Black Days

Yesterday and the day before that are referred to as 'the black days' by Chinese students.


No, nothing tragic happened -- it was just time time for the yearly nationwide university entrance exams. This year a record 9.5 million students took part in the fun.


The exams are a time of stress not only for the students but possibly even more so for their families. Aftr 12 years of work, now it's the time to see the results. And in China of 2006, results matter.


For these couple of days, each news broadcast has been showing interviews of nervous parents, relaxed students, angry parents, stressed students... Even parents who had paid thousands of yuan to get a luxury hotel room by the school for their kid to study and rest.


And then there is the cheating. This year, there are strict measures in place to try and stop to cheating. Still, each year there are thousands of students who get caught and get a '0' stamped on their result sheet. And how many thousands who don't get caught?


My teacher suggested that I take a detour on my way to class and go check out one of the places in Beibei where the exams are held. He told me to expect masses of parents waiting outside, all standing up for the few hours the exams last at a time. Many parents, he said, make the long journey from hundreds of kilometres away just to be there for these couple of days.


So, I thought I'd go and take a look as one of the schools where the exams were held is not far from where we live. As I got to the school gates, there was a line of maybe 10 parents, all standing with their arms crosses over their chest, staring at the gate. Maybe the bigger scene was inside the school area, but I didn't dare go in since as soon as I walked into their field of vision, the eyes were drawn away from the gates and attached to the laowai. "Eeeeehhhh, loook everyone, a foreigner!!"


So much for my covert operation then, I didn't feel like going around asking for any more attention so I left quickly and continued on my way to school.

I hope they did well and made their parents happy.