From Imperial Examinations to modern day Civil Servant Examinations

Starting from a few thousand years back until about the 1800s, China had a system of picking out government officials:  the Imperial examinations.  Here is an excerpt from everyone's favorite, Wikipedia:

"In late imperial China, the examination system and associated methods of recruitment to the central bureaucracy were major mechanisms by which the central government captured and held the loyalty of local-level elites. Their loyalty, in turn, ensured the integration of the Chinese state, and countered tendencies toward regional autonomy and the breakup of the centralized system.

Men waiting to take the exam back in Imperial China

The examination system also served to maintain cultural unity and consensus on basic values. The uniformity of the content of the examinations meant that the local elites and ambitious would-be members of those elites across the whole of China were taught with the same values. Even though only a small fraction (about 5 percent) of those who attempted the examinations passed them and received titles, the studying and the hope of eventual success on a subsequent examination served to sustain the interest of those who took them.

In late traditional China, education was valued in part because of its possible pay-off in the examination system. The overall result of the examination system and its associated study was cultural uniformity—identification of the educated with national rather than regional goals and values. This self-conscious national identity still underlies the nationalism that has been so important in China's politics in the 20th and 21st centuries, though it is based on different criteria."

And a little about the conditions:

Examination hall with 7500 cells, Guangdong, 1873.

"By 1370, the examinations lasted between 24 and 72 hours, and were conducted in spare, isolated examination rooms; sometimes, however, it was held within cubicles. The small rooms featured two boards which could be placed together to form a bed or placed on different levels to serve as a desk and chair. In order to obtain objectivity in evaluation, candidates were identified by number rather than name, and examination answers were recopied by a third person before being evaluated to prevent the candidate's handwriting from being recognized." (And might I add, they weren't allowed to leave to go to the bathroom--done in the room in a bedpan of sorts or even to go home between the days of examinations.) 
 
If you actually read the above excerpt, I think it actually explains more than meets the eye about the Chinese way of thinking, Chinese diaspora, and all the way down to why the "Asians are smart" stereotype still holds true today.  (As I've always said, it's not so much smart as it is/and has been about being dedicated and hard working.) 

I remember learning about this back in the days of obtaining my degree in East Asian Studies (please don't take my degree away Dr. Huss for citing Wikipedia!), and the reason I bring it up is, this past weekend served as a very important weekend for Chinese citizens who were hoping to obtain a job as a civil servant.  I remember the graduate students in my office talking about it starting a few weeks ago.  Mostly they made comments like, "Well, we know we're going to fail it, but what the hey, let's give it a shot."  The exam doesn't cost very much money to take (somewhere around 50-60 RMB or less than $10) and it's only a few hours long (compared to the 24-72 hour imperial examinations), but it can cover pretty much anything you've ever learned in life--sort of like stuff they ask on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" to college level questions.  How are you supposed to study for something like that?  Anyway, when I asked Ben in my office, why someone would go and take this test, he replied, "For stability."  Once you get a governmental position, you pretty much have a job for life, and I guess if you're competing with literally one billion other people, that goes a long way.  An estimated 1,030,000 people took the exam over the weekend.  (I'd hate to be a grader!)  Below are some photos from a Chinese newspaper. 

A crowd waiting to take the test at one of many testing sites

flooding the lobby

cram cram cram

pooped.

Yikes!  The odds of getting a position really depend on which one you are applying for, but generally according to Ben, it's about 1:1000.  I think a celebration is in order for the lucky few.  Perhaps us (MCATers, LSATers GREers, GMATers, USMLEers, COMLEXers, etc. don't have that much to complain about?)