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China’s gaokao university entrance exam: family celebrates end of daughter’s test with banner declaring she can now ‘fall in love’

  • A family took their delight at the end of their daughter’s university exams ending to extremes with a huge banner about her future love life
  • The amusing sight was filmed and has spread across mainland Chinese social media as the country marks the end of the gaokao exams this week

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Cheerful family members wave a banner outside an exam venue celebrating that their daughter now has time to ‘fall in love after completing the gaokao. Photo: Toutiao
Yingjie Wang

A family in China has raised eyebrows by marking the end of their daughter’s university entrance exam by holding a huge banner and colourful celebration outside the test centre declaring that she can finally “fall in love”.

On Wednesday, the last day of the gaokao, China’s one-size-fits-all university entrance examination, the family was seen standing in front of a gaokao test site in Mangshi, in southwestern China’s Yunnan province, to celebrate their daughter, Huang Luyao, finishing her exams.

In a video of the spectacle, two unidentified male relatives are seen playing the Xiao Cha, a small Chinese cymbal, and a drum, while another two relatives hold a big banner with the words: “Warm celebration of Huang finishing her gaokao, she can finally start a relationship now!”

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“It doesn’t matter if you get good or bad grades because we love you anyway!,” one of the male relatives tells Huang in the video.

After years of hard work and preparation, the completion of the gaokao is considered a defining moment in a person’s life in China. Photo: Toutiao
After years of hard work and preparation, the completion of the gaokao is considered a defining moment in a person’s life in China. Photo: Toutiao

Huang, who appeared shy when confronted with the spectacle, also laughed and waved with hand gestures to her family before getting a big hug from her grandmother.

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The gaokao, which is regarded as one of the most important tests in a person’s life in mainland China, requires students to prepare for years, with most schools prohibiting students from having relationships, which are seen as a distraction from study, among many other rules.

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