Motivation for the Gao Kao and its history

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The slogan reads: 提高一分，干掉千人: Kill (defeat) one thousand (competitors) with one mark higher

扛得住给我扛，扛不住给我死扛: Resist the pressure if you can, Resist the pressure until death if you can not. 就算装得头破血流，也要闯进一本线的大楼: Dash to the line for first class universities even if you are bumped and bruised. 不比智力比努力，不比起点比进步: Do not compare your intelligence, but your efforts with others; Do not compare your starting point but your progress with others.

要成功先发疯，下定决心往前冲: Get crazy first if you want to succeed, be determined to dash forward

– ‘Defeat Mr Perfect, do better than the rich children of officials, the Gao Kao isn’t relying on your fathers’ wealth, working hard relies on yourself.’

‘If you don’t study, how are you going to care for all your numerous women?’

只要学不死，就往死里学: As long as you do not die from studying, study hard to death.

History

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy. One of the most important events accompanying the start of the policy was the restoration of the national college entrance exam, also known as gaokao. As this year’s exam is around the corner, let’s take a look at pictures that captured decisive moments for generations over the past four decades.

Beijing students take the restored gaokao in 1977.[Photo/Xinhua]

A photo of the personal effects of Zheng Chunfu, who was 25 and decided to take a shot at the restored gaokao in 1977. He had no reference but a few high school textbooks for preparation. He also had to work a regular job during the day. [Photo/VCG]

A group of students who took the restored gaokao in 1977 are welcomed as freshmen at Peking University in Beijing in 1978. [Photo/Xinhua]

Freshmen attend a lecture at Tsinghua University in the spring of 1978. [Photo/Xinhua]

Two candidates share a light moment before the gaokao at an exam site in Beijing on July 8, 1980. [Photo by Ren Shulin/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A collector shows an exam permit of the 1988 gaokao in Zhengzhou. [Photo/VCG]

Photos of gaokao permits issued in the 1980s collected by Zhan Hongge of Shenyang, Liaoning province. He has collected more than 200gaokao test permits, including some issued during the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949). [Photo/VCG]

A student sits in an exam site waiting for her paper to be collected during the 2000 gaokao in Beijing. [Photo/China News Service]

A candidate in Hangzhou is tested for body temperature before entering into the exam site during the SARS outbreak in 2003. [Photo/VCG]

A Chinese national flag and a flag embossed with the Beijing Olympics emblem are seen in a classroom of high school seniors in 2008. [Photo/VCG]

A student whose legs were broken in the Wenchuan earthquake is taken to Mianyang to attend the gaokao in Southwest China’s Sichuan province on June 30, 2008. [Photo/VCG]

A student prepares for the gaokao in a makeshift dorm at a factory building in An county, Mianyang city, Southwest China’s Sichuan province, after the Wenchuan earthquake on June 26, 2008. [Photo/VCG]

Two students study at the last minute to prepare for the 2008 exam in Beijing. [Photo/IC]

Family members of candidates for the national college entrance exam wait outside the exam site at the Lhasa Middle School in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, on June 7, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Seniors have mixed feeling during their last high school class in Jinan, East China’s Shandong province, on June 4, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

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