The gaokao: China’s most grueling school examinations - SupChina
▻http://supchina.com/2017/06/07/gaokao-chinas-grueling-school-examinations
Starting on June 7, millions of Chinese high-school students take the gaokao (高考 gāokǎo), the nationwide college entrance examination. This year, according to Xinhua (in Chinese), close to 9.4 million candidates have signed up to participate in the high-stakes examination, down from a peak of 10.5 million in 2010. Every year in June, gaokao news dominates the headlines in Chinese media which reports on the event like a national holiday — only with much less joy, and much more pressure.
What makes this year’s exams unique is that 2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the resumption of the gaokao after the end of the Cultural Revolution, but the genesis of the gaokao can be found as early as the Sui dynasty, when keju (科举 kē jǔ), also known as the Imperial Exam or Civil Exam, was first introduced by the central government to select talented individuals from the amongst the commoners. Hailed by some as the fifth great innovation from China, keju, during its 1,300-year history, served as an effective tool for imperial China to expand its human resource pool, and was also almost the only path for ordinary Chinese to ascend to the elite class. In 1905, the keju system was abolished. But its spirit still lives on today in the gaokao, an advanced merit-based test that was launched in 1952, three years after the birth of modern China.
During the chaotic 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), public education in China came to a complete standstill. Schools were closed and Chinese universities stopped enrolling students. In 1977, right after Mao’s death, the gaokao exams were restored under the charge of Deng Xiaoping 邓小平, who returned to power as the vice-premier overseeing culture and education. Unlimited by age or background, people deprived of educational opportunities in the years before rushed to embrace the gaokao’s revival. Official figures suggested that about 5.7 million candidates registered for the exam in 1977, and only 272,971 were admitted, making the enrollment rate as low as 4.78 percent.