Napoleon and Shakespeare

The problems are really highlighted by the gaokao, China's grueling and life-changing college entrance examination. Students are required to write an 800-word article as part of the Chinese-language test.

"The articles have always been highly stereotyped, but more so in recent years," said Qi Yongxiang, who has been an examiner for the writing exam since 1993. "There is not much diversity or originality, instead it's full of cliches. They write some beautiful sentences, but without making a point."

He noted that very few students write about their own lives, but when they do, it's easy to tell that a lot of the stories have been fabricated.

In 1998, the gaokao topic was "Overcoming frailty" and a lot of students wrote about their dead parents and their struggle through life, he said.

Nowadays, the common practice is to prepare stories about famous people, adorned with beautiful sentences, and then find a way to shoehorn them into the essay, irrespective of the actual topic.

"I run into Napoleon and Shakespeare thousands of times every year," said Qi, this year's deputy director of the Beijing examiners' group.

Zhang Yikun, one of nine million students who sat this year's gaokao, knew exactly how things worked. Before the exam, she attended a cram school, an experience she found helpful.

"The teacher at my own school asked us to prepare some examples of scientists and historical figures. But the teacher at the cram school gave us a list of 50 public intellectuals," said Zhang, from Tianjin, where this year's topic was "What seems easy might be difficult".

"The examiners must have been tired of the popular examples, so we had to give them something fresh," she said.

Zhang said she has been writing to a preordained pattern, under the guidance of a teacher, since the first year of senior high school, as preparation for the university entrance exam.

The whole system really kicks in when the children start their schooling.

Zhang's mother, Song Wenli, has taught Chinese at primary schools for 25 years. The 43-year-old said she always encourages students to express their true feelings, but "they cannot be too shallow".

"You can't simply note what you do and how you feel. To point out in what way you are educated and inspired is very important. That's always the rule in China, otherwise it's hard for students to get a high score," she said.

A problem at large

However, there have been changes over the years. The past 35 years have witnessed a rise in diversity of topics and a decrease in the political implications of the essays in the gaokao.

When the exam was reintroduced in 1977, after the end of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the topic was, "What I did in a year of fighting." The following year, the students were asked to abridge an article titled "The issue of speed is a political one".

In 1999, it was "If memory could be transplanted". This year, students in Guangdong province wrote about "The era I want to live in", while those in Hubei province debated whether printed books and letters will eventually disappear entirely.

But, it's still hard for students to express themselves freely under the current education system, especially when faced with the high pressure exerted by the entrance exam, said Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, a non-governmental research group.

"The writing test was originally designed to display a student's independent thinking and writing skills. But now, they just try their best to cater to the examiner," said Xiong.

"They are trained not to think too much; all they have to do is give a 'very correct' opinion and support it in a fixed schema. That's how they get used to being hypocritical," he added.

The students' writing style simply mirrors the dominant rhetoric of the official language system.

"If you read official speeches, government work reports, the minutes of meetings and reports in some newspapers, you see a lot of cliches," said Bi Yantao, director of Center for Communication Studies, Hainan University. "People brag about their determination and high moral sense, but that is not necessarily what they do," he said.

"I believe no one really enjoys reading it. But it is an example set by the government and everyone in society, including teachers and students, is influenced by it. Meanwhile, this sort of education ensures that students will use the same sort of language in the future."

The problem has already caught the attention of the leadership. Vice-President Xi Jinping, speaking in 2010, emphasized the need for officials to improve their styles of speaking and writing and make their documents and speeches concise, concrete and fresh, according to reports from Xinhua News Agency. Xi also advocated independent thinking in the Party and a more relaxed environment for the officials to speak straightforwardly.

Compromise for success?

Bi said his son once showed him a news report about his school's sports activity. However, sports were not really part of the school's daily routine and the activities had been specially arranged for the article. The teachers taught the children how to falsify facts for the reporters.

"How can we expect the children to be sincere while the adults are liars?" asked Bi.

That question has also perplexed Chen Chen. She has always taught her son to write freely, but that means his scores have not been good.

She is now considering a compromise to ensure that he can win a place at a top-ranked middle school.

She believes integrity is the most important quality. But she is not sure whether to teach her son to be "flexible".

"I don't want him to be a liar. But I don't want him to be treated unfairly, either," she said. "You know, to be straightforward and always tell the truth doesn't always lead to good results in society."

Contact the writer at tangyue@chinadaily.com.cn

Yang Wanli and Zhang Yuchen contributed to this story.