A Graduation Ceremony in Pennsylvania

Landscape on the East Coast is quite different from that on the West. Lived in New Jersey for two years, I had only been to Pennsylvania twice until I went to Lancaster for Siyu's graduation in May this year. The first time I went there was in Jan 2011 to Philly with Carol and Ashok. We finished most of our finals by then, but soon got bored because the last one was still a few days away. Then Carol proposed to “do something to get away from the campus". She drove us to Philly, we did a one-day trip together. I can't recall much from that day except the ice-cream Bassetts, rumor has which that Obama has visited it during his campaign. The second trip to Philly was for food only. An Ethiopian student Feker, took Leslie, Carol, Matt, Drew, Atsuko, Masa and me to her favorite Ethiopian restaurant there. We ordered a lot, and had some Pilly cheesecake for dessert later. 

These were all my memories of Pennsylvania before May. Then I got a phone call from my mom, "Siyu is graduating next week, she'd be thrilled if you can make it for her commencement." She said. I just finished my qualify exam at that time, and was looking for something fun. In the end, Gang and I rent a car from Enterprise, and drove two hours to Lancaster. Drivers in Pennsylvania are absolutely crazy! No one followed the speed limit. Our Japanese car was not very competitive in speeding, so we stayed in the right lane for most of the time, and finally made our way to Lancaster relatively slowly but successfully with the new red-framed GPS. We met Siyu and her parents, who are good friends with my mom. After a few greetings, Gang and I took Siyu's parents to visit a local Amish farm, and Siyu started to prepare for her graduation.

It was the first high school graduation I'd ever been to. The stadium was crowded with students, teachers,  families and friends. Students, all dressed in gowns, received their certificates from teachers one after the other. Siyu's mother couldn't help crying when Siyu received her certificate from the Dean. "She suffered a lot here", she whispered to me, "she left us when she's so little, and came to a country with different language and culture. We couldn't do anything for her."

Actually that's not true, They did a lot for her. Both Siyu's parents are very successful businessmen.They own a big company back in China which paid a tax of more than $15 million last year. Billionaires like them have no difficulties in affording Siyu's tuition and stipend in the last three years, which added up to around $180,000. Siyu might feel lonely in a strange country, but she is free from financial pressure, which is a big concern for most Chinese students in the US. In 2011, the annual income per capita for urban residents in China was CNY23,979 (US$3,763),  but only CNY6,977 (US$1,095) for rural residents. To supported their child studying in the US for three years, a typical Chinese urban family has to save all their 25-year's income without any consumption if no fellowship is provided.

The world is never fair, but it's still depressing to see talented children missing opportunities of receiving good education which could change their lives. I see how the gaps between different income groups are enlarged across generation by education; and how people's fate are, if not predetermined, at least largely shaped when they were born. What's worse, we could hardly expect these well-educated people to promote equality in China in the future though they're more likely than their domestic peers to be exposed to this idea. It is exactly the extremely imbalanced distribution of social wealth that makes it possible for their parents to accumulate large amount of money and for them to receive the best education in the world. The most reasonable choice for them is to take current advantages and lead best lives.

People are not born equal. But twenty years ago when unchecked privilege was not running so rampant, we still had hopes, which is dying out in today's China.