China has a history of unreasonable tests — from the ancient Imperial Exams to the gaokao college entrance exams of today. But a recent test from Beihai Institute of Art and Design in Guangxi is being deemed unreasonable for other reasons. The final exam for a class on Maoist thought asked questions such as “what are the benefits of AIDS?” and “do females realize they’re meat?”
Here’s a selection of a few questions from the exam:
- Have you ever had sexual relations with the opposite sex?
- What are your standards for selecting a member of the opposite sex?
- Have you thought about eating food for the future of China? Having kids for the future of China?
- Is it ok to fantasize about marrying your daughter-in-law?
- What type of expression do females have when they are in heat?
- What do you think of Jack Ma’s (Alibaba CEO) looks?
Some of the questions had a more philosophic flavor to them:
- Which is more important, eating food or making extravagant purchases? Sleep or video games?
- Do people live to make money or make money to live? Is money truly all-powerful?
- What is the meaning of life?
- Is it important if a person’s heart is good or evil? What are your standard for “good” and “evil?”
- Are the lives of people predestined? What is fate? Can education change your destiny?
- When you do things do you consider the impact it will have on other people? How come so many people call Chinese people “dogs” and “pigs?” Do you throw your trash on the ground?
The teacher responded to the controversy with an email to his students:
The message laments his perceived degradation of Chinese society in the modern age. He claims that electromagnetic radiation from wi-fi has left a student from the institute in critical condition, warning other student against using wi-fi. He complains about the decreasing intelligence of Chinese students in the modern age:
“People these days don’t have any sense of responsibility, just like a pig or dog,” he says. He says that on a plane it’s always Chinese people who are notorious for being loud and causing problems. He ends the letter stating: “I hope that the students of Beihai Institute for Art and Design will awaken! Respect other people’s rights! Respect other people’s right to rest and to exist!”
So…doesn’t really explain anything. Beihai institute of Art and Design has opened an investigation into the matter.
The reaction of Chinese netizens doesn’t seem to vary much — only shock.
This meme on Weibo asks, “Lemme listen…are you speaking human?”
Many users are uploading their own answers to the test questions online:
Still, other netizens tried to make sense of the incident, saying the professor was simply trying to get his students to think, and waken them from the slumber of common, information-regurgitation-style testing.
