-Young generation of talent to carry forward pioneering spirit in science, technology
Beijing: A total of 10.78 million Chinese students across the country have stepped into examination rooms to take their final step toward college. Gaokao, the country’s largest scale nationwide annual exams have always attracted much attention from wider society, especially the essay questions for the Chinese course.
Heated discussions on essay topics have become a unique phenomenon each year on day one of Gaokao, because it is not only about the crucial test, but also a reflection of mainstream public values, observers said.
In 2021, China’s Ministry of Education has issued four versions of exam papers nationwide, and Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Zhejiang Province issued their own exam papers. This year, many of the essay questions in the Chinese course are closely related to patriotism, the ideals of youth, and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which asked students to write an essay linking their dreams to that of their elders from decades or even a century ago.
“Gaokao is like ‘the coming-of-age exam’ for people like us, and questions about young people’s ideals regarding their homelands and the motherland, as well as their responsibility and duty of the times, are an integral part of the exam,” an examinee surnamed Tian from Chaozhou, South China’s Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Monday.
Many web users joked that “the examinees who have watched the 2021 TV series Awakening Age might laugh out loud.” The Chinese TV series Awakening Age, narrates the story of how the CPC was founded in 1921 and why the founding fathers of the CPC had to establish such a Party in China. The series has remained a hot topic on social media, where discussion emphasizes that it has played a positive role in educating young people about China’s revolutionary history. Many young people said online after watching the series that “I’m going to submit a Party membership application.”
“I had a lot to say when I was writing my essay this morning, because we are at a crucial historical juncture. China has effectively controlled the pandemic in general and the country has eliminated poverty nationwide. The Party is also going to celebrate its 100th birthday, so it’s easy for me to pick examples from reality and put them into my essay to make comparisons with the challenges that our ancestors were facing in the past,” said an examinee from Nanning surnamed Wei, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
