Unpacking the Emotional Experiences of English Majors Preparing for Postgraduate Entrance Exam in China

As a neoliberally-driven test, China’s postgraduate entrance exam is gaining an increasing attention nationwide due to the intense competition in the local market and the dramatic size of Chinese students taking the exam. Under the neoliberal mechanism, Chinese candidates are ideologically self-regulated and emotionally-driven to mobilize their resources and maximize their opportunities to pass the exam. Seeing emotion as sociopolitically loaded and ideologically driven, this study unpacks the emotional experiences of Chinese students preparing for postgraduate entrance exam. Findings indicate that, despite their successful performance, Chinese postgraduate students have experienced a series of negative emotions imposed by various socioeconomic factors. Findings also show that their emotional experiences are intertwined with their different identity construction and negotiated between social relations and power. Overall, this article highlights the importance of addressing the need of studying the emotions and language learners from the sociopolitical perspective. The study is closed by the implications for language education and language policy.