Acknowledgements Introduction I. The Sixties: Impending Crisis 1. Up the School Ladder 2. The Senior High School Bulge and Dwindling Career Openings 3. Flawed Reforms: Rural and Urban Alternatives to the Regular Ladder 4. Memorization and Tests 5. Student Ideals and Competition: The Gathering Storm 6. The Cultural Revolution II.

After the Cultural Revolution: The Disastrous Leap Into a New School System 7. Back to School, 1968-1970 8. Down to the Countryside 9. Troubled Schools, 1970-1976 10. The Fight Over Higher Education Epilogue: The Return of the Old Order, 1977-1980 Appendix A: The Debates Over Talent Appendix B: The Upper Reaches of the Pre-Cultural Revolution Ladder: Into and Out of the Universities Appendix C: The Course Curricula and Daily Schedules of High Schools Before and After the Cultural Revolution Sources and Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes For Further Reading Index.