By Lu Xingsheng

China's universities began an individual enrollment policy starting in 1949. From 1966, when the "Cultural Revolution" began, college entrance exams were temporarily abolished. In 1977 the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping reinstated college entrance exams after an 11-year hiatus. Deng compared his reform to crossing a river, asserting that a person must feel for the stones at the bottom of the riverbed because no previous examples existed. For the Chinese people the college entrance exam was like a ray of light after a "long night," -- and indeed it has lit the way for millions of Chinese people in the last 30 years. I am one of those millions.

Thirty years have now gone by. I can barely recall that the price for candles at that time was about twenty cents for one packet containing ten sticks. But I do clearly remember that the candles were packed in coarse paper folded into a regular hexagonal column shape. I needed two candles per night and 6 packets a month. Those candles cost me 1 yuan and 20 cents every month, while my total monthly salary as a State first-class farm worker at that time was 32 yuan.

I was a young city dweller who was sent to work in countryside in Heilongjiang Province; I stayed there for 10 years. My salary was spent in the following way: 12 to 15 yuan paid for my meals; I used 5 yuan to buy some daily personal items such as soap. I was able to save 100 yuan every year, and I used this money to pay for trips to see my mother in Shanghai and also to give her a little cash for her living expenses.

In October 1977, the farm loudspeaker at work announced that the college entrance exams would be restored in December of that year. After hearing this I decided to allot my 100-yuan savings toward preparing for the exam.

After I had graduated from junior middle school in 1966, I planned to attend the entrance exams for senior middle school students but the exam was cancelled. Later, in 1973, the nation was recruiting the first group of students from a pool of workers, peasants and soldiers. I was 100 percent recommended by my colleagues on the farm. My name topped the list of people who were recommended to go to college. The teacher in charge of enrolment from Shanghai told me that I would be recommended to study motor ship engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Unfortunately, after a deputy secretary of the farm said that "the career here offers you a great challenge," I knew that my hopes of going to college had crumbed to nothing. Later the reason became clear: My father was once an underground member of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He had been investigated during the "Cultural Revolution." Although he had been released from isolation, he still wasn't declared clean "politically." I was angry because I had passed the political requirements and become a Party member in January 1976, just a year before the recommendation. I was angry that due to my father's "problem", I was not eligible to be admitted to an academic college via a recommendation.

The same situation happened again in 1974: I requested leave to attend college and was recommended and then refused.

Finally, in December 1977, I attended the first college entrance exam that had been restored after being stopped for 11 years. The results came out after the 1978 Spring Festival. I was admitted to the School of Chinese Studies at Heilongjiang University.

Thirty years have now passed since China adopted the reform and opening policy in 1978. In my youth I could hardly imagine what would happen to my country in the following 30 years. For me, the college entrance exam resembled the faint flicker of candle light; truly it kindled my first steps in the following 30 years.

(China.org.cn November 6, 2008)