Private Lessons and national Formations: National Heirarchy and the Individual Psyche in the Marketing of Chinese Educational Programs

In Zouping, the rapidly urbanizing, rural county where I have been conducting research for over two decades, there has recently been a rather sudden increase in the number of private educational businesses. Though a few services had been available since the late 1990s, the number of businesses mushroomed after 2008, when the Shandong provincial educational bureau banned mandatory weekend and after school study halls at junior middle and senior middle schools. These bans spurred on an industry that had been slowly expanding anyway, prompting many national chains to open branches in the rapidly growing county seat, many individuals to open their own tutoring businesses, and some medium-size companies to open branches in towns outside the county seat.