1、The photo on the pass
In December 1977, I had an extremely common number: 04013 – the entrance examination registration number.
The pass from almost 37 years ago is still in my collection. Finding it, the past was immediately activated. An inconspicuous object that gives my memories a sense of touchability.
By today’s standards, the pass could not have been printed more modestly. It was 13 centimeters long and less than 10 centimeters wide. It was just a small piece of paper. However, the small piece of paper is rich in content and has everything. At the top of the front, the words “Hubei Provincial Higher School Admission Committee (1977)” are printed, and immediately below it, the three words “examination permit” are prominently printed in a lace frame. Then the photo, number, type of application, test location, and test schedule are in order. On the reverse side is the “Notes to Candidates”, a total of five, concise, the reminder did not pull down. I have not seen the kind of pass nowadays, but I think it is much more sophisticated.
I think the pass was filled in with a ball point pen by the staff of the admissions committee in my hometown of Sui County, Hubei (now known as Suizhou City). The three columns of the application number, application category, and test location are much more formal and are stamped with a seal. But for some reason two of them were stamped red and one was stamped purple. Is this unintentional or deliberate? God knows.
What I am curious about is the personal photo. It says it’s a standard one-inch photo, but it’s not a frontal photo, the body is a bit slanted, the right ear is barely visible, and a single hat is worn, covering the hair tightly. The photo is not formal and not sophisticated. In today’s world, I’m afraid it’s not allowed to be used on any documents, let alone the entrance exam site, which is heavily guarded and where not even a fly or an earphone is allowed to enter.
The most incredible thing is that even this photo is not a recent photo of me in 1977. The photo of me, round face, at first glance calm, and then look at the childish still, completely a teenager look, where like after high school graduation to the countryside for two and a half years, to participate in the work of a full year, has been 21 years old boy?
When I looked up the old photo album, from junior high school to high school and then to the countryside, I realized that the photo posted on the pass was taken before I started high school in 1972. It is only five years from 1977, but generally speaking, these five years are the period when a person’s appearance and size change a lot from a teenager into a young man. The difference between this and my 1977 photo is so great that it’s almost like two people. 1977, my face is no longer round, but looks thin, and that look has really matured a lot.
I can’t remember why I picked this photo to put on my exam card. Is it because it was too late to take a new one, or is it just a matter of Time?
The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the photo and see how it looks.
2, the face of the test paper, more than sweat?
After the college entrance examination, I entered Fudan University in Shanghai. One summer vacation about a year or two later, I returned to my hometown, and a middle school classmate who took the college entrance examination at the same time as me but failed to do so came to visit me and gave me a special gift – all the test papers I had taken in the college entrance examination. How did you get them? Did it violate the relevant regulations? He didn’t say, but only said, “Actually, your grades aren’t that good.”
Indeed, they were not good. I enrolled in Arts, which has five examination subjects, but I only had to take four of them. English was a reference subject and could not be taken; I hadn’t studied much, so I was happy to give it up. The remaining four subjects were: Language 74, Math 62, Politics 69, and History and Geography (“History and Geography”) 69.4. The remaining four subjects are: Language 74, Math 62, Politics 69, History and Geography (“History and Geography”) 69.4. Compared to today’s 600-point entrance exams, it’s a shame! However, at that time, I heard that this was not a low score. It is clear that the scores were generally not high.
Each test paper has its name and application number written on it. (I heard that now only the number is allowed to write, not the name of the candidate, I do not know if it is true.) The fact that the test papers are back in your own hands is a coincidence, but it is a rare gift. 30 years later, it is especially valuable. I don’t know if there were millions of candidates who took the 1977 college entrance exam, but I don’t know if there were others who had the same chance as me.
It is a blessing to face the old things and sweat.
The test papers are even more humble and shabby than the pass. Each test paper is a thin sheet of paper, and the size varies. Language, politics, only the size of the 32-book page heart, history and mathematics paper is a little larger, each for 16-book page heart size. The political and mathematical questions only occupy one side; the language and history and geography occupy two sides. I remember when the test papers were issued, the invigilator also issued a few blank sheets of paper for candidates to write essays or answer expository questions, and all the paper was handed in when they left the examination room.
