■ The 2022 college entrance examination of Tang Shangjun, who was born in Guangxi, still attracts attention.
■ "I found out that I went the wrong way." In early 2014, during the filming of the documentary "High Ten", Tang Shangjun, who was caught in the whirlpool of repetition, said that he really wanted to go to Tsinghua University.
After that, he repeated his studies for 8 years.
■ Tang Shangjun took the college entrance examination for the first time in 2009, and was admitted to many well-known universities such as Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Jilin University, Chongqing University, and China University of Political Science and Law.
But every time after the college entrance examination, he chose to repeat.
Some netizens called him a "small town essayist", and many people questioned whether he rereads it so many times for his ideals or his interests?
■ This time, Tang Shangjun was admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University, should he go or not?
On August 12, he told a reporter from the Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News that he had "considered going."
And how did he persevere after 14 high school senior years?
What are the untold stories behind it?
What are you thinking about now?
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Chen Qingyuan
the beginning of a dream
There is a Tsinghua University student in the village
Tang Shangjun is 33 years old this year, with a thin body, wearing a white T-shirt and carrying a small black satchel.
He rode an electric bike around Nanning University Town, looking like a college student.
Because he rereads every year, Tang Shangjun has been on the hot search list many times, and various voices about him continue.
This year, he still resisted media interviews, but a reporter from Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News found him, and he politely accepted an interview in front of a late-night snack stall near the university town.
Tang Shangjun was born in a small mountain village in Shangsi County, Fangchenggang City, Guangxi Province. He has three sisters and one brother. His father was a primary school teacher before, and he has been farming since then, and his mother is not very literate.
In Tang Shangjun's impression, his parents had heavy farming duties, and his sister and brother, like the children in the village, dropped out of school very early to work.
When Tang Shangjun was a child, he liked to run in the fields, fish and play in the mud.
At that time, he didn't seem to need to study deliberately, and his grades in primary school were always ranked first in the class.
Tang Shangjun heard from his parents that in the 1990s, a fellow near their village was admitted to Tsinghua University. Later, the fellow built a road for the village and became a role model for local elders to inspire their children.
When he was admitted to Tsinghua University, Tang Shangjun set this goal since elementary school.
In 2002, Tang Shangjun was admitted to the second best middle school in the county.
He became classmates with He Hanli, who also came from the countryside, and also made an appointment to go to university in Beijing.
Tang Shangjun remembered that he was ranked fourth in the class in the first year of junior high school, and his grades began to decline in the second year of junior high school. "Actually, I have always been a fun-loving person and often wandered outside."
Tang Shangjun has read two junior high schools.
In the first third year of junior high, he missed a lot of homework because of his love for fun.
Especially in mathematics, when he encounters problems that he cannot do, he blames himself and hammers the wall with his fist.
As the high school entrance exam got closer and closer, he began to experience dizziness.
One day I went to the cafeteria to line up for dinner, and suddenly I fell in the cafeteria.
He described the symptoms of the onset as being in a trance all day, unable to do anything except eat, go to the toilet, and sleep, and each onset would last for about 10 days.
Doctors thought it was neurasthenia, but the effect of treatment was not obvious.
After that, almost every year near the exam, "strange disease" will occur, until 2014.
Tang Shangjun also did not participate in the first high school entrance examination because of this "strange disease".
He recuperated from the summer vacation until the Spring Festival before returning to school to repeat the third year of junior high school.
Finally, I was admitted to Qinzhou No. 2 Middle School, the best high school nearby.
Tang Shangjun and He Hanli believed that they were both from peasant families and had no one around to guide them.
Tang Shangjun wanted to come now, if someone gave him guidance when he was a freshman in high school, even if it wasn't the Tsinghua University he wanted to take the exam, he would have gone to other universities long ago.
In 2009, Tang Shangjun took the college entrance examination for the first time. His father came to the county to pick him up. He said that many questions were left blank.
My sister helped him to check the score, more than 370 points, far from being able to go to Tsinghua University.
Little did he know that he had been "staying" in the third year of high school ever since.
repeat life
Students who have been admitted to Tsinghua University for ten years
In the 2010 college entrance examination, Tang Shangjun's score reached the third line and was admitted to a vocational school.
