56-Year-Old Millionaire fails China’s toughest exam for 27th time. Liang Shi, 56, is starting to doubt whether he will ever get into his desired university after failing to score well enough on China‘s dreaded college entrance exam for the 27th time.
The self-made millionaire Mr. Shi has taken the testing “gaokao” numerous times over the past four decades in an effort to gain admission to the prestigious Sichuan University and realize his dream of becoming “an intellectual.”
By most standards, Liang has had a prosperous life. He rose from a lowly position on a factory floor to starting his own construction materials company, earning millions of yuan in the process, but his dreams of attending university have thus far remained unfulfilled.
As 56-Year-Old Millionaire fails China’s toughest exam for the 27th time, he has put in 12-hour study days, abstained from drinking and playing mahjong, and endured the media mocking him as the “gaokao holdout”, as well as online suspicion that it is all a publicity stunt.
But despite months of living like “an ascetic monk”, this year Liang was 34 points short of the provincial baseline for getting into any university.
“Before I got the result, I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to get a high enough score to enter an elite university,” he told AFP.
“But I didn’t expect to not make it into the ordinary ones.”
The grey-haired businessman carefully typed in his exam identification information just before 10 p.m. on Friday, along with countless high-school students across southwest Sichuan province, and anxiously awaited to learn how he did.
Liang could tell the outcome wasn’t ideal before he even saw the screen because several local media reporters were watching the scene live and were eagerly checking for updates.
“It’s all done for again this year,” he said to himself. “It’s very regrettable.”
In the past, Liang’s repeated misses failed to deter him.
Every time he fell short, he vowed to try again the next year.
Now, for the first time in decades, he is wondering if his hard work will ever lead to anything.
“If I truly can’t see much hope for improvement, there is no point doing it again. I really did work very hard every day,” he said tiredly.
“It’s hard to say whether I will keep on preparing for the gaokao next year,” he admitted.
But a life without gaokao preparation is almost unthinkable to him.
“It’s a hard decision to make. I am not willing to give up either,” he mused.
“(If I were to) stop taking the gaokao, every cup of tea I drank for the rest of my life would taste of regret.”
