They are regarded as the elites of their generation. They are the most wanted by top universities and they are always chased by the media. They are the champions of gaokao.   

Each year millions of high school students around the country sit gaokao, also known as the national college entrance exam. Although the figure has declined in recent years, around 9.3 million participants applied this year, including around 60,000 students in Shanghai.

For many students and parents in the city this summer, one news report caught their attention. The report showed how intense the battle is among top universities to secure these star students.

On July 3, one of Shanghai's top universities, Fudan University published an official announcement accusing another well-known university of tricking high school graduates into applying to other universities. The university stated that top students were contacted by callers claiming to be representatives from Fudan University, who informed the students that their applications had been rejected.

It has been suggested that the university in question was Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

"Such cases occurred last year but they were very rare. However, the number of cases has soared this year. We have already received a great number of complaints from our candidates and are calculating the number of candidates affected," Fang Ming, spokesperson for Fudan University, told the Global Times.

As the battle among universities for top students has brought those pupils into the spotlight, the Global Times located and interviewed three top students from the 70s, 80s, and 90s and asked them about their lives after gaokao and their thoughts on the world's most sat exam.

Yuan Junying, female

Achieved top scores in 1977's gaokao in science and was recruited by Fudan University and now is a professor at Harvard University  

Although her parents and grandparents were professors in a medical school, she never intended to go to university. Like many others during the Cultural Revolution (1967-1977) when all schools were closed and thousands of students answered Chairman Mao's call to develop the countryside, Yuan was assigned to be a worker in a textile factory in Shanghai.

However her high school teacher, Mr Lu, continually urged Yuan's mother to prepare her daughter for university when rumors circulated that gaokao would be reintroduced.

"My class teacher Mr Lu even sneaked into the school's library, which was sealed up during the Cultural Revolution, to get some text and reference books to help me prepare," Yuan told the Global Times.

After four months of hard study and preparation, Yuan sat the college entrance exam on December 10, 1977, the first year the college entrance examination system was restored after it was suspended in 1966. In that year, altogether 5.7 million participants took the exam nationwide and Yuan scored top among all students in Shanghai.

"It was a turning point in my life when I look back after so many years," Yuan said, who is now a tenured professor at Harvard University's Medical School. "I would have been a normal worker if it were not for gaokao."   

Yuan was later recruited by Fudan University and majored in biochemistry. Four years later, she was accepted by Harvard University.

"I never thought about going overseas to study, but it just happened. When I first arrived at Harvard, my American classmates joked that I was 'Number one in Red China' and they were so curious about me," Yuan said.

Before Yuan became a Harvard professor in 2000, she finished her PHD thesis at MIT, which contributed to the work of H.Robert Horvitz, the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Medicine.  

Yuan's daughter enrolled in Harvard University this year. As a person who has experienced both education systems in China and the US, Yuan gave her thoughts on the gaokao system.

"Although gaokao is a relatively cruel system, it provides a precious opportunity for many underprivileged students in China. However, compared to the US, gaokao surely has a lot of things that could be improved," she said.

According to Yuan, the most important thing for a student to master is independent thinking rather than studying mechanically. Yuan said examination skills are only one part of education and all students should be encouraged to develop their interests and hobbies to help them find the best future career.

"The champion of the test may not be a suitable CEO. More importantly, we should find what we are really interested in and good at," she said.    
Qiu Zhengyi, male

Champion of 1982's gaokao in arts in Zhejiang Province, enrolled in Fudan University and currently works as the deputy editor-in-chief of Xinmin Evening News

With gaokao firmly established in the 1980s, Qiu and many of his peers started to regard the test as one of the most important events of their life. Compared with today, students at that time only had few choices in terms of majors and schools and the average college enrollment rate was much lower than now.     

"Educational resources at that time were rare and my parents once lined up all night outside a bookstore to buy a reference book for me but failed," Qiu said.

Qiu enrolled in the Journalism School of Fudan University. After graduation he worked in media. He said his experience at Fudan was the biggest factor affecting his career choice.

According to Qiu, gaokao had a big impact on his generation as it taught young people that life can change through a university education.

Although more and more controversial discussions on gaokao have been raised among students, experts, officials and the public today, Qiu said the test still has a role to play in today's China.

"It provides a relatively fair stage for students to pursue their dreams and college education is still important today. Successful dropouts like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are exceptions to the rule," he said.  

But what puzzled Qiu is that with more opportunities available for young students, the choices they make are limited. "Most students choose to study business administration whether they are suitable for it or not. I really think today's young students should have a sense of independent thinking rather than simply following what others think is good."

Deng Lingli, female

Champion of 1993's gaokao in arts in Hunan Province, enrolled in Nanjing Political Institute of the PLA and currently works as a reporter for Phoenix Television Shanghai Branch

Originally from a small county in Hunan Province, Deng said she wasn't surprised when she ranked top in her year's gaokao.

"My high school has a high quality of education, although the competition was intense at that time, I always performed well at school. And most importantly, I had a good state of mind to help me to achieve the high score I earned in gaokao," Deng said.  

From a very early age, Deng dreamed of studying at a military school. However many friends tried to persuade her to make another choice after she scored so well.

But Deng insisted on enrolling in her dream school. As possibly the first top student in the school's history, she studied hard, won awards and became the first student to be recommended for graduate study in journalism four years later.

After graduation, Deng served in the army for two years. In 2002, she quit her job and moved to Shanghai. "I have done well in the military but it was a little bit boring and was not the life I want. I want to pursue a wider range of things so I came to Shanghai," she said.

Deng's first job in Shanghai was as a reporter for a Party newspaper. An opportunity came after that, which led her to the Hong Kong-based television station Phoenix Television, where she continues to work.

When mentioning about her past academic feat, Deng feels it was a burden too heavy for an 18-year-old to carry.

"It was twisted and exaggerated by people. We should not overemphasize the importance of being No.1 in gaokao. As time goes by, those external halos will go sooner or later. The most important thing is the inner pursuit of a person. I believe even without the honor of being a gaokao champion, I can still realize my dreams."     

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of 21 Century Education Research Institute, told the Global Times that the attention paid to these high scoring star students should be played down today and the "vicious fighting" among universities should be avoided.

"The fundamental way of eliminating the 'champion complex' among Chinese students and institutions of learning depends on reforms in the way education is evaluated on the Chinese mainland. If our  system of evaluation is one day no longer solely decided by how well people do on examinations, the worship of 'champions' might disappear forever. If our universities one day no longer flaunt the number of champions that have studied at their institutions but flaunt how many students learned to think independently and be socially responsible while under their tutelage, whether he or she is a gaokao champion or not will no longer matter," he said.
Newspaper headline: Life after gaokao