again. This unfair system will result bigger distinction among people.

Education Inequality and Social Mobility

        Gaokao has a strong influence in China society. Many children are under strict care of parents about their academics at a young age. For parents, in order for their kids to have a better education in high school, they have to get the appropriate middle schools and primary schools, as well. Since the admission for high school and middle school are also based on one exam similar to Gaokao, children have pressure at a unusually young age. In addition, this system allows bigger and bigger gaps among students since the better ones get the much better education while the lower ones keep getting the lower level education all the time.

        Education inequality happens also in rural and urban areas. Rural areas have an extreme difference from urban areas in economics, and such distinction results a broad range of education levels in different regions. To a family in rural areas, the only hope that they could one day be rich and move to the big city is relied mostly on their children. However, it is way harder for a kid to get to university because the school can not afford higher-educated teachers or advanced facilities. Early in 21st century, there would be a celebration in a town if one were admitted by a university. They see this as a chance of social mobility. Unfortunately, such fortune had rarely happened to poor families. To some extent, education is a key reason why the poor get poorer and the rich get richer in China.

Sources not linked:
Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross. New York: Grove Press, 2012. Print.