Chinese academics call talent titles such as Changjiang Scholar maozi, hats. In 2018, Science and Technology Daily wrote that the worship and abuse of hats in academia had become “very prominent.” It added: “Once one has a hat, it is easy to get more hats and more resources. The winner takes all.”
In October 2020, the Party Central Committee and the State Council published a plan to reform educational evaluation. It calls for overcoming “the stubborn ills of only scores, only admission rates, only diplomas, only papers and only hats.”