Rising To The Challenge

It seems that in China, nothing succeeds without excess.

It seems that in China, anxiety is so acute among students for a good showing with respect to their intellectual prowess (or memorization capabilities) in college entrance exams, that they will do anything to sharpen their wits and enable themselves to perform outstandingly.  They rise to the challenge before them in a manner unheard of elsewhere.

Of course the challenge is held to be a most intimidating one.  It is held within the population that the June college entrance exams represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Failure is not to be countenanced.  Success in passing those entrance exams will dictate whether or not a candidate may attend a prestigious university.

That kind of opportunity - or lack of it - can determine the outcome of someone's life trajectory.  Future careers and the success that comes with achieving the heights can completely transform someone's life.  The outcome of that test will be instrumental to a degree not seen elsewhere (all right, in Japan as well) of sublime opportunities.

So here's the brilliant solution.  In central China classrooms come equipped with intravenous drips.  That's a school-approved-and-supplied assist to anxious students eager to ensure their futures.  Students about to write exams, hooked up to bottles of amino acids feel they are in this way preparing themselves for what is rightfully theirs.

Where elsewhere students study and cram and worry about their performance, in Hubei province the students use those drips to prepare for the challenge of exercising their brains to extract the data they require to pass those formidable exams.

This photo taken on Friday, May 4 shows a classroom equipped with dozens of intravenous drips filled with amino acids, hanging from the ceiling, to assist over 30 students in preparing for the National College Entrance exams, at the Xiaogang No.1 High School in Xiaogang City, China's Hubei province.    (AFP)

There are no harmful health effects, according to school official Gao Pingqiang.  "The school will not suspend the injection and we will continue if students want it", he said.  Yet another official at the school claimed the drip had the result of improving students' physical condition, boosting their energy levels.

Within China itself, comments by members of the public are revealing: "The group intravenous medication by students does not mean the students are sick, it means that society is sick", was posted on the Chinese version of Twitter.