Shervin

Rhetorical Analysis: Plight of the little emperors

Taylor Clark wrote an essay entitled “Plight of the Little Emperors " which was included on One World, Many Cultures, a textbook for college students in the United States. The main goal of the essay is to explain the problems associated with studying in China. I think the author wants the audience to realize that there is an intense competition going on in China in order to be admitted to a good university.  Students and their parents are all under huge amount of pressure to succeed in Gao Kao. Moreover he wants the audience to realize the importance of education in China. He also wants the audience to realize the pressure and frustration that causes mental-health crisis for young Chinese.

Clark uses different strategies to explain his ideas. For example he uses statistics to show that there are about 4 million university graduates  yearly but only less than half of this graduate students are able to find college-level jobs. Also he gives some data about the rate of suicides caused by the pressure and frustration among students. References to experts are another type of strategy used in the essay. He actually quotes from Vanessa Fong, a Harvard education professor and the author of “Only Hope: Coming of Age under China's One-Child Policy” to relate his essay to the One-Child Policy in China

Works Cited:

Clark, Taylor.  “Plight of the Little Emperors.” One World, Many Cultures. 8th ed. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. Longman, 06 Jan. 2011.  42-48. Print.