Representing education in China in the early reform era: The impact of university matriculation on the family and the individual in Father and Son (1986).

This article analyzes the 1986 Chinese comedy film *Father and Son* as a case study of how educational policy changes in 1980s China, particularly the reintroduction of the national university matriculation examination (gaokao), affected family dynamics and individual experiences. The film dramatizes the generational and cultural tensions between a traditional father, embodying Confucian ideals of filial piety and academic success as a family obligation, and his son, who views education as a burden and subtly resists paternal authority. Through comedic narrative and physical humor, *Father and Son* situates the impact of state educational reforms within the domestic sphere, illustrating how broader political and economic policies, including the Opening-Up Policy, are negotiated and personalized within family relationships. The film ultimately reveals the limits of patriarchal control and highlights the ambivalence and complexity of educational expectations during China’s early reform era.