A generation recalls the life-changing college entrance exam held right after the Cultural Revolution
For most Chinese, the national college entrance exam (gaokao) is a universal—if not exactly fondly remembered—summer memory, indelibly associated with baking heat or monsoon rain. Yet for one unique generation, this annual rite of passage is entirely associated with another season and time—the “winter gaokao” of 1977, the first after a decade-long hiatus.
The modern gaokao system, which allowed aspiring undergraduates to take a unified exam for national university entrance, was introduced in 1952, loosely modeled on the ancient civil service system that had existed long before universities.
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