"How can I get that job? How can I get a high-paying job in investment banking now?"
How disappointing. It seems that these "very, very goal-directed" dudes are more interested in a cushy job at some shiny office than in doing new things, cool things.
In other societies risk taking are discouraged (through various means). You should also take into account the difficulty of starting a business when you do not have access to capital.
The USA is one of the few countries that almost seems to reward risk taking and is not over-regulated (thereby cancelling out small companies). This is fairly unique and is probably a part of what make the USA great.
The good news is this isn't hurting entrepreneurship in China. There are far too many smart young Chinese that do not have these outsized expectations...and maybe more important have nowhere to turn but to start something themselves.
Maybe another way to summarize this article is "Wharton profs' only interactions with Chinese students is at the top .0001% of the class."
Today, Taiwan's economy is HAMMERED by the worldwide recession, but I think the response will be to find more ways to do more entrepreneurial business formation, and Taiwan will be all right. China is in serious danger of unrest, by contrast,
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/27/business/AS-China-...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4862517...
unless some economic transformation happens so that urban college graduates and rural migrant workers can find more employment soon.
Sure, people want money, but most believe that the only real way to get it is through some kind of graft or payoffs. Thus, the way to get wealthy is to get a high job in a large and established company or government organization, and put themselves in a position for the inevitable kickback. They may not paint it in those terms, but that's basically what those students were asking for.
Now for the caveats: There is an AMAZING amount of entrepreneurial activity at the bottom of the food chain, and there is definitely an emerging entrepreneurial class. China's also a huge and diverse country, and there's definitely pockets of Silicon Valley-like activity. However, culturally they're swimming upstream.
Frankly, I fear for the economic future of China unless they kickstart some more private business activity (particularly startups). The majority of economic activity here is in massive sluggish state owned enterprises, and that's a recipe for disaster if this economic downturn is long and nasty.
I've only spent a little bit of time in Shanghai, but I believe you. The unfortunate thing is that the top universities are mostly concentrated here in Beijing, and thanks to the hukou system, the best and brightest tend to stay here.
I got that they wanted access to positions that would give them a reasonable chance of making tens of millions per year.
Insert something about sufficient sample size and selection bias here. Is there something hard wired in Americans' (specifically white Americans') brains that assume that anything they read about a few Chinese people automatically apply to the entire country?
PS: Though you guessed right that I am a white male, I must say that I am not American.
Of course, I'm a white American (that happens to live in China). Perhaps you have some insights that I'm lacking.
Your point about sample size and selection bias is right on. This is the real take away from the article.