His family persuaded him to go to a junior college. He took the tuition and living expenses, and began to repeat his life without telling his family.
"Many people around me go to repeat studies if they fail the test." Tang Shangjun felt that it was normal to go to repeat studies.
He also pays attention to the admissions of his classmates. One of his classmates was admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China.
Later, when He Hanli filmed the documentary "Ten Years", he asked him which school he wanted to go to.
Tang Shangjun only wanted to be admitted to Tsinghua University, but he couldn't say it, so he wrote the words "University of Science and Technology of China" on the blackboard.
When re-reading, he did not feel much pressure.
In his consciousness, repeating reading means that the score can be improved.
In those years, Tang Shangjun took the tuition and living expenses that his family gave him to study at university, and entered the repeating class year after year.
He often cheers himself up and tells himself that the goal is Tsinghua University, but he can't resist his inertia.
He loves to play and can be distracted. Fortunately, his grades do improve every year.
But it is still far from being able to go to Tsinghua University.
In 2013, Tang Shangjun was admitted to a book.
That summer, he took the train to Beijing for nearly 30 hours.
When he arrived, the freshmen of Tsinghua University were in military training, and he hoped that he would come here for military training in the future.
In 2014, he was admitted to Southwest University of Political Science and Law with a score of 583.
That year, Wu Shanliu, who also had Tsinghua Dream, and Tang Shangjun's classmates in the repeating class, after 10 college entrance examinations, were finally admitted to Tsinghua University as the first place in Qinzhou City's science department.
Wu Shanliu was also born in an ordinary village in Guangxi. After he was admitted to Tsinghua University, he caused controversy. His remarks, such as "specializing in the college entrance examination", "occupying and wasting social education resources" and "making profits from it", instantly pushed him to the forefront of public opinion.
Wu Shanliu denied making a profit from it. He said he had heard about the bonus, but never received it. "I just want to get into a good university."
make a documentary
Haven't been admitted to Tsinghua University's "High Ten"
In the autumn of 2013, Tang Shangjun was still repeating his studies.
But in the eyes of his family, he has graduated and should work to earn money.
Apart from the monthly subsidy of about 400 yuan given by the school, he has no income and was once so poor that he had no money to eat, so he asked his sister to borrow money.
He contacted He Hanli on QQ and told his secret: he was still repeating his studies and was financially poor.
He Hanli, who was a documentary director of Guangxi TV at this time, thought that this was a good subject and persuaded Tang Shangjun to shoot the documentary "High Ten".
In the documentary, during the Spring Festival in 2014, Tang Shangjun, who had "graduated", bought some gifts on the streets of Qinzhou and went home for the Spring Festival.
He gave his mother 500 yuan and gave red envelopes to the younger generation.
Seeing that his son had graduated, the father finally unloaded the burden and began to renovate the drainage ditch beside the house.
In the dim light of his hometown, Tang Shangjun played the guitar and hummed the lyrics of "Old Boy", "Dreams are always out of reach, should I give up, it's another season when flowers bloom..."
In January 2014, Tang Shangjun said by the small river in his hometown: "I found that I went the wrong way, I shouldn't look back so much... I'm a little tired of studying now, and I don't want to go on like this. I lied to them, then This feeling may not be understood by anyone, it's very uncomfortable. Originally I wanted to go to a good university, but now I don't think it's very important to go to university, and I think it's also important to be with my family."
Because of guilt, Tang Shangjun would go home to help with farm work as soon as the winter and summer vacations came, and concentrated on the heaviest physical work of the year before going to school.
In 2016, Tang Shangjun scored 625 points and was admitted to China University of Political Science and Law.
The language teacher felt that the school was good and persuaded him to study.
Tang Shangjun decided to confess to his family.
Beside the hospital bed, he showed his admission notice to his father, who had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
The weak dad didn't blame him, and encouraged him to say, "The spirit is admirable and proud. In the future, the blue is better than the blue."
It was Tang Shangjun's dream to take his parents to Beijing.
