Foreign students are not the only ones who are able to complete STEM degrees LOL. It might just happen to be so today but it will not be so in the future. And that is assuming that STEM degrees is only path to success developing "tech" that will overtake USA. Second you also assume that the only educational institutions that are high quality or "worthy of issuing STEM degrees" are schools that cost $400K a year. In fact it's just a dozen of those schools that do, a large majority of universities and colleges are affordable to average Americans and if they do come from challenging economic backgrounds, they get the entire university education for free on full scholarship, not paying ONE cent even for the $400K a year private universities. And you should talk about the affordability of education. In China, university education is so scarce and hierarchical that students in China have to pass national examinations and they have to score high enough to even go to universities. And if they don't score high enough, they don't even get to have high-level education. Children commit suicide when they didn't get high enough scores on those national examinations. So yeah China might have invested in cultivating talents, extremely bright talents in those prestigious high learning educational institutions but that's at the expense of the educational opportunities for all people. Education might not be a right but shouldn't be a privilege just for the few either.
In here schools finish at 3:30 PM and then it's homework time. After homework, it's playtime or engaging in activities that they really enjoy, like choir or dancing or martial arts or sports and etc. I don't believe in those after-school tutoring s***. After-school tutoring is for students who really need extra help for their academic work otherwise if you are able to understand what the teacher taught you in class and you are able to finish homework with no problem, you shouldn't need to spend extra time and effort to still get tutoring that is IF the teachers in schools really put in the efforts to do decent teaching as they should be not like coasting through the day while getting paid and then opening those after-school tutoring classes to make extra money on the side. I am all for extra-curricular activities that cultivate other interests of the students but not those after-school tutoring which should've never taken place unless it's extra-curricular activities on scholarly subjects that the child really likes. Everything should be based on the children's needs.
National examination you say? Scary thought to ensure everyone is tested on equal basis. Come to think of it, they don't just do it in China but in most European countries as well. I know you're not US born and raised so you probably know that.
You mean like piano or violin? Check and check, every Chinese kid I know, whichever generation, plays one of those instruments remarkably well. See, homogeneity leads to conformity and all North Asians I know (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) are conformist, with younger Japanese a bit more adventurous in breaking norms.
You are Chinese so you should know that only China and some other Asian countries like South Korea have those unreasonable almost torturous national examinations. There are tests here in USA, the SAT and in Europe like UK, the O-Level exams, I think that's what it's called but not to the extent that its results dictate the students' entire life like in China. So glad I didn't grow up in China.
Lol I know you want me to be Chinese, even though I'm not. The pressure to get high scores at the national exam is similar for all countries that have national exams. It's more intense in North Asia (including Singapore) because top universities opens more opportunities and a way out of working class status, and many families put everything they have to support their kids reach that top level while missing the grade is synonymous with failure. Mind you, I'm not a proponent of such systems but I can assure you that on the positive side they produce outstanding individuals at the end of the road. Of course, the churn is pretty bad. Also, I've never suggested that Chinese were creative. In fact, if history is any indication, they are the opposite, they are conformists because of their hierarchical culture. When the emperor liked something created by his various artisans, the item would very quickly be copied and only evolve when new colors were invented. Creating something that wasn't first appreciated by the various levels of hierarchy could lead to serious problems for the artisan. Chinese are less a supply side culture than but a demand side producers. Ask them and they have the skills to make anything, but give them a blank sheet and they stumble. Or at least they did when I lived there 20 years ago. Since then, they've become more sophisticated and taking risks creating new products for their market primarily. But they still prefer foreigners coming in with specific products to copy or with detailed plans to develop from.