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How girls in patriarchal China rose to outperform the boys in school
Illustration: Craig Stephens
This year, the release of results for China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or gaokao, usually a season of fame and celebration for top students, seems rather quiet, especially after the education ministry warned against hype. But a video interview of a "study goddess" who scored 692 points out of a possible 750 has gone viral.
In it, she said she would like to study computer engineering at university and become a programmer. When told it was a male-dominated field, she dismissed the concern, retorting that no boy in her school did better than her in the gaokao.