He Hanli also won the money to film the scene of Tang Shangjun and his parents going to Beijing for the first time. They went to Tiananmen Square, climbed the Great Wall, and went to see Tang Shangjun's future university, China University of Political Science and Law.
latest results
Admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University in the 14th year of the college entrance examination
However, a few months after being candid with his family, Tang Shangjun made a new concealment.
When the school started that year, he went to China University of Political Science and Law for a walk, and then returned to Pingguo, Guangxi to study high school.
This time, the reason for the repeat study was that he did not get admitted to Tsinghua University, and that his father was seriously ill and needed money for treatment. Guangxi Pingguo No. 3 Middle School used high bonuses to attract repeat students with high scores.
In 2017, two of Tang Shangjun's classmates were admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University, and received a reward of 600,000 yuan.
But he did not do well in the test, but dropped several points from 2016.
In addition to taking a leave of absence to go home to take care of my father for two months, it may also be affected by falling in love.
In 2018, both he and his girlfriend were admitted to Guangxi University, but Tang Shangjun chose to repeat the study.
The bonuses or other living benefits given by some local private repeat schools may be tens of thousands of yuan a year, or even more than 100,000 yuan.
In the past few years, he has repeated his studies in various schools with high bonuses. Not only can he get a certain bonus when he enters the school, but he can also often rank among the best in mock exams, and even become a "great god" in the eyes of some students.
Tang Shangjun's best year in the test was in 2019, with a score of 645, and was admitted to Chongqing University.
But after that, the scores hovered around 600 points.
He believes that there will be new inspection methods every year, and some knowledge accumulated in the past will not be applicable.
He can't be trained systematically from the first year of high school like a fresh student, but stays in the third year of high school.
This year, Tang Shangjun participated in the 13th retake of the college entrance examination.
On August 5, he entered the public eye again.
It was at the commendation meeting for his high school re-entry in 2022. He held a red sign that read "Warmly congratulations to Tang Shangjun for being admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Pingguo Hengshui Yangming Senior High School Scholarship Award of 80,000 yuan".
In the process of repeating his studies, Tang Shangjun also met 5 repeating students of similar age to him, which also made him feel that "he is not the only one".
Think about the future
What's the use of going to Tsinghua University?
The reality is that Tang Shangjun's girlfriend has graduated from Guangxi University, and he is still deciding whether to go to the school to be admitted.
Tang Shangjun felt that his path was getting narrower and narrower. Even if he went to university, he could still find a good job at his age.
However, he still thinks that reading is useful. He has seen his junior high school classmates still reading books and dropping out of school to get married and have children through the introduction of a matchmaker.
There are also people who make a lot of money in business, but have an unhappy marriage or owe a lot of debt later.
This year's college entrance examination results came out, and he didn't even want to reveal the scores to those around him.
At the end of June, Tang Shangjun still picked up the high school textbooks he had studied for 16 years during the period of filling out the volunteers.
At a late-night snack stall, He Hanli asked Tang Shangjun like his elder brother, "When do you want to go ashore and how do you go ashore? When you go ashore, how can you develop, and when will you grow up?"
Regarding the future, Tang Shangjun also thought about it. He thought that even if he failed the exam, he would not be willing to work on the assembly line in Guangdong.
My sister at home is engaged in aquaculture, and she will also do farming when she returns home to form a certain scale.
He once told reporters at the end of June that it was almost impossible for him to be admitted to Tsinghua University.
But he is also considering whether to give it another shot, and by 2024, a new college entrance examination model will be adopted, and there will be no liberal arts and sciences.
However, on August 12, when a reporter asked him on WeChat if he wanted to go to Shanghai Jiaotong University, his reply changed from "under consideration" in late July to "under consideration".
Now, Tang Shangjun will also think, even if he goes to Tsinghua, what does it mean to him?
"Wu Shanliu studied at Tsinghua University, and it was difficult to find a job when he was older. Later, he became a middle school teacher." He analyzed why Wu Shanliu repeated his studies for so long. "Maybe he wants to make his wish come to an end." Then the topic turned to himself, " I have always had this idea (taken for Tsinghua University), if it is realized, it means that the wish at a certain stage of life has been realized, and there will be no regrets."