Learn Chinese: culture of Unit 4

The Unit 4 dialogue brings in numbers, age and the school system. Three chances to see how people talk about age in China, how school works, and one peculiarity that always comes as a surprise: in China, you can be a year older than in the West.

1. In China, you are one year old at birth

There are traditionally two ways of counting age:

In practice: a baby born on 20 January, just before Chinese New Year, is one year old at birth in 虚岁 xūsuì, then two years old a few days later when the New Year comes round. It is then one week old.

Today, in the big cities and in anything administrative or medical, it is the 周岁 zhōusuì that counts. In ordinary conversation, however, in the countryside and among older people, the 虚岁 xūsuì is still very much alive. A Chinese person who gives you their age may therefore be one or two years younger by Western reckoning. When in doubt, ask: 是虚岁还是周岁？ Shì xūsuì háishì zhōusuì?: "Is that traditional age or real age?"

2. Can you ask someone's age in China?

In the West, asking someone their age quickly comes across as indiscreet. In China, it is entirely natural: age is one of the pieces of information people exchange at a first meeting, on the same footing as a name or a job. It serves to place the other person and to know how to speak to them.

Age hierarchy counts for a great deal in Chinese culture. It governs part of the level of politeness and of the terms of address. Knowing who is the elder means knowing which register to use.

The question is put differently depending on the presumed age of the person:

In the dialogue, Yueyue comes straight out with 你多大？ to her teacher. The bluntness is a child's, but between adults the question remains perfectly acceptable in China. (An English speaker's first reflex is to find it brutal. That reflex wears off soon enough.)

3. The school system in China

The dialogue brings in three levels of the education system: 小学 xiǎoxué (primary school), 中学 zhōngxué (secondary school) and 大学 dàxué (university). All three words are built very logically:

The course of study breaks down as follows:

  • primary school (小学): 6 years, roughly from age 6 to 12;
  • middle school (初中 chūzhōng, literally "beginning of the middle"): 3 years, from age 12 to 15;
  • high school (高中 gāozhōng, literally "top of the middle"): 3 years, from age 15 to 18;
  • university (大学): four years as a rule.

Schooling is compulsory for nine years, six of primary and three of middle school. The word 中学 zhōngxué covers middle school and high school at once: that is why, in the dialogue, Teacher Li describes himself as both a 中学老师 zhōngxué lǎoshī and a 大学老师 dàxué lǎoshī.

Education holds a central place in Chinese society. Families invest considerable sums in it, and academic success passes for the key to social success. The university entrance exam, the 高考 gāokǎo, is the heaviest moment in the life of a young Chinese person. Whole families live to the rhythm of the two days of papers, and cities cut down the noise around the exam centres.