At that time had not seen the copy paper, issued down the paper color varies, or yellow or white, some paper is so thin transparent, now even write a note will not use them, but back then, they were put to great use. It is said that it was a time of waste and prosperity, the shabby test papers just confirmed the extreme poverty of materials at the time, if not see the old things, even those of us who have come, probably can not imagine this scene.
The questions on the test paper, today’s a junior high school students are afraid that they can effortlessly cope. The first part of the paper is the first part of the exam.
The first part of the language paper is “explain the words”, accounting for 10 points, five words were cited: honest; frugal; trick; outline; bow and scrape, after death. They are so simple that the rest of the section is predictable.
For the history and geography paper, history and geography each carry 50 marks.
The history section has seven questions and answers, the first of which is: “Who were the leaders of the peasant revolts of the late Qin, late Tang, and late Ming dynasties? What battle slogans did each of them put forward? What were the fundamental reasons for the final failure of these revolts?” The second question is: “What are the four major inventions of our ancient working people?” , accounting for 4 points ……
The geography section has two types of questions: fill-in-the-blank and question-and-answer. The fill-in-the-blank questions account for 12 points, such as how many continents and oceans the earth is divided into, which are the most important steel and oil industrial bases in China, and so on. One of the Q&A questions is: “From Beijing to Nanning, which railway lines do you have to take by train, which large plains do you cross, which east-west mountain ranges do you cross, which large river basins do you traverse, and which provinces, autonomous regions and administrative centers of provinces do you pass through?” It accounts for 8 marks.
The political paper was divided into three categories: political word explanations, quiz questions and expository questions. The explanation of words accounted for 30 points, and the six words were: the line of the 11th Party Congress; the four modernizations; the Gang of Four; the three components of Marxism; materialism, idealism; economic base, superstructure. One of the questions was: “In the eleven major line struggles of the Party, who were the leaders of the successive opportunist lines? What is the basic experience of the successive line struggles as summarized by Chairman Mao?” It accounts for 10 points. One of the discussion questions is: “Briefly discuss the objective necessity and favorable conditions for building our country into four modern socialist powers within this century.” It accounts for 20 points.
It is simple questions such as these that are put before our Hubei Arts candidates. But they were still difficult for a large number of candidates.
I didn’t get a high score either. 30 years later, I couldn’t help but sweat when I re-read my test paper. The word “unbearable” is not an exaggeration of the messy handwriting, poor knowledge, childish writing and shallow opinions. I’m ashamed to show it to anyone, even my wife.
For example, the language paper in the essay question for “learning the story of Lei Feng”, I began to write this: “Learn Lei Feng good example.
“The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into. The song is a happy and cheerful tune. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The song, the spirit of Lei Feng in carrying forward; song, countless Lei Feng-type warriors in the growth; song, and how much to learn the story of Lei Feng in extolling ……
How childish, how ridiculous, where there is a little bit of literature? It is difficult to see the most basic writing skills. As for the far-fetched idea behind, there is no need to mention it.
3、The lucky five percent
Am I the only one who sweats?
I was born in 1957, you know, my generation, from elementary school onwards, rolled into the tossing and turning of political movements. We graduated from high school in 1974 and spent eight years with the Cultural Revolution, marching, posting big-character posters, working in factories and in the countryside, where did we receive a year of real Education? We say we graduated from high school, but in fact, we are not even at the junior high school level. What we have memorized are the poems and quotations of Mao Zedong, not Tang poems and Song lyrics; what we have read are a thousand editorials and critical articles, not the world’s best literature ……
That was the era when the slogan “the more knowledge, the more reactionary” was shouted to the heavens, when the “Great Cultural Revolution” and the intellectuals’ decency were swept away. Who can believe that in the 1960s and 1970s, universities were abolished in China? Even the college entrance exams were stopped for 11 years?
I and my peers, fortunately or unfortunately, grew up in such a historical background, received a poor so-called education, then, went to the countryside to work, and then ushered in the college entrance examination in 1977.
Many years and generations later, if the old man of history looks at this moment of our college entrance examination again, will he sweat? Will pity us?
