Culture | China’s hidden crisis

The biggest obstacle to China’s rise is struggling rural children

They make up two-thirds of the total—and are doing terribly

|WEICHENG, HEBEI PROVINCE

Invisible China. By Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell. University of Chicago Press; 248 pages; $27.50 and £22.

THE CHINA that most foreigners see is modern and metropolitan. The skyscrapers glitter. The bullet trains are fast and comfortable. Anyone who visits only Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen would conclude that China was already a rich country.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "Trouble in the country"

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