Miyazaki is the man behind writing the book called "The Chinese Civil Service Exam system" in 1963. The book provokes a lot of emotion to the reader. The Civil Service Examination System is very lengthy, imposing hardships to the examined. Also, the female child is excluded from the system. The Civil Service Examination system is only imposed on the boy child because the empire needs to select bright Empire officials (Miyazaki 13). The boy begins to prepare for examination at the early age of three and takes the first exam at the age of fourteen. Candidates endure many hardships. The compounds in which they take their test are not conducive, as three days and two nights at a time have to be spent in a small and door- less cubicle. The candidates are failed because of a small mistake like misprinting a character.
The girl child is discriminated right from when she is born. Unlike the girls, the boy child begins his education from the moment he attains the age of three. This is because the Empire officials should be brilliant men, which a girl child is not expected to be. The girls are only taught how to be submissive to men.
The book is intellectually stimulating because although it is good for a child to begin his or her education at an early age, he or she should be in a conducive environment for rational thinking. However that should not be the basis for unequal treatment. A girl child should be treated the same way a boy child is treated.
Work Cited
Miyazaki, Ichisada. China's Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. Print.
