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This article is reposted from Zhihu

Author: Zhang Baiyi

Link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/52637478/answer/150871642

Source: Zhihu

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Original Text

Answering this with a burst of passion. I participated in the first grade-wide exam boycott in the century-long history of my alma mater when I was in my second year of high school. Although I am now a sophomore in college, thinking back on it still gives me a rush of adrenaline.

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Every kid in Jiangsu knows that we have to take a brutal "Little Gaokao" in our second year of high school. It happened to be a week after the Little Gaokao when the school suddenly issued a notice that the second-year students would have a monthly exam over the weekend, and it would even continue into the evening. To be honest, if it were a normal monthly exam, we would have just complained a bit and gone to review. But! The context at that time was completely different. First, it was only a week after the Little Gaokao, and everyone was still in a relaxed state after the big exam; to put it bluntly, our minds weren't on studying. Second, after the Little Gaokao, they only gave us half a day off!! While other schools gave a day and a half. As a famous high school in the province, how could they be so stingy! This led to dissatisfaction among the entire grade. Third, Hengshui High School was extremely popular at the time, and the school leadership, after visiting Hengshui High School, actually announced they would emulate Hengshui's methods. As a century-old prestigious school, to actually imitate others—this caused a surge of resentment among the students.

That was the background of the incident. Soon it was Friday, and the exam was about to start in the evening. Although everyone had been complaining all week, there was no substantive action until that morning. On the bulletin boards of every floor in the second-year building, two notices suddenly appeared. One denounced the school for following the Hengshui model by holding monthly exams on weekends and evenings, which violated the Education Department's regulations. The second one was even bolder, directly calling for everyone to boycott the exam as a demonstration against the school. These two notices were like a bolt from the blue. In just one break, all the second-year students knew about them. These notices were like a spark that lit a small fire in our hearts. Besides surprise, everyone's faces showed more of an expectation—a kind of expectation for chaos. Of course, the notices also alerted the school. After one class, the notices were torn down, and class teachers from every class came to the classrooms to warn us not to do anything reckless. But what the school didn't realize was that their response actually added fuel to the fire in every student's heart, making us realize we had a chance to resist. If the school had handled it quietly, maybe the whole thing would have just fizzled out. After class, everyone was excitedly communicating in the hallways. When everyone learned that these two notices were made by students in the Liberal Arts Honors Class, everyone felt encouraged—encouragement from the top students (to explain, the Liberal Arts Honors Class consists of the top 50 liberal arts students in our grade; almost all those going to Tsinghua or Peking University from the liberal arts side come from here). Seeing that even the top students were leading the resistance against the school, everyone gained a lot of confidence.

In the blink of an eye, evening arrived. It was one hour before the exam, and the atmosphere in the entire building was very eerie, with a special kind of silence that comes before a big battle. We on the third and fourth floors were science students, and the first and second floors were liberal arts. Everyone was whispering that the liberal arts classes downstairs had already decided to boycott, and we in the science classes were wondering what to do. Although we were looking forward to it, we were still a bit short on courage. The bell for the exam rang, and everyone went to their respective classrooms. At this time, we science students upstairs had no idea that the liberal arts students downstairs had already fired the first shot of the boycott. Not a single one of them went to the exam room; they were all sitting quietly in their own classrooms. Then, the girls from the Liberal Arts Honors Class rushed upstairs, burst into our classrooms, and shouted, "We in liberal arts have already boycotted! It's up to you now!!!" Wow!! This sentence was like the famous "Are kings and nobles born to their rank?" of old, instantly pouring a bucket of gasoline onto the small fire in our hearts. Everyone rushed out of the classrooms with a roar. The proctor shouted, "Come back, come back!" but no one paid any attention. Everyone rushed into the hallway. When I rushed out, there was noise everywhere, upstairs and downstairs. Someone was shouting, "No more exams! I'm not taking the exam!!" Someone slammed the classroom door shut to keep the proctor out. In the hallway, everyone was chatting excitedly, with the kind of smile on their faces that comes from a successful revolution. The first and third-year students next door couldn't focus on their self-study either; they were all watching. The chaotic situation lasted for half an hour. The proctors all went back, and finally, the class teachers called us back to the classrooms, saying the exam was cancelled. Amidst a burst of cheers, there was actually a sense of joy from a revolutionary victory.

This incident was truly a sensation. The entire prefecture-level city knew about the boycott at our Haimen High School. The next day, the topic of conversation among adults was this event. It's said that alumni abroad even heard about it and made overseas calls to the principal, saying the kids at Haimen High are something else. Although we successfully boycotted the exam, we were also severely criticized by the school. The four "warriors" from the Liberal Arts Honors Class were all disciplined by the school. But being able to lead hundreds of people in such a big event in a short time, we all admired them greatly. I have a feeling that these four "warriors" will definitely live wonderful lives in the future!

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I didn't expect so many friends to like my answer; I'm truly flattered. I labeled this boycott as "bizarre" because doing so was indeed too radical—a moment of heat to the head combined with youthful vigor, and well, we just boycotted the damn exam. Looking back now, I've also discussed it with those four from the "Gang of Four," and they also feel it was a bit over the top. But who hasn't done one or two absurd things when they were young? Thinking back now, it's quite sentimental. Note: This article is not meant to badmouth my great Haimen High School; we all deeply love our alma mater. Although life and study at our alma mater were intense, they were also full of fun. Thank you, Haimen High School.

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I happened to search for Haimen High on Baidu and found that someone had put our boycott incident online; it seemed to be quite popular at the time.

The 4.11 Incident here is our exam boycott incident.