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Every year, millions of mid-career Chinese employees fight it out for highly competitive government jobs, enticed by the security and benefits they provide. Of them, approximately one in 61 will get through. Liu Xiaoyun from the northern Shanxi province sat through a test prep course for older students. She chose to write under a pseudonym because she took the exam without telling her friends or family.
Test-takers wait to be let into a national civil service exam site in Shenyang, Liaoning province, March 27, People Visual. These lines were part of the classic prose that a group of students in their early 30s recited at 10 p.
They had gathered in the city at a hotel, one floor of which had been converted to house makeshift classrooms for civil service exam cram courses. Adapted from an adage attributed to the 16th century Ming dynasty statesman Zhang Juzheng, this famous phrase, also quoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is often used in the essay section of the civil service exam.
I sat reciting the lines with my hands over my ears, eyes closed. Bai explained how best to tackle this question: list out the verbs, organize and summarize, plan the length of each key point, and then write out the answer.
