Vol.7, No.2, 2021 939 Blossoming Branches Symbol the Real Spring: Chinese Sample of School Management Alan C. K. Cheung HE development of education is influenced by the economy, politics, and culture. Due to the differences in politics, economy, and culture of various countries, various countries’ education also shows different characteristics. China’s education is affected by specific economics, politics, and culture and has its unique operating model and mechanism. As far as school management is concerned, the management system of Chinese schools more reflects Chinese characteristics. Two original papers in this issue of the journal focus on school man- agement, one discusses the issue of physical education teachers serving as head teachers (Bai et al., 2021), and the other discusses the impact of local political elites and decision-making collectives on China’s educational ex- penditures (Cai & Zhang, 2021). Bai’s study object, “Head Teacher (it is referred to as Ban Zhu Ren in Chinese),” is a character with distinctive Chinese characteristics. A teacher who serves as a head teacher has to teach one or more classes and manage a specific class. From this perspective, the head teacher often has a more sig- nificant influence on students than other teachers. So, who is the head teacher has become a particular concern for parents (Shi, 2021). This research is dif- ferent from most of the same kind of empirical research. It used more stand- ardized experimental research, supplemented by qualitative research, and ob- tained interesting and robust conclusions. This was a helpful attempt by the head teacher to do scientific management research. Cai’s study explores a more sensitive topic. People often think that po- litical elites such as mayors and municipal party committee secretaries have greater discretion in China’s local education governance. Previous studies © 2021 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. T Vol.7, No.2, 2021 940 indicated that this is one of the characteristics of Chinese authoritarian local governance that is different from Western democratic systems (Blanchard, 2011; Qian & Weingast, 1996). The study shows that in the field of local ed- ucation expenditure, which is closely related to the welfare of the people, China’s local governments seem to rely more on the leadership collective ra- ther than the “rule by the voice of one man alone” of the political elite to make decisions. This is an exciting discovery. This means that, at least in the process of local education governance in China, various localities are indeed making decisions by the principle of “democratic centralism.” This also shows that it is not appropriate to understand the logic of local education governance in China and simply apply Western mainstream theories. There- fore, we need to construct a more explanatory theory to describe the facts more accurately. We published these two papers with “Chinese characteristics” at the same time. The intention was to present the uniqueness of China’s problems from both the micro and macro levels. For researchers who do not under- stand Chinese education’s essence, it may not be easy to understand these two topics. However, considering the vast volume and incredible develop- ment speed of China’s education, we believe that such efforts are necessary to provide Chinese samples to the world or promote the common progress of education between China and the world through such academic expressions. This shall be the so-called “international value” of these studies. References Bai, P. Zhang, J., & Yao, J. (2021). Is it reliable for a physical education teacher to be a head teacher? A mixed-method study. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 7(2):949-960. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.21.or019 Blanchard, O., & Shleifer, A. (2001). Federalism with and without political centralization: China versus Russia. IMF Staff Papers, 48:171-179. https://doi.org/10.3386/w7616 Cai, R., & Zhang, X. (2021). An empirical study on the impact of individual local political elites and decision-making collective on educational fiscal expenditure in China. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 7(2):961-985. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.21.or023 Qian, Y., & Weingast, B.R. (1996). China’s transition to markets: Market- preserving federalism, Chinese style. Journal of Policy Reform, 1(2):149-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/13841289608523361 Shi, X. (2021). Can a non-core subject teacher serve as a homeroom teacher? Discussion on the dispute between core and non-core subject teachers https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.21.or019 https://doi.org/10.3386/w7616 https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.21.or023 https://doi.org/10.1080/13841289608523361 Vol.7, No.2, 2021 941 as homeroom teachers. Science Insights Education Frontiers, 8(1):989-1000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15354/sief.21.or003 Correspondence to: Alan C. K. Cheung, Ph.D. Department Chairperson and Professor Department of Educational Administration and Policy The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 999077 China Email: alancheung@cuhk.edu.hk Conflict of Interests: None. Doi: 10.15354/bece.21.e004 https://doi.org/10.15354/sief.21.or003