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New Delhi: China’s 56-year-old self-made millionaire Liang Shi is determined to crack the country’s toughest Gaokao college entrance exam. He took part in the Gaokao, the annual exam for admission to all graduate institutions in mainland China, for the 27th time on Wednesday. Liang Xi dreams of studying at Sichuan University, one of China’s top universities. To achieve his goal, he needs a high score on the Gaokao, which is attempted by some 13 million high school seniors each year.
He studies for 12 hours daily. Liang, who started his own successful building materials business after working in a factory, said he has been living a simple life for the past few months. He spends 12 hours a day reading books. Why does he want to study? “It bothers me that I didn’t go to college. I really want to go to university and become an intellectual,” he told AFP news agency.
The Gaokao College Entrance Examination can change anyone’s destiny. But it’s tough for Liang to compete with 13 million students. “I feel uneasy that I didn’t get a college education. I really want to go to university and become an intellectual,” he told Agence France-Presse news agency.
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Local media refer to him as ‘The Gaokao Holdout’. Liang first appeared for the exam in 1983, when he was just 16 years old. He continued to try to improve his score for the next 10 years – until he had to stop in 1992, as the test was then open only to unmarried people under the age of 25.
When those limits were removed in 2001, Liang’s ambition for a prestigious college education was revived.
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He has taken the Gaokao 16 times since then, including every year since 2010 – even when strict zero-Covid measures made the exam more difficult than usual. Online, some have raised doubts whether his apparent determination is just a publicity stunt. “Why?” Liang replied. “No sane person would spend decades stunting Gaokao.”
He said that he will celebrate with his friends after the exams are over this weekend. Xi said, “I am going to play mahjong with my friends for three days and three nights.”
