Over 51,000 students sit HKDSE Chinese exam, some find vernacular harder than classical text

More than 51,000 candidates sat the Chinese Language paper, the first core subject of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), on Thursday. Some students said the reading passages of the written vernacular Chinese were harder than the classical Chinese.

At one exam center in Siu Sai Wan, many students arrived early for last-minute revision. A total of 51,342 candidates applied for the Chinese language exam this year, including around 44,000 day-school students. 

One candidate, surnamed Fu, said he was very anxious as the Chinese exam is often dubbed the “paper of death.” Another student, Fok, said she had been preparing since primary school and relied on breathing exercises taught by her teachers and friends to calm her nerves. 

Some students prepared model sentences and quotations for the writing section, but remained worried about losing marks for going off-topic. 

Parents showed support in various ways. One mother wore a traditional qipao to symbolize victory and success for her child. 

The reading section included a passage by mainland writer Han Shaogong about robots forming a writers’ association, which examines differences between humans and artificial intelligence in the modern era, and a short story by Ge Liang. 

Several candidates found these vernacular passages challenging. Tam noted that he could not finish all the questions.  

Choi felt the classical Chinese texts were more manageable, but noted that many commonly taught classics did not appear on the paper.

The English Language paper, another core HKDSE subject, is scheduled for Friday. Over 53,000 candidates have registered, around 2,300 more than last year.