Morality, Cosmopolitanism, or Academic Attainment? Discourses on “Quality” and Urban Chinese‐Only‐Children's Claims to Ideal Personhood

Abstract

The term “quality” ( suzhi ) has become a ubiquitous part of Chinese popular discourses and the focus of Chinese educational campaigns. Amorphous, multivalent, and widely used, the term “high quality” represents a kind of ideal personhood associated with urban modernity. Based on 32 months of participant observation conducted in schools and homes in a Chinese city between 1997 and 2006, this paper examines how and why urban Chinese only‐children with various different strengths in morality, cosmopolitanism, and academic attainment chose, defended, and promoted definitions of quality that favored their own strengths.