Perhaps, the teachers who read and corrected the test papers that year, have already sweated over me. They must have had compassion to give me luck and hope by awarding marks on my poorly written paper. I am eternally grateful to them from the bottom of my heart. Some teachers wrote only their last names on the papers, while others left their full names barely recognizable. For example, in the language paper, the word explanation section is “Xiao Ming”, the composition section is “Bi Hongming”, and the sentence construction section is “Tan Lianfen”; in the history and geography paper, the geography section is The geography section of the history and geography paper is “Li Li”, the political section has four teachers, I only recognize two names – Li Zhengren, Fu Dao Gao ……
Where they came from, I do not know. 37 years have passed, are they all okay?
How did the teacher from Fudan University, who came to Hubei to recruit students back then, choose me from among many candidates? Who was this recruiting teacher? I don’t know either.
It is said that the acceptance rate of our national college entrance examination was five percent.
I was really lucky to be a member of the five percent queue, and my future Life path changed forever.
Of course, it was also with that college entrance examination that I was able to enter Beijing.
- “Notes on Admission” of Fudan University
The Spring Festival of 1978 was spent in anticipation.
As the Lantern Festival was approaching, I went to buy soy sauce and vinegar one day. Carrying empty bottles, I was walking down the street when I suddenly ran into the master in charge of admissions at the factory where I worked – Hubei Oil Pump and Nozzle Factory – and he called out to me. “Li Hui, your admission letter is here. It’s from Fudan University. Come to my place tomorrow to pick it up.” “Yes?”
What else I said at that time, I don’t remember. I just remember that I happened to be going to a classmate’s house to meet with a few students from the Zhiqing point. When I saw them, before I sat down, the first thing I said was, “I got in.” After that, it was too late to chat and I rushed Home so that my whole Family could share this joy with me.
Along with the acceptance letter came a copy of “Notes for Fudan University Students on Admission”. When I reported to the university, the admission letter was handed over to the university, and this “Note” was enclosed in the red plastic atlas of China that I carried with me, along with my pass, and I have actually kept it to this day.
The “Notes” are single-page, double-sided, 16-page, and are much more formal than the county’s examination card and papers, which are printed on thick paper with lead notices. There are ten items in the “Notes”. In the upper left corner of the title, a box is printed with a note “This is sent to the student with the admission notice. Although it is an ordinary notice of admission, 30 years later, it has multiple meanings.
The third article provides us with the details of life back then: “When students enter the university, they must each bring their own household registration certificate (place of transfer: Fudan University, Shanghai). Students from abroad must bring both the national Food stamps required for that month and a certificate of transfer of food relations from the second month after arrival. Both the …… household transfer certificate and the food relations transfer certificate must be issued separately to the students themselves.”
Article 6 gives the initial warmth brought by the alma mater: “Students must bring the required clothes for the whole year (cotton clothes are required in winter), bedding, mosquito nets, tableware, rain gear, hot water bottles and other living and study supplies.”
Article 8 reads, “When applying for admission, you must submit six recent one-inch frontal half-body photos taken with your hat off (be sure to take registration photos, never art photos). Demobilized soldiers should submit photos without lapel pins.”
It was this instruction that made me quickly walk into the photo studio and take a recent photo. On the day I reported for duty, six photos were posted on the registration form, student card and other documents. From that day on, I became a student of Fudan University’s Chinese Department, Class 77, majoring in literature, and our class mailbox number was 7711, a number that has since become our class code; my student number was 7711026 – it would accompany me through the four years of Fudan together, and it was also the number on my diploma.
A few years ago, Fudan University celebrated its centennial birthday and 7711 students met at their alma mater. This time, several enthusiastic Shanghai classmates prepared an unexpected gift for each classmate – a copy of the university registration form. On the registration form, I saw me as I was when I took the 1977 college entrance exam. Of course, I did not wear a hat, nor did I turn my body sideways, but I looked very different from the one in the photo on the pass.
The four small items, namely, the pass, the test paper, the note on admission, and the registration form, connect the memories of that moment 30 years ago in a concrete and vivid way that warms the heart to this day. The date on the registration form is March 9, 1978.
A month or so later, at the entrance of the university, a friend from the journalism department, Liu Ping, took the first photo of me after I entered the university.
The new life of the future has begun since then.
2017-06-22
Recent Comments