White hair, a well-established fortune, and yet: on Wednesday, among the millions of Chinese candidates who take the gaokao, equivalent to the baccalaureate, is Liang Shi, a 56-year-old millionaire who is trying his luck for the … 27th time.
In terms of social success, Liang Shi can be proud, having started his career with a menial job in a factory before founding his own flourishing building materials company.
But the 50-year-old has always kept a frustration, that of not having obtained a sufficient mark in the "gaokao" - or entrance exam to higher education establishments - to be able to integrate the prestigious university of Sichuan, the southwestern province. of China where he lives.
In the Asian country, this exam is the test of a lifetime, especially for the most modest.
Only students with a very high score can access the best universities, in a country where competition is fierce in education, places are limited and family pressure is strong.
And a diploma from a recognized university is synonymous with social status and virtual assurance of being recruited by a good company.
This year, in order to be competitive among the 13 million candidates in the ranks, Liang Shi says he led a "monk's life" for several months. Waking up at dawn every day, he pored over the textbooks for 12 hours a day.
"It's unpleasant to think that I didn't manage to go to university," he told AFP. Because "I really wanted to go there and become an intellectual".
Over the past four decades, he's tried his luck 26 times, but each time his grade was insufficient to get him into the college of his choice.
The local media ended up making him a celebrity. “They call me the gaokao diehard,” he says proudly.
When he first took the exam in 1983, he was just 16 years old. Then, for almost ten years, he ironed it to improve his grade, before throwing in the towel in 1992.
At the time, the authorities limited access to the gaokao to high school students or students under the age of 25.
As soon as this limit was lifted in 2001, Liang Shi thought he had a new opportunity.
He has since taken the exam 16 times, and every year since 2010. Even the Covid period, marked by strict health restrictions making it difficult to hold the exams, did not discourage him.
His case is intriguing. Some Internet users even wondered if he was not doing this just for fame, or as part of an advertising operation.
“What would be the point?” replies Mr. Liang. "No sane person would pass the gaokao for decades for a publicity stunt."
Sign of his motivation, he says jokingly: he stopped drinking alcohol and playing mah-jong, a traditional game very popular in China, during his preparation for the exam.
His son passed the gaokao in 2011, sometimes a little embarrassed by this multi-recidivist father.
"At first he didn't really agree (that I retake the exam so many times), but now he doesn't care," says Liang Shi.
Once the test passed for the 27th time, the eternal candidate planned to relax a little, after all these months of work.
"I'm going to play mahjong with my friends for three days and three nights!" he says.
07/06/2023 05:35:39 - Beijing (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
